Which POW Camp

During the Battle of the Leopold Canal – part of the Battle of the Scheldt – Canadians were taken prisoner in October 1944. Towards the end of October, 11 of them jumped from the POW train near Utrecht, the Netherlands. Whilst attempting to reach liberated territory, they were captured on 3 January 1945 near Opheusden, the Netherlands. They were held in prisons and, in March 1945, sent from Doetinchem to a POW camp in Germany. How can I find out which POW camp that was?

 

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

Members will be able help you more if you post names & army service numbers of the 11 men.

If that doesn’t lead to any meaningful progress you should apply to Swiss Red Cross in January 2027 via this link -

Requests for information about people held during Spanish Civil War or Second World War: Quarterly limit reached

You may be lucky and find their planned online WW2 POW database is “live” by then.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

Here is what I know so far:
VR Schjelderup and AG Gri, both 1st bat. Can. Scottish Regiment, managed to cross

CSM Berry, 1st Bat. Can. Scottish Regiment, K42160
M. Briere, 1st Bat Can. Scottish Regiment, B147856
H. Swartz, 1st Bat Can. Scottish Regiment, K62742
CF Trainor, Essex Scottish Regiment PEI, F82729
William Rice, from Collingwood Ontario, 1st Can Army motorbrigade
WM Cool, 6th coy, 6th Scottish Regiment, K1495
L. Adams, 6th coy, 6th Scottish Regiment, K73483
John Sjursen, Sgt/Cpl HQ, 1st Canadian Scottish, K73536
JTR Brownridge, Capt. Royal Can Art (RCA)

RE Porter, no 6 group 419 sq, R/133074 wanted to cross also and got caught

Hope this helps
Lisan

 

Thanks.

Hopefully one of our Canadian members such as Chris C and alieneyes may be able to spot something in the public domain via Canadian archives or Newspapers to assist you.

Good Luck

Steve

 

Hello,

What do you mean by "cross", please?

With so many from the Canadian Scottish Regiment, a look at their regimental history if any might help. I don't think that "6th Canadian Scottish" entirely makes sense as there was only a single battalion of the CanScots in Northwest Europe, and one at home doing recruitment.

I can access the book at the Toronto Reference Library but don't have plans to go that way at the moment.

PS tried a bit of a search in the Toronto Star newspaper archives but I'm not very good at searching there, and I haven't found anything.

 

Hello,

Robert Edward Porter got involved with a Dutch Resistance group and worked with them under the name Hank de Graf until being captured 2 January 1945. "While attempting to reach British lines near Uphausen I was captured by German paratroopers, along with allied service personnel, one of whom was Wilfred Berry, the Company Sgt Major with the Canadian Scottish Battalion"

He gives the following dates and locations:

SD Camp at Velp, Holland 2 Jan 1945 - 20 Jan 1945
SD Jail at Utrecht 20 Jan 1945 - 28 Feb 1945
SD Jail at Germany (town unknown) 28 February 1945 - 12 March 1945

Transferred to POW transit camp in Germany and remained in POW camps (Stalag Luft 3 & Stalag 7A) until liberated 29 April 1945.

Robert Edward Porter

Regards,

Dave

 

Hi,

I expect Lisan means “to cross the front lines back in to allied territory”?

Steve

 

H. Swartz was a Private in his unit. From a long list in: LIB 3332

Marcel Briere, no rank shown: LIB 3332

Wiki shows the Canadian Scottish deployed to Europe as:

From: Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) - Wikipedia

Private C.F. Trainor appears briefly in a long article about Roger Schjerlderup. There are two photos of the group. See: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=cmh

Captain J.T.R. Brownridge was MiD April 1945 and hailed from then: 10720-107-th Ave., Edmonton, Alta. From: https://www.lipad.ca/full/1945/04/05/34/ On D-Day he was with the RCA 13th Field Regiment. From: https://lmharchive.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/13th-Field-Regiment-Royal-Canadian-Artillery.pdf Graduated 1948 from Queen's University.

Enough, no info on which POW Camp those id'd in this post wen to.

All of them survived WW2 - checked CWGC.

 

Wili

 

thank you, this helps for Porters story

 

thanks for your help, very useful

 

I think the SD Jail at Germany was the prison Kruisberg at Doetinchem still The Netherlands but close to the border

 

This may help a bit.

Vancouver Sun 18 July 1945

 

Captain John Thomas Robert Brownridge, MiD was in Oflag 79.

 

Alieneyes, this helps a lot! Thank you very much

 

Thank you. I will try to find out where that was located

 

Lisan,

An online search with: "Oflag 79" site:ww2talk.com id'd many threads here.

At a glance of the first few: Braunschweig (Formerly 8-F) Brunswick, Lower Saxony.

 

You're very quick, thanks!!

 

What does the MiD mean?

 

Mentioned in Dispatches. A dispatch from the military to their higher command. It was nota medal and in WW2 there so many it appears very few commendations survived..

See: Mentioned in dispatches - Wikipedia