George Sidney Harper
Royal Air Force Advanced Landing Group
from:Crouch End, London
Intitially involved in training in the Hastings area, George Harper served in North Africa where the ALG team he was with rebuilt airfields captured from the opposition. He was a cook.
He then moved to the island of Cos where he was scalded by a tea urn knocked over by a bomb blast while the Germans were assaulting the island. He was scheduled to be flown out but another soldier handled a butterfly bomb and was more seriously hurt. Left in hospital when the island was over run, the German victors entered the hospital removing any Italians and shooting them. George was heavily tanned after his trip across North Africa and was being grabbed to be removed and shot as an Italian. Fortunately one of the German officers spoke English and recognised him as a Tommy.
He was sent across the sea to Italy and then spent 20+ (28?) days in a cattle truck moving first to Stalag Luft IVB and then Chemnitz, IVF where he saw out the war. Part of the duties in Chemnitz was clearing rubble and bodies after bombing raids including reburying dead from a cemetery that was hit by a blast.
George (or me, his son) still has a dozen photos from IVF, many of prisoners and including a picture of and letter from the commandant.
