The Sutlers Supreme

Coming Soon: An EFI Soldier's Escape

Research often takes us in unexpected directions. While investigating the experiences of Expeditionary Force Institutes personnel during the collapse of France in 1940, I came across the remarkable story of Private Leonard Green, an RASC/EFI serviceman whose wartime experiences extended far beyond the events described in my recent series on NAAFI and EFI in France.

Captured during the retreat towards Boulogne in May 1940, Leonard would spend years as a prisoner of war in occupied Europe before eventually embarking upon an extraordinary escape journey towards neutral Sweden.

Drawing upon wartime POW reports, archival material and Leonard's own remarkable recollections recorded nearly thirty years later, a new two-part Sutlers Supreme feature will shortly explore the extraordinary wartime experiences of an ordinary Londoner whose journey would eventually carry him from civilian life in London to Stalag XXA in occupied Poland — and ultimately towards escape.

"Mine was down as Jewish."

— Leonard Green

Part One will be published shortly on The Sutlers Supreme.