RJSage 42 RTR Libya listed missing May 28 1942 during Battle of Gazala, fighting with B squadron and Green Howards at Knightsbridge, says in PC sent home June 17 that he was captured June 2nd fighting till ammo ran out. Ie still fighting until captured. Others reported missing same day also in same POW camp later. Were soldiers sometimes reported missing tho still fighting? Any instances please?
Hi, I’m aware that you have posted several messages over the past 3 years - at lengthy intervals - enquiring about various things relating to your fathers time with 42 RTR at Knightsbridge in May 1942. In the often confused fighting at that time (and on other occasions in North Africa) over such a large area of desert men could be separated from their units and assumed to be “missing in action” only to turn up several or more days later. I can recall several similar episodes recounted in my fathers Coldstream Guards Battalion post war regimental history. Steve
Is this him? UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 Name: R J Sage Rank: Lieutenant Army Number: 189823 Regiment: Royal Tank Regiment POW Number: 2143 Camp Type: Oflag Camp Number: 79 Camp Location: Brunswick, Lower Saxony TD
Richard, You provided OP with the same info on the earlier topic from almost 3 years ago. Where was he captured? Steve
Thanks a lot to both of you! Yes you helped me a lot before, so relying on you again! You are amazing. TD I am a geriatric female in case you wondered...I think this battle was so horrendous and confusing that several of B/42 RTR were fighting their own private corners! Benzie Burman and Grocock all turned up in PG Fontanellato having been reported missing on 28.5 42 I think. I know my dad was not at first sure whether his dispatches mention was for his role in this battle or for jumping out of a train later on. Have just finished great book by Ray Ellis but he barely mentions tanks in his Kightsbridge chapter.
I would think that a servicemen unaccounted for would be declared as "Missing" until he was able to report to his own unit or as in many cases to another unit and from there his whereabouts would be recorded and his NOK notified through official channels.There would be cases of servicemen declared "Missing" but as time went on the information would be subject to review by the military authorities and a new declaration raised "Missing believed killed"which the NOK would be informed of. Eventually the confirmation of death would be confirmed by the Protecting Power.The status of some "Missing believed killed" was not advanced until after the war when local investigations were possible and initiated to account for servicemen in this category. The other situation would be a servicemen declared as missing and taken prisoner.The British authorities would be informed through the Protecting Power (which was Switzerland for both belligerents) or the International Red Cross and the NOK notified.Early in the war the Geobbels propaganda machine had a practice of broadcasting the names of servicemen taken prisoner usually before the NOK had been notified but the practice waned when the POW numbers became too large and this element of propaganda lost its effect. There were cases of missing servicemen who survived and had the experience of being sheltered by irregular forces and this took some time for the"Missing" status to be declared otherwise...his exact location not being disclosed. In the desert there was little chance of help in these areas although the military authorities had the intelligence which tribes were friendly towards the British.Usually "blood chits" written in the appropriate tribal language were issued to assist servicemen stragglers promising rewards from the British authorities for help given. An account of Lt Sage's experience in the Western Desert and as a POW,like many accounts would have been very interesting. (Our neighbour's son (wireless mechanic) was in the RAF as part of the AASF during the 1940 Battle of France.His parents were notified that he was "Missing" .Later they were told he was Safe...he had got out of France on one of the last evacuations down in the South West of France.From my research into the account,I think that the port of exit may have been the Point de Grave on the Gironde at the tip of the Medoc. Yeo Thomas,a RAF squadron adjutant and later involved in clandestine activities in France, is recorded as one of the last to leave France from that port.)
