Normandy PoWs: The Men in the Shed

18 Allied PoWs scrawling their names into history in Normandy

This is the story of 18 PoWs – Allied Prisoners of War – who, for a short while during the fighting following the D Day landings in 1944, were held by the German Army in a wooden shed in Normandy. Whilst there, they scrawled their names and details on the inside of the shed wall.

Who Are The Men?

Colin originally heard about these men from some friends – Stuart Lawrence and his dad Barrie – who knew he was interested in Military History. Stuart had bought the former bakery in the village of St Vigor des Mezerets. That bakery’s grain store was the shed on whose wall the PoWs recorded their names.

Below are some photos of the men that we’ve been able to obtain – we are still tracking others down!

Since Colin first started compiling the site & writing the blog, we’ve had the pleasure of contacting & speaking to a number of family members & wartime colleagues of these Normandy PoWs. Some of whom we have had the gratification of taking to places that their relatives went on their travels. These visits are recorded within the blog.

What do we know of these Normandy PoWs?

John Harder was the first “success” – the first of the men that we were able to find some detailed information on; as of June 2025, only one man, 14618159 Pte AE Smith completely eludes us.

The range of information that we have on the men is varied, ranging from family photographs, wartime military records through to a “Returning PoW Questionnaire” or basic information from www.Ancestry.co.uk

As we continue with our update & refreshing of the site, some of the pages, for example those relating to Flt Lt John Worthington Harder, will have lots of content & details as his family have not only retained large amounts of memorabilia, but have kindly allowed us access to it. Similarly, pages for Pte Thomas Blunt, Cpl Tom Caldwell, Pvt Gerald Willen and M/Sgt Morris Sheppard have a large amount of detail, again shared by family members. However, many of the other pages have limited information (as yet!) as we have been unable to trace relatives or find out much more about them other than some basic details.

The information provided by the family of Major Raymond P Elledge Jr included a 140-page manuscript written by him. This covered the period from, what turned out to be, his last combat flight until his return home following liberation. The manuscript has been invaluable in tracing the route that some of these men travelled trying to evade capture & return to Allied lines. It tells of how Raymond Elledge escaped from “The Monastery” with Francis Gillespie, Morris Sheppard and Gerald Willen. How together they roamed the countryside trying to get back to their units, were recaptured and met up with a scruffy individual who turned out to be Flt Lt John Harder – but that’s getting ahead of ourselves!