Stalag IIIA SBO Letter to Soviet Commandant re Repatriation

Hi

 

Hi Dave, my email is patvinycomb(at)gmail.com. I have had problems getting hold of MI9 liberation reports from the national archives because of COVID limitations and not all files digitalised.

 

Pat,

Message passed and I sent S/Ldr Booker's evasion report to your email address.

Regards,

Dave

 

Dave,
Re 168 Airmen in Buchenwald 1944
I have been busy over the last two months just catching up. Sgt Frederick Samuel Vinecombe died age 106 on 27th January 2021. he was living in Plymouth I have linked up to his family. also linked up with Mike Dorsey - thank you.
have you the disposition of the RCAF officer who helped to bury the body of the young French boy who was shot dead on route to Buchenwald?
Thank Pat

 

Hello Dave,
Great to read you have an archive on Luckenwalde! Info and pictures are hard to find about this camp. I am working on a story of the crashed Lancaster outside our town and am following the surviving crew. Four of them ended up in Stalag Luft III-A in Luckenwalde. Anything that you would be willing to share would be very welcome and appreciated! Best Regards, Corine (Werkendam, Netherlands)

 

My father, Robert James Buckles, left Luckenwalde with three others on May 4, arriving at American lines at Bitterfield on May 6. Documented in his war log. I would like to know if his name appears among the 200 “to be court martialed” for leaving the camp against orders. He encountered SS along the way (an interesting story about boots). He had marched to Luchenwalde from Stalag 3, Belaria. Canadian. I’m interested in any details about the camp at that time, and Bitterfeld. Are there published accounts that you can recommend or other forum posts?

 

Hi Daniel,

J18081 F/O RJ Buckles makes one appearance on the Luckenwalde lists with an extra digit in his service number. Page 4 of the rather long-winded "Nominal Roll of RAF, Dominion Air Forces, RN, Army, Allied Naval and Army Officers and Other Ranks Originating From Other Camps Than Stalag Luft III (East) Who Were In The Oflag (Officers' Camp) of Stalag IIIA At The Time of The Arrival of Russian Forces on 21 April 1945".

Plenty of RCAF (both Officers and NCOs) on the list of those who were gone by 8 May, just not your dad. No one was ever court martialed. I knew a man in Ottawa who was a P/O, shot down in 1941, ended up running the town bakery at Luckenwalde. Retired as a Lt General. I asked him if anybody was ever court martialed and he replied in the negative.

Do you happen to know the surnames of the three other men with your dad?

If you do a search on this forum I have posted quite a few articles on Luckenwalde over the last 15 years, including the various arrivals and departures of prisoners.

Regards,

Dave

 

Thank you Dave. So your record suggests that RJ Buckles was not on the list you referenced of the 200 who left before May 8 (his log indicates departure May 4, with arrival at American lines May 6). One of the men with him was Boyd Larson, a close friend and fellow ball player. Is Boyd listed?

I did not think that anyone was actually court martialled for leaving, but you seemed to suggest that a list was made of those that did leave, and that this was against orders by the senior British offficer to stay put while he negotiated with the Russian commander. Have I understood correctly?

I have read all the posts on this thread. Are there other threads dealing with Luckenwalde? I will be looking for stalag Luft 3 (Belaria) next, as this where Buckles was from January 1944 until the long march to luchenwalde. RJ died in 2016, aged 93.

 

Rodney Boyd Larson is on the list. I have had some communication with his grandson Tim over the years. His extended family of 17 visited a colleague of mine in France some years ago.

Scattered around this forum is the story of Luckenwalde, from the SBO's letters to the Russians to various photos, American reports and stories by the POWs themselves. Upper right hand of every page on this board has a "search" box. The SBO's name was Collard. In my dealings with his interpreter, F/Sgt Andy Wiseman, he stressed that Collard was a "by the book RAF officer". They had their hands full with absconding POWs, not to mention the German wives of some of them.

And it appears I missed your dad's name on the absentees list, right under Tommy Brannigan's. Attached. Far more NCOs on the list than the officers here.

Regards,

Dave

 

thanks so much Dave. Very helpful. Two follow ups:
1. Could you put me in touch with Tim Larson, or other Larson family member? Boya and my father were very close. I would like to share my father’s notes on the final days of the war, and ask if Boyd wrote or told any.
2. Does the nominal list of absentees have a date, and who would have prepared this (allies or others). So this would confirm that my father departed the camp before the repatriation. His notes say that he was told by an American journalist May 3 that the Russian plan was to barter with prisoners, so he and Boyd left the following night with a few others.

 

I will pass on your request to the chap in France who will have an email address. My last message from Tim Larson was in 2007.

The above document and all the Luckenwalde lists were created by F/Lt Kenneth Hugh Pelly Murphy, RAF, a 102 Sqn pilot shot down in 1940. He was awarded an MBE for that. The name of the American journalist who left the camp on 4 May was Captain Edward Beattie. Embedded with the US 29th Division he was captured 8 months earlier. Two US reporters showed up at the camp on 3 May (Robert Vermillion of United Press International & Lou Azrael of the Baltimore Sun) and took Beattie with them the next day.

Had your dad and others stuck around they would have seen the Russians put the camp's fence back up and posted a guard every 50ft on 8 May.

Regards,

Dave

 

Catching up after a longish gap. Great to see the photo of the C-47 that took my father from Celle to Cosford. In the meantime I've put together what you might call an illuustrated memoir based on my father's notes and covering his life from flying DH 9As in WW1, via a career as a commercial artist and his time in various camps including Stalag Luft III and Luckenwalde. Not sure if attaching it here would be OK as it's quite a big .pdf file. Anyhow, it includes his details of the winter 1945 march via various overnight stopping places to Spremberg, which I've mapped, and eventually train to Luckenwalde. A bit tricky to locate some, as the villages were in Germany at the time and now have Polish names. The map's attached,with stopping places ringed in red.

He did a watercolour of a church at Luckenwalde which he said was converted from a hut by Russian prisoners. From what he told us of the treatment Soviet prisoners had, building a church seemed a bit unlikely, and I wondered if it was actually built by Ukrainians the Germans had turned, some of whom regarded the German occupation as a considerable improvement on the previous regime. Would there be any obvious difference to spot between a Russian Orthodox church and a Ukrainian Orthodox one?