213165 Pte. John "Jack" Andrew British Army Royal Engineers from:Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent My father, sapper John Andrew of the Royal Engineers, enlisted in October 1939 at the drill hall in Stoke. He was stationed at Raglan Barracks 2 miles outside Plymouth. He then moved to Southampton 1st December 1939 and sailed to France to Cherbourg & then they went to Boulogne.
His company were staying in an old fish market, they were ordered to move out by the Sergeant onto their army trucks because the fish market was under heavy fire. They then moved to Camiers and then to Staples then to Boulogne docks where they were surrounded by German snipers. Some of the soldiers were trying to get back to England across the English Channel.
My dad's friend was named Albert. They then made their way to the railway station and the Welsh Guards were already there. They had to go down steps to an underground air raid shelters and my dad and his comrades had to carry sandbags to the Welsh Guards to make barricades. They ran out of ammunition. The Germans then surrounded them.
My dad and the other soldiers were taken prisoners of war and left Boulogne on the 25th of May 1940 and marched into Germany which took 3 weeks, then marched into Poland to Posnam and marched to an underground fort. They were at the fort 11 months then Stalag 344 then to Stalag v111b. My father used to play an accordion also a mouth organ. In 1945 they woke up one morning and all the Germans had left the camp. My dad and other soldiers left the camp and got to the American lines where they were deloused before getting on a plane to England.
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