Arbeits Kommando 844/4 Thale, Harz Mtns, Germany

Hi Katherine, That's all useful to know. You can see from Tommy's diary that there were lots of different types of work available and he did all sorts of work including labouring and driving, he worked in various hotels including in the wine cellar of one and was even put in charge of a horse and cart! What I don't understand though was the freedom Tommy Shields had to move around Thale totally unrestricted. He even had a girlfriend in the town, whose house he visited. He does talk about Guards but often as company on an evening walk in the town. Your Grandfather's time in Thale as well as that of John Headley coincide almost exactly with Tommy's. With all the others he was moved out on 10th April. They were on their way east to a camp not far from Quedlinburg but escaped on the way and made their way back to the semi-deserted and looted Thale camp where they waited on the Americans. Eventually six of them couldn't wait any longer and set off on their own. What was your Grandfather's name?

John H

 

Hello John,
My Grandfather's name was Henry Mercer C/JX 271671. He escaped from the camp on 9th April 1945 with two others, using wire cutters to cut the wire(from his Liberation Report). They laid low in the forest for 5 days before swimming across a river to meet up with the American troops. He described how the three of them had a hard job persuading the US troops that they were escaped British POWs. John described being moved out of the camp on 10th April as you mention and being marched towards Magdeburg. He recalled spending two nights sleeping rough, the second night in a barn. They could hear the Americans in the distance and came to an 'agreement' with the German guards that if they were not forced to continue to walk, they would stay put and tell the US troops that the Germans had surrendered, which is what happened.
Katharine

 

Hello,
I have exciting news-after 4 years of trying, the name of HMS Bedouin will finally be added to the Malta Convoy list of ships which participated in Operation Harpoon. The names of all the other ships are on the oak Memorial board with the exception of Bedouin. It was sunk off Pantellaria on 15 June 1942 with the loss of 28 lives, with the rest of the crew being POWs for the rest of the War, my Grandfather being one of them. It was an omission that desperately needed putting right, I am delighted.
An addendum Ceremony is being held in Valletta, Malta on 26 Oct 2023.

 

The name of HMS Bedouin was finally added to the list of Malta Convoy ships in St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Valletta on 26th Oct 2023 in a very moving and poignant service.

A Marine Archaeologist who we met, wants to find the wreck of the ship and formally designate it as a War Grave. To that end, I obtained several documents from the National Archives. These are messages from the ships in the Harpoon Convoy to the Admiralty giving up to date info on the battle on 15 June 1942. My problem is that they were copied to various people/departments and I need help to work out all the departments/people these messages were sent to. I attach one page for now, so you can see what I mean. I would be grateful for anyone who can help.

 

Hello Katharine,

Congratulations on your success.

I suggest you post this on the War at Sea page of the website.

Best wishes,

Janet

 

Janet,

I have posted on War at Sea as suggested. Thank you for the tip off.

Katharine

 

Hi Katharine, Congratulations, your persistence has paid off and HMS Bedouin and crew are rightly remembered. It's 18 months since I've posted to this thread but I have finished my biography of Tommy Shields and will soon make it available as a print-on-demand publication on Amazon. But there are still several small details that I want to add and several copyright permissions that I am waiting on. But, does anyone know exactly which U.S. unit was first into Thale when the camp was liberated/abandoned, presumably 10 April 1945?

 

18th Infantry Regiment of 1st Division together with "B" coy 745th Tk Bn
source: https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=ww_reg_his pg. 86

 

Thank you for that information Itdan, and for the link to a very useful document.
John H

 

John,
Thank you for your message re HMS Bedouin.
I would be most interested in reading your biography of Tommy Shields when it is complete. Please let me know when it is released via Amazon.

Itdan, thank you for that information.

Katharine

 

Katharine, I'm hoping it will be available as a print-on-demand publication on Amazon in March. But I'll let you know when it's there.
John

 

Just to let all on this thread know that my book on Tommy Shields has now been published. The title is 'Shipwrecks, sausages and survival: the wartime journey of Able Seaman Tommy Shields' by John Henderson and it is available on Amazon(.co.uk) at £7.99. I learnt so much about Tommy's work and his time in Thale as a POW just by reading this thread and I have given WW2Talk acknowledgement in a footnote. Katharine, Itdan, Vitello and Harry have given invaluable information and links and pointers to other sources and I thank you all for sharing your experise. In the chapters covering this period I just hope I have correctly represented life in Thale as a POW and the general structure of the regime. Any shortcomings are entirely down to my own misunderstanding.Thank you.

