Letter to Melville Carson

Letter to Melville Carson

He refers to times and memories when in a prisoner of war camp. Roger Bushell, the leader of the Great Escape is mentioned with reference to pre-escape briefings. He describes a previous tunnel at Barth.

One double sided typewritten sheet

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

EBarraletAFCarsonM[Date]-010001, EBarraletAFCarsonM[Date]-010002

Dear Melville,

First of all please excuse this rather formal way of writing. It is probably better for both of us. In my case I don’t have quite the same control as in the past and my writing is therefore difficult to read and for you this should be easier.

Thanks for sending me your notes which have stirred up a few of my dormant memory cells. It is strange we each remember different incidents and occasions, this is inevitable. Going through your notes “yes, I vaguely remember being told we had drawn a place on the escape list, you reminded me of Norman Saville’s name but I don’t recall that the break was to take place the same evening”. I do remember clearly that, that was so when we were finally evacuated on 1.1.45 and I could write a separate story to that, as no doubt you could. I say this as I distinctly remember a briefing we had in the library with Roger Bushell which I think was the day before, it must have been held in groups, possibly of 20 or so, larger numbers would have been too obvious. I think it was at this meeting we were told about the arrangement to empty block 104 and to install all the escapers there after evening appel. [sic] I think it was then that we were also informed of the details such as absolute silence after 10 pm, that we would be confined in groups to allocated rooms, that the floors and corridor would be covered with blankets for silence etc.. We would all be issued with compasses (made from pieces of magnetised metal mounted on a needle point and held together by heat moulded gramophone record material) and possibly some concentrated escape food, which I know had been manufactured. To have taken the odd bar of Hershey chocolate might have been rather incriminating if caught, wouldn’t it.?. I cannot remember too clearly the arrangements for clothing other than that I had made myself a roughly typical workman’s peaked cap some time earlier for some other occasion which never came off, probably in the East Camp.

The thing I remember clearly at the end of this briefing when Roget Bushell wished us all luck and said if we were caught and interrogated they might threaten to shoot us but if this were so not to be too concerned as they would “never dare to do so”. I suppose this was a reasonable assumption, as to that time the Germans had with one or two exceptions observed the Geneva Convention with Air Force Personnel

As to our places on the list I would expect our numbers to be different as other than the chosen few, us “hard arsers” would have been chosen randomly. The fact that we were going to go together must have been decided after we knew we both had places.

My feelings were no doubt similar to yours, after so long in the bag, three and a half years at that time, in my case, the chance to get outside the wire and to possible freedom was probably most uppermost in my mind. Our chance of making it home was extremely remote, I think our idea was to make for the Czech border, as you said. Any other direction would have been pretty impossible without resort to trains, which we were not equipped for. But we all thought we would just be returned to the cooler for 2 to 3 weeks if caught. I must say I was in a state of high excitement not knowing quite what would happen. I know it was supposed to be our duty to try to escape but I don’t know that I thought about that at the time.

I’m tending to just ramble on; it’s so easy to do so when writing like this. I don’t know that I have told you much really; at least you can read the print.

[page break]

I don’t know to what extent you are committed to that one night, in your talk, but if you want some extra padding you could always say something on the history of some of the earlier tunnels at Barth and the East camp

The first one I was involved in at Barth seemed to have great possibilities; the ends of the huts were much nearer the wire, as you will remember. Burton had just escaped and got back to England, so we were full of hope. A tunnel had already been dug and found, and you may remember the Goons dug a 6ft. trench right along the wire side, as a deterrent (we were later to put this to our advantage)

A new one was started and I remember working with Johnny Bull, Cookey Long. Paddy Byrne and Marshall.

Disposal of spoil was always the great problem and as you know there were many ingenious ideas thought up. I don’t know if the system we used on this tunnel was ever recorded in any of the books I have read. You may or may not remember this. I cannot relate it to the time when you arrived.

All the earth dug from the Goons trench was piled outside the window of the room where we intended to dig our next tunnel.

A request was made probably through Wings Day to the Goons for permission to remove the many tree stumps between the huts so we could play games. This was granted and spades and wheelbarrows allowed in under the supervision of a guard.

As stumps were removed (there was manpower in plenty) the holes were filled in from the big pile of earth the Goons had created. Unknown to them when the guard wasn’t looking, the pile was replenished from bowlfuls of spoil from the tunnel, through the window (it was fortunately matching colour at Barth). This went on unnoticed for a long time. This tunnel was not nice to work in, as we had to go under the trench and this entailed working in water where we had to dip below the trench (the water table was not far below the surface as we were quite near to the sea). We got beyond the wire but the tunnel was finally found, along with another after the whole camp was evacuated to a hut in another compound for a whole day (no food), whilst the ferrets combed through everything.

This was an occasion when the Germans showed that someone had a sense of humour (it was probably done through the abwer [sic] officer we knew as Jimmy Higgins (a very affable but shrewd man) in conjunction with Charlie the. Ferret). You may remember all this if so I’m sorry to include it

When we were finally returned to our compound were most disappointed to find that our tunnel had been destroyed

The other tunnelling group (there was no escape committee at that time) were coq o hoop as theirs was still intact until they sent their first man down. As he crawled along the tunnel to the face with his little fat lamp he was perplexed and somewhat shocked to see a reflection, Of course Charlie the Ferret had been there first and left the mirror as a joke, That tunnel was then destroyed (the laugh was on us)

I think I’m rambling on too much but there is one last thing I might say. If some armchair critic at your meeting, says, as they sometimes do. Wasn’t it all a bit crazy and stupid? My answer to that is that in retrospect it may seem so. But viewed by healthy young men locked up for years with no knowledge of when the war might end nor knowing on which side the [sic] would be on at the end and crying out for freedom, I think there their view might be different (as you mention it was also the question of duty)

Best regards and hope the talk goes well

P.S. Hope this. may jog some of your memory cells as it has mine