Harry Redfern 1919–

Gunner, Anti-aircraft Battery and Royal Navy
Seaman 1512402
PoW 932

He was born Henry J REDFERN but known as Harry.

1939 Register: Town End Crich
Redfern, Samuel b. 18 Feb 1881; Coal miner
Redfern, Pamela b. 11 Oct 1887; Domestic duties
Redfern, Harry b. 24 Dec 1918; Limestone quarryman
Redfern, Joseph b. 7 Aug 1925; Hosiery hand, fitting dept
Redfern, Nellie b. 18 Feb 1909; Domestic duties

Harry was called up in 1939 and served with an anti-aircraft battery until 1941, when he was transferred to the Navy. His ship was sunk in July 1942, and the crew were taken prisoner. He was held as a PoW at Marlag und Milag Nord in the village of Tarmstedt.

Marlag und Milag Nord PoW Camp

A view of Marlag & Milag Nord Camp taken during a Red Cross visit, probably in late 1943 or early 1944.
(Photographer unknown, copyright International Committee of the Red Cross)

Marlag und Milag Nord was a complex for men of the British and Canadian Merchant Navy and Royal Navy. Marlag, the Royal Navy camp, was divided into two compounds; “O” housed officers and their orderlies, while “M” held petty officers and ratings.

Each camp contained a number of single-story wooden huts; twenty-nine in Marlag and thirty-six in Milag. Most of them were barracks, while the others contained kitchens, dining rooms, washrooms, guard barracks, storehouses, a post office and other administrative buildings. The barracks were divided into rooms each accommodating fourteen to eighteen men who slept in two and three-tiered bunks.

The PoWs occupied themselves in various ways. There was a camp theatre in Marlag and the PoWs performed concerts and plays. Each camp had its own sports field and there was also a library with around 3,000 books. Prisoners ran courses in languages and mathematics, as well as commercial, vocational, economic and scientific subjects. Sports equipment and textbooks were obtained from the Red Cross and YMCA. PoWs were allowed to send two letters and four postcards each month. There were no restrictions on the number of letters they could receive. Naturally all incoming and outgoing mail was censored. A popular diversion was provided by the “Milag Jockey Club” which held race meetings every Saturday evening. The “horses” were wooden models that raced on a 36-foot (11 m) track, controlled by dice. The PoWs bet on the races, and money was raised and donated to the Red Cross.

On 2 April 1945 the Camp Commandant announced that he had received orders to leave the camp with most of his guards, leaving only a small detachment behind to hand over the camp to Allied forces, who were already in Bremen. However that afternoon a detachment of over a hundred SS-Feldgendarmerie entered the camp, mustered over 3,000 men and marched them out, heading east. The next day, at around at 10.00 a.m., the column was strafed by RAF aircraft, and several PoWs were killed. Over the next few days the column was attacked from the air several times. Finally the Senior British Naval Officer offered the Germans the PoWs parole, in return for being allowed to rest during the day and march at night. The Germans agreed.

On 9 April 1945 the guards at Milag-Marlag moved out and were replaced by older men, presumably local Volkssturm. Meanwhile, the column slowly headed east, finally crossing the River Elbe, north of Hamburg, on 18 April.

On 19 April units of the 15th Panzergrenadier Division positioned tanks and artillery next to the camps. The remaining prisoners responded to the threat of a pitched battle on their doorstep by digging slit trenches. The artillery fired from the positions next to the camps, but fortunately had moved away by the time the British Guards Armoured Division liberated the camps on 27 April 1945.

The next day, 28 April, the column finally arrived at Lübeck on the Baltic coast. They were liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division on 1 May 1945.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Harry was liberated and arrived home at Crich in May 1945.

Ripley and Heanor News 18 May 1945
Gunner Harry REDFERN, 25 years old son of Mr and Mrs REDFERN, of Town End, Crich, has arrived home after being released from a P.O.W.Camp in Germany. He was called up in 1939 and served with an anti-aircraft battery until 1941, when he was transferred to the Navy. His ship was sunk in July 1942, and the crew were taken prisoner. The Germans kept them at sea four and a half months before landing them in France, from where they were removed to Germany. Gunner REDFERN was employed by Cliff Quarries, Crich.