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

218175 L/Cpl. Walter Charles Blake British Army Signals Regiment from:Meonstoke, Hampshire Possibly like most fathers who endured the absolute horrors of war, my dad who was Wally Blake - POW No. 10196 at Stalag 20b, Marienburg maintained his silence and right up to his passing away in 1980, he said absolutely nothing of his experiences except that he flew home in a Lancaster Bomber. To this statement I assumed that at the end of the war he just hitched a ride home on whatever mode of transport was available but later learnt that he took part in the “Long March Home” and that after the war Churchill had instructed anything that could fly to be used to ferry the troops home. The uncanny part of his detainment was that during the making of this excellent and for me highly informative programme concerning the dire plight of POWs, one scene showed a photo of happy free prisoners waiting transport home and perhaps somewhat spookily, out of this group I was immediately attracted to one particular individual who I am convinced was my dad. Thanks to modern technology this remarkable image was captured, framed and now takes pride of place in my house for, without the dogged determination of my dear Dad to return to his bride who he married only days before going off to war, I would not be writing this article. Therefore, to him and the unwavering love and devotion of my mother during his incarceration and in particular to the Red Cross for eventually advising her that my Dad had been found alive and well as a POW in Poland, I am more than eternally grateful. Deyrick Blake Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Signals Stalag 20b 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.