Hello, I'm planning to retrace my fathers forced march in Jan/Feb 1945. He left Stalagluft 7 (on the German/Polish border) on the 19th Jan in the direction of Berlin. I am keen to discover the precise location of the camp in relation to the town of Kreuzberg Bankau, so that I can start from the precise spot. I would also appreciate any detail or information anyone might be able to offer me about this camp and the ensuing winter march. Thanks in anticipation, Marcus Barraclough.
Marcus, Hello and welcome to the forum. These links are from WIKI, but a good starting point as there is more if you search. Kreuzburg was German and after the war became part of Poland and the name was change so look at the first link and you can google Map/earth the location. Kreuzburg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_(1945) I remember my late uncle saying that a friend of his was on the march and was crippled for the rest of his life, which was spent in a wheelchair. Regards Tom
Hi Marcus and welcome Are you planning to walk any of the route or drive to certain key points? I have just got "The Last Escape" The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Germany 1944-1945: Amazon.co.uk: John Nichol, Tony Rennell: Books which is the story of several of the long marches. I'll have a look tonight and see if there is anything about StalagLuft7. There are some threads on this forum about modern recreations of various long marches, it might be worth a quick search. My dad marched from Stalag 9C. He was not in a good condition when he got back to Blighty! Good luck and do keep us informed
Marcus, I also have a copy of The Last Escape by John Hichol and Tony Rennell. I have scanned the relevent pages for you. It certainly is a book to read if you wish to learn about the POW Hardships endured at that time. Regards Tom
Andy, I didn't mean to steal your thunder, but my copy was close to hand. I found it to be a very sobering read indeed. Regards Tom
Welcome to the Forum Marcus. I have a little that may be of interest that is taken from a Report dated 15th March 1945. "Prisoners from St Luft 7 have now reached Stalag 111A where they will br moved by Train or other means to Moosburg or Nurnburg". St. 111A Luckenwalde - Frankenfelde. 52:5:46N - 13:7:47E 52:5:40N - 13:7:40E
Andy, I didn't mean to steal your thunder, but my copy was close to hand. [snip] No problem Tom, I was pleased you could help. I get very little time to read and am a very slow reader anyway so you knowing that there was some info available and being able to scan it in was brilliant (I have no access to a scanner eather!) It will probably take me a couple of months to get to page 167!
Hello, I'm planning to retrace my fathers forced march in Jan/Feb 1945. He left Stalagluft 7 (on the German/Polish border) on the 19th Jan in the direction of Berlin. I am keen to discover the precise location of the camp in relation to the town of Kreuzberg Bankau, so that I can start from the precise spot. I would also appreciate any detail or information anyone might be able to offer me about this camp and the ensuing winter march. Thanks in anticipation, Marcus Barraclough. Hi marcus john, I hope I can help you. My Dad was at Bankau and because of this I have researched the camp at length, and I am now able to release a detailed camp layout also showing it's precise location East of Kluczbork, Poland. If you give an email address I can forward on this image which I hope will be of interest to you. Can you help at all? Do you have any information about the March? I know the stops, what I need is detail of the specific route between each stop. Cheers Mel
