223139 Pte. Ronald William Cross British Army from:Stratford, London My late father was captured at Dunkirk and ended up a POW at Stalag XX in Danzig, Poland. He was a POW for 5 years and he could speak German and Polish fluently. He used to organise football games and taught some of the men to ballroom dance. He never spoke much about his time there but we understand he lost a lot of weight and when he was demobbed his own mother did not recognise him.
Their home had been bombed and they ended up in a small flat in Major Road, Stratford, London E17. He arrived after demob in Stratford not knowing where they were, but he had remembered it was something to do with army ranks, after a while someone directed him to Major Road and he just knocked on all the doors until he found his mother, who refused to believe it was him.
He wrote a book about his experiences in life called "Dont Cross Me Ref" as he was a football referee, and he always said it was football that made his time in the POW camp bearable. He was made to work in freezing rivers loading logs, then in a sugar factory, and finally on a farm in his time in Stalag 20. He often said that his ability with languages meant that he could engage in conversation with the guards and he thought they were fair in the camp he was in. A great man who was always firm and fair.
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