The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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234930 Cpl. Arthur David "Yec" Yexley British Army 9th (The Rangers) Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps from:West Ham, London Taken prisoner in Crete, Arthur Yexley my dad, was first sent to Stalag IIID, located at Freigeghlen near Berlin. He later transferred to Stalag 383 where he spent the remainder of his incarceration. He told a few stories of the good times but only occasionally talked about the bad days. Like most camps, cigarettes were currency, for both prisoners and guards alike. Dad said that whilst they were reasonably fed (although often hungry), the Russian prisoners in the next camp along were in a very poor state. As the British went out on work parties, driving past the Russian camp, they would throw cigarettes over the fence. Dad swore that, on occasions, the Russian prisoners would grab whatever was thrown in and simply push it straight in their mouths and eat. That memory stayed with him always. Whilst they didn't have it "cushy", he did love to talk about the long bridge tournaments in which he played; of the Gilbert and Sullivan productions (some photos of which he also had) and the fact that, far from digging tunnels, towards the end of the conflict, the guards would collude in prisoner escapes for the right amount of tobacco. He did not attempt an escape, always saying that life under the Nazis was preferable to my other! David Add to this record.  Related Content: 9th (The Rangers) Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps Battle of Crete HMS Crete Stalag 3D Prisoner of War Camp Stalag 383 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.