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Those known to have fought in St Valery during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Add a Name to this List
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
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- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 27th April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 264001 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
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Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
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Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about St Valery? There are:19 items tagged St Valery available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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R J Hastings 5th Btn. Gordon Highlanders My father, R J Hastings was in the Gordon Highlanders 5th Btn. He was captured at St.Valery and held in StalagXX1D.
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James Gordon I am searching for anyone who was at the same camp as my uncle during WW2. He was captured in 1940 at St. Valery. His name is James Gordon from Dundee. The information I have is E793 BAB21, Stalag 344, Blechhammer. I have many photographs taken at the camp and would be willing to share them with anyone, or the families of anyone who was there.
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Harry Dalby 1st Battalion The Black Watch, 51st Highland Division My late grandfather Harry Dalby was a POW in Stalag XXA. I have had his prisoner of war records translated and they give 2.K Batlingen, Batlingen 20 and Reigersfeld as work camps.
My grandfather, while in one of the camps, had what can only be described as a large hankie or part of a sheet with his Battalion's badge and two soldiers in highland dress on either side of it. This was drawn in ink we were told. It also has HE YDEBRECK written on the top of it which I believe is Batlingen. We have no idea who made this for him so if anyone has any idea or info I would be very greatful.
He was in the 1st Battalion The Black Watch, 51st Highland Division captured St.Valery 16/6/40.
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James Forbes "Pongo" Adams The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders The name James Stobie is so familiar!! My late father was James Forbes Adams of Nairn, was in the Cameron Highlanders (51st Highland Division). He was a drummer with Cameron Highlanders (Territorials) Pipe Band, and as he was 18, he got called up to take place of the 17 year old tip drummer.  James Forbes Adams at breakup of a Territorial camp near Fort George, just prior to hostilities.
 The dreaded telegram his aunty received when he was posted missing.
Dad did attempt escape twice, once in Holland on the long march to Germany, and I believe the other time was when he was at Stalag XXA (Fort 13). He ended up at Stalag XXB. It was hard to get him to talk about his experiences. As a child, I can vividly remember him waking up screaming as a result of the nightmares (right up until the early 60's). He once let his guard down and told me how one night he awoke thinking he was dyingas he was completely soaked in blood. Sadly it was the chap in the bunk above him who had taken his own life.
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L/Cpl. Harold William Frederick Johnson Black Watch Harold Johnson, my wife's grandfather) was captured at St Valery with the Black Watch as part of 51st Highland Division.
He told us how they were marched to Poland and imprisoned in Marienburg XXB.
He was working with pigs while there and used to steal thin slices of bacon and hide them down his trousers so that his friends could eat better.
He made two escape attempts and both ended in failure and his friends suffered as a result, so he stopped.
He told us how angry they were that the French surrendered. He also expressed anger that Welsh speaking prisoners refused to share their food with the English speaking ones, this was poor form in his view.
He was forced into a Death March when Soviet forces approached and forced to sign letters that were attempts to absolve guards of any crimes.
He was rescued by British troops somewhere in France (we think) and flown home in a Lancaster.
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Pte. James Alexander "Sonny" Forteath Seaforth Highlanders James Forteath is my father-in-law.
Not much is known, as he referred very little to his military service after being captured at St Valeryand that he was at Stalag XXa where he left before it was relieved and undertook the Death March back to Germany.
From there and to how he got home is still not known.
He told a few stories of the privations on his way back from Germany, what they ate, and how they slept, and that the German guards were suffering as much as they were most of time.
Once home he returned to his trade as a shoe-maker with his original employer. He retired and died in 1980.
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Sgt. George Wilson "Dod" Taylor 1st Btn. Gordon Highlanders   My father, George Taylor, belonged to Meadowhead, Ythan Wells, Aberdeenshire.
He joined the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders in Nov 1934 at the age of 18 years and 6 months, and was assigned to a signals platoon. In 1940, his battalion was part of the 51st Highland Division, which was ordered to stay and help the French forces in trying to stop the German advance. They were left with little food, ammunition, or artillery and they were also so exhausted that the commander gave the order to surrender to save the slaughter of approximately 10,000 soldiers.
He was captured at Saint-Valery-en-Caux in June 1940. While out on a motorbike relaying orders to other battalions, he ran into a German patrol. Along with many others, he was marched to Stalag 383 Hohenfels near the Czech border and held as a POW until May 1945.
He never once told us of his experiences during the war, but they took their toll on him. For the rest of his life, he suffered nightmares every night until he passed away in 1991 at the age of 75.
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Pte. Robert Birse 5th Btn. Gordon Highlanders On 27th of April 1936, my father, Robert Birse enlisted at Bucksburn as a lorry driver. During WW2, he was captured at St. Valery at 11am on 12th of June 1940 and taken to Stalag XXB. For some time, he worked on a farm there. He never talked much about it. On 2nd of February 1945, he escaped, this was when the Russians were approaching, he said.
After the war, he came to Australia and started an earth-moving and asphalt business. It seems that lorry driving must have stayed in his blood. In 1984, he died young, aged only 68.
He left two sons, Alastair and Robert John Birse.
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Cpl. George Alexander Douglas Cameron Highlanders (Queen's Own) He was captured after Dunkirk at St. Valery.
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Pte. Colin Lewis "Jock" Wilson 2nd Btn. Seaforth Highlanders In 1933, at age 18, Colin Wilson (1915-1983), a farmhand, enlisted at Fort George. He met Rita Saunders whilst on manoeuvres in Ashdown Forest before WW11 and they wed in May 1945, 2 weeks after his return from captivity. He had been captured at St. Valery-en-Caux and sent to Stalag XX-B, where he was put to work on local farms.
When POW camp order broke down in 1945, he left driving a horse and cart for the fleeing farm owner, Ma Fleur. At some point, he went on foot, hitched rides etc. with one or two other soldiers and eventually reached Odessa, where after a fortnight's wait he got a lift on a Danish troop ship back to the UK in April/May. As he was on deck he acquired a good tan. He was very thin, and could speak but not write German.
He had a cheap set of cutlery which he had found on his journey which he used daily ever after, even when the fork handle had broken off. He brought back a mess tin in which Mother would make cakes. He would never drink soup or coffee after his POW experience. He was a quiet, gentle man possibly suffering from PTSD as he was somewhat monosyllabic once wed, leading Mother to issue him with, if you don't talk and buck your ideas up, we're finished. They remained married until his death from lung cancer in 1983. He did not speak of his experiences.
He was a dairy herdsman, working with pedigree herds of Jersey and Guernsey cows during which for a period of 7 years he did not take any days off for illness. He had 14 siblings and one child of his own. He lived in England and hence was called Jock.
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