Remembering Today Casualty Gunner TOMES, JOHN Service Number 779800 Died 07/10/1944 Aged 34 15 Coast Regt., Royal Artillery Buried or commemorated at BERLIN 1939-1945 WAR CEMETERY Grave Reference: 10. L. 16. Location: Germany
Gunner John TOMES (Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery) (Image thanks to Smudger Jnr) I have a feeling this casualty might have been a POW.
Hi, CWGC concentration report shows he was moved from original grave in Pulgar, Saxony - south west of Leipzig - in 1947. He may have been captured on Crete in 1941 where his Regiment was part of the Souda Bay defence force. RA 1939-45 15 Coast Rgt He may have been detained at one of the many work camps comprising Stalag IVG. It would likely be one of the 7 arbeitskommando comprising the Borna subdistrct as mentioned in the March 1945 ICRC inspection report from the Pegasus archive below. Steve Y Stalag IV-G - Wikipedia Stalag IVG
R.A. casualty card lists cause of death as "aerial bombardment" 779800 TOMES John Gunner 15 Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery Born : 17th November 1909 Langley Park, Durham Enlisted : 19th March 1928 for 3/9 at Durham Army Reserve : 18th March 1931 Posted to CD/AA 13th November 1940 Captured Crete 2nd June 1941
Confirmation of Gunner Tome’s death from allied bombing “friendly fire” reminded me of this post of mine from some years ago - Possible Lamsdorf POW Funeral Photos A friend of my fathers complained on his Liberation Questionnaire that at Stalag 8B Work Camp E711 near Auschwitz that the guards wouldn’t let the prisoners use the air raid shelters during allied raids leading to unnecessary deaths. Steve Y