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- Stalag 9C Prisoner of War Camp during the Second World War -


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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

Stalag 9C Prisoner of War Camp




   Stalag 9c had its HQ at Bad Sulza. The Kurhotel was used as the commander's office for the POW camp. Prisoners were held in compounds at Muhlhausen, Langen Salza for Russians and Molsdorf, with most PoWs being held in various working camps.

 

   No.1015 Arbeitskommando, under control of Stalag 9c was located at Bischofferode in in Thuringia, Germany.

 

 

13th Aug 1940 82 Squadron Blenheim lost

28th Mar 1941 Inspection

9th Jul 1941 35 Squadron Halifax lost

15th Jul 1941 Arrivals

22nd Jul 1941 Parcels

15th Aug 1941 102 Squadron Whitley lost

10th Sep 1941 Escape

Oct 1941 Potatoes

14th Oct 1941 207 Squadron Manchester lost

25th Nov 1941 Cleaning Duty

8th Dec 1941 83 Squadron Hampton lost

21st Mar 1942 Salt Mines

28th Apr 1942 PoWs moved

20th Jul 1942 Prisoners Moved

26th Jul 1942 15 Squadron Stirling lost

12th July 1942 Assitance

December 1942 Poor Conditions

29th Apr 1943 Misty

3rd May 1943 Ventura of 487 Squadron lost

24th May 1943 Working Camp

28th August 1943 Halifax lost

20th Oct 1943 Conditions Improving

15th Dec 1943 Over Crowding

31st Jan 1944 550 Squadron Lancaster lost

29th Jun 1944 12 Squadron Lancaster lost

29th Mar 1945 Evacuation

6th Apr 1945 Liberation

7th Apr 1945 Repatriation


If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.



Those known to have been held in or employed at

Stalag 9C Prisoner of War Camp

during the Second World War 1939-1945.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records from Stalag 9C Prisoner of War Camp other sources.


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Want to know more about Stalag 9C Prisoner of War Camp?


There are:971 items tagged Stalag 9C Prisoner of War Camp 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.


F/Lt. Alan Birley Bateman 15 Squadron

Justine Hadden



Richard Lawson Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

My dad, Dick Lawson was prisoner at Stalag 9c Bad Sulza. He worked in the Salt mines at minegan and was released by the Americans in 1945. He served with the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and is still alive, living near Croydon and going strong. We are looking to contact anyone who was in Stalag 9c after the Anzio Landings in 1944.

Paul Lawson



Driver Robert Battye BEM (Military Division)

Brockholes Man’s Escape From Germans (Huddersfield Examiner May 1947)

A story of prisoner-of-war in Germany, seven amazing escapes, hard-labour gangs and solitary confinement cells, more thrilling than many novel, were told to an Examiner reporter this morning by Brockholes man, Mr Robert Battye who has been notified that he has been awarded the B.E.M. (Military Division) ‘in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the field”.

As Mr Battye, the son of Mr and Mrs Herman Battye, of the Rock Inn, recounted his adventures, one was reminded of the lurid and stirring tales which are usually to be found in a school boy’s weekly magazine, and yet they were everyday experiences of this Brockholes soldier who spent five years of the war as a prisoner in Germany.

Mr. Battye’s story begins in December 1939, when he became Driver R Battye R.A.S.C. He went to France in February 1940 and when the Germans were over-running France Driver Battye and his comrades were attempting to transfer patients from a hospital near Boulogne. Unfortunately the enemy moved too quickly for them, and so on May 23, 1940, Driver Battye, together with fifteen of his comrades was taken prisoner by the Germans.

"Jumped Goods Train”

“For a time we were kept in France” said Mr Battye “and then we were marched north through Lille into Holland, and eventually we were transferred to barges and taken into the heart of Germany.” During the march, which lasted about six weeks, Mr Battye said that the guards took no chances of their escaping, “They were pretty rough at times” he declared.

