Stanley Gordon Ramsey - A Long March Home
Creators: name: Project Team, Their Finest Hour
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: Stanley Gordon Ramsey was born on the 25th January 1919. He lived at 64 George Potts Street, South Shields. He enlisted on the 1st of December 1939: "He didn't have to enlist as he was a skilled man, a joiner and could have been on reserved occupation".He was sent to Boulogne in early 1940. "His job was to drive the lorries and the motorbikes. This was the period of the"phoney war". He said it was total confusion they were left to fend for themselves, they weren't getting any food, the uniform was inadequate, they were running round in circles, they had about four bullets, it was complete disorder.""He was a good looking man he dated the daughter of a cafe owner in France so he got better rations. She later sent him letters in the POW camp.""He was bored one day and he said, 'Bugger this, I'm going to Le Touquet.' So he jumped on his motorcycle and went and looked around Le Touquet."He took the Royal West Kent's into action as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France. They first went to Cléry but were met with German tanks whilst they had rifles and an old 1914 Lewis gun which jammed. He managed to escape on the last lorry leaving Cléry. They retreated and went to Albert a small market town in northern France with a classic French market square. The lorries were parked around the market square. Stanley was at the front of the lorries in the corner near a ditch."He heard a Panzer tank roaring really like you see in films and it came into this classic French square. The barrel of the tank just swung around and the noise was like a little hymn, they just put a line of tracer's right across the square. He said they killed nearly everybody he dived into a ditch so he survived. But he said he heard the lads screaming for their mam."Stanley and some of the other soldier escaped to a nearby field. A sergeant had his leg blown off because of the bombing, Stanley strapped him on a door and they hid on a farm but the sergeant died the next day. Stanley was then taken prisoner on the 20th May 1940 and forced to march for over two weeks through France and Belgium and into Germany. On the 6th June he was put on a train for three days to Thorn/ToruÅ„ (Stalag XX-A) in Northern Poland. The train consisted of cattle trucks, similar to those used to transport Jews.Unlike officers the lower ranks were made to endure forced labour to assist in the German war effort. At Thorn he was engaged in general labouring and on 10th October 1940 he was sent on a train to Stalag XX-B Marienburg in the far north of Poland. At Marienburg he was first labouring in a sugar beet factory for several months working 12 hour days. Then on the 1st of February 1941 he started work in a joiners shop. He had to walk four mile each day to the workshop this took an hour and a half each way in the snow. The workshop was owned by a German who Stanley called"The Boss". An incident occurred when he was soaked with water which given the freezing conditions could have been fatal. He wanted to change employment so he saw a doctor. The doctor tried to persuade him not to work outside on the fields and farms as it would be very strenuous especially given the lack of food. They were desperate for news of the war, almost as much as food.For the rest of his life he was constantly vigilant against getting wet and would bring wellingtons to school for his children in order that they kept dry. He knew from experience that being wet in very cold conditions could be fatal."He was quite good looking man, so he managed to have a girlfriend when he was inside. He lifted the bars and sneaked out at night and he had a relationship with an Estonian/Ukrainian out of the camp. A Gestapo officer who came on a random visit to the camp and when they saw he was missing they went looking for him. So he must have spun some story as he obviously lived to tell the tale."On the 20th January 1945 Stanley started on a 'Long March' from Marienburg, Poland to South West of Berlin as they zigzagged on the route this was nearly 1,000 mile! They marched for 4 months for 12 hours a day it was the coldest winter on record (-25 degrees c) with 3ft deep snow when they set off. The Germans were fleeing the Russians and intended to use the POWs as forced labour in Germany to help the wartime production."On the march he had blackouts and he'd be walking along with people and they were spat upon the Germans called them rapists, thinking they were Russians."He was so starved and so desperate,"he was walking in 20 degrees below zero with rags around his feet and he was blacking out and he was in a terrible state and he started to slide down this tree and a comrade, came out of nowhere, climbed the tree and took a bird's egg out of a nest and he said, 'Eat this'. And it bound the diarrhoea and it saved his life." "Their feet were so cold they used to urinate in their boots to keep them warm.""Used to dread going through the forest as the dust was like a wall.""He said there was a group of women who veered off to the left and then he heard shots and he realised that they were Jewish women who were massacred.""On the march a lot of the lads lost their minds, he used the term Doolally.""He had a high regard for the Poles because when he was on working parties and trudging along skeletal like, the Poles risked their lives, some of the locals in the ditches crawled on their hands and knees in the fields to throw bread buns to the prisoners when the Germans weren't looking, this was possibly Polish children."On the march he slept one time with a horse to keep warm luckily"it didn't pee on me."Stragglers on the march were shot. One particularly nasty guard was shot at the end of the march by one of the prisoners.They had to cross a bridge which may have been mined they were very nervous. The German officer in charge who had his arm blown off was still giving orders out, and ordered the guards to rifle butt the prisoners.At Bitterfeld/Halle north of Leipzig they were liberated by the American troops.<br>"After his liberation they were sent off by a group of American bandsmen this was a sense of acknowledgment for him.""On the train up north he could not talk about his experiences."He was interviewed by MI9 (Military Intelligence) on the 2nd May 1945 where he gave dates of the camps he was in. This POW liberation questionnaire is in the National Archives at Kew (photo attached)."After the war it took him years to put on weight.""He was a joiner in the shipyards, then he ended up at Tyne Tees Television from the early days making scenery. He used to go on location sometimes down to Yorkshire at Holly Foot Farm." He also worked on the"The Tube" a music programme with Jools Holland.He did not feel any animosity to the Germans after the war and he married a German woman from Essen, Stanley spoke some German. He exchanged letters with the joinery company owner's son in Germany."The Bosses son", worked with Stanley in the joinery shop until he was called up and he was sent to the Russian front where he was wounded five times. He went back to Germany to"bury the ghost". They went to Germany but"The Bosses son", was very worried as he thought Stanley was after compensation, but he wasn't, he only wanted closure.His son-in-law Derek Woodcock a retired teacher and historian interviewed Stanley over a one year period and produced dozens of pages of notes from the interviews. Stanley died when he was 96,"but right up until the end he was very clear and Derek was absolutely impressed by his clarity and recall."Quotes by Stanley's daughter Janet Woodcock.Derek Woodcock's interview war diary notes and transcriptions of Stanley's war diaries are attached.