The very interesting and scarce Second World War P.O.W. group of four medals to Lieutenant Ernest

The very interesting and scarce Second World War P.O.W. group of four medals to Lieutenant Ernest Boyes Lee, Royal Army Service Corps: 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45; Efficiency Medal (Territorial), Elizabeth II, with second award bar (6792074 PTE. E. B. LEE. R.A.S.C.), mounted for wearing, good very fine, [4]; together with a fascinating archive of documents relating to the recipient's activities in Oflag VII C Prison Camp, and including authority for the France and Germany Star - scarce to men taken prisoner prior to D-Day; also with a small number of badgesand otherpersonal effects.(Round medal 36mm diameter)Ernest Boyes Lee served with the British Expeditionary Force in France and was captured by the Germans on the 22nd May 1940. As prisoner number 319 he was interned at Oflag VII C, where from early 1941 he began to receive letters from a friend giving news of the War in coded form, which he was able to disseminate to the other prisoners. The content of the letters appeared harmless to censors, concerned with social matters and trivial seeming news from home; but the writer included allusions to unknown persons and inexplicable events and Lee soon perceived that these were cryptic references to the progress of the war. As Lee himself explains in "Gepruft", a 1951 article for the staff journal of the Bank of England"T. continued to write regularly. Letter by letter he built up a framework...the key to many of the clues was beyond the reach of all except T's intimate friends..others were simple anagrams or in the form of crossword clues." Examples included imaginary racehorses: "Pike Cave, a filly lacking pace" (Kiev); and "my boy-friend has dumped any amount of luggage personelly [sic] at my home" (an encouraging reference to the build-up of U.S. forces prior to the allied invasion of Europe). Lee was transferred to Oflag VII B late in the same year, where a smuggled radio provided news of the outside world, augmented by ongoing letters. He also took part in the production of escape maps, of which a number are included with this lot. In 1945, with the Allies closing in, the Germans began forced marches of prisoners of war to try and keep them out of the hands of the liberating forces. It is at this point that Lee's story coincides with that of Lieutenant Colonel William Douglas Baird Thompson, D.S.O., M.C. Lt. Col. Thompson, who had been commissioned from the ranks into the Durham Light Infantry in 1915, was decorated for gallantry in action at Arras in 1917 (M.C.) and during the German offensive of March 1918 (D.S.O.). He was furthermore awarded the French Croix de Guerre for participating in the capture of 85 German soldiers at Cuitron in July 1918. Like Ernest Boyes Lee he was captured by the Germans before the Dunkirk evacuations. On the 14th April 1945 the Germans attempted to march a large party of Allied prisoners from Oflag VII B to Berchtesgaden, where it was intended that they be held as hostages. This failed when the column was mistakenly attacked by American P-47 Thunderbolts, killing 12 and injuring 40. Thompson initiated a retreat to the camp, and his orders were confirmed by the Germans. On the evening of the 15th the prisoners set off on a second march that led, by the night of the 23rd, to Stalag VII A at Moosburg in Bavaria. The following day Thompson was confirmed in command of the British forces, which he put on an operational footing, freeing Russian prisoners from the cells at Moosburg, and securing a bridge for the use of the advancing U.S. forces. Although many senior Germans, including the camp commandant and the mayor of Moosburg, were keen to capitulate peacefully, other elements, such as the S.S Division Charlemagne, were not; and in the confused situation that followed the surrender of the Commandant, there was fighting in the vicinity of the camp. Thompson stated that on the 29th April "First tanks of the 14 Am Div US Army broke through the Kommandantur, certain