227987 4D Tunney, Pte Thomas, 4469365, 16 DLI.
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Captured Sedjenane, Tunisia, 2/3/43.
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Photograph Sunderland Echo 30/3/43, p 4: 'Pte T Tunney, DLI, Theodore Cottage, Thornley, reported missing in North Africa.'
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Previously at Camps PG 66, 17/3/43 to 30/6/43; PG 53, 1/7/43 to 9/43 in Italy; Stalag 4B from 18/9/43 to 14/10/43; Stalag 4D Bad Schmiedeberg work camp W 603, 15/10/43 to 5/4/45. From Thornley Colliery, Co Durham,
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Bad Schmiedeberg W603, see group photo.
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1995 interview with author held by IWM Sound Archive:
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http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80019434
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Returned POW Liberation Questionnaire extant and researched.
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227988 4C Washington, Gnr Joseph Patrick, 1139781, RA.
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138 Field Regiment, RA, captured Tunisia, 1/3/43.
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Previously in Camps 66 and PG 66.
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Bad Schmiedeberg W603, see group photo, until 5/44 then a work camp of Stalag 4C at Brux. From Warrington.
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I managed to trace Joe Washington's second wife and widow with the help of Sam Cawdron of the 16 DLI Old Comrades' Association, in 1999. She allowed me to copy his paybook and provided the portrait photograph which is elsewhere on the site. From his adjacent POW number, he obviously came up from Italy with Tom Tunney and stayed with him into the German camps. Returned POW Liberation Questionnaire extant and researched.
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228001 4D MacRae, Pte Daniel, 2933964.
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Reported missing 21/6/42, serving with 2nd Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.
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Bad Schmiedeberg W603 from 10/43..
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MacRae's 1945 home address, 28 Glebe Terrace, Dunoon, has survived in my father's papers.
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He was my father's 'mucker' in Germany after Joe Washington's departure to Stalag 4C.
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DoB 2/11/19, Leverburgh, Outer Hebrides, Scotland according to his German record card.
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228010 4D/Z O'Sullivan, Patrick, 4809795.
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Captured Sedjenane, Tunisia, 2/3/43, serving with 2/5th Bn Sherwood Foresters.
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Previously in Camps PG 98 and PG 53 Italy. From Scunthorpe.
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Bad Schmiedeberg W603, see group photo.
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Interviewed at length by author for IWM Sound Archive in 2000:
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http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80024565
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Brief extracts from the interview regarding Sedjenane included in the 2011 book by Julian Thompson, Forgotten Voices Desert Victory.
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Pat O'Sullivan's 1945 Scunthorpe address survived in my father's papers. I got in touch with him via the telephone in 1998--happily he was still living in Scunthorpe, though not at the same address--and I subsequently arranged a long interview with him for the IWM, as noted above. Pat provided me with a huge amount of information about the camp and the five days I spent interviewing him up in Scunthorpe for the IWM in June 2000 was one of the undoubted highlights of this entire project. Returned POW Liberation Questionnaire extant and researched.
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228012 4D/Z Roberts, Pte T C, 6097291, Buffs.
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Reported missing believed POW, Middle East, 15/12/41, serving with 1st Bn the Buffs.
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Previously at PG 64, Italy. Possibly Bad Schmiedeberg W603 work camp. See 1944 group photo. Identity to confirm.
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228043 4D/Z Smith, R H, 7918352, RAC.
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Reported missing, Western Desert, 19/11/41, serving with 2nd Gloucestershire Hussars, RAC.
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Possibly Ray Smith, Bad Schmiedeberg W603, see the group photograph. See also below, Smith 228188
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Captured during Operation Crusader. 2nd Gloucestershire Hussars, RAC were part of the 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, the famed 'Desert Rats'. Says Wikipedia:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Gloucestershire_Hussars
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'In Operation Crusader, the 7th Armoured Division was tasked with locating and destroying the Axis armour, and the 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars was the lead element of the 22nd Armoured Brigade's advance. On 19 November, the brigade encountered the Italian Ariete Division, and in the ensuing action at Bir el Gubi it lost 40 tanks. Of the brigade's three regiments, the 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars fared the worst. The regiment overran some Italian anti-tank positions, but without infantry support it could not take their surrender. The Italians subsequently returned to their guns and caught the regiment's tanks in a crossfire.'
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228044, 4D, Hiley, Rfn John Henry Sidney, 6920215, Rifle Brigade.
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Captured Sidi Rezegh, Libya 21/11/41, serving with 2nd Bn, Rifle Brigade.
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Previously in Tahruna transit camp, Libya and Camps PG 59 and PG 53 in Italy.
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Home address: 221 Boundary Road, Woking, Surrey.
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Bad Schmiedeberg W603 from 10/43, see the 1944 group photograph.
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Returned POW Liberation Questionnaire extant and researched.
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NEXT PAGE, continued.
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