Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare and interesting pair of original “Wartime Logs for British Prisoners”, both containing artwork from Colditz - some of which was subsequently reproduced in the fund raising publication Detour in 1946

Both printed by ATAR S.A., Geneva, 1944, and as gifted by the War Prisoners’ Aid of the Y.M.C.A. in Geneva to British P.O.Ws, 125mm. by 175mm., 113 pp., original binding

Volume I:

the page flanking the inside cover inscribed in pencil, ‘Lieut. S. C. Elms Neale, R.A., Oflag IVC Colditz, Saxony, Germany’, and ‘This Book Belongs To’, the page further inscribed in pencil, ‘Lieut. S. C. Elms-Neale, R.A., The 56th (King’s Own Royal) Anti-Tank Regt., Royal Regiment of Artillery, Territorial Army, June 6th 1944 at Oflag IVC Colditz, Germany’, with pasted down Y.M.C.A. forwarding letter bearing red ink ‘Gepruft’ stamp of Oflag IVC, the central section of art paper containing five water colours, one of them captioned ‘The Gate. Oflag IVC’ and dated ‘Ju. 1944’, another, ‘Move- Feb. 1945. Oflag IVC’, and two of ‘Cooks at Work’, as reproduced in the 1946 fund raising publication Detour (plate No. 28), and therefore by Lieutenant John Watton, Border Regiment, together with an ink and wash drawing of a British officer dining in style, dated ‘5.3.45’, and occasional title references and plate numbers in ink by ‘Lieut. J. E. R. Wood’ (the editor of Detour); and pp. 55-58 with a handwritten account of the chaotic final days of the Greek campaign, entitled ‘Greece 1941 - A Page from a Tank Subaltern’s Diary’, signed by the author, ‘Dennis E. Bartlett, R.T.R.’ (another feature by Bartlett appears in Detour, namely ‘Tracks in Greece’, pp.131-134), overall in excellent condition

Volume II:

all pages unused excepting the central art section, this with water colours of a German guard and sentry box at Colditz, with signature and date ‘1944’; another titled ‘The French Arrive - March 1945’, with ink inscribed caption on previous page, both as reproduced in Detour (plate No. 30), and therefore also by John Watton; two caricatures in water colour entitled ‘Stooge’ and ‘Posten’, together with another of ‘Fort 8, Posen’, and a pencil sketch of a Colditz doorway, all initialed ‘IMB’, the letter ‘M’ raised for the artist’s surname, so most likely Lieutenant I. B. Macaskie, Royal West Kent Regiment; a pastel sketch of a seated officer reading; and a charcoal and wash caricature of a German guard bending down to pick up a dropped cigarette, this last initialed ‘JW’ (again John Watton), and dated ‘1944’; and another page with pencilled names and addresses of two American servicemen, most probably members of 273rd Regiment, 69th U.S. Infantry Division, which unit liberated the castle on 16 April 1945, one side of spine with vertical tear, but otherwise in excellent condition £3000-3500

S. C. T. E. Neale was originally commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Regiment, in November 1937, shortly after which the Battalion was re-designated 56th (King’s Own Royal) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery.

In September 1939, Neale’s unit was mobilised as part of 42nd (East Lancashire) Division (Territorials), in which capacity it joined the B.E.F. in France in April 1940. Taken P.O.W. on 28 May, he ended up in Oflag VIIB at Eichstatt, Bavaria, where, on the night of 3-4 June 1943, around 65 British officers escaped by tunnel - Neale was among them, his name appearing in a list of participants in Detour; so, too, in an accompanying poem ‘Eichstatt Epic’, by Lieutenant G. S. Drew, in which he is credited with ‘stooging hard from every crack’ (see pp. 64-66). Among his fellow escapers were Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. I. Merritt, V.C., of Dieppe raid fame, and Captain the Lord Arundell of Wardour, Wiltshires, and Captain the Earl of Hopetown, Lothian & Border Horse.

