RM Thomas F Rothwell CH/x106256 /rm 10386 (41 commando)

This message was edited 19 times. Last update was at 19/01/2020 19:30:18

Hi looking for any help re:-
Thomas Frank Rothwell Marine R Marines CH/x106256 /rm 10386
He was with 41 commando
Reported killed 18 sept 1943
But was in fact taken a pow:- in salerno
http://www.stalag18a.org/rollcallR.html
Pow No 8703
My father inlaw was conscripted into RM in 1941 and was taken POW and then onto stalag18A Wolfsberg, Austria. he appears in their roll of prisoners I am looking for any other information about him he did re-enlist in 1946 -1956.

Transferred messages from a previous post last week..

Thanks Pete for your prompt reply.

We have his service records very little detail of his wartime service, from the docs they sent he was with 41 commando, he was reported as being killed his parents were informed as such, they heard nothing then until he was repatriated and he turned up at his mothers at the end of the war. in fact he had a head wound and was taken by the Germans and a Dr saved his life. he was then sent to stalag 18A in Austria at the end of the war they marched for 13 days from eastern Austria to Western Austria to escape the Russians at the end of the march the German guards handed there weapons over to them and told the prisoners that the war had been over for two days, this he told me (son in law
ex forces), he would not talk about it to his children.
this he told me a long time ago before the internet on researching i found this which verify's what he told me:-
http://www.stalag18a.org/frameset.html sub section final days.

We do have his full service records as his son (NOK) sent for them for me.

on his release from POW camp would he have been debriefed and would a transcript still exist that would make interesting reading?

How awful for his parents (not to mention for him) - but the joy when he turned up at their door!

So very interesting.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 14/01/2020 10:39:02

"At four o'clock in the morning, we heard the cries, "Raus! Raus!" and we were tumbled out of bed for the last time at Wolfsberg. Shivering with cold on the parade ground, we were told by the Commandant that we were being evacuated to a safer area. Taking only essentials, we marched off into the unknown.
At first, the going was easy, but as we reached the mountains, it became more tiring. After twenty miles we lay down where we were. A chap in the engineer's shed at the camp had invented a little stove made from two tin cans soldered together, and we all had one, so it wasn't long before the darkness was lit by dozens of stoves brewing up.

We scrambled over the Tauern Pass, bitterly cold walking through snow; twenty miles every day for eleven days.

We finally arrived at Markt Pongau prison camp, where the German guards offered us their rifles. The date was the 10th of May, 1945. The war had been over for two days."

Tom was in this party.

David I have now added some information to our 41RM Commando gallery and placed a link to this forum message for all the info you have posted here. Here is a link to the gallery entry: http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/Royal+Marine+Commando+Units/41+RM+Commando/Rothwell/

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 19/01/2020 21:35:05

Thank you Pete for all you have done, today I have found out that ww2 POW interrogation post-release is now available from National Archives WO 344, that's the next step.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 20/01/2020 09:22:05

Map of the route home and daily log of the march, photo's and map copyright of stalag 18A website
http://www.stalag18a.org/frameset.html