219000 Rupert Aynsley Wright British Army Royal Warwickshire Regiment from:Coventry Rupert Wright was my father. Being already in the Territorial Army, my Father enlisted in Royal Warwickshires in 1939 at the age of 18 and was captured at Houthem (near Ypres), Belgium. He was marched to Torun (Thorn) in Poland and incarcerated at Stalag XXa then at Stalag XXb. There was much speculation as to whether it would be the Americans or the Russians who would be their liberators. He was liberated in 1945 by a Texan regiment, the (inebriated) officer saying to him, "Remember to tell 'em who liberated ya buddy". He then offered a sub machine gun to anybody who had been given "Grief by any of the guards". Nobody took him up on the offer. The guards incidentally had already unsurprisingy buried their uniforms before the Americans arrived. He passed through Berlin which he described as "mainly rubble". On flying back to Blighty in a Lancaster they heard on landing that the plane behind them crashed into the English Channel killing everybody onboard. Unlike most POWs, my Father spoke much of his experiences. My Father died in 2012 at the age of 92.
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