11 February 2013
Hey all, well what an interesting weekend it's been!!
We found out that the mrs Grandad was in the army during WW2 and that he was a PoW for 5yrs. His wife (my mrs nan) is still alive (86yrs old) but doesn't remember that much as she has dementia.
Her nan gave us some war photos of my mrs grandad so I got my investigating cap on and got to work.......
I've found out his soldier number, his pow number, his regiment and a few other details and here's what we know on what happened to him:
He was 19yrs old when enlisted with the Queens Royal Regiment(Surrey), as rank; Private in 2/6th battalion and they left Southampton in 1940 (I have exact date but can't remember off top of my head), they landed in France to fight in what would be known as "the battle at Dunkirk" now, it turns out that his battalion or more specific his platoon endured some pretty heavy contacts with the Germans who were advancing rapidly and pushing the allies right back to Dunkirk. Apparently his platoon got cut off from the battalion as the Germans basically cut them off and flanked them, dividing them from the 300,000 allies soldiers on and around Dunkirk.
History lesson:
Approx 300,000 allies were literally on the Dunkirk beaches waiting for the british navy to rescue/evacuate them while the Germans, on Hitlers "bizarre" orders were told to hold their ground. It's bizarre as there could have been a massacre of the allies at Dunkirk. Some say hitler expected the UK to fully surrender. Anyways, Churchill asked every boat/ship/dinghy/floating vessel to help out, this became the largest evacuation in history known as "The Evacuation at Dunkirk"
Lesson over.
So while this standoff and expected mass evacuation was going on in France there were British soldiers trying desperately to find their way to the shores to be evacuated and also fighting the enemy. Basically everyman for himself, no rations, little ammo, no radio contact and many many cut off and on their own. Anyways, the 300,000 allies eventually left Dunkirk BUT approx 30-40,000 men were left behind, my mrs grandad (Private Dunn) was one of them.
Anyways, we think based on certain books and the regiments history timeline that he made his way to a harbour/shore place called St. Valery a few miles along the coast from Dunkirk. They were surrounded by Germans who had the high ground on cliffs ect and were with the 51st highland regiment, they (the whole 30-40,000 men) were given the order to surrender as they were outnumbered and put gunned, known as "the surrender at St. Valery"
What happened next we think is that he and all the 30-40,000 men were ordered to march to various pow camps in europe, (Her grandad did speak of a long march), he went on the 400+ mile march to a place called Poznan in Poland (again I have exact dates on the march), the march took 16 days, no food, no water, some were beaten, some murdered. When they arrived at the pow camp they were each given 1 slice of bread and little water.
He was in camp Stalag XXID and Stalag VIII-b and Fort Rauch, for 5yrs. These were "working" camps (coal mining, construction ect). In 1945 the Red Army (Russians) were advancing in on Poland to liberate pow and push the Germans back to Berlin. Poznan was a main supply route/town and was built as a fortress in 1800's or something with loads of forts and undergound tunnels ect (the place was a big red brick circle with many smaller forts on the outer circle).
Once the Germans knew they were buggered they marched all pow's back towards Berlin, or attempted to in jan/feb 1945 (winter and thick snow), lots of massacres occurred on this march as it is reported that the Germans were being "held up" by the POWs so they killed them so they could escape and retreat back to Germany.
There is a battle called "the battle of Poznan" which I'm yet to fully investigate but it lasted for a few months, 90% of Poznan was turned to rubble and house to house fighting and hand to hand combat went on.
We know that the Red Cross supplied POWs with boxes of rations and supplies ect. They was allowed to send letter to/from home ect. They had Xmas meals, theatre shows (run and put on by POWs), football teams, "jobs" ect ect there are some cases of neglect and horror stories of beatings and killings ect by German guards. Her grandad didn't speak much about it but did say he/they were forced to eat grass to survive at one point (we think on the long march)
We want to know more about his time in the pow camp and the details on how he arrived there and anything else we can find out. All the officers and some private rank soldiers kept either a war journal (personal) or official "war diaries" these diaries are available to public at national archives in Kew, London. Some regiments kept files and there are websites were masses of info is available and you can track soldiers movements ect
I have ordered a copy of his regiment 2/6th battalion's war diary as I've read a few pages online and it's amazing what these guys went through and it's really detailed (times, locations, names, rations, enemy conflicts, casualties ect ect had to all be written down by officers as a "log". Once I have this I will be able to hopefully track his route to the pow camps and then gather info on the camps (times, dates, details ect)
The queens royal regiment (surrey) 2/6th battalion was disbanded after the war. Not much has been written about there conflicts in 1940 France and the pow camps ect. Apparently he was approached by an author in 70's-80's to have his story published but he declined, I've tracked down that book and will read it. Most of the published books I've found so far on the St Valery surrender are to do with the 51st highlander regiment. I've found out that the surviving members of 2/6th battalion go on d-day trips back to St Valery to remember the fallen ect, I'll get in contact with some of them shortly.
Sadly her grandad passed away in the 80's but his memory lives on, if he didn't survive this horrendous ordeal my mrs wouldn't be here today and nor our kids ect
I found all this info out in 2 days so hopefully I'll find out more and give a update.......
.....to be continued
Private J. E. Dunn • Opuss № I