The prisoners were at last confined in a camp in Weimar district, and, according to Mr Battye, conditions in the early prison camps were very poor. Whenever they travelled by train the prisoners took maps, which were displayed at the stations, in preparation for their intended escapes. “We made our own compasses,” said Mr Battye “from the magnetic type of razor blade, and if the Germans found them we simply made new ones by heating a blade in a fire and shaping a crude needle.”

Mr Battye told how in 1941, he made his first escape attempt by ‘jumping goods trains.” He and five more men cut the barbed wire surrounding their camp during the night and then split up, each making his own way towards freedom.

“We had chocolate from Red Cross parcels which were just beginning to come though, and we timed our escape so that we shouldn’t be missed until roll-call the following morning,” said Mr Battye, who was recaptured at Mannheim. For that escapade he was given three months hard labour which consisted of breaking stones from 7am to 5pm and sawing wood from 6pm to 10pm.

Mr Battye’s next escape was extremely short-lived. During transportation to another camp in 1942, he and eleven more prisoners climbed out of their cattle truck conveyances and worked their way along the footboards of the train, dropped off the buffers of the last truck as the train slowed down.

Escape number three was more elaborate and better planned. “We dyed our battle dress trousers black and acquired civilian coats and civilian money. That time I got as far as Holland before being recaptured. I was making for Antwerp, and on this occasion I travelled as a passenger on the trains.” Mr. Battye told how it was necessary to make short journeys so as not to arouse suspicion. He was able to buy tickets, using the small amount of German that he had picked up during his captivity.

While he and his friends were waiting their punishment sentences for their escape, Mr Battye again cut through the barbed wire outside his camp, and defying the German sentries’ dogs, which he declared “weren’t much good anyway” he made his way to Hanover. That was in 1943, and again the same year Mr Battye made another break. As soon as he got back to his normal camp after serving another period of solitary and hard labour, Mr Battye found a tunnel almost completed.

The tunnel was about eighty yards long but only about eighteen inches high. Through it, he and several more prisoners regained freedom one night in 1943. Again they were captured, this time as they were drying their rain-sodden clothes in a hut in a field. Back they went to hard labour and solitary for nine months.

Seventh Time Lucky!

Mr Battye's sixth escape was from the salt mines. However, he was again unlucky and apprehended near Frankfurt. After another year’s hard labour he and his friends were told to fall in and march eastwards due to the closeness of the American Army. Nothing daunted, they broke ranks, and this time they were not caught again. They reached the American front line safely and were soon having the best that the Americans could give.

Now Mr Battye is back at work at Messrs Taylor and Jones, Engineers, Honley. During his captivity he lost three stone which he is still trying to make up. He rarely speaks about his adventures in Germany and since the award of his medal he has become probably the shyest man in the district.

Bob Battye



Rapley "Bud" Hamilton Royal Hamilton LIght Infantry Royal Canadian Engineers

My dad, Rapley (Bud) Hamilton was a prisoner of war in Stalag 9c. He arrived there from Dieppe. He was wounded and spent time in the hospital nearby for his leg wound. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Engineers, was attached to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, the Essex and Kent Scottish.

If anybody has info about him please send it along.

Robert Hamilton



Frank George Webster Adams 420 Squadron

I am trying to learn about the incarceration of RCAF Sergeant Frank George Webster Adams, who was the only survivor of the crash of Hampden P5330 in Denmark on April 25, 1942 after his bomber was attacked by a German night fighter near the Dutch island of Ameland. He flew with RCAF Squadron 420, and it is believed that the POW camps he was interned in were Stalag 9C, Stalag Luft 6 and Stalag 357.

I would be most appreciative to learn of the whereabouts of Sgt Adams today.

Bob Ingraham



Sapper Rapley Harry Hamilton Royal Hamilton Light Infantry

My Dad was a prisoner of war in Stalag 9C. He was sent there from the Battle of Dieppe. He had a knee injury that kept him out of the mines for a little while. His name was Rapley Harry Hamilton attached to the Essex and Kent Scottish, and was a Sapper with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

If anybody has any info about him that they would like to share, please pass it on. My Dad passed away and I am just trying to find out more about when he was a prisoner of war.

Robert Hamilton



Francois Dejardins

My father was a French POW at Stalag 9C, liberated on April 16, 1945. His name was Francois Desjardins.

