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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: LIANNE G on Saturday 10 April 10 10:36 BST (UK)
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Hi,
Does anyone have any ideas where I can get any more information about my late Grandfather - Pte. Harold Gilbert
His army number is 322138 and a POW number at Stalag 8b was 96358. I don't know if he was in the main camps or worker camps but I do know he escaped several times and we think he was at more than one camp after he was recaptured each time. We know he was at Stalag 8b in 1944 because of the correspondence he sent home and received. We believe he was in the 8th battalion of the Sherwood Foresters.
Is there anywhere I can search for more information or is it just not available? I would love to be able to find out if he was in the main camp or worker camps and if there is any information about other camps he may have been in (it's my understanding he ended up with more than one POW number).
Can anyone tell me where to look? I tried the National Archives but I can't work out how to search it.
Thank you :)
Lianne
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From the book "Prisoners of War British Army 1939-1945" I have;
PoW Camp 344( this is Lamsdorf ) PoW number 96358 Gilbert H. Pte 322138.
Stalag 8b is Teschen
As for his service record you could try:
http://www.veterans-uk.info/recordsmedalsbadges.htm
For camps try here:
http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_German_WWII_POW_camps
Maps try here:
http://./forum/index.php?topic=1002.0
Research at the NA kew try here:
http://./forum/index.php?topic=1118.0
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Thank you!!! I appreciate your help!! ;D
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Hi Lianne
My father was also in the Sherwood Foresters and also held at Stalag 8b from 1942-45. I have his papers from the camp stating he was sent on various work parties to sugar mines and such like. From what I understand from whats left of his family, he was never the same man after the war. I suspect he was also part of the awful death march. I hope your grandad wasn't involved and managed to get out of there on time ???
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Lianne I take it that you didn't get any help from Cliff Housley.
I am at Kew tomorrow and will check again just to see if he did make a report when Liberated.
With the rank of Pte he would almost certainly have been in a Work camp attached to Lamsdorf which was originally designated as 8B.
Doubt that he would have had more than one POW number unless he changed identities with someone else.
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Thanks - that would be wonderful!
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Lianne. It looks as though I walked past your Grandads front door a few hundred times on my way to School.
According to his report he was issued with the Nos. 286 and 96358 which shows you can't rely 100% on official Published lists as I have found on several occasions. These are the same Lists as those on Ancestry.
He worked in a Sugar Factory and down mines.
He took part in one of the marches from 8/3/45 and reached Krems in Austria on 16/3/45
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Thank you so much! I really appreciate all your help and to have all this information is wonderful! We've always hoped to be able to find it - but from so far away it has been difficult! Thank you again!! ;D
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Hi,
I believe my grandfather was also in the Sherwood Foresters during World War II and may or may not have been a POW at Stalag. His name was Edward Machin, does anyone know any information about him?
Your time is much appreciated.
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Hello,
Sorry I'm not located in the UK and my grandfather is now deceased so I can't give you much advice - but there are plenty of brilliant people on here who may be able to help you :)
My Grandfather was caught in the Norwegian Campaign near the start of the war.
I have found a few interesting pages on my search including; http://www.wfrmuseum.org.uk/sf_museum.htm
From the searches on the name you gave it looks like he was in Lamsdorf (although my Grandfather was in a few camps so yours may have been, too).
If you are in the UK the best place for records & information is The National Archives in Kew.
Good luck!!
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In the 1944 and 1945 lists of POW there is a Sherwood Forester listed as Stalag 344 but as we found with Lianne the given camp location could be misleading. Stalag 344 was evacuated in January 1945.
The official lists that give the location of POW have many incorrect entries and should not be trusted 100%. Many give the Camp where a prisoner was first processed before being sent to a Satellite camp or work detail.
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Pte E Machin 4975707 POW No 28121
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My Grandfather was caught in the Norwegian Campaign near the start of the war.
I have no specific information on the soldiers mentioned in this topic, but I have access to a list of British War Graves in Norway showing some 25 soldiers from the 8 Bt. Sherwood Foresters.
Judging from the cemeteries they are buried, this could be some of the early British Forces who ran into serious trouble in the north of Gudbrandsdalen in the end of April 1940 (around April 28-29-30)
I read about this in the book "Felttoget" by Norwegian General Otto Ruge a while ago.
Jan
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Thank you! That is very interesting! I will have a look on Amazon for the book you mentioned :D
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"Felttoget" (English translation: The Norway Campaign) is on Amazon, but I doubt if you'll find it in English.....
There is however a lot of details regarding the war in Norway here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-NWE-Norway/UK-NWE-Norway-7.html
(in case you haven't found this already....)
J
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Funny coincidence!
There was a review of old cinema news ("Filmavisen 14 1960) looking back at the 1940 invasion on Norwegian TV this afternoon.
One scene was actually showing British POW's being captured in Gudbrandsdalen....
J
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try this site:
http://www.powtaiwan.org/index.html
BR
Jen
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Thanks janrm and jennshaw - really appreciate all the help!! :D
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Two pictures of British POWs in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway 1940.
_J-
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hi my father was in stalag luft 8b and we sent of to the vetrans agency and got a lot of info back .even got a pow photo of him when he was captured . also try the red cross
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As this topic has woken up again, there is one story I would like to share with the forum:
Last summer I had the pleasure of reading "vi dro mot nord" (English: "We were heading north") - a book written by two Norwegians, but describing the invasion of Norway with German eyes & based on German archive material as well as interviews with former soldiers.
When capturing the north of Gudbrandsdalen, the Germans took a Whole train full of British equpiment, - amongst that: a lot of sporting equipment!
Private Herbert Silla wrote in his diary: "The Tommies* were obviously planning to do sports. Unfortunately it turned out to be only one sport: Long Distance Running. In return they performed excellent..."
Jan
*widely used nickname for British soldiers in this book.
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Hello all,
My Dad was Sgt Fred Foster of the 8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters, he fought in Norway and was wounded and captured on 23 April at the Battle at Tretten where the Foresters and 148 Brigade ceased to exist as a fighting unit after they fought against overwhelming odds. They did give good account of themselves but only had rifles against an Armoured Division. Dad spent the war at Stalag XXA in Poland and then Stalag 383 in Bavaria. He was a Newark man from Bowbridge Road and joined the TA in 1939.
In 2010, I visited the battle sites in Lillehammer and Tretten, saw the CWGC cemetery and actually walked the ground at Rindheim where the battalion made it's last stand on 23 April 40. The rock sangars which the Foresters had hastily built in the woods were still there. It was quite a moving experience to think dad had been there 70 years before.
I have posted a full account of my visit with photos on the website ww2talk.com . If you log on and look under "battlefields today", my thread with photos is called "8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters in Norway" and is there to read. Have tried to post some photos on this site but they are too big, will try and reduce.
Cliff Housley's book "First Contact" gives the following details of Private Gilbert:
Gilbert H, Pte 322138,Held stalag 344 Lamsdorf, POW number 96358
Steve
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Interesting story Steve!
Your description matches very well with Norwegian and German sources I have access to, I presume your father is no longer alive?
The Germans became somewhat cheerful on April 24 1940, actually, as they captured not only POW's and weapons from the British,
but also a crate of Scotch Whisky and several hundred bottles of beer...
The same private Silla attended a wounded British solidier at a farm in Tretten & wrote (loosely translated):
"The Tommie had six bullets in his thigh. He told us that his unit was completely disintegrated and without heavy weapons.
Initially they were 1,000 men from the militia. With only a short military education they had no chance against us..."
Jan