|
|
|
Dvr. Dennis H. Batten . British Army from UK POW Camp Fukuoka 17 in Japan
|
Pte. Percival Stan Claude Batten . British Army 2/4th Btn. Hampshire Regiment from Marchwood (d.26th April 1943) Percival Batten was married a year to his wife Heather and never got to see his daughter before he died. I am his grandson trying find out about the man Percival.
|
David G Battenbo . British Army David Battenbo served with the British Army. I had his dogtags and was delighted to beable to return them to his family.
|
Charles Leslie Batterham . Special Constabulary from Meadowhead, Sheffield Charles Batterham was a bank manager in Sheffield and joined the Special Constabulary in 1939. He carried out police work in bomb storms. I heard a story that he had pulled some people out of a burning building.
He took part in the post-war parades in Sheffield, where he and his colleagues marched with the armed forces. He rose to the position of commandant in 1968 and on Thursday, August 20th 1970 he featured on the front page of the Morning Telegraph newspaper, Sheffield. The headline was entitled 'The Specials started with King Charles'.
Charles remained in the Specials until his death on November 16th 1973. At his funeral uniformed specials acted as pallbearers. He believed in public duty and loved being part of the Special Constabulary.
|
Flt.Sgt. Geoffrey Wilkinson Battersby . Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 550 Squadron from Clitheroe, Lancashire (d.30th Aug 1944) Flight Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Geoffrey Battersby was the Son of Henry and Lydia Battersby of Clitheroe, Lancashire.
He was aged 24 when he died and is buried in the Reerso Churchyard in Denmark.
|
SSgt. Ronald Battersby MID.. British Army Royal Army Ordnance Corps My father, Ronald Battersby, was serving in India and Burma at the end of WW2. When he returned to the UK he was Mentioned in Despatches in the London Gazette on the 19th of September 1946. I am trying to find out why, as he doesn't know the reason.
|
Flight Sergeant Ronald Battersby. . Royal Air Force 61 Sqd.
|
F/O. Derek Alfred William Battin DFC.. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 625 Squadron Derek Battin was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazzetted on Page 3782 of the Supplement to the London Gazette, 20th of July 1945.
|
Sergeant E F Battle . RAF 59 Squadron
|
William Battle . Home Guard 58th Battalion, Surrey Regiment (d.18th August 1940) I have been researching my family tree for the last few months. I knew that my great grandfather, William Battle, on my mother's side had been killed during WW2, but that was all I had been told. I have discovered that he was a platoon commander with the 58th Battalion, Surrey Regiment of the Home Guard. He was killed during the raid on RAF Kenley on the 18th August 1940 (the hardest day) age 61. He is on the roll of honours.
He left a widow, Elizabeth J. Battle (my great grandmother) who I remember as I was 7 when she died. I would love to know (very long shot) whether anyone knew him and was a survivor of that day at RAF Kenley.
Another point of interest, William Battle had a nephew called Sydney Battle, Bedfordshire who died in 1917 during the Battle of Ypres, age 20, he is buried in France.
|
2nd Lt. Charles Cecil Batty . British Army 4 Survey Regiment Royal Artillery from Blackpool, Lancashire (d.5th Dec 1941)
|
Pte. G. W. Batty . British Army 1st Btn. Highland Light Infantry
|
Sgt. Richard Batty . New Zealand Army Service Corps from Auckland City, New Zealand (d.6th April 1943) Richard Batty
was the Son of Gerald Batty and of Louise Batty (nee Vea), of Auckland City, New Zealand.
He was 22 and is buried in the Takaunove Cemetery, Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu Island, Tonga.
|
Driver Robert Battye BEM (Military Division). RASC from Brockholes 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.
|
F/O. Ivan Sydney Baudinette . Royal Air Force 460 Sqd. Ivan Baudinette flew as a Wireless operator air gunner with 460 Sqd.
|
Sgt. Boudewijn Franz Bauer . Dutch Army from Holland POW Camp Fukuoka 17 in Japan
|
GA Baugh . British Army Royal Armoured Corps GA Baugh 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: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch 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.
|
MA Baugh . British Army Royal Armoured Corps MA Baugh 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: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch 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.