Jacqueline Heffern



Roland Ambiel

Stalag 9C also had a section for French prisoners of war. My father Roland Ambiel spent time there. He was taken prisoner in the north of France in May/June 1940, and walked on foot to the North Sea with many other nationalities, English included. It was his first encounter with English soldier prisoners of war.

I know for certain it was Stalag IX C, as all personal documents or photos of prisoners had to be stamped in the famous purple ink with the name of the camp. I have today photos of my family taken in the 30's, stamped with the camp' - ( copies available ). I am aware that he walked from France to an unknown Holland sea port to arrive by boat near/or at Hamburg, where he was send to this camp. He was freed in 1945 by the Russian Army but had to wait for the American Army to arrive in East Prussia /Thuringen when they were placed in trains and transported back to Paris.

I am aware that he encountered some English inmates. He never learnt English, but had a good grasp of the local dialect, as he was forced into working groups in local farms. After a while, transportation to the farms and back to camp was taking so much time out of the day that it was decided that he would have to stay with the farmers, which he did. He recalled the night raids with incendiary bomb drops.

My father was born near Paris in 1913, signed on for the war in late 1939, taken by the Wermart late spring 1940, arrived in Germany early summer 1940. He was with other prisoners in the fields planting potatoes for the next harvest when he saw the tanks of the Red Amy. He was told to stay put until further orders.

I miss my father, he was a good man, he suffered stoically. We talked about his period in Germany. I was young and information technology was just a glimmer in someone's brain. I heard so much and saw the consequences of the war as I was born in 1946, went to school with some of the escaped children of the war from a displaced persons camp which was established in the ancient park of the Convent des Oblats in Saint Ouen, where I lived. I want to know more about my father's time in Germany.

Rolande Ambiel



Roland Ambiel

Stalag 9C also had a section for French prisoners of war. My father Roland Ambiel spend time in the place. He was made prisoner in the North of France in May/June 1940, and walked on foot to the North Sea with many other nationalities, English included. It was his first encounter with English soldiers prisoners of war.

I know for certain of Stalag IX C, as all personal documents or photos of prisoners had to be stamped in the famous purple ink with the name of the camp. I have today photos of my family taken in the 30's, stamped with the camp' - ( copies available ). I am aware that he walked from France to an unknown Holland sea port to arrive by boat near/or at Hamburg, where he was send to this camp. He was freed in 1945 by the Russian Army but had to wait for the American Army to arrive in East Prussia /Thuringen when they were placed in trains and transported back to Paris.

I am aware that he encountered some English inmates. He never learnt English, but had a good grasp of the local dialect, as he was forced into working groups in local farms. After a while, transportation to the farms and back to camp was taking so much time out of the day that it was decided that he would have to stay with the farmers, which he did. He recalled the night raids with incendiary bomb drops.

My father was born near Paris in 1913, signed on for the war in late 1939, taken by the Wermart late spring 1940, arrived in Germany early summer 1940. He was with other prisoners in the fields planting potatoes for the next harvest when he saw the tanks of the Red Amy. He was told to stay put until further orders.

I miss my father, he was a good man, he suffered stoically. We talked about his period in Germany. I was young and information technology was just a glimmer in someone's brain. I heard so much and saw the consequences of the war as I was born in 1946, went to school with some of the escaped children of the war from a displaced persons camp which was established in the ancient park of the Convent des Oblats in Saint Ouen, where I lived. I want to know more about my father's time in Germany.

Rolande Ambiel



Simon Maclennan Seaforth Highlanders

Simon Maclennan of the Seaforth Highlanders was a prisoner at Stalag 9c.

Simon was my uncle, my father's brother; I would be interested in any info or pictures that might be available about him. Our family know very little about the time he spent as a POW, as understandably he would not talk about it. Any help would be much appreciated.

