The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     TWMP on Facebook     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

211646 Aircraftsman 1st Class Allan Cooper Craw Royal Air Force from:Larkhall, Lanarkshire My dad, Allan Craw, was in the R.A.F and was in Oflag 7b from 23/11/44 to 14/05/45. He joined the R.A.F on 23/07/1941 aged 19 and after he did his basic training at R.A.F Hunmanby Moor he went on a ship to Egypt via South Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Serving with the ground support with the R.A.F in North Africa. He was captured at the fall of Tobruk on 22/06/42 and taken to Benghasi on the 27/06/42. He was taken over to Taranto in Italy on the 23/07/42 and then onto Brindisi on 24/07. Moved to Benevento on 04/08/42 onto Capua on 02/08 and finally to Macerata on 22/11/1942. He escaped on 16/09/43 and was on the run until he was re-captured nearly 6 months later on 02/02/44 about 7 miles from Orsogna trying to get back to the Allies who had advanced near this point. Whilst he was on the run he was fed and sheltered by the Italian people in their homes at great risk to themselves, he never forgot their kindness and generosity towards him. He said the reason he got caught was that he had found a parcel dropped by the Allies and it contained among other things some new boots so he had the boots on and was later questioned by a German soldier speaking in broken Italian asking were he got them from, the soldier wasn't happy with his answer. Anyway he was taken to the police station. Of course they knew straight away he was Scottish and not Italian and he was re-captured. After he was captured he was taken to L'Aquila on 29/02 then onto Latina on 23/03/44 then onto Mantova on 12/06 and finally to Mooseburg in Germany on 18/06/1944. After 2 weeks he was sent off on a working party to Munich to help clear up Allied bomb damage. He was then taken from there to Oflag 7b on 23/11/1944 where he met up with his old friend John Campbell who was in P.O.W camp in Macerata. He was in the column of men who were marching out of the camp to Mooseburg on 14/04/1945 when they came under attack from Allied aircraft thinking they were German soldiers, killing at least 11 and wounding over 40 more. Arriving in Mooseberg on 23/04/1945 he was released on 29/04/1945 taken to Ingolstatt and flown from there by Dakota c47's to Rheims in France and then back home by Lancasters. My dad was Aircraftsman 1st Class Allan Craw 1557340 he was demobbed on 11/12/1945. He was born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire in 1922 and died in Rotherham, South Yorkshire aged 80 in 2002. All the imformation and details were taken from his war time log book. Allan Craw Add to this record.  Related Content: Oflag 7B 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.