Reply With Quotedid you try the national archieves
A bit of a longshot....
I am trying to find a listing of the name of Australian Prisoners of War who were captured by German and Italian forces during WW2. The Australian War Memorial lists POW's in the Pacific , but not the 8,000 odd men who were captured in Europe , Africa etc.
If anyone is really bored and reckons they can find that information I would be very grateful. I am looking for information in regards to Sapper Norman Reilly VX597 of the 2/8 Field Company.
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did you try the national archieves
Title
[REILLY Norman (Private) : Service Number - VX597 : Unit - 6th Australian Division Artillery Training Regiment, Australian Military Forces : Date of Court Martial - 17 January 1941]
Series number
A471 Control symbol
24014 Contents date range
29 Jan 1941 - 22 Apr 1942
Access status
Open Location
Canberra
Barcode
7835024
Have alook at above site andrew, As mudcrab has suggested already, there are records on this felllow
As a guest users on
REILLY NORMAN : Service Number - VX597 : Date of birth - 29 May 1917 : Place of birth - BRUNSWICK VIC : Place of enlistment - EAST ST KILDA VIC : Next of Kin - GIBBONS E
Yes , I know there are NAA records on him , they are not viewable until purchased. Thats not what I am looking for.
There are listings for Pacific POW's by the Australian Government on AWM, but not any for Europe/ Africa POW's. I am more interested in listings showing which camps he was interred in.
The following is the closest I have found which suggests 2 publications that list them but I havent been able to find them anywhere online.
WW2 Nominal Roll
REILLY, NORMAN
Service Australian Army
Service Number VX597
Date of Birth 29 May 1917
Place of Birth BRUNSWICK, VIC
Date of Enlistment 23 Oct 1939
Locality on Enlistment CARLTON, VIC
Place of Enlistment EAST ST KILDA, VIC
Next of Kin GIBBONS, E
Date of Discharge 28 Aug 1945
Rank Sapper
Posting at Discharge 2/8 Field Company
WW2 Honours and Gallantry None for display
Prisoner of War Yes
But you probably got that.
Last edited by harry5; 27-01-08 at 09:16 PM. Reason: posted a bit late
Do you know where he was captured . And then try and get history trail of that.
Use your usenet for good instead of evil purposes for a changeand post the question in soc.genealogy.australia+nz they seem a pretty helpful bunch and usually come up with an answer
Let me know if you cant post for any reason and I'll do it for you.
Cheers.
When I was a kid, I used to have an imaginary friend. I thought he went everywhere with me. I could talk to him and he could hear me, and he could grant me wishes and stuff too. But then I grew up, and stopped going to church.
Yes , I have all basic information. I am a military collector and reguarly use NAA , AWM etc and no doubt his National Archives records will reveal more , particularly as there are 2 records one being his service record and one being a court martial which makes it very interesting. They have been ordered , but take time to arrive. In the neantime , I thought I would do some searching and was surprised that the AWM only lists Pacific ( Japanese ) POW's and noOriginally Posted by harry5
POW's from Germany or Italy. He was not on this list so it makes sense that he was part of the either the Australian 6th or 7th division fighting in the Middle East.
I have purchased his medals one of which is the Africa Star. As he didnt have a Pacific Star , I am naturally assuming he was captured at one of a number of places in Northern Africa , Tobruk or even El Elamein.
Its a bit disappointing that the Australian Government does have a search section for them ( not that the above link tells you much ). I will probably just have to wait for his service record and see what information it has bout hos POW period ( probably nothing knowing WW2 records )
There is the International Committee of the Red Cross archives
Its free for family members but could be pricey if your not
Research conducted free of charge
Research is carried out free of charge when it has been requested by the individual concerned himself/herself or by his/her family.
Paid research : In all cases other than the above, an hourly fee of 80 Swiss francs (about 60 US dollars, or 55 euros) is charged for research. Most cases take between one and four hours. When your case is dealt with you will receive an e-mail setting out the procedure for payment.
I received his service record in the mail and he was captured on 1st June 1941 in Crete after the navy ran out of ships to evactuate a number of Australian battalions.
The commander of the remaining Australians surrended but a number of Australians escaped and outwitted the Germans for up to a year. Our man , Norman Reilly , was captured and spent the next 4 years in Germany in a number of Stalag camps ( X111C , 383 and 357 )in which he says he was generally well treated until he was court martialled...by the Germans !
His POW statement shows that up until 1945 everything was pretty good , though uniform for the first 12 months was average ( French Uniforms and Clogs ) until they were supplied by the Red Cross. Food consisted of a loaf of bread and a pint of soup a day and they were forced to work as farm laborers 14 hours a day. He was once sent to work with a civilian contractor who gave him some money , but he burnt it.
The one part he didnt enjoy was spending 9 months imprisoned in Graudenz prison , a prison for POW's that wouldnt behave. He states the following about it :
" I got nine months imprisonment for supposedly striking a civilian and I will swear to this day that I never struck him but he got me nine months with the help of two german witnesses. I have a witness myself but they never took any notice of either of us at the court martial "
Excellent reading and I got his medals at a very good price. I also have a group belong to a private who was captured by the Japanese in Malaya who's service record I have ordered , it should make very interesting reading.
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