35 year anniversary POW Towel

[Rakkasan187]

I picked this up several years ago and thought it was unique, as it pertains to POW's in Stalag Luft III in Germany during WW2. I have never seen anything like this before and the two things that interested me the most was the picture of Donald Duck and the lingo that the Soldier's used while in captivity. This particular item came from a shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico not too far from a large VA hospital. One can only imagine who it belonged to and what experiences that person went through. New Mexico is home to a lot of former POW's, most from the 200th Coast Artillery Unit that was on Corregidor and Bataan. This is a unique piece of POW history from the European Theater of Operations.

 

The towel is a standard white towel with printing on it. Someone had ironed and starched it to keep it nice and unwrinkled. I plan on framing it in the near future to preserve it. Unfortunatley there are no names on the towel, so it will remain a mystery for now, unless one has access to data files of airmen who were at Stalag Luft III that may have lived in New Mexico. It is reaching for straws to get a positive match though...

 

Enjoy the pictures, and I would like to see if anyone else may have any type of reunion memorabilia from POW's that they may post here..

 

Leigh...

 

 

[Rakkasan187]

Here are a few more pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you all enjoy.. Comments are always welcome..

 

Have a great day everyone..

 

Leigh..

[disneydave]

Hi Leigh.

 

I moderate the Walt Disney section on the forum and I posted at length about that Donald Duck "I Wanted Wings" design. You can find the post at this link:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=6728

 

I have a small washcloth with the same design, that was given to me by Robert Rivers, an American Spitfire pilot who spent time at Luft III. It too is a reunion piece.

 

I'll try and dig mine out over the next couple of days and see if the POW number on mine is the same as yours. The POW number indicated in Donald's hand should yield a name. Would be interesting to see if they all had that same number, or if they were somehow personalized.

 

I would imagine the Air Force Academy in Colorado might be able to tell us who had that POW number, as they have a very, very large collection of Luft III related items.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[Rakkasan187]

David,

 

Thank you very much for sharing the link information. I would like to research the possibility of the POW tag number on the towel being an individual's internment number. I will keep you posted, and I look forward to seeing the ash cloth you have. I imagine that these items are not too easy to find.

 

Leigh..