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Cpl. William John Ashfield
British Army Royal Army Service Corps
from:Birmingham
My Great grandfather, William Ashfield was captured in Crete as part of the Expeditionary Forces in the Middle East during operations with the Royal Army Service Corps. His wife was informed that he was posted as missing on the 2nd June 1941. He sent a letter to his wife, my great-grandmother from a transit holding camp in Crete, dated 18th July 1941. He instructs his dear wife not to write at this point as he is waiting to be transported to another camp. In the letter, he informed his wife that he was only allowed to write a small amount but managed to reassure his family that he was well and told his wife and son my grandfather that he loved them both very much.
It was later that he was sent to Stalag 383. I don't know much about his time in camp apart from the fact that he ate mostly potato peelings and that at one point he was interrogated by the German officers and nearly shot as his mothers maiden name was Green. The German officers thought that this was linked to the Jewish name. Luckily it was proven somehow that my Great, Great-Grandmother was not of Jewish ancestry. These were the only two things that he spoke to my mum about. My great-grandmother was of course very proud of him, but he had much the same attitude as most heroes that fought during the Second World War and just wanted to forget about it all and didn't even want his medals. My great-grandmother made sure that the medals were received and are still kept close to our hearts proudly within the family. I do know that my Great-grandfather was very grateful to the Americans who liberated the camp in 1945.
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