| Description | Contains grade card 1939, soldier's service book 1939-1945, airgraph letter from Sidney Rippingale to Ernie Rippingale 1941, 'Hull Prisoners in Libya' local newscutting nd. [1942], letter from British Red Cross Society, Wounded, Missing and Relatives Department to [Hilda Rippingale] 1942, 'The Grif' book of poems and thoughts by British prisoners of war nd. [1942-1943], 'Prisoner Of War' diary 1943, account of escape from captivity nd. [1943-1944], identity card 1943-1944, Swiss Government identity card nd. [1943], passport certificate 1943, ex-prisoner of war record (photocopy) nd. [1944], record of service 1946, certificate of transfer to Army Reserve 1946, Dunkirk Veterans Association membership card 1977, 'Wartime Stories' account of service with 4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment 50th Division 2005, Second World War photographs 1939-1941. |
| AdminHistory | In July 1939 Sidney Rippingale was called up with the first set of militia and sent to Victoria Barracks, Beverley, for six months training. This was the first militia group to be billeted at the barracks just before the outbreak of the Second World War. He was then put on the Army Reserve. When war was declared on 2 September 1939, Private Rippingale and his fellow soldiers joined the 4th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, at Londesborough Barracks, Hull, a Territorial Army (TA) unit.
Within days the Battalion moved south to Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, and from there joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and Belgium. They were involved in the fighting during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Rippingale was in the last party to be taken off the beaches. They landed at Dover on 5 June 1940. Rippingale had been wounded in the hand by shrapnel so he was taken by a hospital train to Knutsford, Cheshire, and after a week he was sent home on seven days leave.
On his return the Regiment had been made up to full strength and moved to Weymouth, Dorset, to prepare defences ready for the anticipated German invasion. From Weymouth the 50th Division was shipped out to North Africa to fight Field Marshall Rommel's forces and prevent the capture of the Suez Canal and Cairo.
The Division took over the 'Knightsbridge Box' at Gazala, Libya, and was ordered to defend this 'at all costs.' The fighting was continous and the British soldiers were finally surrounded. Rippingale and the other men were taken as prisoners of war (POWs) by Rommel's forces in 1942. They remained in Libya from June to September and were held in wire cages. In September they were transferred to Italy where Rippingale was at Camp No.53 in Capua, near Naples. The prisoners had a communal noticeboard called 'The Grif' board to pass the time. The soldiers would write their own poetry, messages and thoughts on here for others to read. Rippingale used some of his small money allowance to buy a notepad and pen to transcribe writings on the Grif board (see DDX1680/6). He also made notepad covers by beating out old jam tins and on these he made rough drawings of the camp buildings by using an old nail to scratch the surface.
In May 1943 Rippingale was among sixteen prisoners who volunteered to be transferred to San Pietro Novara, near Milan in northern Italy, to work on local farms. These men were taken north on 17 May and sent to work on separate farms in groups of four. After building a good relationship with the farmer, Rippingale and eight other men began to plan their escape with the help of the farmer and his son.
In September 1943 the eight men started their escape, initially by hiding out at the farm for a week as a bluff and then heading north for the Swiss border. They split into two groups of four men and walked in pairs to be less conspicuous, they were helped by the farmer's son acting as a scout for the first part of the journey. Three men from Huddersfield, Lincoln and Plymouth were in Rippingale’s group but it is not known what happened to the other group.
The escape route was 150 miles but the men covered more than this because they had to avoid German soldiers and travel through wild open country across the Alps. The trek took ten days, the last four of which were across the Alps. For those four days they had nothing to eat. They were forced to stop by dark each day and spend the night where they were as the alpine mists and darkness made further travelling dangerous. They made the crossing without a map or compass and in the clothes that they had worn in the warmer conditions at the farm.
On reaching the Swiss border the men were detained for four days at the sentry post and then taken on a four day walk to the Swiss unit’s headquarters. The men were interrogated before being interned as they were suspected of being Fifth Columnists or spies. They were held in a disused factory for six months as 'prisonniers de guerre evades'. Rippingale spent another six months working as a gardener for a Swiss banker while waiting for repatriation back to Britain. He was finally sent home in September 1944 and continued to serve with the army until 1946.
Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/79/a7287979.shtml |