Queen Victoria S Rifles, Company C

Alec Jay Queen Victoria’s Rifles, Company C.

My father was captured in Calais in May 1940 and spent the following five years in various German POW camps including Lamsdorf (Lambinowice) – Stalag VIIIB/Stalag 344 until May 1945. His prisoner of war number was 15129.

While at Stalag 344, he worked in a series of work camps including Groschowitz (Groszowice) from July 1940 to October 1940 on building works, Gumpertsdorf (Komprachcice) from November 1940 to January 1941 on roadworks, Heuerstein, from 25th May 1941 to 3rd June 1941, in a quarry, Setzdorf (Vápenná), from 18th August 1941 to 27 February 1944, in another quarry, Jagerndorf (Strzelniki), from March 1944 to August 1944, on council work, Freudenthal (Bruntál), from August 1944 to September 1944, in a linen factory, and Gurschdorf (Skorošice) from September 1944 to March 1945, a quarry that was also a punishment camp.. He was tortured by the Under Officer in charge of his first working party (Groschowitz/ Groszowice) to find out if he was a Jew. That involved being beaten in the face with a rifle butt, an assault that led to the loss of his teeth. I have put the German names in as recorded in his “General questionnaire for British/American ex-prisoners of war” form, which he filled in on his return to the UK in 1945. I have put as many Polish or Czech names that I can identify in brackets. I hope they are correct. At Gurschdorf, my father witnessed a war crime in which a guard called Johann Strauss bayoneted a British merchant mariner called Philo in cold blood because he refused to work. Evidence from my father and from Private Sidney Norman Reed of the 1st battalion of the Kensington Regiment was sent to the United Nations War Crimes Commission and my father went back to Germany shortly after the war to pick out the accused, then himself a POW, in an identity parade.

Below are three photos. One is of my father taken in Beltring, where the QVRs were stationed before setting sail, and the other two were taken in Lamsdorf or on one of the associated working parties listed above. I wonder whether any of the visitors to this website might recognise some of the other people in the photos? I wonder too whether any of your visitors might have information about my father or about Private Reed. Here is a link to an interview that my father did for the Sunday Telegraph to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dunkirk. I have permission to reproduce this article from the Telegraph if it is for “not-for-profit” uses. http://www.freewebs.com/lamsdorf/Sunday%20Telegraph%20article%20on%20Alec%20Jay %2027.05.90.pdf

John Jay (son) [email protected].