The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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246181 L/Cpl. Victor Brannan British Army Royal West Kent Regiment from:Sydenham, Kent Victor is is third from right in back row. My Uncle Victor Brannan fought in the army from the beginning of the war as a Lance Corporal in Royal West Kent Regiment and was captured at Albert on 21st of May 1940. His family received a telegram from the army that said he was missing believed killed in action. However, he had been taken prisoner by the Germans. He went first to Thorn, Stalag XXA, before being sent on to Stalag XXB at or near Marienburg. In the winter he worked in a sugar beet factory and in the summer he cut down trees. He was able to communicate with his family by postcards that were subject to German censorship. In a postcard dated 15th of October 1944 Victor talks about the first film (Charlie Chaplin) he had seen since his arrival in the camp 4 years earlier. After being released in 1945 he had to walk for about 3 months through Germany heading west, some prisoners died during this long march, some were shot. They finally met up with the American forces near Magdeburg and at last had something to eat. Victor ate a huge Dutch cheese and was taken ill with appendicitis. I have a photograph of Stalag XXB with no markings on the back, it is the same picture as that posted on this site for Vic Thurgood. My uncle is third from right in back row. The postcard he sent shows XXB(4) I presume the (4) might be relevant to his precise location. James Brannan Add to this record.  Related Content: Stalag 20A (312) Prisoner of War Camp Stalag 20b Prisoner of War Camp Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens own) 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.