POW's Stalag 8b - Sherwood Foresters

[LIANNE G]

Hi,

Does anyone have any ideas where I can get any more information about my late Grandfather - Pte. Harold Gilbert
His army number is 322138 and a POW number at Stalag 8b was 96358. I don't know if he was in the main camps or worker camps but I do know he escaped several times and we think he was at more than one camp after he was recaptured each time. We know he was at Stalag 8b in 1944 because of the correspondence he sent home and received. We believe he was in the 8th battalion of the Sherwood Foresters.
Is there anywhere I can search for more information or is it just not available? I would love to be able to find out if he was in the main camp or worker camps and if there is any information about other camps he may have been in (it's my understanding he ended up with more than one POW number).
Can anyone tell me where to look? I tried the National Archives but I can't work out how to search it.

Thank you 
Lianne

[themonsstar]

From the book "Prisoners of War British Army 1939-1945" I have;

PoW Camp 344( this is Lamsdorf ) PoW number 96358 Gilbert H. Pte 322138.

Stalag 8b is Teschen

As for his service record you could try:

http://www.veterans-uk.info/recordsmedalsbadges.htm


For camps try here:

http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_German_WWII_POW_camps


Maps try here:

http://./forum/index.php?topic=1002.0


Research at the NA kew try here:

http://./forum/index.php?topic=1118.0

[LIANNE G]

Thank you!!! I appreciate your help!! 

[JuanToomany]

Hi Lianne

My father was also in the Sherwood Foresters and also held at Stalag 8b from 1942-45. I have his papers from the camp stating he was sent on various work parties to sugar mines and such like. From what I understand from whats left of his family, he was never the same man after the war. I suspect he was also part of the awful death march. I hope your grandad wasn't involved and managed to get out of there on time 

[ADM199]

Lianne I take it that you didn't get any help from Cliff Housley.

I am at Kew tomorrow and will check again just to see if he did make a report when Liberated.
With the rank of Pte he would almost certainly have been in a Work camp attached to Lamsdorf which was originally designated as 8B.
Doubt that he would have had more than one POW number unless he changed identities with someone else.

[LIANNE G]

Thanks - that would be wonderful!

[ADM199]

Lianne. It looks as though I walked past your Grandads front door a few hundred times on my way to School.

According to his report he was issued with the Nos. 286 and 96358 which shows you can't rely 100% on official Published lists as I have found on several occasions. These are the same Lists as those on Ancestry.

He worked in a Sugar Factory and down mines.

He took part in one of the marches from 8/3/45 and reached Krems in Austria on 16/3/45

[LIANNE G]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate all your help and to have all this information is wonderful! We've always hoped to be able to find it - but from so far away it has been difficult! Thank you again!! 

[FunkyMonkeyBoy]

Hi,

I believe my grandfather was also in the Sherwood Foresters during World War II and may or may not have been a POW at Stalag. His name was Edward Machin, does anyone know any information about him?

Your time is much appreciated.