Twenty five pencil drawings recording the evacuation of Philip Dark and his fellow POWs from Marlag O to Lubeck between 10th April and 7th May 1945.
Transcription of note inscribed and dated ‘(Memory?) 20.VI.02 ’
‘APRIL-MAY: we were marched out of Marlag destination Lubeck. The first night we were ‘lodged’ in a pit, used blankets for a tent; next in open fields not far from a main road, flares dropped by allies; then got shot up by our own planes, the night after this were put in a wood and had flares dropped over us: terrified bombs would be dropped on us and just wanted to up and go but any movement would have precipitated them – like rabbits in a cars headlights. Later went through Hamburg in a cattle truck and horrified at such devastation; just shells of buildings, sometimes with radiators sticking out on either side of the remains of a wall, then ended up in a barracks in Lubeck, where did drawings of horses and carts, people cooking outside, people sleeping, last one is of Geoff (?Whitehall, indistinct) with whom I shared on the March. A detailed account of all this is in my mss’.
a. Camping on the March. Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
b. Camping on the March.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
c. ‘…lodged in a pit, used blankets for a tent…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
d. Camping ‘in open fields…had flares dropped over us…’. Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
e. On the March.
Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
f. Straffed by British Tempests on the March.
Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
g. Studies of the Tempests that straffed the POWs on the March.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
h. ‘…were put up in a Wood and had flares dropped on us…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
i. ‘…went through Hamburg in a cattle truck, and horrified by the destruction…’. Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
j. ‘…Hamburg …just shells of buildings with radiators sticking out on either side of the remains of a wall…’.
Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
k. Ruins of Hamburg, and ‘Lubeck…where did drawings of horses and carts…’.
Pencil. 11.25 x8 inches.
l. Ruins of Hamburg, and ‘Lubeck …where did drawings of horses and carts…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
m. ‘Lubeck …where did drawings of horses and carts…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
n. ‘…ended up in a barracks in Lubeck…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
o. ‘…ended up in a barracks in Lubeck…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
p. ‘.. ended up in a barracks in Lubeck…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
q. ‘…barracks in Lubeck, people cooking outside…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
r. ‘POW’ warning to allied planes not to straff them on the March, or where to drop supplies.
Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
s. ‘…barracks in Lubeck, people cooking outside…’.
Pencil. 8x11.25 inches.
t. ‘…barracks in Lubeck, people cooking outside…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
u. ‘…barracks in Lubeck, people cooking outside…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
v. Lubeck, POW sleeping at the end of the March.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
w. Lubeck, POW sleeping at the end of the March.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.
x. POW asleep on the March.
Pencil. Dated ‘26th Apr’. 8x11.25 inches.
91599.24
y. Lubeck ‘…Geoff (?Whitehall) with whom I shared on the March…’.
Pencil. 11.25x8 inches.