The two paintings of Stalag IVB

The two paintings of Stalag IVB

Text provides an explanation of how the paintings were acquired.

One printed sheet

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MMaddocksR[Ser#-DoB]-100808-01

THE TWO PAINTINGS ARE OF P.O.W CAMP STALAG LUFT 1VB
RAF BOMBER COMMAND WW2
I flew my last mission from Holme on spalding moor on 18th march 1944 in a Halifax mk3 lw655 on a bombing mission heading for Frankfurt, on that night I was in what we nick named “the dust bin” the under belly gun turrent
We were getting very near Frankfurt when we got shot down and had to bail out by parachute, one of the crew died at the scene on that night, the rest of the crew were eventually caught and ended up in stalag luft 1vb I have many stories I could tell you of the things we did and got up to in the camp, but that’s another story.
One day while at the camp R Maddocks held an art exhibition in one of the camp huts, so I went along for a look at his work and ended up buying the two paintings of the camp for one bar of chocolate, chocolate was used for battering and buying things you wanted, soon after buying the paintings the soviet army was advancing on Poland so the germans made the decision to evacuate the camp, we were made to go on what some call THE LONG MARCH, we were made to march 500 miles and ended up at felingbostle in germany and the painting came with me on the march too, that why the paintings are a little tatty and damaged, I will be [inserted] 92 [deleted] 2 [inserted] 5 [/inserted] 95) in December and still very much alive to this day.