262804 Pte. Maurice Weston Brown British Army 903 Company Royal Army Service Corps from:Croydon My father Maurice Brown served in WW2 with 903rd Company, RASC having joined the Royal West Kents early in 1940.
He was sent out to France in May 1940 as they went to reinforce the attempt to stop German forces invading France through Belgium.
He narrowly evaded capture around Rouen and was then evacuated near Cherbourg having abandoned all their equipment.
After re-equipping back in the UK, mostly around Dorking and Salisbury, they were sent out via Cape Town and Cairo to reinforce 1st Armoured Division. in the Western Desert in November 1941.
They arrived in time to be involved with Operation Crusader. When Rommel counter-attacked in May 1942 my father's company withdrew to Tobruk where he was captured on 20th of June 1942.
After a time in camps behind the lines he was sent to Italy, eventually to CC53 near Macerata above Ancona. Here they were not required to work, but when Italy surrendered they had about 48 hours to escape, but were advised not to attempt this by the Army.
German paratroops then took over the camp and my father was then transported by train over the Brenner Pass into Eastern Germany, firstly to a holding camp and then to a working-party on the Deutsche Reichsbahn based at Klostermansfeld, South of Leipzig near the Harz mountains.
Here between October 1943 and April 1945 he was forced to work maintaining lines, initially light work but later repairing bomb damage as far away as Leipzig. He experienced frequent near-misses from air-raids and saw much suffering.
He was eventually liberated by Patton's forces pushing eastwards over the delineated post-war frontier and flown back via Brussels.
My father maintained a diary through nearly all of his time in the Army, at great risk to himself whilst a POW. This diary although edited later for personal reasons, contains numerous references to events in 903 Coy. and the personnel with whom he served.
He tried to have it published later but not being an officer, and containing mostly routine details about food parcels etc. in camp, they told him it was not eventful enough.
Sadly on his death in September 1991 most of his possessions were disposed of, and I only have one of the draft copies he circulated.
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