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Written on behalf of Geoffrey Attwell by Bognor Library.

I joined the Territorial Army in 1939. It was a CCS (Casualty Clearing Station for the RAMC). When war broke out I became a medic. In Jan 1940, I went to France and when the Germans invaded in 1940 I was in Belgium – Krombeke, about 20 miles from Dunkirk. We had so many wounded we had to stay with them in a church and a school, about 700 in all. On 30th May, the Germans arrived and that was it – we were over run. Under the Geneva Convention I was supposed to be protected as a medic and handed back. But it didn’t happen that way.

At Ypres, there were so many German wounded that we ended up being stretcher bearers for them. That was why there was no invasion I think, because they had no reserve troops. The wounded were in a school.

We were then sent to Le Touquet by the sea but there were no wounded there. I think we were there in case there was an invasion – but it never happened that way. After a couple of weeks we marched east through north France, Belgium into Holland. About 250 miles to Rotterdam, then we were put on a coal barge down the Rhine to the German frontier, with no water – we were so thirsty. We were put on a train to our prison camp – Stalag VIIIB (Lamsdorf in Silesia, Poland). And there we stayed until we were repatriated under the Geneva Convention in Oct 1943.

I played the viola in the orchestra formed in the camp (there were lots of Army bandsmen who were stretcher bearers captured at Calais). In summer 1943, the dance band went up to Berlin – Stalag IIID, to give a holiday to the POW workers in the mines. We were sent to entertain them!

When I came home I was in hospital for quite a while because of malnutrition. In 1944 I was posted to Millbank hospital behind the Tate Gallery in London. I got married in 1945 to Mickey and have 4 great grand children.

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