Memoirs of a WWII POW - my Grandad

[Afanc]

Absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[NDA]

Asterix said:

Partly through but I can only echo the sentiments above but I'd also like to add that there are many reasons why we should be eternally grateful to our Polish friends but it's obvious their kindness and willing to take risks that put themselves in physical danger made the lives of the PoWs at least bearable.

Incredible small acts of massive bravery by Polish civilians..... If that makes sense.

The diary is the first account of this type I've ever read, I found it profoundly moving and quite fascinating.

[JohnStitch]

Just remembered that this was also put on a site called wwiimemories.co.uk

http://www.wwiimemories.co.uk/Hunnisett.htm
Scroll to the bottom, and someone has seen this and said their father may have been in one of the same camps at the same time as him...amazing really, the power of the internet eh?

Lots of other stuff on that site, not had much time to have a look around but may have a bit of a read later..

[baron bashoneov]

Could not stop reading this amazing account. A truly brave man. Thanks for sharing this

[jjones]

NDA said:

The diary is the first account of this type I've ever read

plenty here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categor... some great stories


i look forward to reading the Ops story also.

[braddersm3]

Brilliant and thoroughly engrossing.Incredible sacrifices made by so man. I ,can fully understand the heartfelt resentment against the Germans which these men would never relinquish

[King Herald]

JohnStitch said:

It is a truly sobering, inspiring, sad yet sometimes humorous read, and never fails to amaze me what he and his close friends went through...and the amazing comradery throughout.

I've read quite a few POW stories, mainly from Asia, and each one makes me wonder just how I would fair in such a situation. I'm pretty sure I'd crumble and fall if I had to go through that sort of deprivation.

A common theme seems to be arriving home at the end of the war, be it WW1, WW2 or Vietnam etc, and getting treated like very little had happened.

A book I read recently, The Railway Man, a guy spent years as a POW in Singapore and Burma, tortured, starved, isolated, he was simply treated as an enlisted man once he recovered his weight, then discharged and forgotten about. It took four decades before there was any understanding of the psychological trauma these guys go through and he received some sort of treatment.

One such typical moment in the book was when some well meaning nurse mentioned that he must feel a bit guilty, spending the war relaxing in an easy POW camp, when other men were out there actually fighting.....

In those days it was 'stiff upper lip' at all times, and even amongst fellow prisoners it was loathsome to discuss any sort of suffering or mental issues. Just a brisk 'yes, I'm doing okay' was all that was allowed.

Which may well be why the Derrick Hunnisett kept so quiet about his experience all those years.

ETA: In the Book 'The forgotten Highlander', a Scotsman in Japanese POW camps, the author points out that he remained silent for 60 years, partly because he didn't want to upset wife, family, friends etc, and also because he signed an undertaking with the British government not to speak of war crimes or atrocities seen during their internment. It would appear the powers that be don't/didn't want the dirty side of war aired publicly.

Edited by King Herald on Thursday 26th September 20:29

[colin1976]

JohnStitch said:

Glad people are interested and finding it a good read. I read it again last night for about the millionth time. The thing that always gets me is that I sometimes have a good old moan about all kinds of things, but nothing comes even close to what he went through and I find it very grounding.

I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like the day he was captured, with all of his mates being blown up around him, or being made to march halfway across Poland with any stragglers being shot immediately. Plus the sheer elation of being liberated and flown home.

+1
Many thanks for sharing.

[JohnStitch]

King Herald said:

A book I read recently, The Railway Man, a guy spent years as a POW in Singapore and Burma, tortured, starved, isolated, he was simply treated as an enlisted man once he recovered his weight, then discharged and forgotten about. It took four decades before there was any understanding of the psychological trauma these guys go through and he received some sort of treatment.

In those days it was 'stiff upper lip' at all times, and even amongst fellow prisoners it was loathsome to discuss any sort of suffering or mental issues. Just a brisk 'yes, I'm doing okay' was all that was allowed.

Which may well be why the Derrick Hunnisett kept so quiet about his experience all those years.

I've never really asked my family why he didn't speak about it much, but I guess there could be any number of reasons, maybe it was such a harrowing experience that he wanted to suppress the memories, maybe it was the 'stiff upper lip' like you say. I suppose that everyone of his age had their experiences and stories from the world wars, and maybe it was just not something that people talked about in those days. Obviously the world is a very different place now and I think people are a lot more open about these things although I'd imagine that the horrors seen by our soldiers are rarely talked about due to the trauma of the experience and not wanting to think about it too much.

