213648 Walter Sinclair Australian Army 2/2 Field Regiment (d.25th Jan 1945) My uncle, Walter Sinclair, 2/2 Field Regiment, Australian Army was captured on Crete. I was very, very excited to see his name on the List of Prisoners & that the information that he died on 25th Jan 1945 correlates with my research. This is the first mention of him that I have found in over 12 months of searching on the net. However, his German POW cards show that he was transferred to Stalag V111B Teschen on 11.1.44 from Stalag 344 (V111B) Lamsdorf where he had been since 14.4.43, so he should have been on the Teschen march not Lamsdorf.
My mother can remember being told that he had severely frostbitten feet & couldn't march so was shot. I would appreciate any information that you can give me, as I am trying to trace his grave & the route taken from these 2 camps was entirely different. I have a postcard from 7A Moosburg & 2 from 8B Lamsdorf.
Update: The change of the designation V111B has tricked many family researchers, including myself. V111B (Lamsdorf) became 344 towards the end of 1943. It was an extremely large camp & was set up in 1939 using existing WW1 camp constructions. Initially it was a transit camp which then became permanent. Early in 1943, V111B (Britenlager) included 318/V111F Lamsdorf (200,000 Soviet POWs of whom around 40,000 died) & V111D Teschen, making it one of the largest POW complexes. Because of the large influx of POWs after the Normandy landings, the complex was reorganised & separated as 344 Lamsdorf & V111B Teschen. Teschen (now Cieszyn) is about 120km south from Lamsdorf (now Lambinowice) in Poland. By February 1944 V111B Teschen was the administrative base for many of the Silesian Arbeitskommandos (Work Camps), mainly mining, including 53 which contained 11,500 British POWs. (The designation 'British' also applied to all subjects of the British Empire e.g. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.) Most of these work camps were many kilometres from the main camp & the POWs lived, as well as worked, there. (Some in deplorable conditions). From the middle of January 1945, the POWs in the work camps were force-marched through Czechoslovakia away from the Russian advance. The last group left the main camp at V111B Teschen on about 20th Jan 1945. My uncle, Walter Sinclair,VX613,2/2nd Field Reg,AIF, POW 92192, died on that march & has no known grave. He was transferred to Teschen, 11/01/44 from 344 Lamsdorf. He wrote of the change from V111B to 344 on a postcard dated 26/12/43. He arrived V111B Lamsdorf, 14/4/43,from V11A Mooseburg,21/08/41,following his capture on Crete,31/05/41.
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