Hello, I've recently come into posession of some pics and a few details about my granddads (Gunner A W Sawyer, Royal Reg. of Artillery) days a POW in Stalag IX C. He was captered at St. Valery on 12th June 1940 and as far as I know spent the rest of the war in Stalag 9c. When alive the family remember him mentioning working on a railway line while a POW. Can anyone help fill in some more details for me, about this or anything to do his regiment during the battle at St. Valery. Thanks I've attached a pic of him whilst a prisoner. He is the man in centre of the group of three.
Hello, I don't suppose you know what regiment he was in do you? For a good overview on the fighting in and around St. Valery I would read Churchill's Sacrifice of the Highland Division by Saul David but it mainly focus's on the infantry battalions. Regards Andy
Just to add the 51st Divisional Artillery was 17th, 23rd, 75th Field Regiments and 51st Anti-Tank Regiment. But he could have been with another RA unit.
I've has look through. He joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1926 and served for 11years (1937) and was then called to colours on 3rd September 1939 and despatched to france three weeks later.
If you have no mention of a regiment I would recommend that you apply for his service records as they will identify the regiment he was in. Cheers Andy
Hello and welcome to the forum. As Andy has already said, Service record is the first avenue of attack to find out which Regiment your grandfather was with. Have you asked around the family members to see if anyone has possession of any helpful information or paperwork? Regards Tom
Hi & Welcome. Look at this website and you might find something of interest. You have to look at camps, then Stalags and it will list the actual camp numbers. Scroll down a bit and you will find quite a lot on IXC, with photos, recollections, etc. Prisoner of War
Also look at this list of previous threads about IXC from this Forums search engine. Again, quite a lot of interesting stuff. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/search.php?searchid=581009
Also might be worth checking out "St. Valery. " by Bill Innes (or to give it its full name "St. Valery. The Impossible Odds".) I recomend getting it from the Gordons Highlanders museum mainly because they need the money, though you could get it from Amazon etc Books: The Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen About half way down the page - £7.99
Thank you all for your feed back. I have looked at the Pegasus Web site, It is really interesting. I plan to order a copy of his service records and a copy of St. valery the impossible odds.
Mr Wendal, Your first picture of the numerous POWs include many 7th Northumberland Fusiliers that I recognise. There is one survivor so I will let him have a look at the photo. Where is your father on the big picture?
that is a great pic of the camp residents. will have to double check for my dad. He went to 9 c after Dieppe.Aug 1942 he was there till april 8 1945 when they ran into the Americans from Pattons group after the battle of the bulge.
Hi I have just joined the forum. My father in law's brother was briefly in Stalag IXC and escaped from a work camp at Unterbriezbach on 20th March 1942 and arrived in Greenock in August 1942. His name was William Macfarlane (Pte. 92977912 Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders).