|
Tpr Thomas Baugh . British Army 10th Hussars from Birkenhead
|
Gnr. John Baulch . British Army 5th Maritime Regiment Royal Artillery from South Hackney John Baulch served as a gunner on SS Daldorch from November 1943 to Jan 1945. He travelled to Russia, Middle East, Egypt, Alexandria, Suez, Durban, Aden, Mauritius. Mobassa, Calcutta, Madagascar, Cape Town, Freetown. His diary is full of weather reports, zig-zagging, choppy seas and drills!
|
Eddie Bauldy . British Army 6th Btn. Queen's Own Royal West Kent I am trying to find information about Eddie Bauldy, 6th Btn Queen's Own Royal West Kents.
|
Flt Lt. Dennis Jacob Baum . Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 1651 HCU. from Edinburgh. (d.4th Mar 1945) Dennis Baum was the pilot of Lancaster JB699, BS-F shot down by an enemy aircraft during a training flight as part of Exercise Gisela at 01:35 on the 4th of March 1945 and crashed on their home airfield, Woolfox Lodge. All on board were killed
The crew were:
- F/L D.J.Baum
- Sgt J.A.W.Smith
- F/O D.C.Davies
- F/S R.Warne
- F/S C.E.Gardener RNZAF
- F/O K.R.Brook DFC RAAF
- Sgt T.Platt
|
AB. Sidney Baum . Royal Navy from 39 Walton Building, Bethnal Green, London Sidney Baum served in the Royal Navy during WW2.
|
Flt/Sgt David John Baverstock DFM. Royal Air Force 166 Squadron from Senghenydd
|
Ord.Sea. Wilfred Ronald Sidney Baverstock . Royal Navy SS Bristol City from Reading, Berkshire (d.5th May 1943) My uncle, Wilfred Baverstock was in the Convoy ONS,5 1943, he was in the Royal Navy and was aboard the SS Bristol City. The Convoy was going from UK to St Johns, Nova Scotia when it was torpedoed by Uboats.
Wilfred Ronald Sydney Baverstock, joined the Royal Navy on the 28th of Nov 1940 and served as an Ordinary Seaman and Acting Able Seaman until 5th May 1943 when he was "Missing Presumed Killed" on War Service whilst serving aboard SS Bristol City. He was one of the 9 men who lost their lives, my uncle was only 20 when he died.
|
Sergeant L H Baveystock . RAF 50 Squadron Manchester L7301,airborne 30th May 1942 from Skellingthorpe, was hit by flak over Cologne and very severely damaged. Subsequently abandoned by six of the crew, after which the Manchester crashed 0200 31st May 1942 into a dyke at Bree (Limburg), 21 km NNE of Genk, Belgium. The testimonies of the five evaders were instrumental in the posthumous award of the VC made to their skipper, P/O Manser. P/O L.T.Manser KIA P/O R.J.Barnes PoW Sgt L.H.Baveystock Evd P/O R.M.Horsley Evd Sgt S.E.King Evd Sgt A.McF Mills Evd Sgt B.W.Naylor Evd P/O R.J.Barnes was interned in Camp L3. PoW No.370.
|
Sergeant L H Baveystock . RAF 50 Squadron Manchester L7301,airborne 30th May 1942 from Skellingthorpe, was hit by flak over Cologne and very severely damaged. Subsequently abandoned by six of the crew, after which the Manchester crashed 0200 31st May 1942 into a dyke at Bree (Limburg), 21 km NNE of Genk, Belgium. The testimonies of the five evaders were instrumental in the posthumous award of the VC made to their skipper, P/O Manser. P/O L.T.Manser KIA P/O R.J.Barnes PoW Sgt L.H.Baveystock Evd P/O R.M.Horsley Evd Sgt S.E.King Evd Sgt A.McF Mills Evd Sgt B.W.Naylor Evd P/O R.J.Barnes was interned in Camp L3. PoW No.370.
|
Cpl. Sydney Arthur "George" Bawden . British Army Territorial from Wallington, Surrey My father, George Bawden, was captured in North Africa by the Germans, transferred to Italy and imprisoned in Campo 78, Sulmona. He escaped with a small group of close friends when the Italians surrendered and made his way over the mountains to Casoli, a route now celebrated as The Freedom Trail.
|
|
