My father, Billy Vincent was a coal miner (born in 1908) working at the Haig Pit in Whitehaven Cumbria with his best friend Billy Burney of Hilltop Road Whitehaven. Both were members of 203rd Battery, 51st Regiment. Royal Artillery along with my father's brother Edgar Vincent (later of Central Avenue, Whitehaven. All (I believe) served in 203rd Battery between the wars, I guess for the bounty and the annual camp at Hawick, in the Scottish Borders. They were horse drawn Artillery and still wore WW1 type uniform.
My father gained the rank of Serjeant Signaller. On the outbreak of war 1939 they were "Called to the Colours" and my parents were married on the Boxing Day of the that year. When the Germans invaded Norway my father was part of the military response and 203rd Battery was sent to support the Norwegian forces.
The following is dredged up from my childhood memories of stories from my father of his active service and books and research I have done.
The Allied (French and British) Forces landed at various points along the the Norwegian coast, (Narvic and Andalsnes I believe). My father told me that they advanced to the south to support the Norwegian forces but from the first contact with the German forces they were under retreat, due to the terrain and the allies (French & British) being confined to the roads. Whenever they set up a blocking position the Germans had ski troops to by pass them and place them under fire.
After evacuation back to Britain, the 203rd Battery was sent to North Africa where they were involved in driving the Italian Army back from the Egyptian frontier and eventually ended up in the Siege of Tobruk. The 203rd Battery fought in the siege of Tobruk alongside the Australian forces and received a letter of commendation from the Australian commander when both units were withdrawn to Alexandria and replaced with Polish and South African forces.
During the evacuation the ship that my father was on was sunk (torpedoed? Bombed?). We still have my fathers paybook and photos of my mother and sister that were in his pockets when he was rescued which were stuck together due to being immersed in the sea.
Sometime after arriving at Alexandria my father was taken ill and hospitalised and the 51st Field Artillery was sent to India and eventually became Chindits under Orde Wingate and resulting in ill health for many after the war.
My father was drafted into another outfit as he put it and took a voluntary reduction in rank to lance bombardier to remain in the Artillery. Following his return to duty he was back in action until Rommel succeeded in driving the British forces back and finally capturing Tobruk and my father. A letter to my mother from his comrade on that day said that they were out repairing a field telephone line and while returning with some equipment he saw 2 Germans jump out of a trench and take my father prisoner.
He eventually ended up, I believe, in Campo 7 in Italy. When the Allied Forces invaded Italy and Italy capitulated the prisoners were ordered by the Allies to stay in the Italian POW camps until relieved by Allied Forces. Unfortunately the Germans arrived first and my father ended up in Stalag 4b at Muhlberg near Dresden. This would be about 1943 I think. We still have his German dog tags and ID card which state he was a driver. I believe this was a ruse to enable him to get on work parties outside the camp as he used to tell of bartering luxury items like soap, chocolate, milk powder, etc. from Red Cross parcels with the locals for basics like bread, potatoes and vegetables. He remained there until liberated by Russian forces in April 1945 although I believe that they were not released immediately.
My father suffered ill health due to his war service dying at age 59 from arterial sclerosis. I believe this was due to excessive smoking when he was a POW in order to kill hunger pangs, cigarettes were the main currency in the camp.
He also told me that although life was hard for allied POWS it was far worse for the Russian POWS who were separated from the Allies and who didn't have Red Cross parcels and often begged scraps from the other prisoners.
