Walter Herbert “Wally” Burgess
Corporal · NZ #14351 · T2 Patrol
| Rank | Corporal |
|---|---|
| Service number | NZ #14351 |
| Patrol | T2 Patrol |
| Known as | “Wally” |
| Born | 1918 |
| Died | 1967-04-08 |
| POW / KIA | Prisoner of war — captured at Levitha, 25 October 1943; held at Stalag 357 |
| Record | https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/144584 |
What this roll records
HIS OWN DISTRICT’S PAPER SAID HE WAS SAFE, IN MAY 1945. The Rotorua Morning Post of 18 May 1945 printed, in its “Personal” column, that word had reached his sister in Rotorua that “Corporal W. H. (‘Wally’) Burgess, of Putaruru, who has been a prisoner of war in Germany, is now safe in England.” FOUR THINGS THIS ADDS to what the card already held: his home town was PUTARURU; he left New Zealand with the FOURTH REINFORCEMENTS; he served TWO YEARS in the Long Range Desert Group before he was taken; and he was out of Germany and in England by 18 May 1945. It also confirms the nickname on this card, “Wally”, in print. THE POW EVIDENCE ON THIS CARD IS NOT NEW — the Imperial rolls and the Online Cenotaph already record Stalag 357 and POW No. 35869 against the Levitha casualty roll’s “missing, presumed killed”. This is the same fact reaching his family, in their newspaper, while the war was still on. ONE DISAGREEMENT, RECORDED NOT RESOLVED: the paper says he was captured “on the isle of Kos”; this roll and O’Carroll’s Aegean casualty list say LEVITHA, the island north-west of it where New Zealand (A) Squadron was overrun. The roll stands. Source: “Personal”, Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 4802, 18 May 1945, page 2, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand).
Confirmed. LRDG Trooper Album B lists him as Corporal NZ #14351. His biography records promotion to Lance Corporal (1 May 1943) and Corporal (2 June 1943).
Patrol T2: "Tpr W.H. Burgess", T2 Patrol. NOTE caption initials W.H. (sheet: Walter); likely same man. Patrol from Brendan O'Carroll, "The Long Range Desert Group in North Africa".
New Zealand (A) Squadron, Levitha (24 Oct 1943): missing, presumed killed, 24 Oct 1943. Source: Roll of New Zealand (A) Squadron Casualties on Levitha, Brendan O’Carroll, "The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean".
Prisoner-of-war camp: Stalag 357 (code 357), POW No. 35869. Source: Germany & German-Occupied Territories Imperial POW Alphabetical List, Section 4 (N.Z.), 2NZEF. Transcription via Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3632116, CC BY 4.0).
Capture-date note: Imperial POW roll records capture as 25 Oct 1943 — one day after the 24 Oct 1943 action at Levitha (the Imperial list commonly dates formal capture to 25 Oct). Master retains 24 Oct 1943. Source: 2NZEF Imperial POW rolls (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0).
Full name Walter Herbert Burgess.
AWMM Online Cenotaph records him as a prisoner of war (capture date 25 October 1943), held at Stalag 357 (No. 2) at Thorn — modern Toruń, Poland; POW serial 35869 — which would indicate he was taken prisoner at Levitha rather than killed. External POW list on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/3955186 . Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph; 2NZEF Imperial POW roll (Section 4, N.Z.).
Fate corrected: initially posted missing, presumed killed at Levitha (24 Oct 1943), he was in fact taken prisoner (capture date 25 Oct 1943) and held at Stalag 357 (No. 2), Thorn. Source: AWMM Online Cenotaph; 2NZEF Imperial POW roll.
Original member of the Long Range Patrol (LRP), 1940 — listed with the “LRP” comment in the nominal roll, The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll).
New Zealanders in the Levita action, 24 October 1943: taken prisoner of war. Source: Brendan O’Carroll, ‘The Kiwi Scorpions’ (Appendix IX, New Zealanders in the Levita action).
A TAXI DRIVER in civilian life; he embarked as a TROOPER with the 2nd New Zealand Divisional Cavalry Regiment in the Third Echelon (2NZEF Nominal Roll 3, p. 65). The same record repeats the captivity detail already held here unchanged, capture date included, so the one-day question recorded above is not reopened by it. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph, record 144584.
See him in the full roll →Where this comes from
- Additional sources (AWMM Online Cenotaph). Nominal Roll 2NZEF No. 3 (Embarkations 1 Jul 1940–31 Mar 1941), p.65. Unit history: Loughnan, R. (1963). Divisional Cavalry; Mason, W.W. (1954). Prisoners of war. External links: Germany imperial POW list, section 4 (Zenodo): https://zenodo.org/records/3955186 Also cited: List of 2NZEF Prisoners of War 1941-1945, AWMM Library MS 2009/8.
This page is part of the Long Range Desert Group roll of members at lrdgarchive.org. If you hold rights to anything on it and would like it credited differently, or taken down, please see Sources and Copyright. It will be dealt with promptly.
Not By Strength But By Guile