My partners dad was in the 4th RNF and was transferred along with many others from his regiment, to the 50th Recce's in 1941. His war records (and anecdotes he told ) indicate he was taken POW on 6 June 1942 but "escaped enemy hands" on 15 June 1942 and rejoined his regiment. I am quite keen to see if there are war diaries or any other possible records which might help narrow down where this might have happened - the war records state Egypt ? El Alamein Later in the war he was transferred back to 4th RNF and at the end of the war to the Gold Coast Regiment, going on to India, where he unfortunately contracted TB and was sent by hospital ship to South Africa to one of the TB hospitals where he was treated and discharged medically unfit for service in 1947. He remained in SA and married and had a family, never able to return to his homeland, dying in SA in 1970. Hoping for some help in sourcing more info about the battles in Africa at this stage of WW2 and his time in the Recce's / being taken prisoner by the Germans.
Welcome aboard. What is your partners dads name? http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/wo-361-1060-50-recce-missing-personnel.862/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/cab-106-50-recce.231/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/50-recce-war-diary-march-1942.230/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/50-recce-war-diary-february-1942.229/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/50-recce-war-diary-january-1942.228/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/50-recce-war-diary-december-1941.227/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/50-recce-war-diary-november-1941.226/ http://ww2talk.com/index.php?media/albums/50-recce-war-diary-october-1941.225/ Cheers Paul
Many thanks for all those links Paul. His details are 4273400 James Robertson. He was an NCO, varied through the war but a s/sgt in the end. I have a copy of a letter he wrote some years after the war to an old 4th RNF comrade in which he describes being taken prisoner, plus his war record confirms this, plus his escape. Will post some of the letter here when I have a chance, it gives a glimpse into the events. After he was discharged medically unfit, he still managed to sign up to the territorials in South Africa and served with them until he became too ill to do so, with terminal cancer. Always a military man, his father had served in WW1 in the Durham Light Infantry.
Well, he is mentioned by name / number is the "Missing" file. What a great find and addition to the research - many thanks Paul and others who pointed me to the info. Am just looking at an old letter he wrote to a comrade from "X" company much later, in the late1960's, as he gives more details there. I also want to try to piece together the B.E.F. action in Europe before they were evacuated via Dunkirk and ended up being sent to join the Middle East campaign. From the accounts of the fighting it seems he was lucky to survive, let alone escape German clutches- he writes of being one of a group of 48, mostly from the same "Box", who escaped,
