South Yorkshire Times, October 30th 1943

Mother Died on Eve of Return

After two and a half years in a prison camp in Germany a sad home-coming awaited a Swinton soldier who was among the repatriated prisoners arriving in England on Monday for his mother died the same day. He is Pte. Ronald Butterfield (25), youngest son of Mr. and the late Mrs. C. T. Butterfield, of Wood Street, Swinton.

Mr. and Mrs. Butterfield received a letter from the War Office on Saturday to say that their son had been repatriated and then a wire from Ronald himself on Monday to say he had arrived and was hoping to see them soon. Mrs. Butterfield died shortly afterwards happy to know that her son was safely back in England and would soon be home. Mr. Butterfield wired the sad news to his son immediately and he arrived home early on Wednesday morning.

Captured in Crete

Pte. Butterfield was serving with the R.A.M.C. when he was taken prisoner in Crete in June, 1941. Before joining up he worked for his father, who is an undertaker., He was educated at Swinton Bridge School.

In an interview with a Times reporter on Wednesday, Pte. Butterfield could not speak too highly of the Red Cross. He said that the main event in camp life in Stalag 8B had beén the Red Cross weekly food parcels, which had been coming through fairly regularly. ”If this didn’t get through,” Pte. Butterfield said, “we had a pretty thin time.” When he left the camp there was an optimistic feeling among the lads left behind—they all were confident that they would be back in “Blighty ” in another six months, Pte. Butterfield said when they were first taken prisoner the Germans were cocksure that they were well on the way to victory.  “They long since realised that they are not getting things their own way now.” he said. The commodity which was in shortest supply in Germany was soap, but he felt very sorry for the children who rarely saw a bar of chocolate.

Just Missed Rescue

Telling of his capture, Pte. Butterfield said that just before the fall of Crete they marched across the island to where the troops were evacuating, Ironically, he said “We stood in a queue for a barge, missed one but waited quite cheerfully for the next. It was full before our turn came, but we helped to push it off, confidently expecting another to follow. That boat was the last and we pushed it off —and let ourselves in for nearly three years’ imprisonment.”