John H

 

Thank you for letting us know about your book, John.
I intend to purchase a copy.

Vitellino

 

Hi Kathrine,
I think there was another thread sometimes, somewhere in the Forum.
May be one of the moderators can dig it out.
I recall having spoken to a local historian at the time receiving pics and information.
Stefan.

 

Thank you Vitellino - sorry for mis-spelling your name! - I hope the book is as accurate and informative as the posts on this forum.

John H

 

Hello John,
Just seen that you have published your book about Tommy Shields. Thank you so much for letting us know-I will be purchasing a copy.
A great achievement, well done.

Katharine

 

Thanks for posting these maps. My father was forced to work in Thale and kept a diary from 09-1943 to 05-1945. He was housed in lager Behrensdorf and worked as a carpenter for the steel factory. He not only worked in the factory, but also worked in Thale and the surrounding area. On July 10, 1944 he wrote: "At half past three we had to go to the Wolfsburg, which is a prisoner's camp on the top of the mountain. There we will have another few days of work in beautiful nature." On the barracks map you posted, this is indicated below as "Barackenlager Wolfsburg am Rosstrappenstrasse". On your other map (1) indicates where this would be in present-day Thale.

This seems to clarify where my father worked, but also raises questions. Why does my father write "on top of the mountain" and "work in beautiful nature"? That does not seem to refer to a place in the city of Thale itself, but to the mountains near Thale. I was thinking of a place if you continue the Wolfsburgstrasse from Thale south towards Herzogshöhe. Maybe lager Wolfsburg had several branches?

On July 13, 1944 my father had to work in lager Silberbach. There are Belgian prisoners of war there, but English POW's have to come in. I can't find anything about lager Silberbach, but there is a Silberbachtal on the western side of Thale. My father describes in detail how to build a wire fence there. It looks like there will be additional barriers for the English. On August 2, they stretched 4,000 m of wire. On August 30, 100 Russians arrived in Silberbach.

Another lager where he had to install wire fences was lager Rübchen. I couldn't find anything about that either, but there is a Rübchenstrasse in Thale. They regularly had beer there, so I think there was also a café. There were Belgian POW's in lager Rübchen.

In March 1945 my father worked in a hotel to convert it into a hospital. A Tommy also works there and my father exchanges shaving soap with him for 10 cigarettes. This English POW maybe is one of the persons noted in this thread.

 

Hi Jan, I was wondering were you, or your father, using the term 'Tommy' as a personal name or as the popular term for 'all British soldiers'? My recently published book, referred to elsewhere in this thread, was about a Royal Navy POW in Thale called Tommy Shields. However, there is no record in Tommy Shields diary of the locations you mention although there are frequent references to bartering with cigarettes!

John H

 

Hi Hendy. My father used Tommy as a term for British soldiers. I wrote about it because this Tommy might have also written the story down in his diary and maybe someone here at WW2talk recognizes the story.
Cigarettes were indeed very important. Once, my father's barrack was punished because someone had burned a bed plank in the stove because they had no fuel: no more cigarettes for the entire barrack until the person who did it came forward. No one stepped forward.
After a day without cigarettes, my father went to the office to say that he had done it (in reality two others had done it). Fortunately, he received no additional punishment and everyone received cigarettes again. I don't understand why anyone would take so much risk for a few cigarettes, but then again, I'm a non-smoker.

 

Hi Jan, it's not beyond possibility that the Tommy your father refers to could have been Tommy Shields. To someone like your father TS would have been just a 'Tommy' as there would have been nothing to indicate him being a Royal Navy POW. And in February and March 1945 TS notes in his diary that he was working at two local hotels, Villa Heimburg and Hotel Ritter Bodo. But, interestingly, on 14th February he writes, 'Refugees and wounded soldiers arrive in Thale, we are out working very late looking after wounded'. I wonder did either of those hotels become hospitals or casualty stations?

John H