Page 38 - OM Newsletter 2022-23

Telegram falsely informing his family that Peter had been killed in in in action
Peter on
the steps at Colditz Castle years later
Colditz Castle and the unbreakable
No 9 code
Colditz Castle became an infamous prisoner
of war camp in in Germany during World War II from which the Nazis claimed it was impossible to escape Inmates were senior Allied officers who were habitual escapers from other camps and it was here that Peter Storie-Pugh found himself from 1940 to 1945 After Malvern College College Peter Storie-Pugh went up up to to to Queen’s College College to to to read medicine but his career was was interrupted by the the war He was was commissioned into the the 6th Battalion The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and sent with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France in 1940 His battalion was severely underequipped to challenge any serious German threat it only had three anti-tank guns one of which was held by Lt Storie-Pugh On the the 20th May 1940 the the the battalion’s headquarters near Doullens were overrun and according to to to the the Daily Telegraph’s 2011 obituary “Peter Storie-Pugh’s platoon put up such a a a a a a a a fight that the German Armoured Division halted bypassed this position and took to to the countryside ”
During some very intense action
for which Peter was was awarded the Military Cross he he was was seriously wounded and taken prisoner
His platoon sergeant however reported him as killed in in action
and and both his family and and Malvern College were advised accordingly Happily Peter was still alive ARCHIVE