The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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220767 Pte John Edward Milne British Army Gordon Highlanders from:Aberdeen Private John Edward Milne (playing the Accordian) My Father John Edward Milne, as part of the 51st Highland Division, was captured by the Germans, at St Valery-en-Caux, in June 1940. He did not tell me very much about his experiences as a POW except that he escaped twice. The first time early in his captivity whilst being marched across Holland and the second escape was late in the War where with others he tried to get to Danzig but was re-captured. The photograph shows him with an accordion and two other POWs one playing slide guitar. My father 'Eddie' was a very good accordion player and had been booked on the BBC in Scotland before the war. I have copies of the fee receipts from the BBC and a cutting from the Radio Times dated 1939. I included a picture of the reverse side of the photograph which was used as a postcard which has the camp stamp on it. I would not be surprised if he had played in the camp big band. He used to also play alto sax and piano. During my childhood he would sometimes wake in the night shouting in German and the experiences he had in the camp must have been pretty bad. As a young child I found a picture in the bottom of a drawer of a very emaciated man in a striped jacket with his head shaved. My mother told me it was my father who was found in that state when the camp was liberated. He weighed four and a half stone. With many others he was flown by Dakota transport aircraft straight to England where he spend six months in hospital to build him up before he could go home. I now regret tearing up that photograph because it is part of the evidence record of what went on. I am sure his relatively short temper and nerves were a result of the treatment he received as a POW. That said, he was a good father to me and always provided well for his family. After the war whilst still in the army he was promoted to corporal before being demobbed. He was a musician all his life and played with a show-band in the 1960s & 70s. In the 1960s whilst on a family holiday on the Isle of Wight he met his old Company Regimental Sergeant Major Ferguson (I remember the pair of them went on a two day bender, which annoyed my Mother but thinking back on it they were entitled to a good drink after what they had been through). One odd thing occurred in 1966/7 new neigbours moved in next door to my parents house in Chadwell Heath, Essex. My father met the new neighbour Les whom he immediately recognised as a fellow POW. I cannot recall Les's surname his wife was Madge. Les died in the late 1960s I beleive. My father died in 1997 and since then I have visited St Valery and the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen. These places are well worth a visit. The reverse of the photograph Robert Milne Add to this record.  Related Content: Gordon Highlanders Stalag 20A (312) 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.

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