Moosburg Online: www.moosburg.org Stalag VII A
Stalag VII A: Oral history


Bob Cree

Trying to escape from Stalag VII A

"My father Private Bob Cree (a printer from Brighton) was captured in Italy on the 9th December 1944 and interned in Moosburg from Christmas day 1944 until the camp was liberated by the Americans on the 29th April 1945. He didn't say much about the camp but I know that for him this was the toughest period of the war. There was little or no food, the conditions were extremely overcrowded and lice ridden. The day usually involved boredom, cold, hunger and more boredom. They were also regularly taken out on work details to Munich to clear the rubble etc. that the Royal Air Force bombing had caused.

My father said that many films portray the Germans as idiots but they were smart and escaping was pretty impossible. However, my father and a friend made a dash for it whilst en route to Munich. They hid out in a barn and managed to get some food (eggs), but the German guards found them. The guards were not too bad but the higher ranking ones could be unpredictable and violent. He also said that he felt sorry for the Russian prisoners because they were treated the worst.

When my father returned home his family almost didn't recognise him. He was severely emaciated and what was left of his hair was now like straw from the malnutrition. He also had a lifelong hatred of Alsation dogs.

If there is anyone out there who remembers a Private Bob Cree who was in the Lincolnshire Regiment when captured, then contact me (his son Bob) on: [email protected]."

Top Source:

  • E-mails by Bob Cree jr., England, to Moosburg Online, March 1999

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