Tuesday 21 April 2009

The Salerno Times 16/9/43

The latest addition to my 16 DLI site is in the Letters and Documents section and is the 16/9/43 edition of The Salerno Times, a one-page, one-sided newspaper which was published on the beach head during the early days of the landings. This has been copied from a very battered original loaned to me by Captain Gordon Harris, who commanded the 16 DLI Signal Platoon at this time. This is the link to the newspaper: http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page284.html

And this is a link to a smaller version, which puts the item in the context of 16 DLI's role in the Salerno landings, which is in the Concise History part of the site:
http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page98.html

I've also finally got round to updating my associated Thornley Colliery site-after a two year lay-off!--ad this now includes an updated caption, with several corrected names, for the

1968 St Godric's RC school photograph of Mr McGarr's class,

which includes yours truly.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Stalag 4B POW Numbers in the 228000 Range

I've now gone back to the Stalag 4B POW numbers listing which has been on the Prisoners of War part of the site for while and have began to update it with many additional names and numbers.

The reasoning behind this is to establish just exactly who my father and his ex-Camp PG 53 colleagues were with on the day that their German POW numbers were issued in October 1943. I already have a near complete run of names and numbers in the immediate range of my father's number, 227987. Now I am expanding the list in either direction, out to numbers in the 225000 and 251000 range.

There are still many gaps, but the listing already gives a good indication both of the huge variety of regiments that were jumbled up together at Stalag 4B and and of the many different work camps that the men were sent to. I've also added the site search button to this page to make it easier to search for a specific surname or number.

Here's a link to the revamped opening page of this section.

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page75.html

And here's the link to the page featuring the number of Pte T Tunney and some of the other men who ended up in the Bad Schmiedeberg work camp with him.

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page396.html

I've also added the name and Stalag 4B number of Australian pilot Geoff Taylor, whose 1955 book Piece of Cake, is one of the best books that I have read about the POW experience in WW2. To my mind, this book is a must read for anyone with an interest in Stalag 4B.

A small scan of the cover of the 1957 paperback edition is featured on the first link above and I've included a short appreciation and an enlarged front and rear scan on this page:

http://stalag4d.atspace.co.uk/page120.html