British PoW diaries released
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.RUSSIA YESTERDAY handed over the originals of 1,158 Second World War British documents collated by the Germans and then captured and taken by Soviet forces to Moscow after they had overrun Berlin.
Tony Blair was given copies of the documents on a Moscow visit in 1997 after negotiations between Moscow and London.
President Boris Yeltsin told the Prime Minister then that he would ask officials to start the necessary paperwork to send the original documents back to Britain.
They include 10 diaries by prisoners of war. Three of these were by British and seven by Commonwealth servicemen.
One of the British diaries was that of Michael Duncan, one of the few men to escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp and reach freedom. His diaries, two 100-page orange notebooks written in a neat pencilled hand and illustrated with sketch maps, were kept in a Russian archive.
Duncan was a lieutenant with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry who was wounded and taken prisoner at Dunkirk.
He was awarded the Military Cross after his escape. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He died of a heart attack in 1983, aged 72. A copy of the diary has been returned to his son Peter.
"My father never really talked about the war, mainly because of the hellish time he had as a prisoner," said Mr Duncan, who lives near Edinburgh.
"It was as if he tried to put most of it behind him after all the terrible things he saw and the suffering he underwent."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments