260633 Pte. Philip Edmund Charles Hart British Army 2nd Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment from:Bournemouth My father, Philip Hart was a POW in Stalag 4G in Oschatz, Saxony from 1943 until the end of the war. Although he was not a tailor by trade, he managed to convince the Germans he was one, as he had knowledge having been in men’s outfitting (retail) before the war and after. This undoubtedly saved him, as many of his regiment (Royal West Kent) didn’t survive the salt mines. He was employed with Polish prisoners to repair officers’ uniforms from Colditz, and the officers used to keep them updated with what was happening with the war by leaving messages in trouser cuffs. Although not physically ill-treated, he was nevertheless chronically short of food and would not have survived without Red Cross parcels, although the Gestapo destroyed the contents on occasions, presumably as a demoralising exercise.
Following his internment, my father was repatriated to England just a few days after the war’s end on a Lancaster arriving in Sussex. My parents had been apart for five years. They married in April 1940 and my father was called up in the autumn, so they didn’t have long together before my father was sent abroad. His regiment was stationed in Malta and was there during the siege. My mother also did her bit in the war effort helping to make Horsa gliders in Christchurch, which were crucial for landing troops and supplies in battles later in the war.
After the war my mother and father remained happily married for 43 years. My father died in 1983.
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