Service number:

619413

Nationality:

British

Flt/sgt John Stanley Freeman no 619413 no 6225 bomb disposal flight no 83 group R.A.F taken p.o.w. 8th June 1944 Normandy coast Eltreat France.

The 1st bomb disposal flight to embark for the Normandy beaches was 6225 /flt commanded by flt lt Cartwright on DD +1 at 04.00 hours flight encountered enemy action when the landing craft they were in no 390 was shelled, by German shore batteries and a E boat moored at the port of Leharve. the shell hit a lorry on the landing craft loaded with explosives and ammunition the landing craft sank within two minutes Severn men were killed .six hospitalized and one taken prisoner 90% of the equipment belonging to 6225 flight was lost any . survivors were picked up by another landing craft and set ashore at mike/nan beaches Juno on June the 8th and then transferred to Gray-sur-Mer France. my father after 21 hours floating in the sea covered in diesel oil was washed ashore on the French coast at a place called Eltreat 20 miles north of Leharve . Where after making his way ashore and inland looking for help in a poor condition covered in oil and debris he spotted a French man on a bike and asked if he could help him as he had some French francs and he would give him some money he went away and later a German unit arrived and he was taken a p.o.w . The Germans took all the money of him and gave it to the Frenchman, from Eltreat he was transferred to Amiens and placed in solitary confinement in the old barracks prison and from here he was transferred to Backau stalag luft 7 p.o.w. camp upper Silesia near Kreuzberg now Poland where he was imprisoned here until 19th January 1945 on this morning at 4.00 am a roll call was made all prisoners were informed because of the Russians advance to pack all there kit they were to march west to another camp the weather in Germany in 1945 was one of the coldest winters on record with blizzards and temperatures at minus -25c 13f. Most of the p.o w.s were I'll prepared for the evacuation having suffered years of poor rations and wearing clothing I'll suited to the appalling winter conditions. They would march 20k to 40k a day resting in factories churches barns even in open fields. With a little or nothing in the way of food . Clothing shelter or medical care. The route via Stalag v118 at Lamsdorf to Stalag v111 at Gorlitz then ending at Stalag 111A Luckwald 19 miles south of Berlin liberated by the Russian army 22april 1945.

My mother received a telegram from the war office that my father john Stanley freeman was missing and presumed lost at sea I was 2 years old. Approx 2 months later out of the blue she received a postcard through the door from some one living in Scotland that he had been listening to a broadcast from Germany and her husband was reported as being a p.o w. In Germany she we nt to contact the red cross to try to find his location I can't imagine how the feelings she had.

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• Photo 1: Anthony Freeman, son
• - Anthony Freeman, son