I'm presently trying to piece together the POW experience of Staff Sergeant William Harold Cheevers, Royal Engineers, captured at the fall of Crete. I'm doing this for his widow, who is trying to find out more about his service as a POW. I have ascertained from Ancestry that he was SSgt 7607438, had the POW number 91121, and was for much of the war was at Stalag 383 at Hohenfels. A Google search has come up with quite a bit about Stalag 383 and even links to an online book and various other photos and accounts, so I can easily research his time there. I gather, however, that he may well have been at (an)other camp(s) prior to being sent to Stalag 383, and it is this I am hoping someone may be able to assist with this? It appears that he was first sent to Italy and then had to endure a long and very difficult march to Germany (on which several of his friends died), but I know no details of this. The Ancestry entry mentions the REME record office, which seems to makes sense as Bill worked on the technical side of television prior to the war. He was then engaged in radar work in Greece, assessing the possibility of setting up a radar station in the mountains (not in uniform, apparently, because Greece was neutral) prior to evacuating hastily to Crete when Greece was invaded, resulting in his capture. Apparently the Germans were very interested in his Radar work and gave him a very hard time (insisting he was a civilian and outside the Geneva Convention) and it took the intervention of the Red Cross to get him treated as a soldier and sent to a regular POW camp. He put his survival down to the good treatment he received from the Germans running (I presume) Stalag 383. I'm new to POW research, so any pointers gratefully received! Bob.
Try this IWM Oral History link. I think it is the same chap: Cheevers, William Harold (Oral history) (17682)
Hi, If you follow this link and apply in 3 weeks you should have full chapter and verse from ICRC by the end of April. Requests for information about people held during the Spanish Civil War or the Second World War: Quarterly limit reached I applied for a relative in January. It's a free service. Good Luck Steve Y
Hi, Just to add that his widow is entitled to a free copy - rather than pay the usual £30 fee - of his army service file from MOD. See below link. Get a copy of military service records - GOV.UK Steve Y
