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

229496 Pte. Ernest Brearley British Army Royal Artillery from:Halifax   Ernest Brearley was my father. His POW number was 1981 and he was at Stalag XXb Marienburg for a time during WW2. I have a couple of photographs of him in a prison camp and XXb is written on one of them. I know he was at various camps throughout his life as a prisoner of war which was six years, he was taken at the beginning of the war. He told me how he was marched to different camps, one of which was a sugar beet factory. I don't know which camp this was, but the local Germans would trade with the prisoners for sugar. Even some of the guards would escort them to the local cinema in exchange for stuff from the red cross parcels. I think XXb Marienburg must have been his last camp. He used to tell me how the prisoners where led out of camp and marched for miles. Anyone falling behind etc, would be shot. Passing through a bombed out village one day he and his pal spotted a jar of dried peas in the window. At night they decided to try and sneak back to get it. While doing this they heard a noise like bees buzzing. This was getting ever louder. Eventually it became clear that it was the noise of the prisoners whispering. They were asking where the guards were going. The guards were running away. Shortly afterwards the Americans came along the road telling the prisoners to make their way in the direction the Americans had come and to find refuge somewhere as everything in that direction is now yours! The Russian Army was heading toward Marienburg and the Germans were terrified of them. Prisoners were being begged to take residence in German households as the German civilians thought they would be safe from the Russian Army if they had a British or American soldier as a lodger. My father had to walk for days before he found a farm that wasn't already full. He was there quite a while before he transported to Brussels. In Brussels the prisoners were housed, given money and an escort until they could be sent home. Ernest Brearley in doorway. xxv Marienburg prison camp Stu Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Artillery 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.