George Maclennan



Sapper Rapley Harry Hamilton Royal Hamilton Light Infantry

My Dad was a prisoner of war in Stalag 9C. He was sent there from the Battle of Dieppe. He had a knee injury that kept him out of the mines for a little while. His name was Rapley Harry Hamilton attached to the Essex and Kent Scottish, and was a Sapper with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

If anybody has any info about him that they would like to share, please pass it on. My Dad passed away and I am just trying to find out more about when he was a prisoner of war.

Robert Hamilton



Flt. Sgt. J. P. McMaster 428 Sqd

Flt Sgt McMaster flew with My uncle, F/S Paul Barske a Canadian, in 428 Squadron "B" RCAF. His partial diary was handed down to me from my grandmother.

The crew were:

  • S/L J.R.Beggs RCAF
  • Sgt T.C.Qualey
  • F/S J.P.McMaster RCAF
  • Sgt P.J.Barske RCAF
  • F/O G.M.Ruff RCAF
  • Sgt F.Moore RCAF
  • Sgt G.W.Redwood

Halifax NA-G, Serial Number LK969, took off from Middleton St.George on the 25th of November 1943 at 23:33. The aircraft was shot down at 19,000 feet over Frankfurt by a night-fighter. The opening burst set the starboard inner engine on fire and its second pass killed Sgt Barske as well as setting light to the outer starboard engine. The rest of the crew survived but were all captured and taken prisoners of war; S/L J.R.Beggs was held in Stalag 9C with F/S J.P.McMaster who also spent time in Stalag 357. Sgt F.Moore was held in Stalag 4B, with Sgt T.C.Qualey and Sgt G.W.Redwood, the later also spent time at Stalag Luft 3. F/O G.M.Ruff was held at Stalag Luft 1. Sgt Barske was buried in the Durnbach War Cemetery.

Can anyone tell me more?

Linda Gillis



Pte. Robert Dalrymple 7th Btn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Robert Dalrymple was captured near Dunkirk in 1940, along with Bobby Morris and spent the rest of the war as a POW in Stalag XXID and Stalag IXc, his POW number was 648.

Jim Jamieson



Pte. William Cassey Durham Light Infantry

William Cassey

William is Second from the right on the back row

Pte William Cassey of the Durham Light Infantry captured just outside Dunkirk and held in Stalag IX C 43B. He was born in 1916 and survived the war, living until 1994.

John R. Heron



Pte. Henry John Patching 4th Btn. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

My father, Henry Patching took part in the Battle for Cassel in May 1940, in which he was wounded in the leg by a grenade. He was taken prisoner and witnessed the massacre of his comrades in the barn at Wormhoudt. He was saved by a young German soldier who rolled him into a ditch out of site. He was later found and hospitalised by German troops and his leg was 'saved' by a German doctor who he met again at a tribunal in the mid-1950's. After his hospitalisation, recovery and foiled escape attempt, he eventually found himself in Stalag 9c Mulhausen where there was much privation. He remained at Stalag 9c as PoW 30898 for the rest of the war until liberated in 1945.

He was much distressed by his experiences and the fate of his comrades at Wormhoudt for the rest of his life. This was only partially relieved when I visited Cassel and Wormhoudt in the 1990's and took some photographs of the cemetery.

Colin J. Patching



F/Lt. Alan Birley Bateman 15 Squadron

Justine Hadden



Richard Lawson Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

My dad, Dick Lawson was prisoner at Stalag 9c Bad Sulza. He worked in the Salt mines at minegan and was released by the Americans in 1945. He served with the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and is still alive, living near Croydon and going strong. We are looking to contact anyone who was in Stalag 9c after the Anzio Landings in 1944.

Paul Lawson



Driver Robert Battye BEM (Military Division)

Brockholes Man’s Escape From Germans (Huddersfield Examiner May 1947)

A story of prisoner-of-war in Germany, seven amazing escapes, hard-labour gangs and solitary confinement cells, more thrilling than many novel, were told to an Examiner reporter this morning by Brockholes man, Mr Robert Battye who has been notified that he has been awarded the B.E.M. (Military Division) ‘in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the field”.

As Mr Battye, the son of Mr and Mrs Herman Battye, of the Rock Inn, recounted his adventures, one was reminded of the lurid and stirring tales which are usually to be found in a school boy’s weekly magazine, and yet they were everyday experiences of this Brockholes soldier who spent five years of the war as a prisoner in Germany.

