1
25
82
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/139/1347/BYatesYates1501.1.pdf
02b947322ef129d2f40e918ece938cec
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Yates, A
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection concerns the service of Warrant Officer A Yates (1134566 Royal Air Force) and consists of two photographs and an memoir.
A Yates was a navigator with 149 Squadron, flying Stirlings from RAF Lakenheath. His aircraft Stirling R9170, ‘OJ-H’ was shot down over Holland in 1942 and he became a prisoner of war.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Roger Yates and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-04-22
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Yates
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
FIFTY YEARS AGO
The 8th May 1945 was officially recognised as V.1. DAY - VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY
My own particular war in Europe came to an end on the evening of Sunday 29th April 1945. and this is an account of my last few months as a Prisoner-of-War, and my return to U.K. and service life in the R.A.F.
I was shot down on the night of 10th September 1942 over the Dutch coast on operations to Dusseldorf in a Stirling of 149 Squadron, and it was 2 years and 231 days later that freedom came when the town of Freising (some 20 miles north of Munich) was occupied by units of General Patten's 3rd Army of the United States.
I spent most of my time as a P.o.W, in Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf, in Upper Silesia but was evacuated and marched with some 30,000 others away from the advancing Russian army who had reached the River Oder in January 1945. Two of us broke away from the main column of prisoners, and with the vague idea of being overtaken by Russian soldiers, we dawdled along from village to village in bitter cold winter weather. On the twelth [sic] day, a thaw set in, and our sled was useless, so we thumbed a lift to 'anywhere' in a German army truck. The driver and his comrade were quite happy to provide us with a ride to a French Army prisoner-of-war camp (Stalag) at GorIitz. It was an appalling camp for us. The French had got things organized, but for the rest of us in that comparatively small Stalag it was over-crowded, there was very little food (no Red Cross food parcels), diarrhoea and dysentery reached epidemic proportions. Somehow, I managed to avoid the worst ailments, but I lost weight and developed a chesty cough.
Eventually, as the Russian advance drew near, the French prisoners were evacuated as we had been from Lamsdorf. Then the British, Belgians, and other allied troops including some Americans who had been captured in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. I watched them all go from my hide-out in the German clothing store, as once again, I had the idea that the Stalag might be overrun by Russian soldiers.
Early in the morning of my first night in hiding, I was awakened by shouting and shooting. A German soldier soon found me, and chased me outside, where I found myself lined up against a wall with six British soldiers of the Parachute Regiment. Wasn't I glad to see them!
An Unter-Officier (corporal) threatened us with his machine-pistol, bawling his head off at us, and I for one, was pretty nervous of the outcome. Apparently, a few Russian P.o.W's had broken into the clothing store (most probably to get some warmer clothing), and the section of German soldiers under the command of the ferret-like corporal had flushed them out (and us as well), and had shot one or two of the Russians. The German corporal then shot two more, slung his machine-pistol over his shoulder, stopped shouting, and asked us (in German of course) "What/Who we were?"
Sgt. Hunter of the Paras (who spoke German) said that we were all 'sanitators' i.e., 'medical orderlies', and as evidence, he pointed out their maroon berets, and my 'angel's wing' (Observer brevet). 'Sanitators' or 'Medical orderlies' were protected personnel under the terms of the Geneva Convention.
The German corporal seemed to think that his luck was in. A hospital train was due in Gorlitz that afternoon with wounded from the Russian front, and there were also some British P.o.W's on the train. We 'medical orderlies' might be said to be 'just what the doctor ordered' - we would join the train, and look after our own sick soldiers.
We took cover as a couple of light Russian bombers strafed the empty Stalag with cannon and machine-gun fire, then me and the Paras searched the German Administration section of the camp to see what we might find. In the Red Cross store we found a number of 7 lb. tins of corned beef, a case of 4 doz. tins of Nestle's condensed milk, and some large tins of Nescafe. We concluded that the fleeing French P.o.W's had found these too heavy or bulky to carry. We also found some potatoes, some carrots, some onions, and the ex-Camp Commandant's two pet rabbits. Our lunch that day consisted of rabbit stew, followed by cups of coffee. I did not feel very well afterwards, but nevertheless we travelled to Gorlitz railway station on a horse-drawn cart - two German soldiers, six paratroopers and an airman, plus the tins of corned beef, the case of condensed milk, and the large tins of Nescafe.
The hospital train was well fitted out. We were directed to a coach containing the sick soldiers, and there were more than enough bunks to spare for us. The bunks were comfortable with the usual army type mattresses, duvets, and we found that we would be looked after by a German doctor and two nurses. Girls! We had not seen any for years!
[page break]
- 2 -
They looked after us very well, because something seemed to have gone wrong with the much vaunted German efficiency, as it now appeared that the 20 sick British soldiers on the train had now increased to 27. Speaking for myself, I did not mind at all, because I felt in need of tender, loving care. It started to snow just after we left Gorlitz, and we saw some lovely scenery during the five days that we spent on the train. Five very pleasant days — on the move, and not behind barbed wire. We cleaned ourselves up. We were warm, and we received German hospital rations supplemented by corned beef sandwiches and coffee (which were also well appreciated by the doctor and the two German girls.)
Our train moved in a westerly direction, then south, being routed and diverted to avoid bomb damaged tracks. We passed through Dresden, Chemnitz, then northwards through Leipzig, westward again via Erfurt and Wurzburg, then south through Nuremberg and Regensburg until we reached Freising where we British P.o.W's had to leave the train.
The town of Freising was built on two levels. The hospital was located in some medieval buildings on the edge of an escarpment some 100 feet higher than the lower town where the River Isar (a fast flowing tributary of the Danube) and the railway station were. This cluster of solid stone buildings within an exterior wall must have been the centre of a religious order centuries ago, because is still housed a beautiful Dom and a convent. We found that the nuns who lived there acted as nurses and orderlies, because as soon as we arrived we were directed into a bathhouse on the ground floor by an English speaking nun. In the bathhouse, a Scottish orderly of the R.A.M.C. took over. There was a plentiful supply of very hot water, Red Cross soap, and Red Cross pyjamas and dressing gowns to put on when we were clean — so carrying our discarded uniforms, Jock led us upstairs to a room on the third floor. There must have been thirty beds in the ward — real hospital beds, and I can say that Warrant Officer Yates and Sgt. Hunter took advantage of their rank and chose beds next to two of the heavily curtained windows. It was quite dark now as we settled down. Jock issued each of us with a chemical hot water bottle. "Just put a bit of water in it — shake it up, and it gets bluidy [sic] hot" said Jock. "Dinna put too much water in it, or yee'll no be able to bear it." He came back once more, this time to give us all a mug full of cocoa, and to wait around until we had drunk it, and of course to answer lots of questions.
"Tomorrow morning those of ye who are nae to [sic] ill to move will go downstairs to see the doctors. Aye, German doctors. The ChefArtz [sic] is a Dr. Straubel — I think he's a Major and he speaks English — the other bloody Artz doesn't. Then there's a French doctor who does the ward rounds every day, that's Capt. André. He's O.K. for a Frenchman."
It is hard to describe the state of euphoria I was experiencing. Compare this warm hospital ward, warm bed, hot water bottle, pillows, duvet, pyjamas — with the dreadful conditions since leaving Lamsdorf in January. I was not sure what month it was — most probably towards the end of February, but surely, the war must end fairly soon now, and as far as I was concerned, this place would do me until then. On that note, I slept.
In the morning, Jock drew back the curtains, and gave us two thin slices of bread spread with either honey or jam, and a mug of tea. "Sick parade at 9.0 o'clock. I'll come for ye."
From my adjacent window, I could see that the walls of our 'hospital' were almost a metre thick. The windows were double—glazed with heavy frames with at least half a metre between the two frames. Below the window, three floors below was a gravelled terrace with a low wall, and beyond that, a series of terraces led to the outer wall and the lower town.
The garden terraces had been neglected, but I am sure that before the war, they would have been very nice. But the view! We were overlooking a plain southwards towards Munich. We could see Munich, and beyond that city, the snowwhite [sic] glistening Alps.
Jock came to collect his patients for the sick parade. A few of the lads remained in bed too ill to get up, but the rest of us went downstairs and waited in an anteroom to wait our turn in the surgery. In the meantime, an English speaking nun took our names and other relevant particulars. I had expected that with a surname 'Yates', I would have been last to be called, but I had forgotten the principles of the German Army. "Warrant Officer Yates" was the first name called. In the Wermacht, [sic] they salute an Unter-Officier (corporal) so a R.A.F. StabsFeldwebel is quite an important person outside the officer class.
Dr. Straubel introduced himself, then I was given a very thorough medical examination. Blood sample taken; blood pressure taken, urine sample given, chest x—ray taken, height and weight measured — and I was very surprised to find that I only weighed 7 stone, 8 pounds. Dr. Straubel told me that I had bronchitis. "Go back to bed Mr. Yates. Dr. André will come to see you."
[page break]
- 3 -
Back in the ward later in the morning, Jock came in with medical history sheets which he hung at the foot of each bed, and later, he accompanied Capitaine André, the French army doctor on his rounds. Jock issued medicines, pills, and anti-biotics as prescribed by Capt. André. The sulpha [sic] drug and their derivatives had now become available, and my bronchitis was treated with sulpha [sic] tablets of some sort.
