The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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236398 Cpl. Norman Edgar Lewis British Army Royal Welch Fusiliers from:Whixall, Shropshire My father, Norman Lewis, was a regular soldier before World War Two but after serving was a civilian clerk with the War Office. When war broke out he was called up. Dad was in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, but I think he originally enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment. My eldest sister, Valerie, was born in January 1940, and my father saw her before embarking for France. At the beginning of June he was captured as a member of the rearguard forces near Dunkirk. He did not see my sister again until she was 5 years old. He was eventually taken to Stalag XXA in Thorn, Poland and spent the rest of war there until the camp was evacuated in January 1945. During his time in captivity Dad worked on farms and did other work in the area. When the camp was evacuated the prisoners were forced to march more than 800 miles in one of the coldest winters on record. During this march Dad became ill with bronchitis and frostbite. If prisoners couldn't march they were often shot or left by the roadside. A Russian prisoner on the march made a sledge and pulled Dad along, and also built bivouacs in the snow at night to keep warm. Dad shared his meagre Red Cross rations with this man. His family still has a cigarette case made from a tin can which the Russian made for Dad. Dad died in 1991 and in common with many veterans, he spoke very little about his experiences. We all feel very sad that we didn't ask Dad more when he was still here with us. We have no one left now who can fill in the gaps. Cigarette case Cigarette case Sheila Cinelli Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Welch Fusiliers Cheshire Regiment Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 Stalag 20A (312) Prisoner of War Camp Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.