Private Alfred F Rollason

Alfred F Rollason enlisted into The Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

In November 1942 the 13th Battalion, The Warwickshire Regiment, was turned over to airborne forces and redesignated as the 8th (Midlands) Parachute Battalion (8th Para Bn) in November 1942 and came part of the 3rd Parachute Brigade of the newly formed 6th Airborne Division in 1943. At the end of the following month 17 officers and 193 other ranks from the battalion attended course 44.

Private Rollason undertook Parachute Jump Course 44 at RAF Ringway. Course 44 ran from 28 December 1942 to 8 January 1943, on this course Pte Rollaston suffered concussion after 2 Balloon and 4 Aircraft descents and was unable to complete the course. He was put on the next course, Course 45 which ran from 4 to 13 January 1945. Pte Rollason completed the course after doing one more aircraft descent.

He was posted to HQ and Defence Platoon, 3rd Parachute Brigade and jumped on D Day on Operation Overlord into Normandy. Unable to make it to the rendezvous point (RV) he hid in a farmhouse but was taken a Prisoner of War on 6 June 1944.and was sent to initially to Stalag X11A Limberg for about 1 month before being transferred to Stalag IV-D Torgau.

He arrived on at Stalag IV-D on 13 September 1944. Torgau itself did not house POW’s as such but acted as an administration centre assigning prisoners to the various Arbeitkommandos (workcamps’) around the region. Pte Rollason was held in BE12 Bitterfeld where he was made to work at Grube Golpa an open caste Lignite (brown coal) Mine supplying fuel to the major power station there. Work involved loading railway wagons and for a little ‘light relief’ prisoners would throw rocks into the wagon axle boxes causing a number of derailments.

When his guards discovered that Pte Rollason was a skilled carpenter he used to have to accompany them to their houses where he fixed up shelves and cupboards etc.

The camp was liberated by the US Army on 14 April 1945 he eventually arrived back in England on 13 May 1945, where, after extended leave, he was posted to Royal Artillery, at Kinmel Camp North Wales where he stayed until being demobbed in January 1947.

Alfred Rollaston died in 1974 aged 51 years.