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Pte George Brown
Durham Light Infantry
Of Wheatley Hill. Reported 'Missing' Sunderland Echo 16/7/40.

Stoker John Cavanagh P/KX100598
Royal Navy
Sunderland Echo 16/9/40: 'A 19-year-old Wheatley Hill youth, Stoker John Cavanagh, of 18 Luke Terrace, has been lost at sea'. Reported POW (with photograph) Sunderland Echo 5/10/40. Born 1921, enlisted 8/1/40 after civilian employment as a miner. He was serving aboard the mine-laying destroyer HMS Esk when it was sunk in the North Sea by a German mine on 31/8/40. Rescued 3/9/40. Held in Stalag 20A, Marlag, Blechammer, Upper Silesia and at Stalag 7A. Upper Silesia work camp, as labourer, 9/42 to 1/45.

Pte Thomas Chaytor
Durham Light Infantry
Sunderland Echo 27/6/40: 'Mr and Mrs T Chaytor, of Fifth Street, Wheatley Hill, have been informed that their son, Pte Thomas Chaytor of the DLI is missing. Aged 21, Pte Chaytor worked at the Co-operative Dairy, Wellfield, before being called up. He was also a playing member of the Wheatley Hill Co-operative Football Team.' Reported POW, Sunderland Echo 7/9/40, Photograph Sunderland Echo 17/9/40. Died shortly after the war. Listed on the Wheatley Hill War Memorial, but not by the Coomonwealth War Graves Commission.

Pte Norman Cook 4464494
16th Battalion DLI
Of 21 East View, Wheatley Hill. Born 1915. Enlisted: 17th July 1940. Captured: March 2nd 1943 during the Battle of Sedjenane. Photograph (reported 'Missing') Sunderland Echo 3/43. Worked as a grocer at Wheatley Co-op prior to call-up. In my father’s platoon (C Company, 16 DLI) at time of capture. Held at Camps 66 and 53 in Italy, Stalags 7A, 11A and 11B in Germany (stone quarry work camp 12/43 to 6/44). German POW Number 139851.

Gnr George, Currie 786413
Royal Artillery
Of Wheatley Hill
Reported POW: Sunderland Echo 13/9/40
Stalag XXA, Thorn, in early 1945. German POW number 17469.

Pilot Officer Edwin Aldridge ‘Finn’ Haddock 135404
181 Squadron RAF
Born 1921; enlisted 14/3/41; of the Corner House, Wheatley Hill. Trained as a pilot in the USA. Shot down over Northern France by several enemy Bf 109 fighters after attacking a gun emplacement on 15/7/43. Sheltered by local French Resistance forces for several months. Captured 16/2/44; held and interrogated at Tours, Anger and Fresnes French civil prisons and at Wiesbaden, Germany. Sent to Stalag Luft III (7/44 to 1/45) and Stalag 3A Luckenwalde (2/45 to 5/45).181 Squadron was a Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber squadron at this time. Trained as a doctor postwar

Edward Hopkinson 4448455
2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
Sunderland Echo 15/6/40: 'Mr Hopkinson of No 2 Wordsworth Avenue, Wheatley Hill, has received word that his son Edward of the DLI is reported missing. After serving seven years in India, he returned home and worked at Wheatley Hill Pit until being called up on the outbreak of war.' A pre-war regular. Born 1921. Originally enlisted 22/10/30. Captured 16/5/40 in Belgium. Held at Stalag 4C (railways work camp) from 1/41 to 5/45. German POW number listed as '500'. Possibly a misprint?

Wheatley Hill POWs a Provisional Listing
Pte N Cook of Wheatley Hill