German Internment in England WW2

[Aflatmajor]

Hi

I've rcently discovered via my brothers birth cert. that our fathers occupation in 1947 was listed as Assistant Chief Warden,Control Commission Germany ( Civilian ) Wych Lane ,Gosport. On my birth cert. from 1949 he is listed as regular soldier. Anyone know which ( if any ) regiment controlled internees etc. I know in the 50s he was a Sergeant Major and was stationed in Germany thought to be in Dortmund.
My brother and I were not too bothered about him but my grandsons want to clear up this dead branch of their family tree and will not let it go.

Thank you

[Russell]

Hi Aflatmajor

The warmest of welcomes to TalkingScot

I am not up in military matters but we have quite a range of military links which might hold some answers for you.
There are members with a bit more knowledge so they will no doubt be able to give you some precise directions.

Thank goodness my grandchildren have'nt reached that stage in their questions.

Russell

[Currie]

Hello Aflatmajor,

I’m far from an expert but I’ve rounded up some information for you.

Am I reading it correctly, that he’s a civilian employee of the Control Commission? If that were the case he may have been demobbed as usual after the War and then commenced employment with the Commission for a while and reenlisted later.

This Soldier’s story tells how he was asked to join the Commission after demob but declined. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stor ... 8555.shtml

For some reading on British Occupation Policy as regards Germany see page 43 to 49 of this Google Book.
http://books.google.com/books?id=S-f-6x ... frontcover

Advanced search at Nation Archives in the period 1944 to 1950 search for ‘ccg employees’ (all words) or narrow it down to ‘control commission germany employees ccg’ (all words) and you’ll find a number of records. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/sear ... earchtext=

I guess most employees of the Commission would have been in Germany apart from those looking after Germans elsewhere. It doesn’t look promising as far as employment records are concerned, especially as in this page the letter from National Archives doesn’t seem to be referring just to employees within the British Zone in Germany. http://www.dpcamps.org/britishZone.html

You might have to get hold of his Army record to clarify the matter.
http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_rec ... rds.html#2

Info on this Gosport site http://www.localhistories.org/gosport.html reads
“During World War II 11,000 houses were damaged in Gosport and nearly 500 were destroyed. Furthermore 111 civilians were killed and 289 were wounded. In 1945 the council began to build a new council housing estate at Bridgemary and Rowner. German POW’s built the first houses.”

The last bunch of German POWs in Britain were sent home at about the end of 1948. I guess that if German POWs were kept for a while after the War and used for reconstruction someone would have had to have been responsible for them, kept them together, occupied, fed and whatever, no longer necessarily under military control but as detainees.

Hope this helps,
Alan

[Aflatmajor]

just to say thank you for your efforts so far. After all these years I was,nt too bothered but now its like an itch that cannot be scratched.

Up till she died my mother refused to talk about " Big Alex "but an aunt who was a nursing major knew him but cannot remember the regiment but remembers he was a ranker ( R) with stripes and crown she also reckoned he was wearing medals on his dress uniform that would be around 1960. I discovered he wanted to enroll me at the school for army brats at Strathallan but because it was non RC that was a nono to my family.
To clarify I was raised by an aunt and uncle and did not find out about my parents till I was 14 yo. The thing that really broke my heart was my English birth Cert. which at that time would have ruled me out of playing for Scotland.

Thanks again

Colin