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Fireman Henry Ackland . National Fire Service from Bethnal Green My Grandfather was Harry Ackland joined the AFS full time on the 24/08/1939, Class 'B' AFS number 18393. He was stationed at Bethnal Green Fire Station, East London where he served until the end of the war.
He covered most of the East End especially the Docks, after narrowly escaping death on several occasions, in tackling fires he had to contend with UXB's (Unexploded Bombs). He used to drive the fire engine to the blazes and he was the one fighting the fires whilst up the long ladders.
My Grandfather wasn't the one to talk about his experiences apart from the fact that he was buried alive for several
hours before being rescued and after losing several of his fellow fireman to falling buildings.
When the Bethnal Green Tube disaster happened, as he was stationed so close to the disaster and living in Mendip houses (Globe Rd) which are situated at the rear of Bethnal Green Fire Station, his station was virtually the first on the scene of the disaster so he was one of many fireman to help carry out the injured and those who died as they we're being taken to the waiting ambulances. He said it was absolute chaos as so many people we're trying to get out of the station at the same time that people we're trampelling on one another while he was trying to help the injured and at the same time there we're bombs still being dropped.
He said he would never forgot that night.
If anyone recognises my Grandfather or those who we're stationed at Bethnal Green Fire Station during the war, I would be interested in hearing from you.
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Pte. Walter Ackland . British Army Royal East Kent Regiment from Folkestone I only know my father, Wally Ackland was a POW in XX-B in Camp Malbork, Poland. He told me he escaped once but was caught again & was a POW until the end of the war.
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F/Lt Philip Haddon Ackling DFC. Royal Air Force 158 Squadron from Birmingham Pip Ackling served as a Bomb Aimer with 158 Squadron.
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S/Maj. James Jonah Ackrill . British Army 7th Battalion The Buffs from Eltham Jim Ackrill seved with the Buffs.
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Sgt George W Acorn . 408 sqd
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Stkr. William George Acourt DCM.. Royal Navy HMS Pembroke from Charlton, London My dad, William Acourt was a blacksmith striker, and was a stoker on HMS Pembroke 16th of November 1942 to 14th of January 1943. I'm trying to understand his work in the Royal Navy.
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Marius Acquier . French Army 52 RA from France Acquier Marius was a French prisonnier captured at Audonon on 27/6/1940. He was held in Stalag IB, POW number 51889. He was released on 19/5/1945.
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G Acton . British Army Sherwood Foresters G Acton served with the Sherwood Foresters British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Lt.Cmdr. Walter Tresilian Acton . Royal Naval Reserve HMS Queen Emma from Summercove (d.7th March 1945) Lieutenant-Commander Acton was the son of David Howe and Lucy Howe Acton of Kinsale, husband of Constance Acton, of Summercove.
He was aged 33 when he died and is buried in the Kinsale (Ringcurran) Church of Ireland Churchyard, Kinsale, Co. Cork, Ireland.
He died from illness, not in action.
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Pte. William Hamilton Mitchell Acton . British Army Pioneer Corps (d.31st August 1945) Private Acton is buried in the Florence (Gli Allori) Evangelical Cemetery in Italy.
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WO1. Leslie James Adair. . RAF 156 Sqd. (d.3rd Jan 1944) Leslie Adair served as a rear Gnr. with Lancaster JB553 GT-J of 156 Sqn.
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A Adam . British Army Gordon Highlanders A Adam served with the Gordon Highlanders British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Elizabeth Sadler "Bessie" Adam . Land Army from Dalmarnock, Glasgow Unfortunately my mother died in 2005 so too early to receive the badge that has been awarded to those who served in the Women's Land Army. I am currently tring to piece together information to include in her family history. I wonder if there are records that I could obtain that tells me of her time in the Land Army just as I was able to access the Naval Records for her brother. All I know is that when she married my father, a German Prisoner of War, they worked together on a farm in Kirkudbright. Their marriage certificate dated 31 Jan 1948 gives my father's address as The Cottage, East Glenarm Farm, Crocketford which I assume is where they worked but of course the war was over by this time so I am not sure and would be delighted if you could advise me of where I might find information. I will be delighted to share any information that I am able to find
Update:
Land Army records for those who served in England, Scotland and Wales are available to view on microfiche at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey. The microfilm you need to ask for is:
Series: MAF 421: Ministry of Food: Women's Land Army: Index to Service Records of the Second World War 1939-1948.
