Corporal Lionel George Degenhard . Army 1st Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment My father, Lionel George Degenhard, was Corporal with the 1st Btn. Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment. He never wanted to talk about the war but has left a great memento in the form of a handwritten collection of experiences bound between the covers of two pieces of Red Cross cardboard.
Lionel George Degenhard, Corporal, 1st Btn. Bedfordshire & Hertforshire Regiment
Captured 28 April 1941 in Greece, liberated 2 May 1945.
He was stationed in the following four POW camps:
Stalag 357, N.C.O. Lager, Thorn Sud, Poland
Stalag XV111 A, Wolfsberg, Austria
Stalag XV111 A Zweilager, N.C.O. Lager, Spittal - Drau, Austria
Stalag 357, N.C.O. Lager, Fallingbostel, Hannover, Germany
The following is an extract from his personal handwritten exerpts titled 'Camps I have worked at in Austria':
Klagenfurt - Canal Work - July to Sept 1941
Dachstein Obertraune H.V. 75 - Barrack Building - Sept to Nov 1941
Kleine Glodnitz A/13001/L - Road Making - Nov 1941 to Mar 1942
Huttengerg A/11205/L - Sawmill - Mar 1942 to August 1943
St Veit 11093/GW - Building - Aug to Sept 1943
Reichendorf A/550/L - Farm work - Oct 1943 to Jan 1944
I would swear it is him in the first photo, 2nd from left on back row, on The Wartime Memories Project - STALAG XXA POW Camp (357, Stalag Kopernikus) Page 2.
I am trying to locate all the camp sites in order that I can visit as many as I can this year. If anyone could help I would be so grateful. Thanks a million.
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Corporal Lionel George Degenhard . British Army 1st Bn. Beds & Herts Regiment from My Dad, Lionel Degenhard was shot in the leg and captured at the battle of Kalamata, Greece on 28 April 1941 and was liberated from Stalag 357 NCO Lager, Fallingbostel on 2 May 1945.
He had been transfered there when Stalag 357 was moved from Thorn (Torun) Poland. Prior to that he had been imprissoned at Stalags 18A (Wofsburg) and 18B Zweig Lager (Spittal - Drau)Austria.
In a handwritten log he recalls the following camps where he was forced to work:
- Klagenfurt - Canal Work - July to Sept 1941
- Dachstein Obertraune H.V. 75 - Barracks Building - Sept to Nov 1941
- Kleine Glodnitz A/13001/L - Road Making - Nov 1941 to Mar 1942
- Huttengerg A/11205/L - Sawmill - Mar 1942 to August 1943
- St Veit 11093/GW - Building - Aug to Sept 1943
- Reichendorf A/550/L - Farm work - Oct 1943 to Jan 1944
The log is a precious keepsake in an old school exercise book sewn between cardboard covers made of Red Cross packages. He lists friends, recalls poetry and songs, friends have written personal notes, he has drawn pictures and has included a comparison between what Canadian Red Cross sent their soldiers and what the European Red Cross sent the Brits. He implied the Canadians got more interesting contents. The references he recorded about their pantomimes and games really bring the experiences to life and the three real Gutschein uber Reichsmark and Reichspfennig POW money notes stuck to one of the pages remind me how real his experiences were. I have several photos which I will try to add later.
Dad died at the St David's Roman Catholic home for military personnel in Ealing on St Valentine's Day a month before his 90th birthday, 2006.
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JG Degney . British Army Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry JG Degney served with the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 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.
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Pierre DeGroote . My grandfather was a prisoner in 1941 and he made a lovely wooden box for his wife. He said, "a ma femme cherie en souvenir de ma captivite en allemagne muhlberg-ellir le 23 septembre 1941."
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Matelot. Henri Joseph Deguin . Marine Francaise
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Lt. Albertus Jacobus deHaan DFC, CdeG.. Royal Air Force No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron Albertus de Haan served as an air gunner. He was awarded the DFC (Netherlands) and Croix de Guerre (Belgium).
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Sgt. Robert Herbert deHartog . Royal Air Force 320 Squadron from Holland, Rotterdam My father, Robert de Hartog, was a Dutch soldier when the Germans invaded Holland on 10th May 1940. After the Dutch surrender on 14th May, my father escaped with several other Dutch troops and left France from Cherbourg and landed in Wales on 30th May 1940.
After being part of the Prinses Irene Brigade, my father went for flight training with the RAF and, after returning from the Commonwealth Air Training Programme in Canada, he was assigned to the RNNAS 320 Squadron under the RAF. He flew 10 missions during Operation Market Garden, then was assigned to 860 Squadron flying Swordfish aircraft from flat topped freighters operating in the North Sea. From there he operated with the Dutch Auster Squadron.
After the war, he flew for KLM operating between Curaeao and Miami. My father passed away in July 1994 in Ottawa, Canada.
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Ord, Seaman George David Deighton . Royal Navy HMS Forfar (d.2nd Dec 1940)
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JR Deighton . British Army JR Deighton served with the 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.
