Bombdr. Raymond Victor Kilgour
South African Army 5th Brigade Field Artillery
from:Johannesburg
My late father Ray Kilgour was captured at Sidi Resegh, just south of Tobruk in Libya, North Africa on 23rd of November 1941. He was shipped across the Mediterranean where the Italian freighter, Sebastiano Venier, carrying 2000 allied POW's was torpedoed off the coast of Greece by the British submarine HMS Porpoise. The ship then grounded directly in front of Methoni Castle with the loss of some 400 lives. Then the survivors were all incarcerated in the ancient Pylos fortress overlooking the bay. Conditions were freezing cold and food was scarce.
Later they were re-shipped to Italy where my father landed up in POW Camp 52. When Italy capitulated the POW's were en-trained to Germany and my father was placed in Oflag Va at Weinsberg near Heilbron. His log book records the legend of the Faithful Wives of Weinsberg, whose heroic legend is enshrined in a stone statue in the town square. During the Middle Ages it is said that when the castle at the summit of Weinsberg was besieged during the wars of the Holy Roman Empire, the attacking general offered to let the women and children exit the fortress, provided they did not take more than they could carry. Soon after, the gates opened and the women came out carrying their husbands, sons and lovers on their backs. The general kept his word and the menfolk were spared.
When nearby Heilbron, a railway junction town, was mercilessly fire-bombed by the allies towards the end of 1944, the POW's were used to help clean up afterwards. My father related how they had to be protected by their own camp guards from the incensed survivors, overcome with rage and hate towards their enemies who had perpetrated the horrible attack upon an essentially civilian population.
Shortly afterwards they were sent to Mooseberg Camp where they were finally liberated by American forces. He recorded "A dirty brown Yankee tank has rolled through the camp gates. We are free."