Mr. Battye’s story begins in December 1939, when he became Driver R Battye R.A.S.C. He went to France in February 1940 and when the Germans were over-running France Driver Battye and his comrades were attempting to transfer patients from a hospital near Boulogne. Unfortunately the enemy moved too quickly for them, and so on May 23, 1940, Driver Battye, together with fifteen of his comrades was taken prisoner by the Germans.

"Jumped Goods Train”

“For a time we were kept in France” said Mr Battye “and then we were marched north through Lille into Holland, and eventually we were transferred to barges and taken into the heart of Germany.” During the march, which lasted about six weeks, Mr Battye said that the guards took no chances of their escaping, “They were pretty rough at times” he declared.

The prisoners were at last confined in a camp in Weimar district, and, according to Mr Battye, conditions in the early prison camps were very poor. Whenever they travelled by train the prisoners took maps, which were displayed at the stations, in preparation for their intended escapes. “We made our own compasses,” said Mr Battye “from the magnetic type of razor blade, and if the Germans found them we simply made new ones by heating a blade in a fire and shaping a crude needle.”

Mr Battye told how in 1941, he made his first escape attempt by ‘jumping goods trains.” He and five more men cut the barbed wire surrounding their camp during the night and then split up, each making his own way towards freedom.

“We had chocolate from Red Cross parcels which were just beginning to come though, and we timed our escape so that we shouldn’t be missed until roll-call the following morning,” said Mr Battye, who was recaptured at Mannheim. For that escapade he was given three months hard labour which consisted of breaking stones from 7am to 5pm and sawing wood from 6pm to 10pm.

Mr Battye’s next escape was extremely short-lived. During transportation to another camp in 1942, he and eleven more prisoners climbed out of their cattle truck conveyances and worked their way along the footboards of the train, dropped off the buffers of the last truck as the train slowed down.

Escape number three was more elaborate and better planned. “We dyed our battle dress trousers black and acquired civilian coats and civilian money. That time I got as far as Holland before being recaptured. I was making for Antwerp, and on this occasion I travelled as a passenger on the trains.” Mr. Battye told how it was necessary to make short journeys so as not to arouse suspicion. He was able to buy tickets, using the small amount of German that he had picked up during his captivity.

While he and his friends were waiting their punishment sentences for their escape, Mr Battye again cut through the barbed wire outside his camp, and defying the German sentries’ dogs, which he declared “weren’t much good anyway” he made his way to Hanover. That was in 1943, and again the same year Mr Battye made another break. As soon as he got back to his normal camp after serving another period of solitary and hard labour, Mr Battye found a tunnel almost completed.

The tunnel was about eighty yards long but only about eighteen inches high. Through it, he and several more prisoners regained freedom one night in 1943. Again they were captured, this time as they were drying their rain-sodden clothes in a hut in a field. Back they went to hard labour and solitary for nine months.

Seventh Time Lucky!

Mr Battye's sixth escape was from the salt mines. However, he was again unlucky and apprehended near Frankfurt. After another year’s hard labour he and his friends were told to fall in and march eastwards due to the closeness of the American Army. Nothing daunted, they broke ranks, and this time they were not caught again. They reached the American front line safely and were soon having the best that the Americans could give.

Now Mr Battye is back at work at Messrs Taylor and Jones, Engineers, Honley. During his captivity he lost three stone which he is still trying to make up. He rarely speaks about his adventures in Germany and since the award of his medal he has become probably the shyest man in the district.

Bob Battye



Rapley "Bud" Hamilton Royal Hamilton LIght Infantry Royal Canadian Engineers

My dad, Rapley (Bud) Hamilton was a prisoner of war in Stalag 9c. He arrived there from Dieppe. He was wounded and spent time in the hospital nearby for his leg wound. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Engineers, was attached to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, the Essex and Kent Scottish.

If anybody has info about him please send it along.