Most of us suffered from general debility and weightloss, [sic] and some form of malnutrition. Coupled with colds, flu and associated aches and pains. We had an American with malaria, one chap had jaundice, others some form of gastro-enteritis with diarrhoea and/or vomiting.
In the next bed to me on my left was Cpl. Howle, a regular soldier of the Staffordshire Regt. who had been captured at Dunkirk. A taciturn man, bullet-headed, and whatever was wrong with him, he kept to himself. Next on his left was Pte. Waller of the Royal West Kents. He was a conscript, and he too had been captured at Dunkirk. He was a countryman, a farm labourer before his call-up, and he became something of a comic character. He was convinced that he had dysentery, even though Capt. André diagnosed that he had acute diarrhoea, and treated him accordingly. Next to him was Cpl. Corpe of the Royal Corps of Signals. He was a man in his mid-30's - a family man captured in Crete who used to entertain us with a fund of ghost and uncanny stories. There was an American S/Sgt. who lived in Los Angeles and had been employed as a camera man [sic] with Pathé. There were others who I never got to know - and the Parachute Regt. men who chose beds next to each other by the far wall under a huge painting of "The Last Supper".
Each morning, Jock served 'breakfast’, then came round to take temperatures and check pulses. On our second day, he took my temperature with an anal thermometer, then Howle's but when he came to Waller, he met with an objection. "You’re not sticking that up my bum!" said Waller. "It's been up his," said Jock, indicating Howle, "but you can have it in your mouth if you like." Waller turned on to his front and pulled down his pyjama trousers.
Capt. André made his rounds each day, sometimes calling in Dr. Straubel for his opinion. Every Wednesday morning Dr. Straubel checked, and it was then that he decided if the patient was fit enough to be discharged from the hospital and sent to the Stalag at Moosburg which was 15 kilometres north-east towards Regensburg. Two weeks after we arrived at Freising, the ward became half empty - all the Paras had gone, and a few others whose health wasn't so bad because they had not been P.o.W's very long. But me and those with a longer captivity stayed, and to some extent 'got a little better'.
We discovered that we were pretty free to roam the corridors of the hospital complex. Occasionally a guard would patrol the corridors, but mainly, the guards were only on sentry at the outer doors and gates. We discovered that there were several wards on the second floor that were for surgical cases, and that there were two British doctors, a Major Darling and a Capt. Church of the R.A.M.C. I also found that the senior soldier was a Lieut. Colonel who was recovering from wounds received in Italy. He was kind enough to tell me of the war's progress up until his capture.
I also 'discovered’ the beautiful Dom with its baroque interior, and the nunnery and the Mother Superior. She spoke fair English, and so did one of the priests.
We also found out that there was a Russian ward, a French ward, and a U.S. Army ward. As we started to get better, we quickly realized that the 'lunches' and the 'teas' which were a mixture of German Army hospital rations and the contents of Red Cross food parcels, need investigation. We 'old lags' from the Stalags knew what was in a Red Cross food parcel, and the majority of patients in this hospital did not. We found that the Quartermaster issuing from the parcel store was an American Staff-Sergeant, and he was not doing his job very well. In fairness to him, he had to send food into the kitchens, and it was communal cooking, catering, and coping with diets by German nuns who did not speak any English. He was 'persuaded' that he could increase his issue of parcels to the cookhouse, and that he could issue 25 English cigarettes per man per week, and that we could have mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and night-time drinks of beverages such as tea, coffee, cocoa, or sometimes Ovaltine or Horlicks.
We had no news of the progress of the war. Winter gave way to Spring, and then it turned wintery for a few days, but the days lengthened, blossom and brand new leaves burst out on the trees, and of course, it was warmer and much nicer in Bavaria than in Silesia. From time to time we watched a daylight air-raid on Munich, and occasionally heard the sound of much heavier bombs during darkness as the R.A.F. attacked targets. From time to time Dr. André brought his chess set and we played chess during the evenings, and on a couple of occasions, Dr. Straubel also invited me to have a game with him. I had many little chats with Dr. Straubel, (I mean short chats), usually after his examination on Wednesday mornings, and I often wondered if he knew that Dr. André popped in to the ward
[page break]
- 4 -
on the evening before Dr. Straubel’s examination to give me some tablet which seemed to raise my temperature so that I was not as well as I ought to be the following morning. At any event, I was still in the hospital on the morning of Wednesday 11th April when Dr. André had felt unable to continue to assist me in my malingering. On this day, Dr. Straubel did not sound my chest, nor did he examine me at all. He merely said, "You seem to be much better now Mr. Yates, but we will give you another week here in hospital, but next Wednesday you must move to the Stalag."
The following Wednesday, the 18th April, I was prepared to be escorted to the Stalag in the afternoon, but until someone came to order me to put on my uniform I just carried on as usual. It was a lovely Spring day. Warm sun was shining through the window on to my bed, so I just lay there wearing only my pyjama trousers sunbathing. I must have fallen asleep, because I was shaken awake by one of the soldiers "Hey Raff! The Yanks have left one of those smoke things over here!"
What the soldier had seen was an approaching wave of U.S. Air Force bombers. The leading aircraft had just released his bombs, and with it a smoke marker to indicate that the other aircraft in the formation should release theirs simultaneously. What I heard was a screaming roar as hundreds of bombs fell on the lower town of Freising. I tried to duck under the bed, but I did not make it. The window frames were blasted inwards, parts of the plaster ceiling came down, and I was 'bounced' to the other side of the room. At that stage, I don't know what the others were doing. The American S/Sgt., one of the nuns, and myself wearing only pyjama trousers made for the air raid shelter. We made it just before a second wave of bombers attacked, then a third wave's bombs blew off an outside door with the blast forcing open a door between the air-raid shelter and the coal cellar. We were all covered in coal dust. The sound of aero engines died away.
We went back to our ward to find that Corp. Howle had watched the raid from an upright position in a rear corner of the ward. Most of the lower town was wrecked and on fire. The railway station was in ruins; there were six bomb craters in the terracing below our ward; there were trees half covered in new leaves with the other half sliced bare; up in one tree there was something that looked like a sack - it was a priest.
As the day wore on, civilians started to arrive at the hospital for treatment of their wounds, and later, Dr. Straubel told me that it was estimated that there were 700 killed and twice that number wounded or injured.
One thing was certain, I was not going to the Stalag now.
Sleep was hard to come by that night. The air-raid warning system had been put out of action; the room was lit by the fires in the town; smoke sometimes eddied through the non-existant [sic] windows; and the taciturn Howle did not help matters by saying "I hope the bloody R.A.F. don't come tonight - they don't muck about!" (He didn't say muck)
From then on there did not seem to be P.o.W's and guards; British or Germans; just air-raid victims. We helped where we could. Jock (the medical orderly) with myself and a German guard went out of the town and into the country with a horse and cart to collect milk in churns for the hospital. In a day or two, services were re-connected and it was something of a relief to hear the air-raid warning system again - this time it was a flight of R.A.F. 'Boston' day bombers on the way to Munich, and for the first time we heard the frightening noise of a jet fighter. A [sic] M.E. 262 made one incredibly fast attack on the Bostons to disappear into the distance - the flight flew on, then one of them started to smoke and it fell to the ground to finish in the usual mushroom of oily smoke and flame.
As days went by, we saw refugees passing through the rubble strewn town. We saw a column of artillery, and we saw German armour moving south in the direction of Munich. Then, at noon on Sunday 29th April I was talking to an English speaking priest in the timbered courtyard when a shell burst overhead and the sirens sounded not for air-raid, but "enemy tanks and artillery". The priest said, "I would like to stay with you if I may, and I think that we should go into the cellars." I told him to go to the cellars, and I would join him later. I went back to our ward where Howle, Carve, Waller and one or two others wanted to know what was going on. Another shell burst overhead, so down to the cellars we went.
During the following seven or eight hours we heard gunfire, artillery, demolition as the bridge over the Isar was destroyed. Some explosions shook the foundations, but we found it hard to distinguish between friendly fire or German. About 8.0 pm a German officer came into the cellar and asked for a volunteer to run up a white flag. Corp. Howle said that he would if they would give him a bottle of Schnapps. The spirit was produced, Howle left with the German officer, and shortly afterwards the firing ceased. We did not see Howle again until Tuesday morning.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
50 years ago
Prisoner of war in Germany
Description
An account of the resource
The memoir covers Sergeant Officer A Yates' time as a prisoner of war from September 1942 to April 1945. He was initially imprisoned in Stalag VIIIB in Upper Silesia, he was evacuated with 30,000 others to escape the advancing Russian Army. He and a friend escaped but the conditions were so bad that they turned themselves in. He evaded the next evacuation but was quickly caught and lined up against a wall. Some Russians were shot but he and some British paratroopers pretended they were medical orderlies who were protected under the Geneva Convention. They looted a Red Cross store before being put on a hospital train. This was a great improvement on their previous conditions. They stayed onboard for several days until Freising where they set up in a hospital. Because of their condition they were treated as patients at a much greater level of comfort than the camps. They were about to be evacuated when there was a huge bombing attack, by the Americans, which destroyed most of Freising. The hospital was used to treat the survivors. A few days later the hospital was liberated, the German’s asking for a volunteer to run up a white flag.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Yates
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
4 typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BYatesYates1501
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--Lakenheath
Germany--Freising
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Görlitz (Görlitz)
Poland--Łambinowice
Poland
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Suffolk
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942-09-10
1942-09-11
1943
1944
1945
1945-04-29
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
149 Squadron
displaced person
prisoner of war
shot down
Stalag 8B
Stirling
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/139/1351/PYates1502.1.jpg
e04baf87730ee44915aa731a5e9a5872
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Yates, A
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection concerns the service of Warrant Officer A Yates (1134566 Royal Air Force) and consists of two photographs and an memoir.
