Smith, Bill (Smudger)

Bill Smudger SmithBill (Smudger) Smith, my late father-in-law, was a PoW at Stalag VIIIB (and was a guest of the Chinese during the Korean War). Sadly, as usual, we could not get him to talk much about his experiences at the camp. Sad to say, he passed away recently (aged 83) and on sorting through his things we came across these photos (below).

We have no idea where these photos were taken, or who is in them. (We do know that Bill is not in any of them) but they are all stamped on the back Stalag VIIIB. So if anybody has any idea who is in the photos, or even remembers when or where they were taken, please let us know.

We’ve also found a small book in Bill’s possessions with a lot of names and addresses of people we presume he was at Stalag VIIIB with. There are names from as far afield as New Zealand and Canada. We are still sorting through it – but if anything else relating to Stalag VIII B comes up we will be happy to share it with other people.

Bill ‘Smudger’ Smith, passed away recently and, according to his family, he never spoke much about his experiences during the war. However, after his death, these photographs were found among his belongings.

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Received: October 2004
From: Steve Burns
On behalf of: Bill (Smudger) Smith

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