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Sgt. ML Johannes Pieter Adam . Dutch Army from Holland POW Camp Fukuoka 17 in Japan
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Capt. John Hughes Adam . British Army 7th Btn. Seaforth Hughlanders My Father joined on the 16th October 1939. rank of Private. By April 1940 he was a Corporal, by June 1940 he was a Serjeant. In Nov. 1942 he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. Promoted to Lieutenant in May 1943. Served in Normandy June 1944 until wounded on the 17th July 1944 (not known where or how). Promoted to Captain Feb 1945. Went to Germany 1946, before he was released June 46.
My late sister was born in Fort George in Feb 1941
Attached is a photo of him and other 7th Seaforth's at the start line of Operation Epsom.
My Father went on to serve with the Parachute Reg (ta)
If anyone has any information relating to my father, please contact me.
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Cpl. Malcolm Cyrus "Mac" Adam . British Army 5th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment from Edwards Road, Bromley, Kent. My father Malcolm Cyrus Adam (Mac) joined the T.A. on 03/05/1939. He attended a camp at Lympne in July and August 1939 (see photos), moved to Bridport in November, and went to Flanders with the BEF on 02/04/1940. He was made a corporal in the 5th battalion R.W.K. on the 15th March 1940 and put in charge of a bren gun carrier detachment. I believe he was the driver of his vehicle, having passed his driving test in Paris in 1938.
On the 26/05/1940 the unit clashed with elements of the 1st Waffen-SS Vefugungs division close to the Forest of Nieppe. Two German units were in the area, the 'Germania' and the 'Der Furher' regiments, but I'm not sure with which they engaged. The following day, the 27th, a German grenade was thrown into my father's bren gun carrier and he was badly wounded by two pieces of shrapnel: His crew, two good friends, were killed outright. I do not know if he was taken prisoner at the time but I would imagine so. (The dates listed on his discharge certificate were written several years later, and do not tally with the dates given on the doctor's description of his wounds written in Enghien)(see later scan).
He was taken to a German military hospital, a former sanatorium for handicapped children called 'Le Preventorium' at Marcoing near Calais, known to the Germans by the id.code Kgf.Lazarett II/XI (see photos). He was treated there for his wounds and then allowed to convalesce for the next three months. He had had the good fortune to be registered as an officer and also acted as interpreter as he spoke fluent French and some German. When he was due to be moved to Germany, he decided to try to slip away and but was ill-prepared and was recaptured shortly afterwards, being lightly wounded again in the process. This time he was patched up at the College Saint-Augustin, Enghien, Belgium,(see scan) and moved to Germany three weeks later, sometime just after 03/11/1940, but I do not know where too.
A postcard from his time in Marcoing has three names and addresses recorded on the back:(see scans)
Jack Sheppard, 46, Whitmore rd., Beckenham (Beck 1350); Nobby Clark, 16, Hathaway road, Croydon; Alan Cav …(unreadable),86, Southwood Road, New Eltham, S.E.9 (Elt1998).
A second photo is marked ‘offizieren’ and with the ink stamped number 482.
The third photo also has the pencilled notation Kgf.lazarett Frankreich mai’40 and another name and address:
Tony Grafton, 53, Old Steine, Brighton (Brighton 4971)
I believe he eventually arrived in Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf in early 1941. As far as we know, he was moved around quite a lot between different Arbeitskommandos.
Certainly he spent time in E155(see photo), which I cannot find in the published lists, but he spoke (rarely and very reluctantly) about a few different jobs:
- 1. A salt mine close to Krackow (from the verbal description I believe this may have been Wieliczka).
