Description
A collection of 16 letters [some only in part] from Flight Officer Duncan Black of the Royal Air Force to his parents in Edinburgh, dated from June 1943 [when he moved from Dulag Luft] to November 1944, written in pencil on official Kriegsgefangenenpost notepaper/ postcards, various descriptions of life as a "kriegy", in June 1943 "life at Stalag III is of a totally different character to Dulag Luft... we are becoming as interdependent as a set of chessmen... my crew... " by October 1944 "we have been living on half rations for some time but no serious hardship has been felt as yet. Our vegetables were excellent this year."; food parcels, "games parcels are allowed to me outside my clothing parcels.. I should like a pair of gym shoes and a pair of or two of pyjamas, " ; the camp theatre, "we are staging under the very able leadership of a certain F/L Hall 'Dover Road', 'As you like it'... the standard of these productions is amazingly high. A good repertory company in England would find us a rival.", with 3 photographs of Black and friends
Footnote
Note: Stalag Luft III [Permanent Camp for Airman #3] was a German camp for airforce servicemen based in near Zagen in Poland. The camp opened in 1942, with the North compound for British servicemen opened in June 1943. The position of the camp was selected in an attempt to prevent escape by tunnelling. However, this camp was the location of two of the war's most famous escape attempts, potrayed in film in The Wooden Horse and The Great Escape.
There is no mention of the escape attempts in the letters from Duncan Black, not something that would be easy to get past the censors! Black does portray camp life in detail, especially the camp theatre, library and sporting activities. Officers camps, such as Stalag Luft III, were very different from those for lower level soldiers and NCO's where food and clothing were in short supply.