A Yates was a navigator with 149 Squadron, flying Stirlings from RAF Lakenheath. His aircraft Stirling R9170, ‘OJ-H’ was shot down over Holland in 1942 and he became a prisoner of war.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Roger Yates and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-04-22
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Yates
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Observer brevet and Stalag VIIIB identity tag
Description
An account of the resource
Sergeant A Yates's observer brevet and his identity tag when at Stalag VIIIB, number 27042
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One colour photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Łambinowice
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PYates1502
aircrew
observer
prisoner of war
Stalag 8B
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/200/3335/PBaconSG1601.1.jpg
70945e1921ef54e6d100ad826375db35
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/200/3335/ABaconSG160216.2.mp3
b7fb370705e8e6280c2275db97ad276e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bacon, Stephen Granville
Stephen Bacon
Stephen Granville Bacon
Stephen G Bacon
S Bacon
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Stephen Granville Bacon (1921 - 2023, 1351298 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as an air gunner with 12 Squadron before he was shot down and became a prisoner of war.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-19
2016-02-16
2016-01-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bacon, SG
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BW: This is Brian Wright interviewing Sergeant Stephen Granville Bacon at his home in Burnley on Tuesday 16th of February at twenty past two. Start us off -
SB: Err, excuse me a minute -
BW: Go on.
SB: Warrant Officer Bacon.
BW: I beg your pardon.
BW: Warrant Officer Bacon.
Other: Is that different?
BW: They only gave me your rank as sergeant.
SB: That’s what I finished up as. A -
BW: That’s fine.
SB: Warrant officer
Other: Is that higher than a sergeant? I don’t know.
BW: It is. Yes.
Other: Oh right. Warrant Officer
BW: That that was all they gave me, sergeant. So, Warrant Officer Stephen Granville Bacon can you just confirm for me please your service number and your date of birth.
SB: 1351298 as I already told you. That’s my service number and my date of birth is 2 3 21. 2nd of the 3rd 21.
BW: 2nd of March 1921.
SB: Yeah.
BW: And you were born in Barton on Humberside. Is that right?
SB: Yes.
BW: And what was your, you say you were from, your family was you had eight siblings. Is that right? You were one of eight.
SB: I’m one of eight.
BW: I see and -
SB: I had five brothers and two sisters.
BW: And were you the eldest?
SB: No.
BW: Eldest brother?
SB: I was the youngest bar one.
BW: And what was your home life like in the 20s and 30s? What would you describe it as?
SB: Strict. And that’s all I can say. I mean we used to have a time to be in at night before dark. Anything like that. We strictly adhered to that. So it was really strict.
BW: And where did you go to school?
SB: Pardon?
BW: Where did you go to school?
SB: I went to school at Queen Street School, Barton upon Humber which was a church school in actual fact.
BW: Were you a religious family?
SB: Pardon?
BW: Were you a religious family?
SB: No.
Other: You were quite poor I think. Am I right?
SB: Mind your own business.
BW: And so what age did you leave school?
SB: Fourteen.
BW: Which was I think standard at that that time wasn’t it?
SB: It was standard age at that time. And that was -
BW: Did you leave with qualifications or anything or not?
SB: No. I finished up in a class of my own x7 and WH Aubrey was the headmaster and I’d go to school and there was only me in this x7 and he’d just say Stephen just pop along and see if Mrs Aubrey wants anything. Any errands running or anything. And that was my last year at school.
BW: Yeah. Just running errands for -
SB: Oh yeah. There was no point in me being there on my own. It just wasn’t the class, the only one in the class I think and it was quite pointless. I did go to school as soon as I joined the air force.
BW: And what, what age were you when you joined up?
SB: Eighteen I think. Eighteen. Nineteen. I forget which. Eighteen I think. Was I?
BW: And what, what prompted your decision to join the RAF? Why? Why the RAF and not the other services?
SB: I had an ambition to fly but it didn’t work out that way. I joined when I went to enlist in Hull at Kingston I, ‘What do you want to be?’ I said, ‘I’d like to be flying in the air force.’ ‘Very good. But you can’t. You’ll have to join up as a AC plonk’ as they called it. AC2. ‘and then you’ll, you’ll have to put a remuster application in.’ Well, after several remuster applications I eventually was accepted to go to Weston Super Mare in front of a selection board and I think there was eight of us at that time. I didn’t see any more but I got a recall after seeing, being in front of this selection board to tell me I’d been accepted. From there I had to go to St Johns Wood in London for a deep medical.
BW: Ahum.
SB: And then from there I went to Craven Hill and then I went to Dalcross and that’s when I started flying.
BW: Whereabouts is Dalcross?
SB: Scotland. And there were Boulton Paul Defiant aircraft, we, which was a single engine plane with a turret on and the pilots, I think the majority of them were Polish. Quite nice chaps. A bit haywire when they got in the air. In fact, I remember the pilot who was flying, I was flying with we landed and he said, ‘I can’t give this in Steve.’ That was the, there were drogue, drogues towed and we used to fire at the drogues. He said, ‘You’ve got too many bloody holes in this drogue.’ I said, ‘Well you took me too bloody near’ and that was the attitude. Free and easy. Aye. But enjoyable. Oh aye.
BW: And so while you were there you were training as a gunner. Is that right?
SB: Yeah. That was all we did we used to fly over the North Sea, follow the drogue and fire at the drogues and that was our training.
BW: How successful do you think you were at that?
SB: I seemed to be fairly successful. I finished up with taking ten of us down into England and dropping them off here and there and I think it was because my name was first on the alphabet. More or less B. I seem to get all these things and in actual fact I was posted to India when I was stationed in Blackpool. The only fault was I wasn’t in Blackpool. I was in Burnley [laughs] and of course I had to go for the high jump and another, in front of another board and I explained what was going on and funnily enough I got in charge of the party going to Mold, I think, in North Wales and this party was eventually India on the, and though we didn’t fly we sailed on the Mauritania.
BW: On the Mauritania?
SB: Ahum I think it was its last trip.
BW: I see.
SB: In actual fact and the largest boat to go through the Suez Canal but they were quite pleasant at being a warrant officer. I had advantages. We’d waiter service at the table. We were on A deck and we used to look down at the motley crew on the other deck. Oh aye. My job was check the armoury so I used to go down into the bowels of the ship every morning, casually check and that was my day. The rest of it was deck quoits and all sorts of entertainment. Oh aye.
BW: You say you were already a warrant officer at that point.
SB: No. I was only a sergeant.
No. Are you -
SB: Oh at that point, going to India
BW: Yes.
Other: That was after the war isn’t it?
BW: Yeah.
SB: Yes. Aye
BW: So that was some time after your service in the war then when you went to India. Is that right?
SB: Yeah.
BW: Ok.
SB: There was no vacancies for flying. So -
BW: Ok.
SB: I took going to India which was quite an education.
BW: So coming back then to the early part of the war and your career. You said you went to school in the RAF and so you -
SB: Yeah.
BW: Was this before your gunnery training or after or part of it?
SB: It was before. I passed flying exams on Thorney Island which is not far from Portsmouth and the flying officer there he said, ‘I’ll set you an exam Steve. The equivalent to the flying job.’ And he did and that’s how I come to go to Weston Super Mare. He recommended me and I finished up in front of this board at, selection board in Super Mare.
BW: And was your intention when you joined up to be air crew air gunner or did you actually want to fly or navigate? Was your ambition higher than to be gunner or were you -
SB: My ambition was to fly. I remustered for a pilot but I didn’t get, it didn’t happen while I was vacant. I was otherwise engaged in Germany. [laughs]
BW: I see. I see.
SB: I was there two years in Germany.
BW: Ok. So you had your initial time in England as, as sergeant and you were trained on Boulton Paul Defiants as air gunner.
SB: Yeah.
BW: What happened after that? What was the next stage of training for you?
SB: That was it.
BW: Did you go to a conversion unit or an operational training unit?
SB: I went from Dalcross which was Boulton Paul Defiants. I went from there to Wickenby which was 12 squadron.
BW: And what period in the war was this? What sort of year was this?
SB: 1942.
BW: Ok so you finished training at Dalcross which I’m guessing would be summer ‘42. And you went to Wickenby to continue flying as a gunner. On, on what aircraft? What were you posted on to?
SB: Lancasters.
BW: Lancaster. So this would be a new squadron for you and a new squadron entirely because 12 squadron was only formed in September ‘42.
SB: [?]
BW: Or thereabouts.
SB: It was a very basic place were Wickenby. Very basic. Nissen huts.
