To mark International Red Cross day we would like to share the story of Jimmy Archer and Edmund Milnes. First, Jimmy. As his original Red Cross Record shows, he gave an address in Scarborough for his next of kin and he wore size 6 boots and a cap sized at 6 & 7/8ths. It also records the dates on which parcels were sent to him. Jimmy served with the 5th Battalion of the Green Howards, and he was captured at Got el Ualeb in the western desert on 4th June 1942. So badly mauled were the 5th (and 4th ) battalions that they ceased to exist, and they were never reconsititued as fighting units.
Initially, Jimmy was sent to an Italian Prisoner of War Camp, simply designated PG73. This was a camp at Fossoli, north of Modena in northern Italy. When the Italian government sought an armistice, most PoWs were transferred to camps in Germany, in Jimmy’s case he was sent to Stalag 8B at Lamsdorf (now Łambinowice). Though this was his main camp, like all prisoners Jimmy was sent out to work at an Arbeitslager or work camp. As you can see from his record card, he was sent to a work camp designated as E715. This was Monowice, an industrial factory part of the I. G. Farben chemical works. What makes this so incredible is that Monowice formed part of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp complex.
Jimmy was not the only Green Howard to work at Monowice. Edmund Milnes from Woodlesford near Leeds, also of the 5th Battalion, worked there too. Like Jimmy he was captured during the fighting at Got el Ualeb.
Tragically, Edmund was one of 38 British PoWs killed during an American Air Force raid on the Monowice factory on 20th August 1944. Originally buried on the Auschwitz site, he was later reinterred in the Krakow Rakowicki Cemetery on 15th July 1948.
Today we celebrate the work of the Red Cross, past and sadly, present. Were it not for the work of the Red Cross and their diligent record keeping during WW2, the stories of men like Jimmy and Edmund may have been lost.