Joseph Thomas Barlow dunkirk

[vicky barlow]

Hi,
My grandad, Joseph Thomas Barlow was I have been told with the Manchester Regiment and was with the British Expeditionary Forces in Poland in 1939.

Joseph and his colleagues were instructed to hold off the germans so that the BEF could get to the beaches at dunkirk.. i believe it was fight to the last. when the germans found them they put them in a ditch and machine gunned them. his friend was shot and he was covered with his blood, they left him for dead 9he pretended to be dead) and he lay there for a week. eventually he got up and was taken as a pow but had to walk to Polland. he said that at the camp there were cattle cars on trains and he was told to lift out the bodies of the people crammed inside who had been in there without water for weeks. for him he said the worst thing was that some were still moving. I heard once somewhere reference to the clearing of the Ukraine?

Joseph was held by the Germans through out the war and spent his 21st birthday there were he was allowed by his friends to have first helpings in the soldiers slop bucket. When the americans were coming i understand that the germans took the prisoners on a long walk and planned to kill them all at some destination. i think it was called the death or hunger march. this lasted two weeks? through snow? saw orange trees? weren't allowed to help anyone who fell at your side as the germans would shoot you. they did not get to the destination because the american's liberated them. One particularly cruel german guard killed by the pows at liberation.

i understand he spent six months in a french hospital due to malnutrition before coming home arriving in Manchester Piccadilly railway station and met by his parents and sister. my grandad lived until 1978 when he dies of asbestosis he had been exposed to in the camp he said he had to carry lots of sacks of concrete which it turned out had asbestos in them. 

i was wondering how i could find his prisoner number and identify which camp he was sent to as there has been some confusion as to where he was taken.  I think it's important at this time to find out these details correctly..

Does anyone know how I can find his prisoner number?

Vicky Barlow

[themonsstar]

Hi Vicky
And welcome to the site.

I have found a J.T.Barlow Manch Regt in the German PoW list's:

PoW Camp No 344 (Lamsdorf) PoW No 10236 Barlow J.T. Pte 3531000 Manch Regt.

[harribobs]

hi vicky

the UK was committed to war in 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland but the British Expeditionary Force didn't fight in Poland, they fought in Belgium and France.

it is possible to apply for his service records from the Veterans Agency, this link will give you the details

http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html

chris

[Wendi]

Hi vicky, and a warm welcome to the forum 

Further than the chaps have already said, I commend you for wanting to research your grandfather's experiences.

It was difficult/almost impossible, for them to convey their experiences once they came home, and sometimes more difficult to live with them.

I am however, convinced that it's right that we should try to piece together their pasts, for our futures, and wish you much success with your quest, after you obtain his service record if you have any questions, don't hesitate 

Kind regards
Wendi 

[themonsstar]

This info is from his PoW questionnaire:

3531000 Pte Barlow. Joseph Thomas.

Manch Regt

Date of Birth 9/11/1919.

Date of Enlistment 28/4/1939.

Trade or Profersion  Clerk.

Address  75 Ruskin Avenue, Moss Side, Manchester 14.

Place & date of Captire  Locan, France. 28/5/1940.

PoW Camps.
VIII B Lamsdorf  O.S.  from ?/6/40 to 25/6/40.

Blechammer  O.S. 25/6/40  20/6/44, Labourer.

Reigersfeld O.S.  20/6/44  12/1/45, Labourer.

[Fritz Bayer]

Place & date of Captire  Locan, France. 28/5/1940.

I take it he was 2/Manchesters (Divisional MG Battalion for the 2nd Division) then?

He was, indeed, a very lucky man to survive! (Locon was taken by the SS-T on the 27th May - they weren't exactly renowned for their kind treatment of prisoners as some of his divisional comrades from the 2/R.Norfolks were to find out later in the day at nearby Le Paradis!!! )

Your grandad mentioned walking to Poland. He wasn't far off the mark there. Though not quite of the same scale nor infamy as the "death marches" of later in the war, the "forgotten war" of these POWs had just begun - many hundreds died on their way to captivity (on foot for much of the way through France and the Low Countries) in the weeks and months following capture. Lamsdorf (now Lambinowice) was , indeed, in Poland - it's full designation was Dulag ("Transit camp") VIII B and had been open since October 1939, originally housing (!) Polish PoWs.

Dave

[harribobs]

i do hope Vicky has seen the work done on her behalf here!

well done all!¬)