Comely, A E

, , ,

Albert Edwin Comely

Family/Last name:
Comely
Forename(s) and initial(s):
Albert Edwin
Nationality:
British
Service:
British Army
Military Unit:
British Army, Northamptonshire Regiment, Gloucestershire Regiment, 2nd Battalion (Northants)
Place of capture:
Cassels
Date of capture:
5/1940
Camp
Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf / Stalag 344
Data sources
Other Sources (Relative's report)
View a commemorative certificate for this prisoner

My father ALBERT EDWIN COMLEY (known as BERT), was in the 2nd Battalion of the Gloucestershire regiment and was captured in May 1940 at Cassels, fighting a rearguard action while the British army debarked from Dunkirk.  This was his 3rd spell in the army and at the time of capture he was 34 years old, he came from Berkshire and had a wife & 4 children (I came along after the war!).

He was forced to work down the coal mines, and involved in the long walk and eventually repatriated home in May 1945.

Dad did not speak much about his POW experiences (except after a drink at Christmas!), but one story was that there was a lot of Canadians in the camp and once when the Canadian army gave the Germans  a battering, all water was turned off except for 1 hour in 24 hours.  Also a particular German sergeant’s favourite sport was to toss a loaf of bread over the wire when a lot of POW’s were gathered and then watch the mayhem that followed, he came to a sticky end at the end of the war at the hands (and boots) of the POW’s.

Dad always said that he didn’t want to work in a coal mine or fly in a plane, but he was forced to do one and was “bloody glad to do the other”.

I hope this info can be placed on the Lamsdorf website.

My son & I did go to Poland a couple of years ago and went to the Lamsdorf site& museum.

Gordon Comley

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