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Norman Key
British Army Royal Artillery
from:Birmingham
My father, Norman Key, was captured immediately prior to Dunkirk evacuation. He was called up in 1939 as reserve after serving 6 years in RA from 1928 and was in his last year of his 6 year reserve service. From a recently discovered letter I found he was in Stalag XXb until 1945. He died in 1969 and had suffered from bouts of bronchitis and malaria (from serving in India) for many years.
He recounted a few experiences of his life in POW camps and was shot in the calf during an escape attempt, I've seen the scars. I saw the belt he wore during his time there which showed the decline in weight from 12 to 7 stone as new notches were added. I read the letters he sent back to my mother (then his fiancée) describing these incidents. Unfortunately, after he died my mother burnt these items. I also found a postcard and a letter, dated 18th of January 1947 that I was told were from the Polish commandant of the POW camp, who was in England and due to be returned to Poland, asking my father for money to buy presents for his family. I cannot read the signature on the letter.
My father could not bear to be watched when eating or for anyone to leave food as he told of starving fellow prisoners. He rolled and re-rolled cigarette stubs, not surprising he suffered the fate of lung cancer. Despite his 12 years of service and poor health, the MOD declined to give him any sort of pension and reduced any wages earned, when a POW, by expenses incurred repatriating and his convalesce. He told me to never join the army.