- 2. The building of a camp to house female Jewish prisoners in a 'forest'(part of the extended Auschwitz-Birkenau complex). He was very upset about this place.
- 3. A paper-mill (possibly E8, Krappitz). One of the 'easier' jobs.
- 4. A steel works (iron foundry)E138 Ratiborhammer (Kuźnia Raciborska, Poland). He spoke most about this place describing it as hot, dangerous work in very bad conditions and with very little food. (Wilhelm Hegenscheidt GmbH, Hoffnungshütte, making Gießerei, Schweißeisen-Werkzeug, Eisenbahn-Kleineisenzeug, Wagenachsen).
- 5. Blechammer (I. G. Farben)
- 6. Cosel camp (Kedzierzyn-Kozle). He left from here on the long march on 22/01/1945.
He never went into much detail about life in the camps except to repeat the constant hunger. He did mention making an alcohol from a straw mattress and then eating the straw afterwards; also from potato peelings and sawdust. He also talked about grinding acorns and how bitter they were. He also spoke of an occasion when he got away from his guards and grabbed a chicken, alive, and attempted to eat it, feathers and all. The owner of the chicken, a farmer, shot at him: He still had three shotgun pellets visible in his neck, which successive doctors had thought safer to leave in place, right up to his death in 2004.
He attributed his overall survival to a great deal of luck, an ability to laugh at life and to a certain affinity for languages: His French had given him time for his legs to heal initially, and he had learned to speak German and Polish quite well, which was a big advantage.
He did not like to talk about his experiences other than on rare occasions when he met someone who had also been there, or who had undergone something similar. He told me that he could talk to Denholm Elliot, and he certainly discussed them with his Catalan friend Jorge who had survived the worst of Franco's camps in Spain. He avoided discussions about the march, but he did once tell me that he had twice been the 'only survivor from my group', but I do not know any more about the incidents concerned. The only time I ever overheard him refer to any details was once on the telephone in the 1970's when he was still trying to get his overdue army pay. He was talking to some government official who was still trying to give him the runaround more than 25 years later, and, in exasperation, he told the man just why he felt entitled to his money. Apparently he had done this once before, just after the war, when the British government refused him a passport on the basis that he had been born in Calcutta, India, to parents and grandparents who were Irish citizens and who had missed the date for registration under some sort of amnesty agreement. He won, eventually, after a bit of a struggle, but it left him with an abiding disgust and distrust of officialdom.
He did eventually get paid his back pay, but he was very annoyed that he had to reimburse the cost of some piece of kit that he had been issued with in 1939 and could no longer produce! The amount that he finally received was so trivial by the time he finally got it that he decided to blow the lot on a decent family meal: I think he still thought of food as a top priority and as an appropriate use for the money.
I was quite surprised to find his pencilled itinerary of the march after my mother died, and I have tried to identify some of the places by their modern names, but it still seems an illogical journey. However, knowing how he was and with his lifelong obsession for maps and routes, I'm confident that he would have recorded the names only if he felt sure of them. It is a pity that he annotated so little additional information. He lost several friends on the march, including right near the end, which he thought particularly pointless and sad. The whole experience left him with a hatred of waste, but he also had learned to live life to the full.
He taught me that it was important always to enjoy your day because you might not get another, and by living this way, you would also bring a smile to the faces of those around you. That if you were fortunate enough to have food, warmth and shelter, then you were a very rich man and could easily afford to be generous to others. That if someone asked you for help, even an enemy, you should give it without question or thought to the consequences, as this was true humanity. Above all, never to lose your sense of humour or your sense of wonder - cultivate these and you will always be a positive influence in the world.
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P/O Raymond Francis Adam . Royal Canadian Air Force 419 Sqd. from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. (d.29th Dec 1944)
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F/Sgt. Russell Edwin Adam . Royal Canadian Air Force 199 Squadron from Putnam, Ontario, Canada (d.1 Sept 1943) Flight Sergeant Russell Edwin Adam R/161411 was the son of James and Ethel Adam and husband to Betty Jane Adam of Toronto. He served with 199 Squadron RAF as a member of the RCAF. He died the 1st of Sept 1943 and is buried in Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery, Germany. His name is remembered in the Dorchester Womens Institute Tweedsmuir History. Looking for a picture.
