An Historically Important
“Operation Micheal”
Prisoner of War Casualty
MILITARY MEDAL. 25203 SGT: J.WILKS. 106/ Coy. M.G.C. (Officially Impressed)
To.
25203. Sgt JAMES WILKS.
West Yorks Rgt 106th & 35th Coy Machine Gun Corps.(Infantry)
Died of Pneumonia in Captivity in the brutal Klein Wittenberg camp Klein Wittenberg. 24th October 1918.
[JAMES WILKS] 10th November 1889 --24th October 1918. (29)
James Wilks was a married man from Leeds, Yorkshire who had four children with his wife Margaret Anne ;. They were married on 20th February 1912. The children were Alfred, Mary, Catherine & James.
The family lived at 24 Highmarkland Street, off Ellerby Road,
Richmond Hill, Leeds. James joined the army on 11th January 1915.
Subsequent to James’ death Mrs Wilks received a “one off” £9 bonus grant on 16th January 1919 and thereafter an interim widows pension with child allowance of 36/3d (£1.53) per week from 14th July 1919. This was considerably increased on 8th January 1920 to a total of £9.16.10d per week. Margaret also received £69.17.11d back wages from James’ army account on 2nd June 1919.
[KLEIN WITTENBERG P.O.W. CAMP, GERMANY] ”THE HELL CAMP”
This now long forgotten German prisoner of war camp was almost certainly the most brutal and dangerous of all the WW1 German prisoner of war camps to which our captured troops were sent.
Living conditions were horrendous and prisoners were regularly beaten with rubber hosing and were strapped to posts with their arms tied above their heads for hours. They were also poorly fed and housed in totally inadequate conditions. Also savage dogs were set upon the inmates in order to terrorise them.
During the bitter winter of 1914-1915 there broke out in the camp a serious Typhus epidemic which the Germans did absolutely nothing to stop, with many of the British men and officers dying of this awful disease during the winter and well into 1915. This place had a terrible reputation and looking at the situation in hindsight it clearly exhibited all the awful forebodings of the treatment that was to be experienced in the Nazi extermination & concentration camps of WW2.
It is therefore not surprising that the life of Sgt James Wilks M.M. tragically ended there in late October 1918 due to a serious case of pneumonia. He had endured the awful camp conditions for the seven months since March 1918 and by the time the winter was again upon the prisoners, many of them were not strong enough to carry on any longer and succumbed to disease. James died just 18 days before the end of the war and was originally buried in the camp cemetery.
[REMEMBERED WITH ETERNAL HONOUR]
His body along with many others was later reinterred with eternal honour at the Berlin South-Western Cemetery (XIV.C.4.) where he now lies with many of his brave comrades who also lost their lives while in German captivity.
This is an Historic Medal which comes with two sheets of German POW records showing his name with capture location and cause of death. The later history and final demise of this fine soldier makes yet another important statement about shockingly poor German behaviour in time of war. James is also entitled to a War & Victory medal pair. As with many many thousands of such medals sent to the next of kin of our lost soldiers, the silver war medal will almost certainly have been sold for scrap at 6/- shillings by the widow and melted many years ago as she had four kids to support on very small government help.
They told our lads that this would be a “land fit for heroes”
The medal is in pleasing VF condition with signs of cleaning but is totally undamaged and was obviously occasionally worn with pride, probably by the widow, in memory of her fallen husband.
£695
[JAMES WILKS] 10th November 1889 --24th October 1918. (29)
James Wilks was a married man from Leeds, Yorkshire who had four children with his wife Margaret Anne ;. They were married on 20th February 1912. The children were Alfred, Mary, Catherine & James.
The family lived at 24 Highmarkland Street, off Ellerby Road,
Richmond Hill, Leeds. James joined the army on 11th January 1915.
Subsequent to James’ death Mrs Wilks received a “one off” £9 bonus grant on 16th January 1919 and thereafter an interim widows pension with child allowance of 36/3d (£1.53) per week from 14th July 1919. This was considerably increased on 8th January 1920 to a total of £9.16.10d per week. Margaret also received £69.17.11d back wages from James’ army account on 2nd June 1919.
[KLEIN WITTENBERG P.O.W. CAMP, GERMANY] ”THE HELL CAMP”
This now long forgotten German prisoner of war camp was almost certainly the most brutal and dangerous of all the WW1 German prisoner of war camps to which our captured troops were sent.
Living conditions were horrendous and prisoners were regularly beaten with rubber hosing and were strapped to posts with their arms tied above their heads for hours. They were also poorly fed and housed in totally inadequate conditions. Also savage dogs were set upon the inmates in order to terrorise them.
During the bitter winter of 1914-1915 there broke out in the camp a serious Typhus epidemic which the Germans did absolutely nothing to stop, with many of the British men and officers dying of this awful disease during the winter and well into 1915. This place had a terrible reputation and looking at the situation in hindsight it clearly exhibited all the awful forebodings of the treatment that was to be experienced in the Nazi extermination & concentration camps of WW2.
It is therefore not surprising that the life of Sgt James Wilks M.M. tragically ended there in late October 1918 due to a serious case of pneumonia. He had endured the awful camp conditions for the seven months since March 1918 and by the time the winter was again upon the prisoners, many of them were not strong enough to carry on any longer and succumbed to disease. James died just 18 days before the end of the war and was originally buried in the camp cemetery.
[REMEMBERED WITH ETERNAL HONOUR]
His body along with many others was later reinterred with eternal honour at the Berlin South-Western Cemetery (XIV.C.4.) where he now lies with many of his brave comrades who also lost their lives while in German captivity.
This is an Historic Medal which comes with two sheets of German POW records showing his name with capture location and cause of death. The later history and final demise of this fine soldier makes yet another important statement about shockingly poor German behaviour in time of war. James is also entitled to a War & Victory medal pair. As with many many thousands of such medals sent to the next of kin of our lost soldiers, the silver war medal will almost certainly have been sold for scrap at 6/- shillings by the widow and melted many years ago as she had four kids to support on very small government help.
They told our lads that this would be a “land fit for heroes”
The medal is in pleasing VF condition with signs of cleaning but is totally undamaged and was obviously occasionally worn with pride, probably by the widow, in memory of her fallen husband.
£695