212279 Tpr. Alfred Edwin Etches British Army 4th Queens Own Hussars  Alf Etches was my uncle. As a reservist he was called up immediately WW2 broke out and was sent to Greece as part of the 2nd Armoured Division following the Greek request for assistance in the face of German and Italian invasion.Because of the enemy's superior strength the British troops were forced to evacuate and on the night of 28th/29th April 1941 as he was awaiting embarkation from the port of Kalamata, Alf was captured. He was taken to a temporary camp in Salonika and then dispatched to Stalag 18A, Wolfsburg. From here he was sent to work camps at Niklasdorf(924/GW) and Peggau (119/GW). He said that he was one of the luckier PoW's in that he wasn't assigned heavy manual work such as in the quarry or timber mill. He added that the camp commander, Kommandant Steiner, was a fairly amiable man. As the War came to an end he was transferred back to Stalag 18A to await liberation. There was a scare however when US aircraft mistakenly bombed the camp. A number of huts were damaged and there were some casualties. When Alf returned to his home in Wandsworth he was dreadfully thin but he had a loving wife, Violet,who made a great fuss of him and he was soon back to his cheery self.Like many others he was reluctant to talk about his experiences though.
He had a number of jobs such as house painting and storekeeping. He and Vi led a quiet life and had no children. Alf died on the 19th January 1988 of a heart attack. The photo shows Alf (standing on the extreme left) in the camp, presumably after a game of football. I would be interested if anyone could identify his comrades in the photo.
|
