Prisoners of War

Incidents during World War II

Of course we got our own back on the Jap's in various ways, for instance, during the building of a new...

The Bedouin

HMS Partridge had taken the Bedouin and her crew in tow. Apart from that Christmas didn't exist on the...

From Rags to Riches part 2

Christmas 1946 Wynne's Mum and Dad asked me if I would like to spend Christmas with them at their home...

'The Will To Live': Chapter 33 - Bridges, Oxen, Tigers, and a Javanese Lad

The Japs kept their meat ration in the form of live pigs in an enclosure on the edge of the camp, and...

Walter Hobson's Service in the Forces - Part 1

There was a railway warrant and we were met at York Railway Station by soldiers and an officer. They took...

Walter Hobson's Service in the Forces - Part 3

Sergeant Holmes took out his Gammon Bomb and was just about to throw it, when they spotted him, so they...

Walter Hobson's Service in the Forces - Part 5

I could hear Jack saying, “Walt, weer ah tha? We found out that one was a German officer and one was...

Walter Hobson's Service in the Forces - Part 2

One day, a truck pulled up and a man shouted, “Private Hobson, you're wanted at H.Q.” So I...

Harry Tapley's Memories - Part 4

I gave him a hit and one of the blokes said “There it is Norman” and he couldn't see so he...

Thomas Emyr Davies - 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment - My Story (Part 11 of 13 - Stalag IV B Muhlberg-on-Elbe

There were compounds for Russians, Poles and Italians, and transit compounds for the working parties which...

A Boy of Kent in the Desert War

Over the next few years Jack was shifted around a variety of camps run by both Italians and Germans - a...

A Fine Looking Englishman

As I got better I got the self same food that they had and we'd go out – my mate and I...

My First Prison Camp - Part 7

The Chief Of Police believed, that my colleague could speak Italian and that he was only shamming that he...

My First Prison Camp - Part 1

The Canalimieni were under a separate command and were feared more by the Italians than by the British and...

Charley Pocock's War Chapter 20 and 21

The camp at first appearance looked like an ordinary British hutted camp surrounded by the usual double...

My First Prison Camp - Part 8

Our escorts handed us over to their counterparts, the Italian Camp Police, who in turn, conducted us to the...

Japanese Prisoner of War Diary

When we got to Koepang, Dutch East Timor there was no harbour so on high tide the old coaster crept in...

My First Prison Camp - Part 2

I did likewise, and saw, not 15 yards away, the Italian sentry in conversation with the Greek. Breakfast...

'The Will To Live': Chapter 32 - Slaughterman, Oven Builder, & Much Sweetness

I used the railway line to form the lintel which carried the top brickwork and chimney, and completed the...

'The Will To Live': Chapter 30 - A Monument to Our Dead, & Allied Aircraft

Our wooden buckets weighed as much as the two gallons of water they held, and if the Japs had not used all...

'The Will to Live': Chapter 36 - Very Sick, Weigh 4 Stone, Jap Horse Doctor, and True Story of "The Bridge Over the River Kwai"

From now on, there was also to be a party of prisoners working on the unenviable task of salvaging...

Walter Hobson's Service in the Forces - Part 4

We became friendly with a few of ‘em and we used to get all the news from them, because some of them...

Japanese Prisoner Of War

When this meal was dished out to us, we called it air raid stew,. Poor food meant that the sickness rate...

Freeman to Prisoner to Freedman Part Two

Letters from Fred to his parents: Madras 3.10.1945 - from 916461 LAC Freeman F. EX-POW to Mr & Mrs FA...

A Rifleman in North Africa : Part 2 - Prisoner

We had picked up the pilot officer when the Jerry guns had gone into action just before dark: apparently...

An “extra-ordinary” soldier - WWII Memoirs from Dunkirk to Stalag XVIII C — Part 6

On reaching the stage of rapid deterioration the conversation then revolved round small rock cakes that...