Robert Hamilton



Frank George Webster Adams 420 Squadron

I am trying to learn about the incarceration of RCAF Sergeant Frank George Webster Adams, who was the only survivor of the crash of Hampden P5330 in Denmark on April 25, 1942 after his bomber was attacked by a German night fighter near the Dutch island of Ameland. He flew with RCAF Squadron 420, and it is believed that the POW camps he was interned in were Stalag 9C, Stalag Luft 6 and Stalag 357.

I would be most appreciative to learn of the whereabouts of Sgt Adams today.

Bob Ingraham



Sapper Rapley Harry Hamilton Royal Hamilton Light Infantry

My Dad was a prisoner of war in Stalag 9C. He was sent there from the Battle of Dieppe. He had a knee injury that kept him out of the mines for a little while. His name was Rapley Harry Hamilton attached to the Essex and Kent Scottish, and was a Sapper with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

If anybody has any info about him that they would like to share, please pass it on. My Dad passed away and I am just trying to find out more about when he was a prisoner of war.

Robert Hamilton



Francois Dejardins

My father was a French POW at Stalag 9C, liberated on April 16, 1945. His name was Francois Desjardins.

Jacqueline Heffern



Roland Ambiel

Stalag 9C also had a section for French prisoners of war. My father Roland Ambiel spent time there. He was taken prisoner in the north of France in May/June 1940, and walked on foot to the North Sea with many other nationalities, English included. It was his first encounter with English soldier prisoners of war.

I know for certain it was Stalag IX C, as all personal documents or photos of prisoners had to be stamped in the famous purple ink with the name of the camp. I have today photos of my family taken in the 30's, stamped with the camp' - ( copies available ). I am aware that he walked from France to an unknown Holland sea port to arrive by boat near/or at Hamburg, where he was send to this camp. He was freed in 1945 by the Russian Army but had to wait for the American Army to arrive in East Prussia /Thuringen when they were placed in trains and transported back to Paris.

I am aware that he encountered some English inmates. He never learnt English, but had a good grasp of the local dialect, as he was forced into working groups in local farms. After a while, transportation to the farms and back to camp was taking so much time out of the day that it was decided that he would have to stay with the farmers, which he did. He recalled the night raids with incendiary bomb drops.

My father was born near Paris in 1913, signed on for the war in late 1939, taken by the Wermart late spring 1940, arrived in Germany early summer 1940. He was with other prisoners in the fields planting potatoes for the next harvest when he saw the tanks of the Red Amy. He was told to stay put until further orders.

I miss my father, he was a good man, he suffered stoically. We talked about his period in Germany. I was young and information technology was just a glimmer in someone's brain. I heard so much and saw the consequences of the war as I was born in 1946, went to school with some of the escaped children of the war from a displaced persons camp which was established in the ancient park of the Convent des Oblats in Saint Ouen, where I lived. I want to know more about my father's time in Germany.

Rolande Ambiel



Roland Ambiel

Stalag 9C also had a section for French prisoners of war. My father Roland Ambiel spend time in the place. He was made prisoner in the North of France in May/June 1940, and walked on foot to the North Sea with many other nationalities, English included. It was his first encounter with English soldiers prisoners of war.

I know for certain of Stalag IX C, as all personal documents or photos of prisoners had to be stamped in the famous purple ink with the name of the camp. I have today photos of my family taken in the 30's, stamped with the camp' - ( copies available ). I am aware that he walked from France to an unknown Holland sea port to arrive by boat near/or at Hamburg, where he was send to this camp. He was freed in 1945 by the Russian Army but had to wait for the American Army to arrive in East Prussia /Thuringen when they were placed in trains and transported back to Paris.

I am aware that he encountered some English inmates. He never learnt English, but had a good grasp of the local dialect, as he was forced into working groups in local farms. After a while, transportation to the farms and back to camp was taking so much time out of the day that it was decided that he would have to stay with the farmers, which he did. He recalled the night raids with incendiary bomb drops.

My father was born near Paris in 1913, signed on for the war in late 1939, taken by the Wermart late spring 1940, arrived in Germany early summer 1940. He was with other prisoners in the fields planting potatoes for the next harvest when he saw the tanks of the Red Amy. He was told to stay put until further orders.

