225489 Pte. Francis Dennis Klapper British Army 6th Btn. Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders from:Newcastle on Tyne My uncle, Dennis Klapper was the grandson of Raymond Klapper. While serving in WWII he kept a diary from the beginning of 1940 to the end of 1945. This time frame includes the time of his capture by the Germans until his release and the end of the war. During his capture Dennis was kept in the infamous prison camp Stalag VIIIB which was located in Lamsdorf, Silesia which is now Lambinowice, Poland. By coincidence, this camp was located only a short distance from Cieplowody, Poland in Silesia where his family originally lived before coming to the UK in 1860.
Dennis was only 18 when he joined the 6th Battalion of the Argyle & Southern Highlanders. He was captured. The following is an exerpt from his diary:
1940
On January 4th we left Border for Southampton where we caught the boat for Cherbourg. From here after days of travelling we arrived at Armentieres where we stayed for a few weeks, then we moved to a village by the name of Auberchicourt near Douai where we remained until May 10th.
May 10th. Planes in morning, several shot down. Heard Germans invaded Belgium and Holland. Douai bombed. Stand to. Away in afternoon. Passing through Orchies, bombed. Took billets in Lessines for refugee control duties. Not much sleep. Crowds of refugees. Parachutists. Saw one or two air battles. 11 platoon got full load when German tried to gain height, four killed. Lessines bombed first morning. Church and shops gutted. Next week set off through Habsolth to wood. Shelled and bombed. Ammunitions truck went up. Champagne. Retreat to Lessines, through Engaden in flames. then for rest in a village. Bombed as we left. Next to Grammont to cover withdrawal. Next day set off for France. Roads bombed and gunned. Lost two trucks and two men. Refugees killed. Rest near Orchies. Back to Brumes as reserve coy; down to Douai for armoured units. Brumes to cover withdrawal on way to rest-camp, turned back to front near Gavion then to farm near Bethune for two days rest. Pleinar gunned and shelled.
May 25th. Set off for Bethune, just bombed. Driving down road, were machine gunned and shelled. Lorries in ditches. Radiator damaged. Dived in ditch with two other fellows. One on truck hit by mortar. Tried to crawl along ditch but blocked at one end and truck on side, blazing at other. Own guns used on us. Captured. Got some soup, bread, marge, cheese. Drome with planes. Heard Gray killed and Graham escaped. Officer said they had been waiting all morning for us. Shed for night, coffee in morning.
Dennis then keeps a (nearly) daily diary until 15th June 1942. He was taken to Stalag VIIIB, a camp known as Lamsdorf.
“There were more than 700 subsidiary Arbeitskommandos (working parties outside the main camp)…
Arbeitskommandos housed the lower ranks who were working in coal mines, factories, quarries or on the railways.
He was moved from Lamsdorf in July 1940 (in a closed wagon on a train) to a camp at Reigersfeld and sent to work on road and canal building and was then taken by horse truck in very cold weather with other POWs in January 1941 from the camp at Reigersfeld, to Klausburg, a coal mining camp. From now until the camp was evacuated in 1945 he was to work in the mines. He seems to have remained at Klausberg until the camp was evacuated and he took part in the `Long March' in January 1945: this was a forced march by an estimated 80,000 POWs westward across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany in extreme winter conditons between January and April 1945.
He wrote an account of his experiences on the Long March, in the course of which he lost toes to frostbite. Dennis also contracted TB in the camps, he was invalided home because of his lungs (aggravating or being aggravated by malnutrition) more so than the frostbite. Dennis became a postman in Gateshead and died unmarried in 1987. He never recovered from his experiences.
|