Page 28 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

camp called Oflag IV-C. Its purpose was to restrain Allied Officer ranked
prisoners who had attempted to escape from other Oflags and so Colditz
housed various nationalities who were mainly British, Dutch, French and Polish.
The film and TV series recounted the successful and failed escape exploits of
its Officer inmates.

So where did my dad come into all of this?
Remember that dad enlisted (under age) in the Royal Leicestershire Regiment
in January 1942. He served in North Africa, where he was captured in February
1943 during the Montgomery/Rommel battle for Kasserine Pass. He spent the
rest of the war in Prisoner of War camps in Italy & Germany.

MI9 the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a department
of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. During World War II it was tasked
with supporting available European Resistance networks and making use of
them to assist Allied airmen shot down over Europe in returning to Britain. MI-9
infiltrated agents, usually by parachute, into occupied Europe. These agents
would link up with a Resistance cell and organize escape-and-evasion efforts
in a particular area, usually after being notified by the Resistance of the
presence of downed airmen. The agents brought false papers, money and
maps to assist the downed airmen.

During the early summer of 1943, MI9 came to the bizarre conclusion that Italy
would be out of the war in a few days and decided to order the 80,000 POWs
in Italy to "stay put" and wait for Allied forces to arrive. The order, issued in June
1943 as Field Marshal Montgomery was planning the invasion of the Italian
mainland, stated that "in the event of an Allied invasion of Italy, officers
commanding prison camps will ensure that prisoners of war remain within
camp. In some camps, British officers posted their own guards to prevent the
men from leaving, even after the Italians had laid down their weapons.

The reaction to the Armistice varied from camp to camp and some men took
opportunity of the situation to escape.

Dad was one of the escapees, but he was recaptured by a German patrol (ref-
POW Questionnaire form).

On 7th October 1943 he was transferred to Stalag IVG (Oschatz) near Leipzig
(Red Cross information). Dad’s job was stone breaking in a quarry – (POW
questionnaire info). Stalag IV-G was a German World War II prisoner-of-war
camp for NCOs and enlisted men. It comprised a series of work camps
scattered throughout the state of Saxony. It lies 18 miles from Colditz.
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