BW: And did you live in the nissen huts with all your crew or was there another crew with you?
SB: No. We, in the nissen hut I was in we were all gunners.
BW: So you were all on different aircraft but you were all the same trade.
SB: Yeah.
BW: Ok. That’s interesting. Some, some huts were occupied by crews and so there’d be two crews in there but in your case you were just billeted with other gunners -
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: Entirely.
SB: Oh yes. In actual fact during my stay in Germany I, at the, where was it? I don’t know where it was somewhere down in the interrogation place it was and they give me papers to look at and I noticed one of the chaps who was with me in this nissen hut he’d drowned. It was at the side of his name - drowned. It was all propaganda them showing us these things.
BW: So when you were at Wickenby and you joined this new squadron how did you meet the rest of your crew?
SB: I haven’t a ruddy clue [laughs]. I’ve no idea whatsoever. My crew was three Australians, two Canadians, and myself and a fellow from Tadcaster and I was the youngest.
BW: Do you recall their names and what they did?
SB: Now then. Now then.
BW: I believe your pilot was Featherstone. Is that right?
SB: Bob Featherstone. The -
Other: There was the piece of paper that we thought were your crew but we weren’t sure. Have you got your glasses?
SB: Oh aye. Well I’ll tell you what they were.
Other: Oh right.
SB: There was Bob Featherstone the pilot. Laurie. Laurie Hickson, navigator. No, Laurie was the radio operator. Jack [Ebblestone?] was the navigator. Tommy Fouracres was the bomb aimer. My friend, the other gunner, I’ve no idea what his name was. All I knew him as was Robbie.
BW: And would he be Canadian?
SB: Robbie was a Canadian. And he wasn’t in the billet with me, with the other -
BW: What-
SB: With the other gunners. Robbie.
BW: Was he a mid-upper gunner or a front?
SB: Who?
BW: Robbie.
SB: Robbie was rear gunner.
Other: Yeah. Steve wasn’t a rear gunner.
BW: Ok and there was one other. A guy called Cooper.
SB: Engineer. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know because I couldn’t see him climbing on the bloody wings if anything went wrong with an engine. Quite surplus to requirements in my opinion was the engineer but we had to put up with it.
BW: And his name was Freddie you say?
SB: Harry.
BW: Harry, beg your pardon.
SB: Harry Cooper
Other: F H Cooper.
SB: He was a director of John Smith’s. Not John. There’s two of them. John -
Other: Sam Smith’s.
SB: John Smith’s
Other: John Smith’s Brewery.
BW: I see. And how did you all get on as a crew?
SB: Very well. Bob. Bob Featherstone, he was a very reserved sort of a person. He didn’t smoke. He didn’t drink. I remember being in the mess one time and I said, ‘Would you like a drink Bob?’ He said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘What would you like?’ He said, ‘A glass of milk.’ And I got him a glass of milk. [laughs] but the rest of the crew were, me being from Barton on Humber I didn’t spend much spare time other than Barton on Humber like according to what the Germans told me the aerodrome was eighteen kilometres northeast of Lincoln. I didn’t know that.
BW: That’s right. That’s absolutely right.
SB: They like, we used to get before flight we used to have a briefing all the crews all together and we used to get lectured and what have you and one of the things was, ‘Now if you have the misfortune to be shot down and captured during your interrogation a little old fellow will come and he’s a member of the International Red Cross. He isn’t.’ And lo and behold I think it was in Frankfurt where this interrogation camp was and lo and behold eventually this little old chap came and he said, ‘I’m from the International Red Cross,’ and I said, ‘Don’t kid me.’ I said, ‘You’re not. I got that told that before I left England.’ ‘Oh. Oh.’ And that finished that and he give up trying to convince me he was the International Red Cross fella.
BW: So coming back just to Wickenby itself you were quite a mixed crew as you say two Canadians and three Australians and two British.
SB: Yeah.
BW: But you didn’t mix a lot on the base. You said you went back to Barton on Humber quite a bit.
SB: Well I -
BW: Is that right? To see your family.
SB: They used to be workmen and there was a workman’s bus went from Wickenby to Barton upon Humber which was rather convenient when, when I was available.
BW: And so you spent your free time mainly at home.
SB: More or less. Yeah.
BW: Did you get to socialise on the base with the crew before missions or after missions
SB: No not to any degree I think. No. I remember after the war I was on a course in Tadcaster and I found out my engineer’s telephone number was and I rang him and I said, ‘Hello Harry.’ I said, ‘This is Steve. I’d like to ask you and your wife to lunch with me. I’m at John Smith’s.’ ‘Oh. Oh well, well I’m helping my son to do some decorating.’ I thought oh. So I didn’t hear any more of it.
BW: But you still had to fly together in the -
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: In the aircraft.
SB: Oh yes. Oh yeah well I mean you don’t fly together. I mean, I was very remote on top of it. Robbie was remote at the tail of it and the others were at the front.
BW: So -
SB: We were two isolated persons other than RT.
BW: So your position in the Lancaster was a mid upper then was it?
SB: Yeah.
BW: I see,
SB: Three hundred and sixty degrees viewing. In actual fact I was walking, I’d been cleaning my guns and I’m walking along the aerodrome and I saw a fella on top of a Lancaster and I thought, ‘What the bloody hell is he doing?’ So I give a shout and I said, ‘What the hell are you doing up there?’ ‘I’m cleaning guns.’ I said, ‘You what?’ He said, ‘I’m cleaning my guns.’ I said, ‘Hold it. Hold it’ I said, ‘Stay where you are,’ and I went in the plane and through the main there was a cover some, behind the turret or front of the turret I don’t know which it was and he didn’t know you could rotate your guns manually and always park them over the tail and he was trying to climb over the bloody turret to clean his guns and he was a commissioned air gunner. He was a pilot officer. I couldn’t, I couldn’t believe a pilot officer didn’t even know how to rotate the bloody turret and was going to climb over it. I mean if he’d fallen off I mean it’s quite high up is a turret gun when it’s on the deck. Aye a pilot officer. How the hell he became a [governor/gunner?] I don’t know.
Other: [You’ve only told this to protect the innocent?]
SB: Oh yes it, another incident I might recall was, I don’t know why we were on [Denham?] Golf Course and we were intermingled with the army on dive bombing. This was not flying and there were, what was the popular twin engine plane? I forget. Anyway, they were dive bombing and this plane’s coming down and there’s four people walking across the aerodrome. They should not have been there and as the plane took off knocked a fellas head off.
BW: Wow.
SB: There was just a red flash and he was gone.
Other: I didn’t know they got that close to the ground.
SB: And as far as I can remember it was Sir Christopher de Bath. I think that was his name but he shouldn’t have been where he was. They just let the pilot fly a bit and then they brought him back and he was ok but that was not in my agenda as a -
BW: No.
SB: As a gunner. I mean we all gunners were all trained on the same things. Turrets and guns and that’s it.
Other: What was the golf course?
SB: Hmm?
Other: Was the golf course, did the golf course go across the aerodrome or something?
SB: No. I don’t, no. No. I don’t know during the war I don’t know if it was permissible the golf course no it was -
Other: [It was…?]
SB: They were using the golf course obviously for, to be a plane without any obstruction. No buildings or anything.
Other: Oh I see. He was probably looking for his ball.
SB: But I do remember that fella getting his head knocked off.
Other: Oh God. I didn’t realise they flew that close to the ground.
BW: So you’re on operations now at Wickenby and what sort of routine would you follow for missions? What sort of preparations would you make for a mission if you were on roster to -
SB: Well obviously -
BW: Conduct a raid?
SB: We had to look to our guns to start with. Then we all who were flying collected together for a briefing on where we were going, what height we were flying, what we expected to come across. Other than that we just clambered into the aircraft and away but it was very boring I should think just sitting there and not many, I mean, I never fired my guns in anger and neither did Robbie and as I say it was rather boring sitting there and no, no fighter aircraft or anything.
Other: Not much fun.
SB: Like Ruhr Valley. Well that was rather lively anti-aircraft gun and Berlin when we crashed and whatever the hell happened to us I don’t know. That was different. I can’t remember much anti-aircraft so whether there was flying, planes flying, fighters I don’t know but according to information I got from someone in Lincoln there was also another three -
Other: Oh yes.
SB: Lancasters went with no survivors.
Other: Yeah that’s right.
SB: So whether it was because of that I didn’t recognise any anti-aircraft fire and they were shot down by aircraft I don’t I don’t know but we were fortunate we were straight down and very, I only met Bob Featherstone, I only met him for a few minutes because we were separated. We were stripped naked and separated, put into different, separate cells and he said, ‘We just touched over five hundred mile an hour, Steve. In a Lancaster bomber.’ And I remember I sat there and I thought, ‘Bloody hell this is it.’ And nothing I could do. I just sat there. Initially I thought he’d put the nose down to get out and home but it wasn’t. They pulled the plane out of this dive and I thought I was going to go straight through the ruddy bottom with the pressure and and that’s what Bob said. He said we reached over five hundred mile and hour and then after we pulled out we seemed to be flying straight and level and Bob came on the RT, ‘Bale out. Bale out.’ So I said, ‘Just a minute, Bob.’ He said, ‘What’s that.’ I said, ‘Can’t we reach Sweden?’ ‘No.’ ‘Oh that’s just too bad then,’ and we, course getting in and out of a mid-upper wasn’t very easy and by the time I got to the back door Robbie, the rear gunner at that time, he was sat on the doorstep. The door had gone. He’d got an axe to it and opened it with an axe and he was sat there and as I got there he climbed back in and I said, ‘What’s to do Robbie?’ ‘I can’t get out.’ And I said, ‘Have another try.’ I thought I had to do something here and he got back sitting on the doorstep and I gave him a bit of encouragement and he went. But I sat on the doorstep and I rolled out and I didn’t find any problems whatsoever. Why, whether he’d lost his nerve or what I don’t know.
