The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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241650 Sgt. John William "Jack" Halsted South African Army Artillery from:Durban, South Africa   My late father, Jack Halsted, was in the Artillery and part of the South African and Rhodesian Army which fought the Italians in East Africa. After being shipped up to Beira, Mozambique. Thereafter they drove overland to engage the Italians in Abyssinia (Tanzania), pushing them back into Ethiopia. Once the Italian threat had been dealt with, the Southern African Army was shipped to Cairo where they were re-equipped and assigned to the 8th Army, effectively becoming a Desert Rat. He was wounded at El Alamein and captured. After a short convalescence, he and many others were shipped across the Mediterranean to Italy and transported by rail up through Italy, over the Alps and into Germany. Then across Germany to Stalag VIII-C in Silesia near the current day town of Sagan. Stalag VIII-C was directly opposite Stalag Luft III. He sold his watch to one of the Great Escapees who, unfortunately, was never heard of again. In February 1945, he and many other POW's, were force marched 400 miles across Poland and Germany as part of the Death Marches, ending in Bad-Orb near Frankfurt. It was here that they were liberated by the Americans. He, and many others, were evacuated to England where he convalesced for 3 months before being shipped back to South Africa. On arrival his father presented him with a new watch, which I still have. John Add to this record.  Related Content: 8th Army 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.