Pocket diary of Private Henry George Richards, 2nd Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), 1945

The cover of the small pocket diary is inscribed with the inscription 'Stalag XX A'.

The diary was kept by Private Henry George Richards, 2nd Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), during 'The Long March' from the Stalag XX-A prisoner of war camp to the port of Odessa in early 1945.

The 2nd Battalion of The Buffs was deployed to France in 1940, as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Richards was among the members of his unit who failed to escape during the evacuation of Dunkirk. He was captured by the Germans and sent to Camp 37 of the Stalag XX-A prisoner of war complex in German-occupied Poland.

Most of the daily accounts in the diary only contain a handful of words but these words reveal important insight into the life of a prisoner of war during the Long March. The diary describes the constant hunger and lack of rations, the long distances covered daily and the feelings of misery and hopelessness.

The diary does end on a more hopeful note as Richards writes of the arrival of the Americans and his freedom, before ending the diary with the following line on Sunday 29 April 1945;

"Home half one. End of March."

The pocket diary forms part of a small collection relating to Henry George Richards (1906-1993). Richards was a lance corporal with 1st Battalion, The Buffs, in the early 1930s, serving in Burma and India before returning the United Kingdom in 1938. He was subsequently recalled in 1939, as a private, with the 2nd Battalion.