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Auction: 23112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 611

'My unit, the 4th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, was sent to defend the Albert Canal in Belgium. There were only British troops in our area. Our officer put us into position, and that was the last we saw of him. We weren't ready - we were completely unprepared. The German troops who attacked us were the cream of the army - Rommel's troops. They overwhelmed us. I was captured on the 29th May 1940. I was 21. I was wounded in the wrist when I tried to surrender, and two or three of the boys by the side of me were killed. A German soldier said 'Tommy, the war is over for you'. After I was captured I saw Rommel going by.

The younger Germans were horrible, and knocked us about. We were marched through Holland to the German border. The summer of 1940 was very hot, and the Dutch put out water for us. When the Germans saw this, they kicked it over. At the German border, we were put on cattle trucks, and I was sent to Stalag VIIIB … '

George Ballard, a Territorial of the 4th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, recalls his unhappy fate in France in May 1940.

A Second World War campaign group of three awarded to Company Quarter-Master Sergeant E. F. Cox, Royal Berkshire Regiment

As a member of the 4th Battalion, he was reported as wounded and missing in May 1940, when his unit was all but annihilated in defending the Albert Canal: just 40 of his comrades were eventually evacuated from Dunkirk, the remainder being killed, wounded and / or taken P.O.W

1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue (5336115 C. Sjt. E. F. Cox, R. Berks.), contact marks to the last, otherwise very fine (3)

Edward Frederick Cox was born in Port Talbot, Wales on 24 October 1906.

A pre-war Territorial, he was reported as wounded and missing in action in Belgium on 25 May 1940, whilst serving as a Company Quarter Master Sergeant in the 4th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment.

It was a fate that befell most of his comrades, the Battalion being overwhelmed by the Germans on the Albert Canal. Just 40 of them finally got back to England via Dunkirk.

Cox sustained multiple wounds, which were treated in Belgium, prior to his removal to Stalag VB in early 1941. Having then also been held in Stalag XXIA in the first half of 1943, he was finally liberated from Stalag 383 at Hohenfels in the Rhineland in April 1945.

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Sold for
£160

Starting price
£100