Other: He probably didn’t fancy landing in Germany.
BW: And you don’t recall how the aircraft was hit.
SB: No I don’t know whether it was hit-
BW: Whether it was fighters or flak.
SB: Gun whether it had been hit with a fighter or anti-aircraft I’ve no idea whatever. All I know is the plane crashed. I know it crashed because I saw the ruddy thing crash. I was hanging about up there. And but I’ve no idea and I’ve only heard that our plane crashed. I’ve no idea why it crashed or what caused it to crash but -
BW: And do you recall this was on your fourth sortie. There were two previous trips to Essen and one to Berlin. This was a second trip to Berlin.
SB: Ahum.
BW: And it seems this was the last time that the squadron visited Berlin through the rest of their tour but do you recall what it was like on the approach to the target. You say as a mid- upper you had a good view. Were you looking around -
SB: No problems whatsoever.
BW: For fighters? Could you see the target ahead?
SB: As we, I don’t know which it, whether it was so but you’re talking about the target. Towards the end of, or when I was flying the Mosquitos came into action and the Mosquitos used to drop flares and we used to bomb the flares but the Mosquitos used to pick the target, drop these flares and we’d bomb on the flares.
BW: You didn’t see much of Berlin at this stage below. Sometimes crews report seeing targets on fire or explosions on the ground.
SB: No. No. I can’t recollect seeing anything. No. I mean as we were approaching targets Bob used to corkscrew to upset the ground crews and that sort of thing.
BW: And were you picked out by searchlights at all?
SB: Only once. We got searchlight and went straight, Bob went straight down it and pulled out. Other than that we weren’t bothered with searchlights. Not like the pilots are today. Have you read in the papers about this -
Other: Laser.
SB: Oh dear.
BW: Yeah ridiculous isn’t it? Do you, do you recall the earlier trips at all over Essen?
SB: No. I mean I remember one time we were on low level practice and old Bell , Squadron Leader Bell got in touch with, ‘Mr Featherstone. You’re on low level not a bloody altitude.’ Well that upset Bob and of course I can see all this. We went down, we went down and we went down and there was as I say there was workmen on the Wickenby and there was a steamroller there and our, the people on that steam roller had never moved so bloody fast [laughs] when Bob went down and they must have thought he was going to hit it. I did as well. [laughs]
BW: And in general how did you find it? Flying in a Lancaster?
Other: [What did you call it?]
SB: It was what I’d always wanted. I mean going like a cross country over this country, Ireland very nice oh very oh yes very exciting. Not exciting. No. It wasn’t exciting but it was what I always had wanted.
Other: Cold.
SB: Oh we had four pairs of gloves on. A pair of silk, a pair of woollen, gauntlets and electric and we’d an electric waistcoat and electric slippers. Course at the back of the plane there was no heating whatsoever. Forty degrees wasn’t abnormal. You couldn’t touch your guns with bare hands or you just stuck to them. Oh it was very cold but [I had?] my fun here. I enjoyed it.
BW: And did you take hot drinks with you or anything like that?
SB: Pardon?
BW: Did you take hot drinks with you during the flights to keep warm?
SB: All we got flying was chewing gum and a small can of orange juice. A small can of orange juice by ten thousand feet was solid ice so were not much help really. Oh no it’s, I mean, I couldn’t move anyway. I mean I was just stuck in a turret on the top of the ruddy plane and that was it.
BW: Up there in the cold.
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: And this time of the year is the end of ‘42 and the squadron only became operational on the 27th of December so your early trips were in January ‘43 so it would be particularly -
SB: New.
BW: Cold at that time.
SB: It was cold. Damned cold. Oh yeah.
BW: It was cold at the best of times.
SB: In actual fact –
BW: At altitude.
SB: I landed in a field with several inches of snow and of course being in air force dark, darkish coloured I’m burying my chute and I looked up and there’s two fellas there. Both with guns. I suppose they were kind of home guard and we weren’t allowed to, we were advised not to take guns because if you did like the position I’d been, I was in they would have shot me because they thought I had a gun but we didn’t and these two chaps took me to a house and they must have rung the police or something. Anyhow, a guy, I remember he had a brown uniform which I don’t know what that was and he interrogated me. He says, ‘What, what, how many were in your aircraft?’ I said, ‘Only me.’ ‘Oh.’ I thought he doesn’t know much about this. He says, ‘What do you mean only you? I said, ‘We jettisoned tanks on the aircraft.’ I said, ‘There was only me.’ ‘Ah gudt gudt gudt. Here you are,’ and he gave me a twenty packet of Gold Flake cigarettes. I light up and he toddles off. A few minutes later he dashes in to the room, ‘You lied to me.’ [laughs] ‘I find another man.’ Well he found seven eventually but it was funny being given Gold Flake cigarettes but I lost them of course. When he found the second man he took my cigarettes off me but it was a bit of a comic. But we went to, I think it was an air force camp and that’s when they stripped us completely, put us in separate cells and eventually they transported us down south to, I think it was Frankfurt, I’m not sure about, that to an interrogation camp. There were quite a lot of people in it. Mostly air force of course and that’s when the little chap from the International Red Cross came up but and then of course we were taken to a Stalag 8b. Because of something happening with the Canadians who raided Dieppe, something about them tying prisoners of war hands handcuffed and the Germans wanted to have reprisals but they hadn’t enough Canadians to suit their purposes so they drafted the air force. There was about three hundred of us and we were in handcuffs. They were put on. They were decent about it. They put them on in the morning and took them off at night and of course it’s amazing what people get up to. They soon found out how to manipulate the locks on them and if the guards had been decent we’d just throw them in the box. If they hadn’t they had to undo every, every one. And, and they used to be radio reports put up in the billet. In the billet I say they were proper huts. No windows in. There were windows but they’d no glass. Very little water, just a dribble. No chance of getting washed. We were dirty. We stunk. Must have done. And lousy. Me and Harry Cooper the engineer who was, there were three high bunks in this place and er and initially they’d started with boards but the prisoners found a better use for the boards which was making a fire to get a brew and as time went on we got Red Cross parcels that usually a parcel between two but they were all tied with string and we collected this string and we made nets to replace the boards on the beds. At the finish I shouldn’t think there was a bed with boards on it. Only Red Cross string. And [pause] you must excuse me I’m looking for a handkerchief. I’ve just found one. Oh yes and we used to get tenth of a loaf a day which were about that much.
BW: About an inch and a half.
SB: Aye. Identity disc was just a tenth of a loaf and some used to, you could cut it. The bread was so like a solid mass and you could cut it so ruddy thin and some of the chaps used to cut and spread it out over the day. I used to do the same but I used to eat it and hope for the best and we used to get, they used to bring a dustbin thing in occasionally and that was supposed to be soup. I remember one soup what we called bedboard soup. It just tasted like sawdust. We were hungry but nobody could eat it. The toilets were forty seaters. Four banks of ten so you could have a chat while you were [laughs] aye. Four banks of ten and during the summertime if we got Red Cross parcels they used to stab all the tins so we couldn’t save them for making escape purposes. So, if we couldn’t consume them we used to throw them over to the next compound which was the Russians and they were very grateful to a point. I remember when they decided to move us from Lamsdorf which was on the Polish border and they set off, sent us all off marching, hundreds of us. I don’t know how many was in the camp at the time but I think it was, there was twenty five thousand in and attached. Most of them were on working parties. There were, ‘cause it was an army camp. They decided that they were going to move us away from the Russians. I don’t know why. And this was in January. A little bit of snow and what not and we started marching and I remember the first stop was at a brick works and I got bedded down on some blocks of clay and we’d, we’d all got a [?] blanket and eventually the blanket became too heavy and too much of a damned nuisance but we just, we were like bloody zombies walking in the snow and very little or nothing to eat. I remember one time that we were walking along and there was a potato clamp. Are you with me? You should be.
BW: Ahum.
SB: One of the lads took a dive for the potato clamp and he was shot through his shot through his face and that’s how desperate we were. I mean sometimes we were just laid in an open field. A derelict factory. Course no bedding. No cloth. No -
BW: No provisions of any kind.
SB: We’d no washing facilities whatsoever so we never got undressed for about three months and we must have smelled a bit ripe [laughs] but it was all part of it and it was war.
BW: And this period of time would have been January ‘45 is that right? This would have been January ‘45 or thereabouts when you were marched out of the camp.
SB: ‘44 ‘45 I forget which.
Other: [It would be towards the end of the war wouldn’t it?]
