Pte. Gregory Coogan
British Army 2nd Battalion Irish Guards
My father, Pte Gregory Coogan of the 2nd Batt Irish Guards in Stalag V111 B. He is on the right of the photo. The man on the extreme left is a soldier from the Warwickshire regiment and is a survivor of the SS barn massacre; I believe his name is Charlie Daly. I understand that all three men lost a leg. My father was captured and lost a leg trying to evacuate the Dutch Royal Family from Holland in 1939. I think he was repatriated in 1944. This is his story:
I was captured in Boulogne on 23/5/1940. A mine took out my leg at the knee. Two chaps put on a tourniquet and put me on a stretcher, carried me along the road. A section of the Irish guards appeared and offered to escort me to the RAP. As we passed a graveyard, a lot of German troops popped up over the wall and demanded that the boys drop their weapons. They did-and dropped me too! I lay there by the road side and nearly got flattened by a passing Panzer tank. Eventually, two young Germans came along who spoke English. They said 'Ha ha Englisher blue blood!' I protested that I was Irish, from Ireland. They said 'Mr de Valera? We don't want to fight him!' Eventually I ended up in an open shed with other wounded Welsh and Irish. A German doctor offered to inform our next of kin of our status. Then he said 'Who is the worst wounded here?' Apparently it was me. He put me in a German ambulance with some German wounded and took me to Le Toquet, where the French amputated my leg a few days later. 2 weeks later I was moved back to the former British hospital at Camier. I was there for a while, and was due to have my stitches out, as I was told by Major Kimble, a Kiwi who operated on me, when we were told we were moving up to Lille. We were moved at night time, but my stitches had to come out. So, in the pitch black, by the side of the road, after midnight, I reminded Capt Carter of the Welsh guards to remind Kimble that the stitches had to come out. And he took them out there and then in the darkness. We were then detained in Eilghiel in Belgium for some weeks. Then we moved to Obermassfeld, part Stalag 9c, where we were registered. Then we moved to Badsulza. Eventually all the seriously injured were sent to work at a tobacco factory in Nordhausen for a considerable time.
Upon being recalled to Stalag 9c, we were told we were to be repatriated. We were dispatched to an old quarry, then put on a train, arriving finally at Rouen, France, after three days the SBO came to us on parade and said 'Men, I have bad news, repatriation has fallen through.' so we were sent back to the racecourse, previously a British camp. After some time, the Germans sent us to Stalag 8b, Landsdorf. I was there until November ‘43, when they started repatriation again. We embarked on a train to Sasslitz on the Baltic, then a boat to Malmo Sweden, then by train to Gothamburg, then a ship back to Leith in Scotland. Then a train Netley in Hampshire. Eventually everyone went home apart from me and a lad from Leeds, Rennison. The nurse in charge was the Queen Mother's cousin, Lady Margaret Bowes-Lyon. She escorted us to Rowhampton, where eventually I got fitted up with a limb in January 44.
I have many group photos from 8c and 8B, as well as photos of sports days and theatre shows. We would love to hear from anyone who remembers our father.
Back row from right, C Philips, C Clarke, D Ryan, H Chivers, W Mc Niell, W Anders.
Front row from right, D Cain, S Cooke, L Forrest, W Hamilton, D Mc Garry. 3 Aussies, 3 Irish, 2 N Zlds, 2 Eng and 2 Scotts.
4th left centre row Jackie Cooke
Back row,7th from left Jackie Cooke. Back row, 9 from left Robbie Anderson.
Front row, 7 from left Sean Kenny.
From right back row, Brady 2nd, Welsby 3rd
Back row from left 2nd Welsby, 3rd Brady, 2nd Btn.Irish Guards
Wesley & Brady 2nd Battn Irish Guards
All Kiwis
3 Cockneys
Fellows, Warwicks, on the right
From TelAviv, captured in Crete, then V111B
Medics 17/21 Hospital
All Cockneys
Work Party
Two Kiwis (Acropolis)
Chaplin on left
