Brown, M W

Warrant Officer M W Brown

Family/Last name:
Brown
Forename(s) and initial(s):
M W
Service number:
R72283
Service:
Royal Canadian Air Force
Military Unit:
Royal Canadian Air Force
Rank when captured:
Warrant Officer
Camp
Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf / Stalag 344
Data sources
Contemporary Account/Diary
View a commemorative certificate for this prisoner

Public Records Office Air 2/9104 dealing with awards for services in German POW camps includes a letter from Regimental Sergeant-Major S. Sherriff who wrote, in part:

I respectfully beg to place on record my deep appreciation of the loyalty and support accorded me in my capacity as Camp Leader at Stalag VIII B (later 344) of the under-mentioned Warrant Officers…

Warrant Officer M.W. Brown, RCAF, R72283…

Warrant Officer M.W. Brown was employed directly under men as one of my office staff. At all times energetic and willing, there was never a more loyal working companion.

Attached to his POW Questionnaire was a statement that he had been held at a hospital on s’Hertzogenbusch, Holland (17 June to 15 August 1942), Dulag Luft Oberusel (16-26 August 1942), Stalag 344, Lamsdorf, Silesia (28 August 1942 to 5 March 1945), Stalag 13D, Nuremberg (9 March to 13 April 1945) and Stalag VIIA, Mooseburg (19 April to 7 May 1945) although he stated that his actual liberation dated from 29 April 1945 and effected by the American Third Army. To this was appended the following statement. The reference to “Sergeant Pals” means Sergeant Laurens Klass Pals, Canadian Intelligence Corps, captured at Dieppe and awarded Distinguished Conduct Medal, 15 June 1946 (see Canadian Army awards data base).

At Stalag 344 I started to help on the Escape Committee when Sergeant Cue, RAF, left for Sagan about December 1942. He was the man in charge of escape for the Air Force section. Sergeant Pals of the Canadian Army started to organize the whole camp under one committee and made a good job of it. I worked with him as a member of the committee representing the Air Force. In March 1943 I discovered that I was under suspicion so resigned from the committee and was replaced by Sergeant Harrison, RAAF. For the rest of my stay in Stalag 344 I worked in the office of the Camp Leader. I assisted 15 or 20 men with what information and supplies I had, which wasn’t very much. I interrogated new arrivals to get the latest information from the United Kingdom and pass it to the people who could use it. I learned about the “Stettin Route” from a Sergeant Thomas, BEF and passed it to a Corporal and a Lance Corporal in the British and New Zealand armies.

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