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Pvt. Alfred William Adames . Australian Army from Australia POW Camp Fukuoka 17
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Alan Adams . Royal Air Force 102 Squadron I am Alan Adams and was a POW at Stalag IVb from December 1943 until the end of the war. I was mid upper gunner on Halifax DY 'R' for Robert. The Rear Gunner Sandy Currie and I were the only survivors. My Squadron was 102 Pocklington.
I am now 88 yrs old. Sandy was several years older than me. Sandy and I were both convinced that we were shot down by a 4 engine plane with British markings as we had reported a plane coming too close. Our theory was that the Germans had put together a plane from parts salvaged from various crashed ones and we had warned our skipper that one aircraft was coming far too close to us for comfort. Of course we were never to fire at 4 engine plane since the Germans did not have any. I have never actually heard if our theories were correct.
Gus Walker was senior officer at that time at Pocklington.
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Alan Adams . Royal Air Force 102 Sqdn. I was a POW in Stalag 4B from December 1943 until libererated by Russian Cossacks on 23rd April 1945. We were kept inside by the Russians, so on 6th May walked out with several other RAF chaps. I was billeted in the RAF compound in the centre of the camp. I was shot down over Frankfurt on Maine a midupper gunner on Halifax R for Robert DY (RAF Pocklington) 102 Squadron. There were many nationalties there. Made my way via crossing Weiser etc until contacting the Americans.
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Andrew Alexander Adams . Royal Navy HMS Drake A.A Adams was my grandfather, in the Royal Navy from 1936 to 1947. I am interested in finding information about a ship that he served on quite a number of times in his service, HMS Drake.
On the service record it has in brackets, after the ship name HMS Drake, a few different things for different times of service: for service in May 1941 it has M.L. 1048; for service from April to June 1944 it has LST(2) 425; for April to end of June 1945 it has T.F.36.
If anyone is able to help me with the smallest amount of information about this ship or about A.A. Adams it would be most appreciated, thank-you.
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Pte. Andrew Adams . British Army 2nd Btn. Cameron Highlanders from 95 Medwyn Street, Whiteinch, Glasgow My granda, Andrew Adams, was a POW during WW2.
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Pte Andrew Adams . British Army Cameron Highlanders (Queens Own) from Glasgow Andrew Adams was my grandfather. He served with the Cameron Highlanders (Queen's Own) in WW2. After some research I have just found out my Granda had been a P.O.W. Like many other he never spoke about what happened during the War. I would like to find out what happened.
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AW Adams . British Army Royal Armoured Corps AW Adams served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Pvt. Berdine Adams . United States Army M Co 31st Infantry Reg. US) Phil Div from United States POW Camp Fukuoka 17 in Japan
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Cecil Adams . Home Guard Feltwell Btn.
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S/Sgt. Charles Walter Adams . British Army 10 Coy. Royal Army Medical Corps from Tooting. Surrey I am trying to trace my father's movements during the early part of WW2. He enlisted as a regular soldier in 1926 in the East Surrey Regiment and transferred to the RAMC in April 1929. He was graded as a superintending dispenser in 1939. He served in Gibraltar, India, Palestine and Malaya and as far as I know, he was at Dunkirk. He was hospitalised in December 1940, posted to 12 Company in January 1941, back to 10 Company then posted to the 'Y' List and subsequently discharged in July 1941 as being permanently unfit for any form of military service. (K.R. 1940 Para 390 (XV1)
I have his Certificate of Service Book and have obtained his service records from the Historical Disclosures Section in Glasgow, but there is no mention of Dunkirk. Unfortunately, my father died in 1957 having spent many years in hospital. I would be most appreciative if anyone could give me any further information as I am only a child.
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Pte. Charles John Adams . British Army 8th Battalion Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders from 8, Bakers Ave, Leyton, Essex
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