Fleming, D

Private David (Norman David) Fleming

Family/Last name:
Fleming
Forename(s) and initial(s):
David (Norman David)
Nationality:
New Zealand
Military Unit:
New Zealand Army (2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force)
Rank when captured:
Private
Place of capture:
Crete
Date of capture:
8/1941
POW number:
7559
Camp
Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf / Stalag 344
Data sources
Other Sources (Relatives Report)
View a commemorative certificate for this prisoner

My grandfather was in Stalag VIIIB from 1941 to May/June 1945.

His name is David Fleming (recorded as N.D. Fleming by the Germans – Norman David Fleming), he was a private in the NZ army and his prisoner number was 7559. He was captured at Crete around August 1941 after being asked to retrieve Lieutenant General Freyberg’s son when the Germans were invading, which he successfully did, but there were insufficient boats to take him as well. He then hid with others left behind in a cave in Crete for three days before being captured. He married an English woman called Jessie Rutkin (now Jessie Fleming) – my grandmother – when stationed in London, spent three weeks together before being posted to Egypt, Athens and then evacuated to Crete.

In 1945 he woke up to discover the German guards had left; then Russian troops came and released them. U.S. Troops came later and provided food and then the Red Cross came and put them into rehabilitation (hospital?) before they were sent by plane to England. Sadly he passed away on 1 September 1986 at the age of 69.

Clinton de Bruyn

Brisbane, Australia

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