I would like to contact "Mailman" as I am quite interested in his later friend's internment at Belaria. I've been researching this compound for several years as my father's best friend was in this compound and I have his POW diary I've been working to sort out.Mailman wrote:Stalag Luft 4 - Belaria was where my late friend was a POW from 1943 onwards. A number of years ago he produced a private run of his war memoirs. I've included his sketch of the layout of the camp
My understanding is Luft IV at Belaria began as a compound for NCO aviators and these were the men who were moved to the "new" Stalag Luft IV at Gross-Tychow. Belaria then became an overflow compound of Stalag Luft III housing allied aviator officers--intially populated with men from North Compound. While predominantly British, Canadian and Australian, by September 1944, the main camp was overflowing and Americans were sent to Belaria because there was no more room. By the time of the Winter March Belaria held about 1,200 total and about 200 of these were Americans.
I am most interested in the name of the man who drew this map/sketch of Belaria.