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| Joe manning an anti-aircraft gun on top of the main gun emplacement at Batterie Todt |
Dagner, who was a Marine Gunner, was captured in the Pas
de Calais by Canadian troops in September
1944. He worked on the huge guns which fired across the Channel and we believe
he was stationed at the Batterie Todt near Cap Gris Nez which is now a museum.
My friend's father was killed on a U-Boat at Koenigsberg and his widow and her son (then 3 years
old) managed to escape Koenigsberg just before the Russian occupation of East Prussia and ended up in Regensburg. His mother became acquainted with
Joe Dagner through a POW correspondence and she and the boy moved to England to join him in 1948. Joe worked on
various farms around the country and died in his 70's in the late 1970's.
Joe never went back to Germany - although born in Bavaria, his family and connections were in the Leipzig area which ended up in the Russian zone, latterly the DDR.
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I
was amazed when I realised GWCC 613 had been at Stainton. It puts more of a human face on things when there's a connection
with an actual inmate. It would be nice if any of the former British staff turned up (on November 1st). We think
the pictures were all taken in France.
He was put on a ship for transport to Canada but the ship was torpedoed (by a German U-Boat!) off the coast of Northern Ireland and survivors were landed there. He never went to Canada and ended up in British POW camps instead. The card from Stainton (GWC 613) is not dated but was probably one of his last camps before release.
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