I miss my father, he was a good man, he suffered stoically. We talked about his period in Germany. I was young and information technology was just a glimmer in someone's brain. I heard so much and saw the consequences of the war as I was born in 1946, went to school with some of the escaped children of the war from a displaced persons camp which was established in the ancient park of the Convent des Oblats in Saint Ouen, where I lived. I want to know more about my father's time in Germany.

Rolande Ambiel



Simon Maclennan Seaforth Highlanders

Simon Maclennan of the Seaforth Highlanders was a prisoner at Stalag 9c.

Simon was my uncle, my father's brother; I would be interested in any info or pictures that might be available about him. Our family know very little about the time he spent as a POW, as understandably he would not talk about it. Any help would be much appreciated.

George Maclennan



Sapper Rapley Harry Hamilton Royal Hamilton Light Infantry

My Dad was a prisoner of war in Stalag 9C. He was sent there from the Battle of Dieppe. He had a knee injury that kept him out of the mines for a little while. His name was Rapley Harry Hamilton attached to the Essex and Kent Scottish, and was a Sapper with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

If anybody has any info about him that they would like to share, please pass it on. My Dad passed away and I am just trying to find out more about when he was a prisoner of war.

Robert Hamilton



Flt. Sgt. J. P. McMaster 428 Sqd

Flt Sgt McMaster flew with My uncle, F/S Paul Barske a Canadian, in 428 Squadron "B" RCAF. His partial diary was handed down to me from my grandmother.

The crew were:

  • S/L J.R.Beggs RCAF
  • Sgt T.C.Qualey
  • F/S J.P.McMaster RCAF
  • Sgt P.J.Barske RCAF
  • F/O G.M.Ruff RCAF
  • Sgt F.Moore RCAF
  • Sgt G.W.Redwood

Halifax NA-G, Serial Number LK969, took off from Middleton St.George on the 25th of November 1943 at 23:33. The aircraft was shot down at 19,000 feet over Frankfurt by a night-fighter. The opening burst set the starboard inner engine on fire and its second pass killed Sgt Barske as well as setting light to the outer starboard engine. The rest of the crew survived but were all captured and taken prisoners of war; S/L J.R.Beggs was held in Stalag 9C with F/S J.P.McMaster who also spent time in Stalag 357. Sgt F.Moore was held in Stalag 4B, with Sgt T.C.Qualey and Sgt G.W.Redwood, the later also spent time at Stalag Luft 3. F/O G.M.Ruff was held at Stalag Luft 1. Sgt Barske was buried in the Durnbach War Cemetery.

Can anyone tell me more?

Linda Gillis



Pte. Robert Dalrymple 7th Btn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Robert Dalrymple was captured near Dunkirk in 1940, along with Bobby Morris and spent the rest of the war as a POW in Stalag XXID and Stalag IXc, his POW number was 648.

Jim Jamieson



Pte. William Cassey Durham Light Infantry

William Cassey

William is Second from the right on the back row

Pte William Cassey of the Durham Light Infantry captured just outside Dunkirk and held in Stalag IX C 43B. He was born in 1916 and survived the war, living until 1994.

John R. Heron



Pte. Henry John Patching 4th Btn. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

My father, Henry Patching took part in the Battle for Cassel in May 1940, in which he was wounded in the leg by a grenade. He was taken prisoner and witnessed the massacre of his comrades in the barn at Wormhoudt. He was saved by a young German soldier who rolled him into a ditch out of site. He was later found and hospitalised by German troops and his leg was 'saved' by a German doctor who he met again at a tribunal in the mid-1950's. After his hospitalisation, recovery and foiled escape attempt, he eventually found himself in Stalag 9c Mulhausen where there was much privation. He remained at Stalag 9c as PoW 30898 for the rest of the war until liberated in 1945.

He was much distressed by his experiences and the fate of his comrades at Wormhoudt for the rest of his life. This was only partially relieved when I visited Cassel and Wormhoudt in the 1990's and took some photographs of the cemetery.

Colin J. Patching







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