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This story was related by the sister of Bombadier Lelsie Wilson Helyer.

Leslie was born in Norton, Stockton on Tees, and joined the Army in 1933 after being made redundant. After four years’ service he returned to civilian life, working for ICI, but remained on the reserve list. As such he was recalled to his regiment upon the outbreak of war in 1939.

He went to France with the ill-fated British Expeditionary Force. When the Germans began their offensive in May 1940 his unit was forced to retreat. It surrendered at Calais on May 26th, after four days of heavy bombing.

Leslie and his fellow prisoners of war were marched through France, Belgium and Holland until, finally, they reached the German border (they knew they had reached German territory because of the swastika flags flying from every house.) The journey had taken three weeks. Leslie and his comrades had been treated badly by their captors. They went long stretches - four days being the longest - without food or water. To add to their misery, anyone caught breaking ranks to accept food from the kindly old ladies en route was liable to be shot — and many were. (The Germans even attacked some of the old ladies.)

Leslie was eventually sent to camp Stalag 8b, which was sited in Lamsdorf (now Lambinowice in Poland). In late 1941 — six months after the event - his family received the news that he had died there on February 10th of that year.

The official cause of his death was given as pneumonia. His family later learned, however, that the last sight of him was of being hit with a rifle butt by one of the German guards. The information came from his friend and fellow POW, Norman Cowley. After witnessing this, Mr Cowley was sent on a work detail to a coalmine. When he returned to camp, he discovered that Leslie was dead and already buried

Whatever the truth, Leslie now rests in a Berlin cemetery.

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