From:Richard Rimmer

Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 5:18 PM

To:

Subject: Names

Hi

more names, ...... and even addresses !

We have recently re-located my wife's father's photo book from his time in Stalag VIIIB, he was part of the 129 battery, 'the Manx Regiment' 15th light anti aircraft regiment, RA. (TA), captured at SudaBay, Crete in 1941.

(website)

The book has his record of the march* to eventual meeting up with US army and eventual freedom, I see it is the same route as some others on your website.

It also has a lot of names and addresses, mainly in pencil and some very feint and hard to make out but have done all I can with it.

Attached are the transcripts I have done (Google helps find some odd spellings of places like Otahuhu and Waikaiwa ! )

I can see only one other Isle of Man address but feel sure there must have been many more as his battery all joined up together locally.

I have also put this stuff and pictures on one of my websites for ease of viewing by the rest of the family.

Hope this is of use to you, if you want any better scans of any please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Regards

Richard Rimmer

Douglas,

Isle of Man

*This can be accessed via the 'Long March' page of

From: To:
Subject: Re: Names Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 11:19:20 +0100

Hi Philip

Thanks for your email and info.

I see you have added Herbie's name to the list, and the links to my site, I have also re-scanned a few of the big group photos inahigher definition so they are a bit clearer than just the picture of the page in the album, they may enable someone to identify some faces.

It is interesting that Herbie was on 2 of the football pictures under different teams ?, he was a keen footballer and also a very keen motorcyclist, after the war he took part in the local TT and Manx Grand Prix races and later became a travelling marshal.

My wife Sue and her brother John (twins) were born after the war, and Sue gets a bit upset thinking of the hardships her dad went through in the war and doesn't like to dwellon things too much.

In trying to find place names in the book Istumbled on a Czech wiki page which gives place names and how they were known by the Germans, I am still trying to identify pins on the Google map of the route, I have added it to my 'Herbie' page, as is the link to the place names wiki page (Google translate does a good job putting it into English too)

H.L. Mills, back row, right end (dark jumper)

H. L. Mills, back row, one from right end, dark jumper and cap

H. L. Mills, back row, 6th from right (bald head)

This picture has written on the back K.D.O. E231 which sounds like a ArbeidKommando abbreviation and number but I see no reference to E231 anywhere (I think his group were in coal mines somewhere).

I'll find somewhere to put these on my website with a link from the index page. But you might like to put them in your gallery page too, in case they ever disappear from mine !

Another old friend of mine Jimmy Corlett(sadly now deceased), a fellow radio ham, used to tell of being in a POW camp, don't know if it was the same one or not, that they managed to smuggle a radio valve in from people outside the wire and made a radio receiver. He told about them getting in the loft above the commandant's office and pinching the transformer off his bell, and he always wondered why the bell stopped working but never found out.

On the MAPS website it tells of a radio hidden inside a hollowed out log by the stove, the radio is in the regiment museum at Castletown, it may be the same one but not sure.

Regards

Richard