The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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205900 Cpl. Sidney John "Taffy" Thomas British Army 4th Btn. Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders from:Swansea My father, Sidney John Thomas, joined the TA prior to World War II and found himself a Welshman in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. He was part of the BEF sent to France at the start of the war and was captured at St Valery on 12 June 1940. The Battalion was covering the evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk. My father, like the rest of the 51st Division, spent the remainder of the war in prisoner of war camps across Europe. His experiences, and those of his colleagues, were recorded in a meticulously kept log book which was provided by the YMCA. This log book, which I still have, contains poems, drawing and photographs relating to their years in prisoner of war camps. By 15.07.40 they had been marched across Europe and reached Thorn (Fort XV) in Poland. He spent the next 4 years in Lobsen (22.08.40.), Graudenz (22.04.42), Kulm (03.03.43.)before returning to Thorn (01.04.44)and then being marched to Fallinbostel (Stalag XIB) in Germany, where they arrived on 12th August 1944. Many POWs contributed to the contents of the log book, they include: G Foot; H Lowe; S M Taff; A Macgillvray; Nobby King; W Drake; J Westcott; Clifford; G Broughton; Alfred James; Eric J Holmes; J Owen; S Brands; Alex Clarke; S A Godfrey; J Ludford; W Waldack; "Wally"; J Holt; B Gurner; G E Barder; R Wilson; Harry Cottle; A James; C Foot; A A Rees; F Richmond; F MacDonald; J Morrison; A MacKenzie; G MacKenzie; R Johnson. My father survived the war, returning to his home town of Swansea where he lived until his death in 1991. Adrian Thomas Add to this record.  Related Content: 4th Battalion, Cameron Highlanders (Queens Own) Stalag 11B Prisoner of War Camp Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.