A WRITER is trying to find out more about a Swindon soldier believed to have been involved in capturing Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler at the end of the Second World War.

Chris Mannion, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, is researching the history of his grandfather, Lance Sergeant Patrick Mannion, who served with 196 Battery of the 73rd Anti Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, for a book he plans to write.

Chris has discovered his granddad was one of five servicemen who arrested the Nazi SS leader near Bremen, in Germany, on May 21, 1945.

Now he is looking to identify two of the men, who he thinks could be Gunner E Pound, who was then of New Road, Chiseldon, and Gunner H Purchase, then of New Building, in Netheravon.

“After the war Germany collapsed into complete anarchy and the British Army was still there on patrol,” he said.

“This group saw three German soldiers and brought them in. Himmler had false papers, being under the name Heinrich Hitzinger, but later admitted who he was.

“I’m 99 per cent certain that the gentlemen are no longer alive anymore but I’m trying to get hold of relatives of these men from Swindon and Netheravon.

“They were told to sign the Official Secrets Act, which is why my granddad never said anything, but someone out there might have some information which might make things clearer.

“I know the two men I’m looking for weren’t killed during the war, but little else other than that.”

Chris, a volunteer at the Imperial War Museum North, in Manchester, has given a photograph of the soldiers to the Adver and wants to know if anyone can point out the two Wiltshire men.

He said: “Everything has snowballed and I’m getting emails from all over the UK, Germany and America about my research.

“Other than one person nobody seemed to know that these men were involved in capturing one of the most evil men from the Third Reich.

“My family didn’t have a lot of information from my grandfather, who died in 1949 when my mother and auntie were very young. There was a rumour in the family that something happened involving Luftwaffe head Hermann Göring rather than Himmler, but that could have got confused.”

Chris has been carrying out his research for his book at Firepower, The Royal Artillery Museum, in Woolwich, London.

Anyone with information about the Wiltshire soldiers can email Chris on antitank73@hotmail.com.