I thought it might be a useful thread to list all the books I have found so far when researching a relatives time in Stalag XXa and XXb, and on work parties. If anyone knows of others please post! Through the Wires - Ivan Gandy Surviving the Nazi Onslaught - Carole McEntee-Taylor Years Not Wasted - Keith Panter-Brick We Battled to Survive - Walter J Cumberland Came the Day - Grenville John Davies (Ed Jean Smith) Forbidden Paths - Stuart Brown Prisoner of Hope - David Wild For You The War is Over - Sam Kydd Escape Route Green - Warren Tute Life of a British POW in Poland - James Stedman Life in the Welsh Guards - Sydney Pritchard Ghosts of Dunkirk - Patrick Gibbon
For Tim091 and BarbaraWT (if you don't have these in your collections already) The initial two books below both have references to the camps at Thorn within, and the third book is a worthy insight into POW camp life, and a good read from a non-Commonwealth/Empire source too. Good fortune with all, Jim.
Excellent, thank you Jim. I should have pointed at that all of the books in my list are either autobiographical or biographies of POW's who were there. I highly recommend Prisoner of Hope by David Wild as it is a bit different. He was a chaplain at XXa and spent the war visiting many of the outlying work camps. Consequently it gives a great insight into life in those places.
Having followed the thread on this forum on the search for the burial place of John Anthony Ronald "Tony" Coulthard on the long march from XXa Thorn in 1945, I have read the book written about him & Fred Foster, a fellow escapee. A really good book, which I got recently from The Works shop, via click & collect. The Man who Came Back, by Steve Foster & Alan Clark
Correction: Life of a British POW in Poland - James Stedman is not about XXa or XXb. He was in other camps in Poland and on work parties and the Long March.
"In Enemy Hands: Canadian Prisoners of War, 1939 - 1945" by Daniel Dancocks. Has the story of Alex Masterton and two other Canadians in the British army from capture at Dunkirk in 1940 to rescue in Odessa in 1945.
"Ticket to Hell via Dieppe, from a Prisoner's Wartime Log 1942-1945" by A. Robert Prouse; printed 1982; re: Stalag IXC This book includes maps, drawings & photos Good Hunting & Bye
Hi Tim091 - another book is the excellent 'Survivor of the Long March - Five Years as a POW 1940 - 1945' by Charles Waite. Charles, now sadly no linger with us, was incarcerated in Stalag XXB, spending most of his time on work parties. Well worth reading. Best wishes for your project.