The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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260732 Pte. Tom Swinburne "Bud" Abbott British Army Airborne Signals 1st Parachute Brigade from:Llantrisant, S. Wales Tom Abbott was my dad. He was 21 when captured in Arnhem and sent to a POW camp in Limburg, Germany. He escaped with a Canadian fellow inmate from a working party repairing the railway marshalling yards after an RAF raid. When recaptured, they were found to have pureed apples and margarine in their pockets that they had found in a railway wagon. Because they had food on them they were accused of looting, and a formal request to execute them was made. The permission to execute was granted, but before the sentence was carried out the camp was bombed on Christmas Eve and Dad survived because they were being held in an underground cell. The Germans demanded that everybody with carpentry knowledge help rebuild the huts. Dad immediately claimed to be a carpenter (he was actually a glassblower), and in the ensuing mayhem he and his Canadian buddy were able to get into the Disciplinary Officer's hut and destroy the order to execute. Shortly afterwards, they were sent to a POW camp in Bad Orb where he remained until liberated by the Americans. Dad’s overriding memory of Bad Orb was arriving after being marched there from Limburg to hear gunfire coming from the surrounding woodland. On inquiring what was happening, they were told that in order to make room for them the Russians that had previously been prisoners there were being shot because the Germans had no room for them, and Russia had not signed the Geneva Convention. Tony Abbott Add to this record.  Related Content: 1st Parachute Brigade Operation Market Garden Stalag 12A Prisoner of War Camp Stalag 9B 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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