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on 9/4/44 he remarks: 'I was captured Dec 6th so didn't get any of your Xmas mail. The day after I was captured I met up with six more chaps of the Coy who had been captured before me, so the seven of us have stuck together, so I have some pals and there's three more chaps from Bradford here...' |
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In a letter marked as received on 28/5/44 he mentions 'eight lads of the Battalion who were captured just a while before me....', which suggests at least nine 16th DLI men, including himself, were at AK 3732, which was one of the larger Stalag 7A work camps. |
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Written in the fly leaf of a Munich guide book kept while Edward Sefton was a POW are the names, regiments and addresses of many of his POW friends at AK 3732. |
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The eight 16th DLI men who were with him are thus likely to be POWs whose Stalag numbers are in the same range as his. |
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The circa 125000 series of POW numbers assigned at Stalag 7A in early 1944 are fascinating in that they include both men who were captured during the Italian fighting in late 1943 and POWs who escaped at the Italian Armistice in September 1943 and who were subsequently recaptured. This mix is also reflected in the men held at AK 3732, who include 'Desert Rats' from the fighting in Libya, others captured in Tunisia in 1942-43 and others, like Sefton taken in the fighting in mainland Italy. |
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These are the known DLI men with POW numbers near his. Those listed as AK 3732 wrote their names in his Munich guide book. Several of these inscribers also further identified themselves as 16th DLI. |
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To see a fuller, circa 124000, POW numbers listing, which includes AK 3732 POWs from other British regiments, click here. |
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125555 7A Hopkins, Pte W A, 1546157, DLI. From Cardiff. Workcamp AK 3732. |
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125562 7A Lynch, Pte Edward, 4466999, 16th DLI. Of 108 Birchfield Rd, Handsworth, Birmingham. Captured 6/12/43, the same day as Edward Sefton. Workcamp AK 3732. |
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125564 7A Johnson, Pte L, 4456518, DLI. |
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125638 7A Hunter, Pte R, 4469725, 16th DLI. Of 94 Malcolm St, Heaton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Workcamp AK 3732. |
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125642 7A Alberts, Pte D, 4464029, DLI |
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125718 7A Shenton, Pte J R, 4203614, DLI. Of 226 Old Gardens, Goodshaw, Crawshawbooth, Rossendale, Lancs. Workcamp AK 3732. |
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125719 7A Seddon, Pte W G, 4204810, DLI. Of 82 Selwyn St, Kirkdale, Liverpool. Workcamp AK 3732, Munich in 1944-45. |
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125744 7A Sefton, L/Cpl Edward, 4464831, C Coy, 16th DLI. |
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125761 7A Walton, Pte R, 4445241, DLI. |
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125769 4B Thompson, Pte W, 4463838, DLI. |
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125773 7A Watson, Pte D, 4469853, 16th DLI. Of 33 Morrison Ave, Gateshead. Work camp AK 3732. |
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125775 7A Whincup, Pte G T, 14298286, 16th DLI. Of 1 Grange View, Coundon, Gate, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham. Work camp AK 3732. |
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125776 7A Short, Pte R M, 4469340, DLI, enlisted 4 ITC, Brancepeth 12/41. Probably 16 DLI at capture and probably the R Short of 49 Drake St, Haverton Hill, Billingham who was at workcamp AK 3732. |
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125782 7A Sage, Pte J, 4458459, DLI. |
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125794 7A Regan, Pte J, 4463768, DLI. |
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125858 7A Draffan, L/Cpl R D, 4466424, DLI |
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125874 3A Dignan, Pte M, 4467824, DLI |
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126888 7A Smith, Sgt J H, 4450476, DLI. |
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127034 8B Barker, Pte E, 4464691, DLI |
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127458 7A Edminson, Cpl R W, 4451805, DLI |
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127478 7A Girling, Cpl A, 4464753, DLI |
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127558 7A Stoker, Cpl G, 4459149, DLI, possibly 16 DLI B Coy? |
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127940 7A Palmer, Cpl A, 4447126, DLI |
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In amongst Edward Sefton's surviving papers is a photograph of the grave of a Pte L Farr, killed in an air raid in 2/45. Farr's details are: |
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130518 7A Farr, Pte Leonard Harry, 6092817, 2nd/7th Bn Queens Royal Regiment (West Surrey). Work camp AK 3732, Spaten Brau, Munich. Died as POW, 26/2/45. Buried initially at West Friedhof. Re-interred postwar at Durnbach War Cemetery, 7 H 15. |
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The circumstances of his death are described in the book Return to Durham by Ray Anderson, 44 RTR, POW No 125444: |
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'There was little sleep that night. We had suffered a personal tragedy. One of our camp mates, a young lad from Worthing near Brighton, was badly wounded by the shrapnel from the incendiary bomb and died before morning. He was named Leonard Farr and it cast a cloud of despondency over us all.' |
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L/Cpl Edward Sefton was liberated at Stalag 7A by US forces on 30/4/45, and flown home by USAAF and the RAF, arriving in the UK on 11/5/45. |
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NEXT ITEM: A Postcard from Algiers, January1943 |
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