Please see the email(s) below from Jim Evans, WO1 HQ SIB (G), who has received a request for assistance from an officer of the German KRIPO, Munster, about WWII war crimes. The email(s) are self-explanatory, can anyone assist please? :-

Kevin,
I hope this e-mail finds you well. Attached is a request from Rainer Stoye who is a German Civil Police Officer working out of Munster in Germany. He has actively been involved in tracking and tracing evidence in relation to war crimes committed by the German Army during the 2nd World War. As you will see from the text below this had led him to obtaining the names several investigators from the SIB who were originally involved in the original investigation of the atrocities immediately after they happened.

As a purely personal thing and not an official German Police Request he is attempting to trace any members of the SIB who are still around from the original enquiry team.

I would be grateful if you could publish this request on the old and bold website with Rainer Stoyle contact details which are at the base of the e-mail below, if anybody could assist him.
Regards
Jim Evans
e: Evans034@rmp.mod.uk

--------Email from Herr Stoye-----------
SIB(G)-87 Sect-ITT-Chester E Frau
From: Stoye, Rainer [Rainer.Stoye@polizei.nrw.de]

Sent: 27 October 2010 0814 hrs
To: SIB(G)-87 Sect-ITT-Chester E Frau
Subject: AW: War crimes

Good morning Mrs Chester

Thank you very much for the time and effort you invested on my behalf.

As the operation has more or less come to a close (although the appeal on points of law with the Federal High Court of Justice is yet to come, we expect that the decision made by the Munich regional court will be confirmed), it is a purely personal request without any official backing. Out of personal and historical interest, I would be very happy if contact could be established to any former SIB investigator who worked on the detection of war crimes in Italy at the time of the war. Perhaps you could assist me in contacting a veteran organisation of the SIB, or other contact partners? I would also be pleased if you have any further suggestions as to how to proceed. Perhaps there is someone in your unit who is interested in the topic (history of the SIB in WW II)?

The names of the following persons are known to me from the files kept at the National Archive in Kew (signatures: WO 204/11485 and WO 310/110) who, amongst others, were involved in the investigation with reference to the Operation QUOTA (time of the offence: 9 and 11 July 1944):

Sgt GUEST T, 78 Section SIB (local investigator)
Sgt BAXENDALE J, 78. Section SIB (loval investigator)
Capt MIDDLETON NE, DAPM 78 Section, SIB
Deputy Provost Marshal WPh SID HEDDON W (Stabsfeldwebel)
Capt COUTTS WJ, DAPM
Capt GROVES-RAINES RGA
Maj SAUNDERS GT, APM

An excerpt of the 61-page diary of Sgt Baxendale J is kept at the Imperial War Museum (signature: 12648 03/22/1). The diary is not yet available to me, however, in the description provided by the museum it is pointed out that Sgt Baxendale originally served with an unidentified Royal Artillery unit. He participated in the Tunisia and Italy campaigns and fought, among other places, in SALERNO and CASSINO. Having suffered an accident he was posted to SIB AFHQ in September 1944 and investigated the German massacres of MAGGIONE and VALLUCCIOLE . Unfortunately, the diary entries end abruptly in October 1944.

Massacre of VALLUCCIOLE, 13 April 1944

108 dead civilians, thereof 43 men, 43 women and 22 children, 5 of the dead older than 80 years, 6 of the dead younger than 10 years, youngest victim aged 3 months

Kind regards from Münster

Rainer Stoye

Münster Police Headquarters
Active defence/Reaction Unit
Operational unit
Polizeioberkommissar Rainer Stoye
Phone: 0251/275-2113
Fax: 0251/275-2119
Phone: 07-641-2113 (CN-Pol)
E-mail: Rainer.Stoye@polizei.nrw.de

Sadly, the problem here is that many of the people who served in SIB during the war are no longer with us.

When I was in the police force in the 50s/60s I knew a few people who served in the Branch over that period, one being the late Cliff Casbolt. On being posted to 5 Gt Scotland Yard, London in 1967, there were still wartime Branch members around, George Nicholls and Bill Burcher just to name a couple. Frank Elliot had retired by then but was still working as an RO in the APM London District’s office downstairs and later in Horseguards when their office moved there. We often met in the Clarence in Whitehall and he was very easy to chat with. He talked about a number of ‘Jobs’ he was involved in or knew about but I can’t recall him mentioning war crimes.

The trouble when one was young and very junior in the organisation, you didn’t ask the questions of your elders that years later, you wish you had.

In 1979/80, I had control of masses of Branch archive material in Bedford Walk, Rheindahlen and there were many interesting cases from the immediately post war period. There was certainly nothing from during the war so I assume those ended up in London somewhere.