The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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212578 Pte. Nelson Robert Owen British Army 7th Btn. Royal Norfolk Regiment from:Heacham Private Nelson Owen My father, Nelson Robert Owen, was born in Heacham, Norfolk on the 4th of November 1918. He served with the 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment during the 2nd World War. He was captured at St.Valery on the 12/06/1940. His prisoner of war number was 15877. He was held in Stalag XXA in Poland. Due to my father dying in 1971 at the age of 52 (I was only 13 years old) I didn't ever really get to hear anything much about his time as a prisoner of war etc. But one thing I do remember is him telling me about his friend (who later became a close family friend) John Hagen, who since the war lived near Melton Constable, Norfolk. He had one Christmas Eve when it was bitterly cold and snowing, picked up his banjo and played 'Silent Night'. Afterwards everyone was completely quiet and silence remained for quite some time, as obviously everyone was feeling very homesick and thinking of family back home. John Hagen had also told me how he had worked in the kitchen and also in the brewery at the camp, where they would prepare the food for the German's, and would regularly urinate in the soup! If anyone can remember anything about my father, please add to this message. Steve Owen Add to this record.  Related Content: Stalag 20A (312) Prisoner of War Camp St Valery 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.