View Single Post
  #7  
Old 23-01-21, 10:49 PM
Nozzer Nozzer is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 2,634
Default

My Grandfather was a corporal in the 2nd battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment and was captured on the retreat to Dunkirk. He was horribly wounded and was lucky enough to be picked up by the Wehrmacht unlike some of his battalion....

He spoke highly of the skill, dedication and compassion of the German medical services who he owed his life to. My Grandmother didn't know of his fate for many months, which in todays society is almost incomprehensible.

So, after a spell in a POW camp (Stalag XXIA) he was one of the lucky ones that was repatriated in 1943 aboard a Swedish ship. I say lucky, but his life was never the same. He spent many years in and out of hospital, he walked with a terrible limp and the skin on his chest was like something out of a horror film. He also had some funny habits that as children we found highly amusing. It was only years later when we were older that we could finally understand what he had gone through, yet he never expected to be treated any different and like so many of his generation rarely spoke of it even when pressed by his inquisitive grandchildren.

When he passed away, he left me a box with his medals and a few badges and buttons in. There was also a lot of of paperwork and photos as well, which contained nearly every item relating to this repatriation from the labels that he wore to the magazine from the Swedish liner that he sailed home on.
Reply With Quote