I can't imagine what it would be like to live through a world war, where it is not in some far off foreign country, but on your doorstep.

[Contaminated]

Thanks for sharing this OP. Everyone should read this.

[YankeePorker]

braddersm3 said:

Brilliant and thoroughly engrossing.Incredible sacrifices made by so man. I ,can fully understand the heartfelt resentment against the Germans which these men would never relinquish

I didn't really get the feeling that there was eternal resentment against the Germans, as many of them were also victims of the war and some of the prison guards were judged to be nice people.

Two things that DID strike me was the lasting dislike of Italians due to their behaviour in the camps, and the apparent dislike of the Russians for the Brits and Yanks, despite them fighting a common enemy.

All in all, a very interesting read.

[David87]

Awesome, OP. I'll get a chance to read it tomorrow.

I sat down with my Great Granddad (Bill) a few years ago and typed out all his WWII memoirs, chapter by chapter, until they were all done. I wrote over 40,000 words in the end and it's one hell of a story! He'd been writing it for a few years and, knowing he was getting quite old, asked me to 'type it up on my machine' as he didn't get on well with computers. He died in 2009; a year or so after we'd finished with the typing. No-one outside the family has read it so far, but your post has inspired me to do something similar as these stories need to be heard.

Bill wasn't my blood-related Great Granddad either; the latter was killed as the pilot of a Halifax bomber in 1944, but I have a box full of amazing items from his time at war. I end up crying every time I go through it.

[85Carrera]

About halfway through this. A great read and a very honest insight into what it was really like to be a POW (fights and all)

[JohnStitch]

David87 said:

Awesome, OP. I'll get a chance to read it tomorrow.

I sat down with my Great Granddad (Bill) a few years ago and typed out all his WWII memoirs, chapter by chapter, until they were all done. I wrote over 40,000 words in the end and it's one hell of a story! He'd been writing it for a few years and, knowing he was getting quite old, asked me to 'type it up on my machine' as he didn't get on well with computers. He died in 2009; a year or so after we'd finished with the typing. No-one outside the family has read it so far, but your post has inspired me to do something similar as these stories need to be heard

You should, it's great to have something lasting that still to this day stirs such emotion in people. Reading some of the comments on here has really touched me, and I'm immensely proud of what he did.

I must admit there was a part of me wondering whether to post if up here, as I thought that there was something quite private about what he wrote and would he have really wanted it posted on an Internet forum for all and sundry. But these things shouldn't be forgotten, and I think these first hand accounts, written by normal people, have a sense of realism that makes you think, wow, what if that happened to me....

[Dog Star]

YankeePorker said:

Two things that DID strike me was the lasting dislike of Italians due to their behaviour in the camps, and the apparent dislike of the Russians for the Brits and Yanks, despite them fighting a common enemy.

.

Indeed - I'd like to know what THAT was about. I'm not surprised the Germans were so keen to surrender to the western allies!

[spikeyhead]

I'm still working, so will have a read later. There's an excellent diary here from the first world war that's worth a read.

http://wwar1.blogspot.co.uk/

[Corpulent Tosser]

Thanks for sharing that with us, a fascinating read.

It is not too late to get it published.

My old athletics coach, now 96 recently had his autobiography published.
Tomorrow You Die - Andy Coogan

Another fascinating read and an amazing guy, we always just knew him as Old Andy (he was probably around 50) he was always shown respect but if I had known his story then I would have been in awe.

His dream of competing in the Olympics was destroyed more than 60 years ago by the torture he suffered as a prisoner of war.

Yet Andy Coogan, one of Britain’s most promising athletes in the Thirties, took consolation from the success of a young relative he helped to inspire – gold medal-winning cyclist Sir Chris Hoy

Edited by Corpulent Tosser on Friday 27th September 07:05

[ali_kat]

My maternal GD was a Japanese PoW, my paternal GD was in the Navy

Both died without ever mentioning it

So important to get these memories into a medium (excuse the term) where they can be kept 'alive'

Lest we forget

[Pistom]

It is interesting to read the memoirs of German soldiers too and drawing comparison with the experiences of the allies. Incredible bravery on both sides as well as incredible atrocities committed by both sides.

[Landlord]

YankeePorker said:

Two things that DID strike me was the lasting dislike of Italians due to their behaviour in the camps, and the apparent dislike of the Russians for the Brits and Yanks, despite them fighting a common enemy.

Indeed, these were the two points that stood out for me. I had NO idea the Russians had such dislike for the British.