Born in 1905 in Bristol, but growing up in South Wales where his father worked as a miner, Craftsman Hubert Bennett of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (7651201) was captured at Tobruk. He was transferred to Germany from Camp PG 54 after the Italian Armistice in September 1943.
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Via Stalag 4B, where he was assigned the POW number 247365--see the photograph of his identity tag below right--he was eventually sent to a work camp of Stalag 4F. The photographs and documents on this page are all courtesy of his grandson, Simon Bennett.
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Hubert is pictured in the desert at right below with unidentified colleagues. It’s possible that at least some of these men went through Stalag 4B with him and will have nearby German POW numbers. The address below confirms his presence in PG 54 and thus indicates that many British POWs with numbers in this 247000 range must have also come from this Italian camp
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Stories that Simon can remember his grandfather telling him about his time as a POW include him working in a food factory making pickles for troops on Eastern Front (the POWs had their own, highly unpleasant, secret addition to the recipe!). Also he worked on a farm; he switched labels on railway consignments to send them to the wrong destination; and took coal from railway wagons for the locals. This suggests he could have been at more than one Stalag 4F work camp--farming, factory and railway work--during his time in Germany. Or, or course, worked at several jobs within the same camp.
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