Recollections of Harold Edmonde Isherwood Bennett's long march.

MDeansJAG[Ser#-DoB]-251114-16.jpg

Title

Recollections of Harold Edmonde Isherwood Bennett's long march.

Description

Harold was shot down in 1942 and swam for hours off Cape Gris Nez before being picked up by the Germans. Ended up in Stalag Luft 111, where he met Dixie Deans, the early founder of the Tally Ho Escaping club. He arrived at Fallingbostel in August 1944 and spent nine months there.

6 April 1945 saw him on the March from Fallingbostel, with one stop at Lüneburg Heath. One man who had carried his piano accordion collapsed and had to leave it where it was. Recollects the Gresse incident when prisoners of war were victims of friendly fire.

After the liberation they were told they could get back if they arranged their own transport. A party of volunteers entered Ratzeburg, took the fire engine, loaded it with 28 prisoners of war and drove away meeting up with the Army about 3 May 1945.

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Format

One typewritten sheet

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

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Identifier

MDeansJAG[Ser#-DoB]-251114-16

Citation

Harold Bennett, “Recollections of Harold Edmonde Isherwood Bennett's long march.,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 8, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/60064.