On 26th April 1941, LCpl Patrick Fury, 4th Queen’s Own Hussars, 1st Armoured Brigade, was captured in Greece, along with most of his regiment. There are very few recorded accounts of what was endured during those 4 long years of captivity.
Here is some of his story…
6 months earlier, Pat was in England with his wife and young daughter. A professional soldier who’d enlisted in 1929 in the 14th/20th Hussars, he’d left in 1938 to get married, but re-enlisted when war was declared.
Pat was photographed on arrival at Stalag XVIIIA, in Wolfsberg, Austria, near the Yugoslav border. This was a massive camp, sending many prisoners off to around 300 sub-camps in Austria to carry out war work for the Nazis.
(Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Vienna).
Pat was captured on 26th April by soldiers of the SS Liebstandarte Division. He and about 30 others were put on a small sailing vessel and taken across the Gulf of Corinth to Nafpaktos. This contemporary newspaper cutting shows a similar boat with SS motorcycle troops entering Nafpaktos harbour.
Prisoners were moved around the sub-camps as required, working for 12 hours a day, little more than slave labourers.
Pat is shown here in one camp, back row, right.
More news that he was indeed safe and well finally arrived in this letter, in late August 1941.
He would be away for another 4 years.
The first news for his family was this Red Cross postcard, in July 1941 – after nearly 3 months missing.
Concert parties were a popular diversion, and POWs made the most of what they could get to put on shows. Pat was a talented musician and performer – seen here in Lavamund camp, 2nd from right.
Like thousands of others, Pat endured a long and hard journey to captivity, whilst his family had no idea about his fate. They were marched, as shown here in Gravia, or were shunted around in filthy cattle trucks, the 1000 mile journey to Austria taking 4 months.
After moving to Flachau camp, Pat was the subject of this pencil drawing by A Duggan, POW 1090.
Arthur Duggan died from an illness in May 1942 in Furnitz work camp.
As the war came to an end, Allied soldiers were force-marched from camps in the East to as close to the Americans as possible, and away from the Russians.
Again, with millions of displaced persons across Europe, POWs just went off the grid, until, one day in August 1945, Pat just turned up safely at home.
He and Peggy went on to have 3 more children – Peter, Nicola and Caroline, and were married for over 40 years.
Patrick Donald Fury, soldier, born Ludlow 15th March 1912, died 14th April 1980 in Bournemouth, aged just 68, almost 39 years to the day since his capture.
