Most of the entries in his WWII diary, shown here were made in pencil and the pages have deteriorated over the years. As a result, a few words have become indecipherable. 

Sgt. Toomey does not describe the events leading to his capture in very much detail.  I have included accounts here by Danish citizens who helped him after his Lancaster bomber was shot down by a Junkers Ju 88 night fighter on August 17th, 1944 and crashed into the sea near the island of Sejero, Denmark. Robert Toomey swam ashore, was taken prisoner and sent to Stalag Luft VII near Bankau in Upper Silesia (now the village of Bąków, Kluczbork County in Poland, located here). He was the only survivor of his crew of seven airmen. 

Nor does the diary clearly describe the horrible conditions and treatment at the prison camps. Lack of food and water, unsanitary conditions, fleas, lice, dysentery, poor housing and meagre medical services were reported in several accounts by fellow prisoners.  Starvation, disease, abuse and constant threats by guards were the order of each day. 

The main focus of the diary is the evacuation of Stalag Luft VII, the forced march towards Berlin and the liberation of Stalag III-A by the Russian army. In the early weeks of 1945, he was one of over 80,000 allied P.O.W.s who walked westward from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany on three main routes in temperatures as low as -25°C with inadequate food and clothing. An estimated 2,200 of these men died en route. The reason for the evacuation was the rapid advance of the Russian army.

The march from Stalag Luft VII began at 03:00 the morning of January 19th, 1945 with a warning from a German corporal that five men would be shot for any man who did not keep up. Fortunately that threat was not carried out, although prisoners were executed on other routes.

Robert Toomey marched from Bankau, near Kreuzburg in Upper Silesia (now Kluczbork) via Stalag 344 near Lamsdorf (now  Łambinowice), then on to Goldberg (now Zlotoryja, Poland), arriving there on Sunday, February 4th, 1945. The total distance walked on this route was over 227 kilometres. 

The following morning in Goldberg they were taken to a train station. As many as 55 prisoners were loaded into each cattle car for the trip to Stalag III-A near Luckenwalde suffering from severe malnutrition, frostbite, fatigue and hunger. Many were seriously ill with typhus and dysentery. The cattle cars were so crowded that the men had to take turns sitting. Of around 1,570 prisoners on this route 1,493 arrived at Stalag III-A near Luckenwalde the morning of February 8th, 1945.  Some escaped en route and some were transferred to hospitals or left behind because of illness.

The prisoners at Stalag III-A were liberated on April 22nd, 1945 by a division of the 711th Hussar Regiment of the Russian Tank Corps. They arrived just in time as it was revealed later that Hitler had signed an order dated that same day to execute prisoners if capitulation became imminent. 

A convoy of American trucks arrived on May 7th to transport the prisoners to repatriation camps but the Russians would not allow the prisoners to leave and the trucks were sent away empty the following day. Toomey was one of several anxious prisoners who began to leave on foot that day and was shot at by a Russian guard. He found his way to an American repatriation camp in Halle, Germany then was transported westward to England. 

The remaining prisoners at Stalag III-A were finally released by the Russians on May 27th , 1945.

Claude  Lafleur,  his son-in-law

August, 2017