But it was just two weeks before all of the escapers had been rounded up, the sheer scale of the breakout having prompted a massive manhunt - led by a 50,000-strong force of enemy troops, police and Hitlerjugend. And it was as a direct result of this escapade that a total of 76 officers were transferred from Eichstatt to Oflag IVC in Colditz Castle at the end of the same month, but not before a challenging sojourn in Schloss Willibaldsburg - ‘The doors of a genuine 15th Century lavatory, situated off the yard, were thrown open to us and we had the novel experience of using a 100 foot drop combating a very strong upward draught’.

Whether Neale became involved in further escape activity in Colditz remains unknown, but at the very least his qualities as a “stooge” must surely have been employed on occasion, possibly even in events leading up to the ingenious “Franz Joseph” escape attempt in September 1943, a couple of months after his arrival - this the occasion where Lieutenant Michael “The Red Fox” Sinclair, K.R.R.C., disguised himself as Stabsfeldwebel Rothenburger. Be that as it may, Neale remained on the strength of the Territorial Army after his liberation in April 1945, and gained advancement to the rank of Major in the Hertfordshire Regiment prior to relinquishing his commission in the 1950s. He was also awarded the Efficiency Decoration.


Of his fellow cast members:

D. E. Bartlett was taken P.O.W. in Greece in September 1941, while serving as a Lieutenant in the 3/Royal Tank Regiment and, in common with Neale, was among those Eichstatt escapers transferred to Colditz in June 1943. His portrait by Watton appears in Detour, together with an accompanying tribute that describes him as an ‘escaping type’ who sat on Colditz’s Escape Committee. As such, he acted as a “ghost” for Lieutenant Mike Harvey, R.N., a role that caused the Germans much confusion when the former made a bid for freedom via the castle’s air raid shelter in March 1944. He was awarded the M.C.

I. B. Macaskie was taken P.O.W. in June 1940, while serving in the B.E.F. as a Lieutenant in the Royal West Kent Regiment and, in common with Neale, was among those Eichstatt escapers transferred to Colditz in June 1943 - his account of the participants temporary incarceration in Schloss Willibaldsburg was published in Detour.

J. F. Watton was taken P.O.W. in June 1940, while serving in the B.E.F. as a Lieutenant in the Border Regiment. An early intern in Colditz, where he arrived in August 1941, his skills as an artist were quickly in popular demand, whether in painting scenery for the theatre shows or portrait work for his fellow officers. Much of his work was subsequently reproduced in Detour, so, too, the following tribute:

‘One of Britain’s young men who were part of the “blood and the sweat and the tears”. He was captured in the Dunkirk days fighting at the head of his platoon. While in transit between camps he did a “train jump”. He was then taken to Oflag IVC. An artist at heart, he spent hours daily drawing the different officers in the camp and any and everything else that would do for a subject. His gratefulness to those who sat for his sketches was almost embarrassing. Actually, this was simply a manifestation of his unbounded generosity. In the early days of the war many of his sketches were sent home. Not only did they give courage to the parents of those who were interned, but they also portrayed the life and morale of the prisoners of war in those dark days. John’s artistry is exceeded only by his pleasant and exemplary personality. A devout Catholic, he is one of the few who really live as others preach.’

J. E. R. Wood was taken P.O.W. in the Dieppe Raid in August 1942, while serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Engineers. He was awarded the M.C. As stated above, he subsequently edited Detour, in which his portrait by Watton appears, with the following tribute by a fellow officer:

‘Jerry, a mining engineer and a farmer from Vancouver, B.C. Well over 6 feet, red hair, and a face that might well have been taken for a piece of the Rocky Mountains. Jerry never let up in Germany and in a most extraordinary way mixed studying with escaping. Jerry was often to be seen disappearing into a tunnel with tools in one hand and a German Grammar in the other. In this way he wasted no time. An inveterate attender of lectures on any subject whatsoever, he was always to be seen well to the fore, notebook in hand. This book is a great tribute to his perseverance, as once having selected his victim, he got no peace until he came across. Jerry is a great character, and one of the most popular personalities of the camp.’