Lance Sergeant John E Humphreys OBE DL

John Humphreys joined the Army as a boy soldier on the 4 April 1936.

He was serving with 296 Field Company, RE as a Lance Sergeant, when he was taken prisoner in Tobruk on the 21 June, 1942. He then spent ten days in an Italian Hospital at Benghazi with dysentery, before being sent to a prison camp at Brindisi in Italy in July 1942. He was then transferred to a prison cam p at Lucca, where he remained until November 1942, when he was moved once again, this time to Camp 70 at Monte Urano. He remained in this prison camp from November 1942 until the 13 September 1943.

Extract from his Escape and Evasion Report Interview, 5 January 1944.

Escape. From Camp 70, Monte Urano 13 Sep 1943.

There was a bit of a row going on between some of our men and the sentries, and [I] took the opportunity of getting over a wall in company with:

Spr. Williams. R.

Cpl. Duffy.

[We] travelled on foot all the way, except on one occasion when [we] got an inland branch-line train from Fileto to Artessa. [We] had civilian clothes.

[We] reached the British lines on 29 Sep 1943 at Lucera.

In 1944 he volunteered for Airborne Forces and did parachute course No 124, at R.A.F. Ringway, 8 – 21 July 1944. His Parachute Instructors comments: Good as N.C.O. & stick commander. Cheerful & good performer. This course included 4 officers and 166 ORs and was to train men to become reinforcements to the Airborne Division.

He took part in Operation ‘Market’, parachuting onto D.Z. ‘X’ at Renkum Heath in Holland, on Sunday, 17 September 1944. As a Lance Sgt B troop 1 Para Sqn RE. He subsequently fought at the Arnhem Road Bridge area for four days before being captured, with three others of his unit.

One day after they had been captured at Arnhem Bridge, four of the defenders (all of the 1st Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers) of the Van Limburg Stirum School alongside the bridge – escaped from a transit prison camp at Emmerich, a town on the Rhine just three miles inside Germany. Making their way through the night across country, they reached the river bank where they spent the day hiding in a hut. When night came they stole a boat and, keeping close to the south bank, drifted and paddled down the Rhine and into the Waal until they reached Nijmegen. They came ashore in the early hours of Saturday 23 September to be challenged by some very surprised soldiers of the 12 Bn, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Theirs were the first reliable first-hand reports of what happened at Arnhem Bridge to reach XXX Corps HQ.

John was awarded a Mentioned in Despatches.

Joint citation with Corporal Charles Weir, 1st Parachute Squadron. The two officers mentioned in the citation are Captain Eric Mackay and Lieutenant Denis Simpson.

 Humphreys and Weir were captured on 20th September 1944 after fighting for three days at Arnhem. They were taken to a transit camp at Emmerich (Germany) together with officers of their unit, one of whom succeeded in concealing a hacksaw from his captors. Under his instructions Humphreys and Weir filed through the bars of the cookhouse and through this aperture the party, accompanied by a second officer, escaped the same evening. Walking through the town they gained the open fields and proceeded west to cross the frontier into Holland near Elten. The Rhine was reached near Tolkamer. After keeping the river under observation throughout the day they stole food and a small boat; in this they travelled down the Rhine to Nijmegen, where they encountered British troops.

Cpl. Humphreys continued to serve in the Army, he later became a Captain in 9 Para Sqn RE and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1977.

You can read an account of Johns war when he was interviewed by Bruce Crompton of Amazing War Stories.