George Arthur King, Prisoner of War 1940-45
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: George Arthur King was born in London SE25 on 12th October 1918.Educated Stanley Technical School, South Norwood, SE25 1930-34.1934 starts work as trainee at GPO Telephones in SE London area.1939 as a civil servant assigned to the Militia and trained as Royal Signaller in Catterick and Prestatyn. Service number 2364195.1940 assigned to 1st Armoured Division. further training on Salisbury Plain and in Avon Valley Dorset.On inspecting the division at Blandford Forum King George VI was heard to call the division an odd assortment.The division was sent to France in two batches, the first including my father to Le Havre on 15/19th May. the rest later to Cherbourg, the division was never united in France and even then not used as planned or to their strengths. Later attached to French 9th Army and then with 51st Highland Division on the River Somme, fighting rearguard back to St Valery en Caux.Despite attempts the Royal Navy could not evacuate the 10,000 plus troops from the cliffs above the small beaches and the division was ordered to surrender by London on 12th June.From 13th June through the summer, the POWs mostly marched, through to Poland, sometimes travelling by railway wagon, 40 men to one wagon. Arriving at Thorun, Stalag XXA and then sent onto adjacent Marienberg, Stalag XXB. From there allocated to working parties on local farms spread along the River Vistula, he was mostly working for a Prussian farmer, Herr Schomder. German soldiers were based there as guards, alongside some French and Russian POWs and civilian slave labour Polish and Russian.General agricultural work, farms mostly producing potatoes and grain some livestock especially pigs. Working with horses and little by way of 20th century appliances. Hard work, little comfort and limited food welcome contributions from Red Cross parcels.Noticeable hierarchy where the Civilian slave labour were very badly treated by German soldiers and civilians, the French similarly but the British POWs not treated so harshly, who also tended to stand up to the Germans, civilians and soldiers. As a soldier my father was quite willing to express himself and learnt enough German, Polish and Russian, and how to shout back at Germans in particular to make his point clear, much to the annoyance of the farmer, this attitude and minor but persistent acts of sabotage on crops and machinery etc were the limits of practical resistance for 4.5 years in the bleak environment of North Prussia.Two kinder incidents show how they all got on, on having to go to the dentist in a nearby village my father was accompanied by a soldier who when out of sight handed his rifle to my father for him to carry as he was fed up with carrying it, on arriving at a wayside inn, the German soldier bought my father a beer, and they both sat out in the sun enjoying a very rare moment of tranquillity.Secondly in late July 1944 a German soldier guarding the POWs came into their bunk room late one night, threw his rifle down in disgust and exclaimed "they missed", so describing the failure of the Stauffenberg plot.By this time there was a degree of familiarity between the soldiers guarding the POWs and the POWs who often had much in common between them, more so than with the local Prussian population. Both groups of soldiers far away from family and friends.In January 1945 with the sound of the advancing Russian armies becoming clearer the POWs are assembled and then in freezing conditions under armed guard marched 450 miles arriving at Bad Fallingbostel in April where they were liberated by British 8th Army, with the Red Cross and Salvation Army in attendance.He was now emaciated, wounded and weighed only 7.5 stone. He was airlifted to Tring in Hertfordshire and then allowed home, by train to London.He gave evidence to War Crimes Commission on some German soldiers, SS, on their actions during the Long March.He rejoined GPO Telephones and served with them and British Telecomms until retiring in 1978.He died, following complications from a stroke in 1997.