South Wales Echo

War-time love letters thrown over PoW fence spark hunt for relatives

- CHRISTIE BANNON Reporter christie.bannon@walesonlin­e.co.uk

LOVE letters written by two prisoners of war as they were held in neighbouri­ng war camps have been found in a loft.

The letters were sent between Gerry Parry, who was born in Cardiff, and a Polish woman called Alicja Juckiewicz, in 1944.

The pair had been captured during the Second World War and were taken to neighbouri­ng prisoner of war camps in Germany but started writing daily letters to each other and threw them through the security fence for the other to find.

Ken Ogilvie, 71, from Bleasby in Nottingham­shire, came across the letters while he was researchin­g the death of 41 airmen from RAF Syerston, near his home.

The retired accountant was approached by a Polish friend – whose aunt was Ms Juckiewicz – who found the letters in her loft.

Mr Ogilvie began researchin­g the two prisoners of war and discovered that Mr Parry returned to Swansea after leaving the camp in Germany.

He said: “An elderly friend of mine, who is Polish, asked me if I could help her to find out about a young RAF aircrewman who wrote some letters to her late aunt during November 1944.

“Having researched Gerry Parry I found that his aircraft, Lancaster bomber JA926 of 101 squadron, bomber command, based at RAF Ludford Magna, was shot down and crashed near Birkenfeld, Germany, whilst on a mission to bomb Mannheim, Germany, in September 1943.

“Gerry presumably managed to bail out of the aircraft as he was captured and taken to a prisoner of war camp, Stalag IV B, which was located about 30 miles north of Dresden.

“The letters show that Gerry obviously took a liking to a young Polish girl who was briefly interred in the prisoner of war camp next door and they started to correspond daily by writing a letter each in their own language, and throwing them through the security fencing for the other to retrieve.”

Mr Parry wrote a number of letters to Ms Juckiewicz, who he called Lili, including one on November 11, 1944, where he told her about his life before joining the RAF.

It says: “I am 22-years-old and before joining the RAF I was a floor walker in FW Woolworth, a big department­al store, maybe you have heard of them – they are all over the world.

“It was quite a good job once you got past the first year or two, nice and easy. I hope to go back to it when the war is over.

“If when the war is over you would like to write to me and let me know how everything is – write to: G Parry, Plough Inn, Morriston, Swansea.”

While another letter dated November 18, 1944, shows them chatting about popular sports in their home countries and how he was impressed by her English skills.

It reads: “I must say that your English is coming along very well. It is too bad that we can’t speak to each other but we are doing the next best thing.

“I suppose that if we got together we could make ourselves understood in some language or other. I’m afraid the Polish language would be a bit too much

 ??  ?? A letter sent from Gerry Parry to Alicja Juckiewicz while both were prisoners of war
A letter sent from Gerry Parry to Alicja Juckiewicz while both were prisoners of war
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