SB: Like another point as I said we used to get Red Cross, Red Cross parcels. Maybe two. Occasionally and they used to stab it and we used to throw it to the Russians and of course the Russians they were marched with us on this walk and they were separated from us in so far as we were in a compound and they were in the next compound and we were in a huge marquee and on the floor was small branches off fir trees and that was it and we’d no water but the Russians had a tap and when we went to the Russians and asked for water. ‘Cigarette’ and ‘cigarettes.’ Well, they knew damn well we’d no cigarettes. We didn’t get no water. That was the gratitude for giving them the parcels.
BW: I was going to say yet you’d been throwing parcels over the wire to them.
SB: Yeah and er -
BW: And they wouldn’t let you have water.
SB: Eventually we got, the Germans left us. The guards left us. We were in a camp with nothing and me, and I got friendly with an Australian soldier and we decided to have a walk and we were walking around the countryside. We saw a house with a light in it and we went and knocked on the door and there were a lot of mumbling and grumbling and I said, ‘What’s to do, Joe?’ He says, ‘I don’t know.’ Anyhow, Joe could speak French. He started talking in French. Eventually we got in this house. There was eight Madagascans and they’d got a set boiler, you know, a boiler with a fire underneath it full of meat and they give us as much as we wanted but nothing else but meat. No bread, no veg, no, just meat but by heck that meat was good and that was, I never met Joe again. The Americans came and at that point my legs were tight in my trousers. Beri beri I think they said it was and I went and found a medical, an American medical chap and he said, ‘Sorry I can’t give you anything.’ He said. ‘All I have is two or three aspirins,’ he says. ‘I’ve used everything I had.’ He says, ‘It’ll wear off eventually when you start eating.’ [laughs] And then we got in some clapped out Dakotas aeroplanes and they flew us back to Cosford which is near Wolverhampton I think.
BW: That’s right
SB: And there we were stripped again and deloused and treated like royalty. Oh yeah. They couldn’t do enough for us and then we were despatched home and then after I think I had four weeks leave and then I got sent to India and that was the end of the war for me. I I in actual fact I was in India in Delhi and I thought there’s all these bloody people getting relieved and they were conscripts. They’d completed their two years [and they would be ?]. So I got in touch with the officers and I said, ‘What’s my position?’ I said, ‘I’m an RAF volunteer reserve I suppose,’ I said. ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Oh we’ll see what we can do with you,’ and the next day I was on a train to Bombay. And there they were very obliging again, ‘Well we haven’t a place cabin-wise for you. You can go on this ship or you can wait till there’s a cabin available on another ship.’ Oh I said we’ll get the [excuse ?] let me get on it and I think it was the Scythia if I can remember right and I came back home and I, I was in a bit of a state. I’d no qualifications. I was a machinist before the war in a cycle works and I daren’t say I was a machinist or I would have been reserved occupation so I just said I’m a labourer. Anyhow, as I say I came back here and I got sent to Blackpool. I spent a lot of time in Blackpool and I met my wife. [back then?] as she was a young woman and we got married and I’d no qualifications whatsoever and of course going to Burnley it was either went to Burnley or Barton. Well, naturally I’d no, no say in the matter. It was Burton and I thought well I had to find something. I went as a coal miner. Had a few months in a coal mine and I got dermatitis and so I had to come out and my wife said, I used to see these in the paper, situations vacant and there used to be overlookers wanted. Overlookers wanted. I said to me wife, ‘What’s this overlookers?’ She said, ‘Oh you’ve no need to bother about that. You won’t be one.’ I said, ‘Its hard luck then.’ Anyhow, I took a job at just over three pound a week. Three pound a week and I thought well it’ll keep me going cash wise and I got in to the, this job three pound a week was at the end of the war and before the war the mills used to get large amount of coal on the canals but after the war it was delivered in three ton trucks and my job was wheeling it over the ruddy boiler and tipping over for the fire beater and I’m shovelling this coal one day and a fellow walking down the yard and he stopped. He said, ‘What are you doing?’ I politely told him [laughs] it was running off my nose was the sweat and ‘Aye all right.’ And he toddled off and a couple of hours later, ‘You’re wanted in the office, Steve.’ Oh I’ve got set for being rude with that fella and it was this same fella wanted to see me. He said, ‘How about coming working for me?’ ‘And who are you?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I look after this mill. I look after four in Blackburn, one in Morecambe, outside Morecambe, Whiteland. ’ I said, ‘Right. What’s the reward?’ He said, ‘Oh you’ll be a lot better than what you are now,’ he said ‘And I’ve a van you can use,’ And I got into the textile trade then through this fellow Harry [Makenson] I’ll always remember his name. He looked after me. He made me an overlooker as they called it, was a maintenance engineer on looms and I I seemed to cotton on to it and I finished up manager of a weaving mill. I mean initially I didn’t know one end of a bloody shuttle to another and that’s how I finished. George Street Mill closed down and it’s gone now. It’s been knocked down. I retired and I’ve been retired thirty odd year.
BW: Ahum.
SB: But er no my war experiences was, this march oh that was grim was that. Oh bloody hell. I I ate raw chicken and raw rabbit what they if the people had left them, forgotten them, we didn’t forget them. Oh I think I weighed seven stone something when I and they sent me on four weeks holiday. I went back and, ‘Right. Get on the scales,’ and I did. ‘Get on the scales again.’ I did. ‘Something wrong here.’ I says, ‘What’s the matter?’ ‘You’ve put on thirty odd pound in forty eight days. What have you been doing?’ ‘Well,’ I said. ‘I must confess.’ I says, ‘I’ve been drinking Guinness.’ I said, ‘I’ve been drinking about an average of about fifteen bottles of Guinness a day. ‘
Other: Good grief.
SB: He says, ‘You what?’ I said, ‘Oh yes.’ That’s where my money went and I got back to my ten and a half stone and now I languish at twelve stone. [And you must excuse me ‘cause I must go to the toilet.]
BW: No problem.
[pause]
SB: My escaping [laughs].
BW: I was going, I was going to ask you actually -
SB: Which was rather farcical.
BW: I believe you made a number of escape attempts.
SB: I er, in actual fact I never escaped. I was always someone else. The first effort was I swapped identities with a fella. An old, well to me an old fella. He would be about forty He was a member of the Pioneer Corp which was a non-combatant unit and I swapped identities with him and eventually I got drafted to a working party on an aerodrome and our job was looking after the grounds but it didn’t work out very well. It was alleged that someone had managed to dodge the guards, got in an aeroplane, couldn’t read the ruddy things and jettisoned the petrol out of it. We were straight back to the camp. All lot of us. That was number one. I reverted back to my position in the air force and its surprising there wasn’t a lot more people doing the same as me but anyhow, eventually I got another one. I got friendly with one in the army camp and he was fed up of working. I mean they’d no option. They had to work.
BW: So you were, rather than being, let’s say, given protection because of your rank and aircrew you were actually put to work. You were in labour gangs were you?
SB: At my rank no. My rank I couldn’t go to work. I wasn’t allowed to work. The soldiers were compelled to work so the only thing we had to, well I had to do was change my identity and as I say I changed with this guy. He was a Pioneer Corp and we got drafted back to the camp because of this misdemeanour, this alleged ditching the juice from the aircraft but whether that was true or not I don’t know but that was the reason I heard and eventually I got fed up and I got this other fella. I can’t remember his name. I know we were doing some work in [Gliwice] and I decided I’d had enough and I got hidden away and the guards were a bit slop happy and I was left and I had a couple of three days and that was it. I had nothing to eat so I got picked up.
BW: So you manged to give them the slip and spend three days away.
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: Two or three days.
SB: Oh yeah. Course I used to walk at night and hide in bushes and whatever during the day and oh that was the second time I think there was a field with a kind of a basin in it full of bushes. Ideal for sleeping. Only trouble was I was prodded in the ribs and it was a fella with a rifle. He could speak, he spoke very good English. And he says, ‘Come on. Come with me.’ And he was a farmer and he took me to his house, rung the local police and he was talking and he said, ‘I’ve come from America.’ He says, ‘It’s the worse bloody days’ work I ever did. He says, ‘Coming back here’ he said, ‘But you know the feeling. It’s your country. Well come and,’ he said ‘It’s the worse bloody thing I ever did in my life.’ He says, ‘I daren’t do anything but ring the police.’ And a policeman came on a two stroke motorbike. He made me push his motorbike and he walked on and I had a night in jail and the guards came from the camp to take me back and I settled back again and then I got the urge again so I picked on a fella going as an air force man. Aye, I often remember his name. They called him Bill Major from Liverpool. Only fault was Bill got fed up with being in the bloody camp. He was so used to going out to work so he changed his identity so when I eventually, where was it oh I was at a brick works and I was there one day working and I saw a spanner and I thought bloody hell that looks like the bolts on windows. It was a little, it had been a little school where we were billeted in, on this brickwork and this spanner it fitted the nuts so I got, pulled them out one side and got out and I was a gentleman I put them back and screwed them back and the lads who I’d got friendly with they came back and they said, ‘You left us in the real bloody muck,’ he said. ‘They didn’t know how you’d escaped.’ He said, ‘How did you escape?’ I said, ‘I found a spanner and I opened the bars and I walked out.’ There again I got caught again and of course every time I got caught I used to be sentenced to solitary confinement and it was solitary. 5 o’clock in the morning, fill a pail with water, scrub your deck out, stand your bed up. The bed was a few pieces of wood with rope across but you had to stand it up so you couldn’t sit on it and if you didn’t do it in their time they just used to kick the bloody bucket over and your cell was swimming in water but we put up with it. And there was one fella there one time I was in solitary and the padre used to come every day to see him. He was a New Zealander and it seems he’d been on a working party and he’d seen a chain on the ground and so he just picked it up and threw it into a machine and it was dodgy whether he was going to be shot or not and this padre used to come every day to see him and after the war I saw his photograph in the paper. He’d been awarded the BME is it?
