The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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246846 Pte. Thomas Frank Henry Strudwick British Army Royal West Kent Regiment from:Crowhurst, Surrey My Father, Thomas Strudwick, was part of the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment which formed part of the British Expeditionary Force to France in 1940. He was captured by the Germans at Dunkirk while part of the BEF rear guard, he became a prisoner of war and spent this time in Stalag XXA located in Torun Poland. As so many veterans, Dad did not speak of his captivity. He did however keep a diary while a prisoner which was part of a diary of events during captivity, sketches and his personal thoughts, mainly of home and his wife (my Mum) Dolly. Dad did not let people read this diary, it was private. I understand that if the Germans had discovered it he would have been punished and even shot. Later in his life, particularly after the death of Lord Louis Mountbatten, he did speak a little of the harsh conditions, the boredom and the silly things they did to combat this e.g. having competitions to see who could grow the longest beard. He said that some people tried to escape but this just made things harder for the rest of them who were punished too. It was more than six months after the chaos of Dunkirk before my Mum heard via the Red Cross that Dad was a prisoner of war. He survived. I can't imagine how he managed to come through all that he did but still keep his sense of humour. Truly remarkable. It's important that younger generations are made aware of the sacrifices made on our and their behalf lest that sacrifice is forgotten. Tony Strudwick Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal West Kent Regiment (Queens own) 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.