Prisoner No. 6329

Attached are two photographs sent to me by my cousin. My father, Wilfred Leslie ING, known as Les, is on the right of the picture. I would love to know who his friends were as they look such a fine group of young men. Can anyone recognise them? I do hope so.

My Dad sent this photo to his mother (his father was alive but I don't know where), to their address in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. Their names were George and Minnie Ing. My Dad was the youngest of three boys but I am unaware of what the other two did in World War II.

I know little of what happened over in Germany only that my Dad belonged to the Welch Regiment, cruised around the Mediterranean Sea in the troop ship Mauritania with a couple of thousand other army types and was taken prisoner at Crete. I believe he was in both Stalag VII A and VIII B but I cannot confirm this. The little he talked about was working in a coal mine in/near Poland, a long march across Czechoslovakia, soup made of potato peelings but little else. I met him for the first time when he was demobbed in 1945.

Source:

• E-mails by Juliet Holdaway, New Zealand, to Moosburg Online, May 2009