BW: Um could be MBE.
SB: MBE aye. And so obviously he didn’t get shot and he got back home. Oh yeah. Aye. But I’m surprised there wasn’t a lot more of them swapping identities with soldiers who, well some of them had done four years. I’d a brother. My brother, he was a marine. He was taken prisoner on, [pause] where?
Other: Crete.
SB: Island.
Other: Crete.
SB: Crete. Oh Crete aye and one time I’m in in solitary and they used to take us out. Geneva Conventions again. They used to take us out and we used to walk around in a little circle. We had to get this exercise in and one day one, the fella said, ‘How long have you been here?’ I said, ‘I’m just doing fourteen days.’ ‘Well how did you get from Crete er from Germany er Italy?’ I said, ‘What you are talking about?’ He says, ‘Haven’t you just left Italy?’ I said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Were you a marine?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘That’s my brother.’ What happened he’d met my brother in Italy. But no there was some comical things happened. Oh yeah. Oh aye.
Other: [Not?] very comical.
BW: But you didn’t have to have your escape attempts approved as might be the case with others in some camps. You acted on your own initiative to try and escape.
SB: Oh I just went. I just went. Oh I wouldn’t. No. No I knew I couldn’t go anywhere because I couldn’t speak German but I thought well I’ve got to do something and as I say it became something of a, like I changed the third one Bill Major who got fed up of being in the camp because he’d always been used to working so he swapped identities with another fella so when I got back I had to find out who Steve Bacon was. [laughs] Quite funny really but oh no they -
BW: How were you picked up each time? I know you mentioned a farmer found you sleeping under a bush at one point. How were you picked up other times? Were you, when you were out of the camp were you not afraid of being picked up by the army or handed over to the Gestapo or something like that?
SB: I can’t remember to be quite honest. I’m just trying to think. I had that farmer and then we were sent back because of someone ditching the ruddy petrol out the aeroplane and then the third time I went Bill Major, Bill Major, Bill Major. I can’t remember how I got caught that time but I got caught and that time it was a bit of a nuisance. I got caught and of course I got sentenced to fourteen days, well it was twenty one days then. It had gone up. But I had to go to a straflager which was a part of the camp reserved for potential what not, isolation and in there, there were mostly soldiers messing about there because of the women and I remember one chap he was, he had to go to civilian court and he went and he came back and he said, ‘Right.’ He said, ‘Right, here you are.’ He’d taken all the lightbulbs out the ruddy waiting room of the court he’d been to. Oh there was some humorous ruddy things. Oh yeah aye oh aye but as I say I never escaped because I was never me. I was this Pioneer Corp chap. I belonged, I belonged the Pioneer Corp and I was a gunner and then I was an ordinary soldier with Bill Major and I’m talking I got back I’d done my solitary and I got back to the camp and back to the air force compound and I’m walking around one day. ‘How are you going on mate?’ I looked around, ‘I’m alright. Why?’ ‘You don’t know me do you?’ No it’s surprising what they got up to. I said, ‘No. I don’t know you.’ And he said, ‘I was in straflager with you,’ he said, ‘But I’ve escaped.’ He’d escaped into the camp. [laughs] what happened to him I don’t know but they used to get up to all sorts of ruddy tricks. They used to put this radio bulletin up every morning and of course the Germans, ‘They must have a radio.’ They cleared all everybody out. The camp was on a moor, moorland in actual fact as I previously said with a forty seater toilet where they used to pump it out and they used to spread it around the camp to stop digging tunnels and what not and, what was I going to say? I’ve forgotten. But they emptied the camp completely. They’d dogs in and all sorts in looking for the radios that wasn’t there but we had bitterly cold on this moor but we, we did it and, oh aye. And another time they used to, we used to have roll calls of course in fives and one day we were out nearly eight hours. They couldn’t figure out how we’d missed, they’d missed somebody and every time they went five, ten, fifteen. There were three hundred of us and somebody had bent down to tie, reckon to tie their shoelace. One missing. And they’d go again and they’d get it right. That’s right. And they were so bloody stupid. That’s right. Aye aye. ‘We’d better have another check,’ and so they’d check again and somebody had bent down and it would be the same again. One missing. And they’d dogs and they’d officers of all bloody sorts in the camp that day in our compound and they never found the one who was missing but it was our discomfort but we used to put up with it and that was it. It was part of the gang kind of thing but as I say I never escaped because I as never me.
BW: What were relations like with the guards? If people are managing to build rudimentary radio sets they must get the components from somewhere. What were relations like with the guards? Did you, were you able to bribe them or -
SB: Oh, no. They, they -
BW: Persuade them to do things for you?
SB: They didn’t like it. No, no. I know there was one, I did see one fella shot. He was being marched through the camp, past our compound with a guard, a guard with a rifle and all of a sudden he had his coat over his arm and he just threw it over the guard’s head and galloped. He didn’t gallop fast enough. They shot him. They shot him and he was dead. Aye.
BW: Just coming back to, I’m interested in the point where you talked about getting out of the aircraft and you took to your parachute. How were you then picked up? You landed in a field of snow and then -
SB: Picked up with two, two like home guard. I don’t know -
BW: Ok.
SB: They’d guns. That’s all I know and they took us to a house and there was a young boy in this house in actual fact and I had my escape kit with me. I thought, well there was chocolate in it. He wouldn’t eat it. He wouldn’t touch it. No. We had an escape kit. The chocolate and vitamin tablets and what have you and money but not German money. I don’t know. I think it was franks. I don’t know but -
Other: I think you thought it was the home guard didn’t you?
BW: And so they reported to the police that they’d picked you up and presumably the police came for you.
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: What, were you taken to a civilian jail? Or were you -
SB: Oh yes.
BW: Passed to the Gestapo? Or were you -
SB: Oh yes I had a night in the jail and the guards came from the camp, a couple of guards take me back. Kept them occupied. But oh no it had its humorous side.
BW: And news of your aircraft being lost must have reached home. There’s a letter here which is a reply from the wing commander at 12 squadron to your mum, ‘In response to your letter.’ She was asking about getting your personal effects sent back. When you got back to your family do you recall what had happened from their point of view? Were they told by the squadron you’d been lost? Did they know you were in a prison camp or what was their take on events?
SB: Well they initially telegram.
Other: Yeah that’s the other one Brian. That’s the telegram from to say he was missing in action or something.
SB: Your son is reported missing and then another one was something about Lord Haw Haw. You wouldn’t know that would you?
BW: William Joyce yeah.
SB: William Joyce, yeah. He broadcast my name as a prisoner of war and they sent my mother another telegram stating that take it with a pinch of salt.
BW: Yeah there’s an official telegram here that says, ‘Regret to inform you that your son Sergeant Stephen Granville Bacon is missing as a result of air operation 17th, 18th Jan 1943. Letter follows. Any further information will be immediately communicated to you. And that’s from, that would be air ministry I think but it’s, it’s er named from, I think Wickenby but so they’ve been informed by telegram. How, how did you end up on Haw Haw’s broadcast? Was this a regular thing to name POWs? Or was it -
SB: I’ve no idea. I haven’t a clue. I didn’t know until after I got back.
BW: Yeah.
SB: That it had happened.
Other: Yeah. I think they’d already had a memorial service for him in the [Barton?] church I believe.
SB: Oh aye. It was a long after the war I, my nephew sent me a paper cutting and it was from the local paper, Hull Times I think it was. And there was a list of names, ‘Would anyone who knew these people get in touch with us.’ They’re all, these people who had been killed during the war and Stephen Granville Bacon was one of them. I’m still here [laughs]
BW: Well it’s like when you were in the prison camp. You didn’t escape. That was somebody else. Somebody else was killed, it wasn’t you.
SB: Yeah it was. I was amazed when I got that paper cutting. I think I have it somewhere.
Other: That’s quite recent isn’t it?
SB: Yeah.
Other: Yeah.
SB: Aye.
Other: Yeah.
SB: Anyone know anything about these people who were killed during the war.
Other: Well I think it was something like -
SB: I knew a lot about him [laughs]
Other: Something like six months or so after that initial letter and Lord Haw Haw and his mother had to go around the village then apologising to everybody for -
BW: Right.
SB: Oh aye. Well er -
Other: Having a service for him.
SB: Like what was it now?
Other: I don’t know if she was more embarrassed [?] or what [laughs]
SB: Oh it was old Tom Everett. He was one of our neighbours. He must have been listening to Haw Haw and he heard this and of course he dashed out and went out to my mother’s, knocked on the door, ‘Your Steve’s a prisoner of war.’ [laughs] It must have been a shock for the old lady but aye that was Tom Everett.