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Pte George D. Deissner . United States Army 17th Signal Platoon Signal Corps from Washington (d.31st Jul 1944)
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Pvt. George D. Deissner . United States Army Signal Corps from Washington (d.31st Jul 1944)
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Francois Dejardins . My father was a French POW at Stalag 9C, liberated on April 16, 1945. His name was Francois Desjardins.
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Cornelis Gijsbertus Dekker . Dutch Army 21st Infantry Regiment from Den Helder (d.24th Feb 1944) The story is that Cornelis Dekker broke his neck diving into the water basin. No further information is known.
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Sgt. Cornelis Dekkers . Dutch Army
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JD Delacourt . British Army JD Delacourt served with the 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.
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AP Delacy . British Army Royal Armoured Corps AP Delacy 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.
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Pilot Officer J I Delahanty . RAF VR 59 Squadron
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P Delahunty . British Army Royal Armoured Corps P Delahunty 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.
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Pte. Luke Delana . British Army 3rd Btn. Fiji Infantry Regiment (d.31st August 1944) Luke Delana was aged 21 when he died and is buried in the Honiara (Matanikau) Cemetery in the Solomon Islands.
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P/O Louis Delanchy . Free French Air Force 107 Sqn (d.12th Jun 1942) I am making searches about Louis Delanchy, He was a Free French, posted at 107 Sqn. He took part to the raid onto Eindhoven together with W/C Dutton. I am looking for more information about him and the crew, text or pictures I have discovered traces of him at the Sister Laurence RAF Museum of Massingham but I need to get more info, does anyone remember him?
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P/O David Bernard Delaney . 102 Squadron
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F Delaney . British Army Royal Armoured Corps F Delaney 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.
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Sapr. James Delaney . British Army Artisan Work Company Royal Engineers from Salford, Lancashire (d.4th March 1942) James Delaney was buried in Scotland. He was my grandmother's brother who had 11 siblings. He has a surviving son born 1934. His elder brother died 1983.
All I know is that his mother lost her eldest son in WW1 and her youngest son in WW2. His son has always wondered as to why he died in Scotland as he was in the Army, yet his brother always insisted he was connected to the Arctic Convoy.
His wife and family had not the ability to travel so far from home in Salford. Gladys never had the opportunity to visit his grave.
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Terry Delaney . RCAF bomb aimer 408 Sqd.
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Bmdr. Thomas Leslie Delaney . British Army 60th (Middlesex) Searchlight Regiment Royal Artillery from Bradford, Yorkshire My father Thomas Delaney lived in Bradford West Yorkshire and served in the Middlesex Regiment during WW2, which he survived. He told me he was on the searchlight batteries. He appeared to be stationed at several cities around the UK, but notably at Golcar above Huddersfield, when the garrison was at the Huddersfield Town football ground on Leeds Road.
According to his diary he departed Southampton on the 26th of November 1944 for Ostend before going on to Nijmegan in Holland. He returned there in 1945 following the end of hostilities in Europe. He also served in Belgium during this period and Plettenburg in Germany from August to October 1945.
He was billeted in empty houses in Rotterdam and a sugar factory in Pattershock. I also know he stayed with a Dutch family.
I have enclosed some photographs. One shows the training camp at Towyn and the other at Rotterdam in 1944. Also his diary which may give a feel for how meticulous he was.
I now realise I was conceived when he was home on leave in August 1945 before he returned to Germany!
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Capt. Victor Delano . United States Navy Soon after graduating in 1941 from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Victor Delano was assigned as a newly commissioned gunnery officer to the USS West Virginia. The battleship was docked at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii when Japanese aircraft attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.
He helped get two machine guns working on the West Virginia, showing other sailors how to use them, according to news accounts. One of those sailors, mess attendant Dorie Miller, was later awarded the Navy Cross.
As the West Virginia sank in the harbor, he swam to safety. He later served aboard ships in the Pacific and, after the war, commanded a minesweeper in Japan. His decorations included two awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart
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Pvt. Mario "Marty" DelArciprete . US Army from Massachusetts My stepfather, Mario DelArciprete was captured while on a scouting expedition. He was taken to Stalag 7B, in Memingen, Bavaria. I don't know all of the details, but he had had a ruptured appendix and was a a hospital at the time of liberation. He spoke of being hungry all the time. He said the Russian soldiers were treated the worst, only being fed a couple of times a week. Marty told the story of being pulled in a wagon to get to hospital after appendix burst. At the hospital, he saw German soldiers in rough condition and didn't think he would make it out alive. He did. On the journey back to the camp, the soldier pulling the wagon was shot and killed, just before they arrived. Marty weighed 87 pounds when liberated, he was 6 feet tall.
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Maurice Delavier . My husband's uncle, Maurice Delavier, was a French POW at Stalag 6a during WWII. He was an artist by profession and while he was there he drew many pencil sketches of fellow prisoners (British, American, Russian and French) as well as camp life. Does anyone remember him?
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E Delay . British Army E Delay served with the 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.
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RD Delderfield . British Army RD Delderfield served with the 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.
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