208999 Cpl. Leslie Clarence Bullard Australian Army B Company, 10 Platoon 2/6th Battalion from:Williamstown, Victoria My uncle, Leslie Clarence Bullard, was a POW in the same camp as Walter Gossner. I have the original photos of Walter and many other men who were in Stalag A XVIII in Wolfberg Germany. I have around 120 photos including on of a black dog named 'Winston Churchill' - would love to know who he belonged to and what became of him.
Leslie Bullard enlisted in Victoria in 1939 and sailed from Melbourne on 14 April 1941. He was involved in the Battle of Bardia - 3rd Jan to 5th Jan 1941. He landed in Greece on 12th April 1941 and was taken POW on 26th April 1941 in Crete. He was held in the Corinth hell camp from 26 April 1941 until 7 June 1941. In his own handwriting in his Red Australiam Soldiers' Handbook he states "I had the pleasure of seeing the rat Himmler at Corinth Hill today" - 20 May 1941.
Leslie spent three birthdays in POW camps in Germany, he spent his 23 birthday (1941) in Salonika on a biscuit and water, his 24th birthday (1942) at Niklasdorf near Leobon and spent his 25th birthday (1943) at Klagenfurt POW camp. Leslie escaped on 30th July 1944. He joined with the Yugoslavia partisans on 10 August 1944. He rejoned the allied forces in Italy on 21 September 1944. He was discharged from the Army in May 1945, never married and died in 1967 aged 45 years old. Unfortunately I did not know him personally as I lived on the other side of Australia and he lived in Victoria. If anyone has a recollection of their relative also being a POW in the same camps around the same time, please make contact as I have a list of names on some of the photos and some Army Registration Numbers which could identify your relative.
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