206437 Pte. David James Slater British Army Gordon Highlanders from:Myrtle Cottage, Scalloway, Shetland Islands, Scotland I am trying to trace any records or surviving ex-comrades of my late uncle, David James Slater. He was taken prisoner at St Valery-en-Caux in June 1940 and spent most of the next five years in Stalag XXA (357) at Thorn, East Prussia (Now Torun in Poland). His Prisoner of War number (Gefangenennumer) was 45655.
He had joined the Territorials before the outbreak of war and was called up with many other Shetland boys in 1939. It was not until November 1940 that his parents learned that he was still alive and a POW in what was then East Prussia.
Uncle Davy died in Shetland in 1976 and, like so many POWs, never spoke a word about what he had experienced. My Aunt Barbara, his widow, is now 83 and has recently shown me some of the papers Uncle Davy brought with him back from Poland. They include his Soldier's Release Book 1939-1945, a battered Red Cross Map of British POW camps, a copy of the US Army newspaper "Stars and Stripes", Germany edition, dated 9th May 1945 and a photograph of Davy and some comrades, which we think may have been taken in the camp.
In 1969, when I was a student, camping out during a research trip, Uncle Davy gave me the Red Cross blanket he'd carried with him on the dreadful march from Torun back to Germany in the winter of 1944-45, but it fell to pieces many years ago and, not then realising its significance, I threw it away, alas.
My Aunt also has a postcard Uncle Davie sent to his friend Stewart Smith of Gulberwick, Shetland, postmarked Stalag XXA on 16th August 1942. This card also bears the stamp "P. No. 13".
I've been delighted to find so much information on the web about St Valery and Stalag XXA and have printed out much of it for my Aunt. We are planning a trip to St Valery, and perhaps to Torun, and would dearly love to hear from anyone with memories or any other mementoes of my Uncle Davy.
|