A Suffolk army regiment who were captured in Tobruk during the Second World War will be remembered at an event in November.
The event Saving Stories of Suffolk Soldiers for the Future: The 67th Medium Regiment R.A. T.A. in WW2 will be held on Saturday, November 9, at The Hold in Fore Street.
Jane Bradburn whose father Ken Bailey from Orford Street, Ipswich served in the regiment has helped organise the event and has managed to gather a considerable number of documents, photos, letters, and recordings related to the regiment's story over the past 20 years.
From 1pm to 2 pm on the day there will be an opportunity for small groups to access the records related to the regiment at The Hold.
At 2pm, Mrs Bradburn will be giving a presentation along with Maureen Stiles whose father Frank Edward Slinn also served in the regiment and Andrew Beal who helped set up The Ipswich War Memorial Project which has a page dedicated to the regiment.
Consisting of 232 Battery (Ipswich) and 231 Battery (Woodbridge and Felixstowe) the regiment was formed in 1939 and was initially involved in the defence of southern England.
The regiment was deployed to North Africa in 1941 before German General Erwin Rommel outmanoeuvred them.
Mrs Bradburn said: "They were quite successful until May 1942 and then Rommel succeeded in getting round them and he pinned them all into Tobruk. In June 1942 the whole regiment was captured because they were stuck in Tobruk and then they were shipped off as POWs to Italy."
She points out that not only did the regiment have to face the indignity of surrender but horrific conditions as POWs particularly while they were waiting to be taken to Italy.
She said: "There were 30,000 men captured at Tobruk and they had to be held in Benghazi in dreadful conditions and some of them got dysentery and jaundice and died.
"In Italy it was slightly better, but they were transferred from different camps and then in September 1942 Italy changed sides and the Italians thought that the war was over and a lot of the guards guarding the POW camps just went home."
Although some of the men such as Jane's father managed to escape to allied lines, France or Switzerland sometimes with the help of Italian partisans some of the men were recaptured by the Germans and sent to German POW camps.
Mrs Bradburn said: "Some of them were sent to work camps in Poland in the coal mines and they saw dreadful things. Some of them were around Auschwitz and they saw the treatment of the Jews.
"When the Russians were coming from the east the Germans decided to move all the prisoners west and some of them walked in the winter months for miles and miles across Germany in dreadful conditions."
The Evening Star, the predecessor of The Ipswich Star, also played a key role in publishing photos of the men letting their relatives know they were still alive.
"The relatives in Ipswich didn't know if they were dead or alive and then newspaper reports started being printed with photos which must have been so comforting."
Mike Rumsey whose father Harold who was from Ipswich and served in the regiment as a sergeant has written a book about his father's experiences ‘Diary of a Suffolk Soldier’ priced £20 which will be available for sale at the event on November 9.
Tickets cost £5.
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