Connections: A Family History

George "Georgie" Venables born 4 January 1916, baptised 30 January 1916 at Doncaster Road United Methodist Chapel. He started work on the London North Eastern Railways as a railway checker and lived at 14 Crossgate, Mexborough. 

​

I am very grateful to the Venables Family Facebook, Chris Brook,  Gillian and Martin Hudson. Their recollection if talks with George have added to this story. More information can be found on the Venables Blog.

 

During the Second World War, on 13 Feb 1941, Georgie joined the Royal Navy (number 261490).   Georgie served on board three ships, all of which were torpedoed - we have the date of one of these bombing as 29 May 1942, but don't know which ship. Georgie joined the crew of HMT Horatio on 14 Sep 1942.

​

The HMT Horatio (T153) was not a Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB), but rather a British Shakespearian-class naval trawler that served as a minesweeper during World War II. Temporary Acting Lieutenant Commander Charles Robertson took command on 24 Jan but apparently was killed in an accident only four days later.  Command was taken up by Acting Lieutenant Commander Henry Silvester Warren on 20 Feb 1941. Around April of the same year, Horatio received a new commanding officer, Temporary Lieutenant Charles Alfred Lemkey, who was to remain the trawler's captain for remainder of its career. The trawler took part in a number of convoys during World War II. It is closely associated with MTBs because it was torpedoed and sunk by a German motor torpedo boat (Schnellboot / S-boat) named S-58.

​

​On 7 July 1942, Leading Seaman William Harold Leon Simpson RNPS was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for "courage and steadfastness in beating off an attack on H.M.T. Horatio by two groups of three enemy aircraft, destroying one aircraft and seriously damaging another.

 

On 7 Jan 1943 While conducting minesweeping and patrol duties during the North African campaign, the trawler was ambushed and torpedoed by the German S-boat S-58 off Cap de Garde, near Bône, Algeria. The attack was devastatingly swift; out of the entire crew, only two crew members survived (Stephen Hooper and George Venables). They were rescued from the water and taken as prisoners of war by the German.[1} He was wounded in the head and leg.

​

We are grateful for family recollections - this from Ian, his grandson:  "I was born in 1943 when Uncle George was missing in action. I cannot imagine what his close family felt throughout this time. Anyway Mum told me I was blessed with George as one of my Christian names out of love/respect/remembrance. I do owe Uncle George more than being blessed with his name but I will return to this."

 

"As I was also told, whether at the same time as the above I am not sure, although I suspect at a later date these facts as with respect to George and his war. There was always a great reluctance to discuss the war years, they probably just wanted to forget the horrors. Uncle George was sunk three times but Mum said on the last occasion he was the only survivor and that he had said that this was due entirely to him taking over the ‘crows nest’ duty of a friend who was sick. The ship was struck by torpedoes which must have hit the ammunition and the ship exploded beneath him. By good fortune he had ignored regulations and not fastened the harness, if he had he said he would have gone down with the ship. My Mum became rather emotional when she told to me her older brother had said at this point he believed he was going to drown but then he saw/imagined, you choose, the faces of his 6 Sisters in the waves. Thereafter he was picked up by a U boat and ultimately deposited in Italy.".

 

Below:  This is a copy of the ex-prisoner-of-war questionnaire that he had to fill out on his return to the UK after the war.  .​​

​

​

​

​​​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

Research on these camp has revealed that Campo 66 (often referred to as Camp 66) was an Italian prisoner-of-war and transit camp located in Capua, Italy, Near Naples.  It was operated primarily as a major transit and holding camp for Allied prisoners of war (including British, South African, New Zealand, and American troops) captured during the North African campaign. When he was recovered he was added to the work gangs and they 

​

Camp 52 was another holding camp, little of it remains today. But in the spring of 1943 the prisoners were marched north towards Poland and Germany and ended up at Stalag VIIIB - also known as Königshütte - it was later renamed Stalag 344. {2}.  Under the Geneva Convention, lower-ranking POWs could be forced to work as long as it wasn't directly dangerous or part of the immediate war effort (though this line was frequently blurred). In Königshütte, they were deployed to the local coal mines, heavy industries, and infrastructure networks.  Poor Georgie, joined up for a life on the ocean wave, and here he was, back with railways and coal mining!!

​

From April 1944, Georgie was deployed to the Arbeitskommando (Working Party) E749 located at Peiskretscham (now Pyskowice, Poland). E749 typically held a contingent of around 180 to 200 British and Canadian prisoners. The "E" prefix designated an English-speaking camp. Prisoners here were forced into brutal, back-breaking manual labour for the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Reich Railway). Venables's daily life would have consisted of using picks and shovels to excavate ground for bridges and tunnels, laying down heavy steel tracks, and unloading immense amounts of gravel and cement. 

​

Like most prisoners in Upper Silesia, Georgis time at Peiskretscham came to a sudden and harsh end in January 1945. As the Soviet Red Army advanced rapidly from the east, the German military evacuated the sub-camps. Georgie and his fellow prisoners were forced out into the sub-zero winter temperatures on what became known as the "Long March" or "Death March" westward into Germany. The prisoners (up tom 80,000 of them)  marched hundreds of miles under-clothed and starving before eventually being liberated by Western Allied forces (typically American or British troops) in April or May 1945 as the war ended.  A very good description can be found here on Wikipedia, {3}

 

Upon his return to England, and an extended stay in hospital he was posted to HMS Victory (the shore based headquarters of the RN.  Some of the questions he was asked in his debrief included:

​

• were you lectured in your unit on how to behave in the event if capture?                                            NO

• were you specially interrogated by the enemy?                                        FERRYVILLE, Tunis, indirect questions

• ESCAPES ATTEMPTED. Did you make any attempted or partly successful escapes?                       N/A

• SABOTAGE: Did you do any sabotage or destruction of enemy plant, war material, communications.                      when employed on working parties or during escape?                                                                         N/A

• COLLABORATION: Do you know only British or American personnel who collaborated with the enemy,                  or in any way helped the enemy against other allied prisoners of war?                                                N/A

 

A book containing his story has been written but is now lost - however if that book was published it shouldn't be difficult to obtain. Enquiries are currently underway.