Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind Part 11

Peter Wagstaff Despite his bad experience of war and captivity, Second-Lieutenant Peter Wagstaff returned home from Germany and decided to remain in the army. He took a commission in the Royal Scots Regiment and served throughout the world, seeing action in many regions including Malaya and Korea. He retired with the rank of major and later joked that he and his family had moved from one country to another as the British Empire contracted around them. Ever thankful to have survived the war, and grateful to have been spared the psychological damage that affected so many of his fellow POWs, he continues to enjoy life in a quiet Oxfords.h.i.+re village.

Notes.

See Bibliography: unpublished sources for an explanation of the National Archives abbreviations used below.

Prologue.

1 Nigel Nicolson, Alex: The Life of Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973 Introduction: Victory or Defeat?

1 Frederick Foster. Imperial War Museum 01/4/1

Chapter 1: Missing the Boat.

1 Major R.L. Barclay. Imperial War Museum pp/mcr/373 2 National Archives CAB106/260 3 National Archives WO32/4610 4 National Archives CAB106/260 5 National Archives WOl67/762 6 Major W.W. Wagstaff. Imperial War Museum 93/11/1. (Walton Wynter Wagstaff adopted the name Peter to avoid being known as Walt or Waldo.) 7 National Archives CAB106/248 8 National Archives CAB106/292 9 National Archives CAB106/292 10 Major W.W. Wagstaff. Imperial War Museum 93/11/1 11 National Archives WO197/99 12 National Archives CAB106/248 13 National Archives WO167/807 14 L.B. Shorrock. Imperial War Museum 80/12/1

Chapter 2: The Round Up.

1 John Lawrence, A POW's Story, Woodfield Publis.h.i.+ng, 1991 2 Captain Munby. Imperial War Museum 87/25/1 3 Sergeant Stephen Houthakker. Imperial War Museum 98/5/1 4 National Archives WO167/804 5 National Archives WO167/804 6 National Archives WO167/804 7 National Archives WO167/804 8 National Archives WO167/804 9 National Archives WO167/804 10 National Archives TS26/65b 11 National Archives TS26/205 12 National Archives TS26/400 13 National Archives TS26/224

Chapter 3: The Fight Goes On.

1 National Archives WO167/710 2 National Archives WO167/710 3 National Archives WO167/818 4 National Archives WO167/455 5 National Archives WO167/710 6 Captain Peter Royle. Imperial War Museum 99/72/1 7 National Archives WO167/455 8 Captain Peter Royle. Imperial War Museum 99/72/1 9 National Archives WOl67/455 10 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 11 National Archives WO167/818 12 National Archives WO167/818 13 National Archives WO167/455 14 National Archives WO167/704 15 National Archives WO167/455 16 National Archives WO167/455 17 National Archives WO167/455 18 National Archives WO167/473 19 Captain Peter Royle. Imperial War Museum 99/72/1 20 National Archives WO167/705 21 National Archives WO167/705

Chapter 4: The Death of a Division.

1 H. Watt. Imperial War Museum 03/10/01 2 H. Watt. Imperial War Museum 03/10/01 3 H. Watt. Imperial War Museum 03/10/01 4 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 5 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1

Chapter 5: The Wounded.

1 National Archives WO32/10746 2 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 3 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 4 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 5 L.B. Shorrock. Imperial War Museum 80/2/1 6 L.B. Shorrock. Imperial War Museum 80/2/1 7 L.B. Shorrock. Imperial War Museum 80/2/1 8 W. Simpson. Imperial War Museum 96/41/1 9 W. Simpson. Imperial War Museum 96/41/1 10 W. Simpson. Imperial War Museum 96/41/1 11 Major W.W. Wagstaff. Imperial War Museum 93/11/1 12 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 13 National Archives FO916/2591 14 National Archives FO916/133 15 National Archives WO309/857 16 National Archives TS26/222 17 National Archives TS26/222 18 National Archives TS26/223 19 W. Simpson. Imperial War Museum 96/41/1

Chapter 6: The First Men Home.

* In his published memoirs Fred G.o.ddard stated that he was evacuated from Brest, from where the organized elements of his regiment were indeed rescued. However, the author believes G.o.ddard was actually evacuated from St Nazaire since his account includes vivid recollections of German aerial activity and the bombing of s.h.i.+ps in the harbour. Records show that no Allied s.h.i.+ps were lost to bombing at Brest.

1 J.F. Sweeney. Imperial War Museum 85/18/1 2 Don Clark, Cede Nullis: A Personal History of the 1940 Normandy Campaign, Pentland Press, 2000 3 National Archives WO167/818 4 National Archives WO167/473 5 Fred G.o.ddard, Battlefields of Life, Finial Publis.h.i.+ng, 2004 6 V. Tatton. Imperial War Museum 01/57/1 7 S.D. Coates. Imperial War Museum 06/42/1 8 S.D. Coates. Imperial War Museum 06/42/1 9 Sergeant Wally Hewitt. Imperial War Museum 67/378/1 10 Corporal Charles Raybould. Imperial War Museum 75/12/1 11 Corporal Charles Raybould. Imperial War Museum 75/12/1 12 J.F. Sweeney. Imperial War Museum 85/18/1 13 J.F. Sweeney. Imperial War Museum 85/18/1 14 Corporal Charles Raybould. Imperial War Museum 75/12/1 15 J.F. Sweeney. Imperial War Museum 85/18/1 16 J.F. Sweeney. Imperial War Museum 85/18/1

Chapter 7: The Long Way Home.

* More than sixty years later both these newspapers did get such stories into print when they published features on the author's book Hitler's British Slaves: Allied POWs in Germany, 193945.

1 National Archives FO371/24507 2 National Archives FO371/24507 3 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 4 Major G.S. Lowden. Imperial War Museum 80/6/1 5 Major G.S. Lowden. Imperial War Museum 80/6/1 6 D.N. Peterson. Imperial War Museum 90/4/1 7 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 8 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 9 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 10 National Archives FO371/24326 11 National Archives FO371/31908 12 National Archives FO371/24507 13 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 14 National Archives FO371/24326 15 National Archives WO222/16 16 National Archives FO371/24507 17 National Archives FO371/24507 18 National Archives FO371/24507 19 National Archives FO371/24507 20 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 21 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 22 National Archives FO371/31908 23 National Archives WO222/245 24 National Archives FO916/47 25 National Archives FO916/48 26 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 27 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 28 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 29 National Archives FO916/540 30 Geoff Griffin. Imperial War Museum 92/10/1 31 National Archives FO916/539 32 National Archives WO32/10757 33 National Archives WO32/10757 34 National Archives WO32/10757

Chapter 8: The Journey East.

1 National Archives TS26/207 2 National Archives TS26/204 United Nations War Crimes Commission 3 National Archives WO32/18489 4 National Archives TS26/214 5 National Archives FO916/2591 6 National Archives FO916/2591 7 H. Watt. Imperial War Museum 03/10/01 8 National Archives TS26/211 9 National Archives TS26/207 10 R.P. Evans. Imperial War Museum 90/18/1 11 R.P. Evans. Imperial War Museum 90/18/1 12 National Archives WO32/18489 13 W. Bampton. Imperial War Museum 94/49/1 14 W. Bampton. Imperial War Museum 94/49/1 15 Sergeant H.S. Houthakker. Imperial War Museum 98/5/1 16 Sergeant H.S. Houthakker. Imperial War Museum 98/5/1 17 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 18 National Archives TS26/207 19 National Archives TS26/211 20 W. Kite. Imperial War Museum 94/26/1 21 National Archives TS26/65A 22 National Archives TS26/207 23 National Archives TS26/221 24 R.A. Wilson. Imperial War Museum 83/41/1 25 John Forbes Christie. Imperial War Museum 88/47/1 26 W. Bampton. Imperial War Museum 94/49/1

Chapter 9: The Journey Continues.

1 National Archives CAB106/260 2 W. Bampton. Imperial War Museum 94/49/1 3 Fred Kennington, No Cheese After Dinner, privately published, 2004 4 National Archives TS26/207 5 National Archives TS26/207 6 Tommy Arnott, A Long Walk to the Garden, privately published, 2005 7 L.B. Shorrock. Imperial War Museum 80/2/1 8 W. Bampton. Imperial War Museum 94/49/1 9 L.B. Shorrock. Imperial War Museum 80/2/1 10 Ronald Holme, Adventures of a Brown Job, Imperial War Museum 19/82/1 11 Tommy Arnott, A Long Walk to the Garden, privately published, 2005

Chapter 10: The First Year.

1 E. Vernon Mathias. Imperial War Museum 85/8/1 2 National Archives WO32/18489 3 Sergeant H.S. Houthakker. Imperial War Museum 98/5/1 4 E. Vernon Mathias. Imperial War Museum 85/8/1 5 Major W.W. Wagstaff. Imperial War Museum 93/11/1 6 E. Vernon Mathias. Imperial War Museum 85/8/1 7 Sergeant H.S. Houthakker. Imperial War Museum 98/5/1 8 Fred Kennington, No Cheese After Dinner, privately published, 2004 9 R.P. Evans. Imperial War Museum 90/18/1 10 National Archives CAB106/214 11 Tommy Arnott, A Long Walk to the Garden, privately published, 2005 12 National Archives FO916/133 13 National Archives FO916/2574 14 National Archives FO371/2607

Chapter 11: Five Years.

1 National Archives WO32/10757 2 National Archives WO311/146 3 National Archives FO371/29607 4 National Archives FO371/29607 5 National Archives WO32/10746 6 National Archives WO32/10757 7 National Archives WO32/10757

Chapter 12: Going Home.

1 National Archives WO32/10757.

2 National Archives WO32/10757 3 National Archives WO32/10757 4 National Archives WO32/10757.

5 National Archives WO32/10757 6 National Archives WO32/10757 7 National Archives WO32/10757.

8 National Archives WO32/10757 9 National Archives WO32/10757.

10 National Archives TS26/63 11 National Archives TS26/63.

end.