The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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208201 Pte. Ernest Arthur Elvin British Army No.8 CRU Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers from:Wembley, Middlesex My father, Ernie Elvin, was captured at Dunkirk and eventually found himself in Stalag XXB - after a terrible journey, mostly on foot. He spent 5 years in this camp being employed in a brickyard, a saw mill and a farm. He kept a small diary which he managed to bring home with him, and from that and the letters to my mother, my brother has produced a small booklet of his experiences. He never talked of them, but the experience never left him, as I recall he was always prone to make the most of every meal – licking his fingers after eating a cake to get all the crumbs up. However, he speaks of times when he was able to be useful – as one of the older men, he became a ‘leader’ for the younger ones, and involved himself in the concert parties – being used to playing instruments and reading music. He speaks of the fun enjoyed at setting up the stage and the non stop variety concert, which was enjoyed by all. He also recalled the hardships of little food and how the Red Cross parcels kept them going. He spoke of Peter Lister, who was with him for part of his time in Stalag XXB. The last letter home was written in November 44. From then on he was on the long march. Terrible suffering, frost bite and starving hungry. Falling out for a day or so to hide in a barn – being cared for by a kind farming family. Later joining the column again. Eventually he records: "14th April 1945 10am. The wonderful news – we are free. Thank God. 3pm meet the American column at Wittinghen and sleep in a house! Next day breakfast on raw eggs – thousands of them! From here it is homeward bound." Should anyone remember my father, or have heard of any reference to him, I would love to hear from you. Valerie Jones Add to this record.  Related Content: No.8 CRU, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Stalag 20b Prisoner of War Camp Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 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.