- E51 Arbeits kommando Stalag 8b during the Second World War -
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E51 Arbeits kommando Stalag 8b
22nd Jul 1941 ParcelsIf you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
Those known to have been held in
E51 Arbeits kommando Stalag 8b
during the Second World War 1939-1945.
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Want to know more about E51 Arbeits kommando Stalag 8b?
There are:0 items tagged E51 Arbeits kommando Stalag 8b available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.
Raymond "Tommy" Parr
I am a SSFA caseworker working with Raymond Parr, known as Tommy, who was with Working Party E51 at Stalag 8B from 1940-45. He would like to hear from anyone who remembers him.
L/Cpl. William Bench 7th Btn. Royal Tank Regiment
William Bench was captured at Arras following an attack on his tank in which he sustained a shrapnel injury to his shoulder. The International Red Cross Archives hold the following information: He was sent to Soignies Hospital in June 1940, and was at St Joseph Hospital in Enghien on 14th of August 1940. He arrived at Stalag VI A on 27th of August 1940, from Dulag VI A. He was still detained at Stalag VI A on 8th of October 1940. He was transferred from there to Stalag VIII B on 18th of October 1940. He escaped from Stalag VIII B on 2nd of September 1944.He was sent to work in a coal mine, Camp E51 at Klausberg in Silesia, where he contracted emphysema from which he suffered for the rest of his life, and which was a part cause of his death in 1985 in Auckland NZ.
The Red Cross has his capture date as 20th of June 1940, but his military record shows him missing in France on 21st of May 1940, so I am inclined to think that he was captured on 20th of May 1940 (Red Cross would have been informed he was a POW in June). His military record shows that he returned to England on 28th of April 1945. After he escaped he was in Red Army hands, then US Army hands, before arriving in England.
I am interested in hearing from anyone who knew of him at Camp E51, and who may have escaped with him.
Pte. Archibald Mallett 2nd Btn. Gloucester Regiment
Dad, Archibald Mallett was part of the BEF 145th Brigade sent to France in May 1940 and on to Orchies on the Belgium border. They were then sent on to defend the road to Dunkirk at Cassel. He was captured at Cassel on 27th May 1940 after receiving a shrapnel injury to his head. He was subsequently incarcerated in Stalag XX1B and he remained a POW until his release at the end of the war, suffering at the hands of the Germans.His regiment was almagamated with the 1st Btn the Glosters and he went on to fight in Korea at the battle of Gloster Hill and the Imjin River, managing to survive and return home.
Dad never spoke of his war years and it is only in recent years that our family have learned of his past and how heroic he was. I am very proud of Dad, sadly he passed on in 1989. I have enclosed some of his papers showing different camps where he was held.
Pte. Francis Dennis Klapper 6th Btn. Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders
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.
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