BW: So you, just coming back to the point when you’re first captured were you in, did you meet up with the other members of the crew. Were you fairly close together when you were picked up? Or, I mean, was there any chance of escaping? Or making your own -
SB: We were all picked up at separate times.
BW: Right.
SB: And they must have got in touch with these, this I’m sure it was an air force camp that we were taken to where they stripped us and I mean they were looking for compasses and such like things and compasses used to be all over the ruddy place. I had it in the lapel of my coat. Bob Featherstone, I know he had one in his pipe. He didn’t smoke but he had a compass in the bottom if this pipe but the Germans knew all, all these things. They knew where to look. When we got our clothes back they were torn where they’d looked in the seams and what have you but oh no it’s surprising how much they knew about us as we knew about them aye.
BW: And you were handed over from civilian police straight to the camp. So there was, was there any formal interrogation that took place?
SB: No, not at that point. No, no, it was, as I say I think it was Frankfurt this camp we went to which was just an interrogation centre and it was very populated but they used to be in separate cells and they’d turn the heat up, heat up on us in the cell and it used to get bloody hot and then they’d switch it off altogether and it would just go just the opposite just to cool, just to loosen you off a bit. Aye. Oh aye.
BW: How long were in the interrogation camp at Frankfurt?
SB: I’ve no idea.
BW: Roughly.
SB: Eventually we were put on a train with no shoes. Nobody had any shoes on and we were taken to Lamsdorf on the Polish border. I remember the train it was it was luxury I mean there were seats in it but they were wooden seats but er and that’s how I got to Lamsdorf by train.
BW: Were there guards on the train?
SB: Oh yes. Oh aye. Aye, there were plenty of guards on the train and of course when you’ve no shoes it’s a big handicap.
BW: Did you get your shoes back or any shoes when you got to Lamsdorf?
SB: Any shoes, clogs, all sorts, wooden clogs. Not, not like what we used to wear. Not the proper clogs, wooden clogs. Most bloody uncomfortable.
BW: Lamsdorf had a reputation for being a tough camp. It was apparently notorious for poor conditions of construction, sanitation and overcrowding and had the highest number of British POWs there by the time of 1944 but you mentioned the sanitation conditions. Were the barracks that you were kept in were they, were they overcrowded at all or did you feel like you had enough room?
SB: Well I suppose we were overcrowded but it was all three tier, three tier bunk things and sanitation oh we’d, we’d as I say we had this forty seater, four banks of ten which used to be pumped out regularly and spread around the area to give it a bit -
Other: Pleasant.
SB: Of perfume but other than that there was no bathing facilities whatsoever. Oh no. As I say we were, we were lousy. Me and Harry, our engineer, I got friendly with him and we used to put out a blanket each and we used to have a bit of a line and we used to go and we used to stop at forty bugs.
Other: [?]
SB: I remember my mother must have had a brainstorm. She sent me a pair of pyjamas. Now, how the hell I got them I don’t know but I put them on and on the first night I’d, or the first morning when I took them off they were just polka dotted where I’d been bitten. I didn’t use them anymore. Oh no the sanitation was nil other than toilets but there was no, no shower. We’d a big trough thing with a pipe on top and water used to dribble out of it but you couldn’t have a wash. No.
BW: I’d just like to show you some pictures of a camp and just see if you think they reflect conditions or construction similar. The first, the first set show open type huts if you like. Purpose built long barracks and these aren’t the same camp as yours but do they -
Other: I think we took some pictures. There’s some stuff on the internet somewhere cause my son typed in Stalag 8b one day and came up with, oh and he instantly recognised the latrines I think. ‘Oh I remember that.’
BW: Yeah.
SB: I can’t recognise these at all. What is it?
BW: They’re, it’s a different camp but -
SB: Ah. Oh no.
BW: It’s -
SB: Totally different. That’s more like -
BW: It’s shown close to a town.
SB: I was going to say that’s more like ours. They were -
BW: Yeah.
SB: Proper barracks.
BW: Yeah.
SB: But they’d no windows ‘cause I suppose the previous tenants had bashed the bloody things out. Oh no. That, that is Stalag 8b of course. I mean, Bob -
BW: Were you -
SB: Bob Featherstone, our pilot, I mean we never saw him. He was a commissioned officer. He went to an Offlag.
BW: Ahum
Other: [?]
SB: So we didn’t see Bob again until, well I did see him again after the war. He was a, he was on the immigration situation going to Australia. Persuading people to go to Australia and persuaded me but my wife said no and that was it. Oh yes. Oh aye
BW: Were you close to a town or was, you said Lamsdorf was up on a moor.
SB: Oh it was isolated.
BW: Were you in reach of a town or just -
SB: Oh no, no it was -
BW: Middle of the country.
SB: Completely isolated. There was, what it doesn’t indicate there used to be turrets on stilts kind of thing on each corner of the camp.
BW: Similar to that.
SB: Oh there we are. Yes. There we are.
BW: These are pictures of guard towers and –
SB: Oh aye
BW: Barbed wire.
SB: And there used to be barbed wire and about six or ten feet from the barbed wire there used to be a single wire and if you went past that you were asking for trouble from that.
BW: You would be shot presumably.
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: It was like, like a trip wire I guess. And so there was plenty of barbed wire on the outer fences shown there. Were there two or three layers of barbed wire?
SB: Oh it was a fair depth of barbed wire. Oh yes. I never fancied this tunnelling business. Oh no. That didn’t appeal to me at all. I took it that changing identities was a lot easier.
BW: What put you off digging?
SB: Hmmn?
BW: What put you off digging or tunnelling?
SB: Well a bit claustrophobic I should think. And that Dulag Luft that’s an air force camp.
BW: Ahum.
SB: Well they didn’t have the opportunities like we had for swapping identities with soldiers going out to work because they were all senior NCOs and they weren’t allowed to go to work so they had an advantage but it was a disadvantage as well.
BW: It’s interesting that you took the opportunity to join a working party and go outside the camp. Was it the opportunity to get away from the camp a little bit that appealed or was it the idea of just having something to do?
SB: I think it was something to do. As I say I’d no ambitions about escaping completely because I couldn’t speak ruddy German and it was keeping the Germans occupied as well as anything else but er -
Other: If it’s alright I’m going to leave you to it.
BW: Do you want to, sorry?
SB: A grand lad. He looks after me with bills and -
BW: Yeah.
SB: He explains what, my heating, I haven’t a clue about it. I just had him on it this morning. He used to be in charge of a soft drinks factory and he used to drink like a fish but not soft drinks. It used to be beer.
BW: And this was your dad who was in charge. So, and that would, he would have died only shortly after you joined up then, presumably.
SB: In actual fact I didn’t get my first leave and I got a telegram to say he was dangerously ill and so I put an application in and I got a weekend and I always remember I was in, where was I? Duxford. And I went to see the station warrant officer and explained to him and he just calmly said, ‘And how many times is this your father’s died?’ I said, ‘As far as I know it’s only the first time.’ And I had a fortnight, a weekend, and he died before I got there. And when I went back I made an appointment to see the station warrant officer, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Now then. What can I do for you?’ I said, ‘You can’t do anything for me.’ I said, ‘I’m going to give you some information.’ He said, ‘What’s that? I said, ‘My father died for the first bloody time,’ I said, ‘And you remember what your remarks you made.’ He didn’t say anything. Oh aye. I had a brother in the navy for twenty years. One of my brothers was on mine sweepers. One of my brothers was a fireman and the other one, who was taken prisoner on Crete, he was a steeplejack and that’s the thing I can’t stand is bloody heights.
BW: And yet there you were in the mid upper position on a Lancaster.
SB: Oh that didn’t seem not the same feeling. I don’t know. It’s something different. I mean I had no qualms about jumping out. Well you don’t jump out. Well I didn’t. I rolled out but I never thought about it but Stan, my brother, who was a steeplejack I was talking to one of his workmen and they said, ‘Well he’s a bit of a son of a bitch.’ I said, ‘Is he?’ Hey said, ‘Yeah but there’s one thing about him. He wouldn’t ask you to so anything he wouldn’t do.’ But I said, ‘He’s different to me. I would be scared to bloody death.’ Oh yes. He died. Stanley died. He wasn’t ill. In fact Stuart came and knocked at my door. I answered it. ‘Yes Stuart. What’s the matter then?’ He says, ‘Stan’s died’. I said, ‘You what?’ He said, ‘Stan’s died.’ ‘My brother?’ he said, ‘Yeah.’ He was three years older than me and we used to fight like bloody hell as kids. I remember oh aye. He used to collect birds eggs. And I, and the brother in the navy he brought us a football and a pair of football boots each and of course we used to fight like hell who was going to have the ball. Is it your gang or is it mine? And he used to keep his eggs I think with a bowl on top in the bedroom and he, we’d had an argument about who was going to have the ball and I thought, ‘Right.’ So I went and took the drawer out and boom boom boom broke all of his eggs up and we used to have gangs of us and if they thought about it they’d just get us upset and say, ‘Who broke Stanley’s eggs?’ [laughs] And we, in those days we used to make our own enjoyment. I mean we had a three valve tel, three valve radio but for that we’d no nothing and we used to split up a couple of gangs and, Fox and Hounds and we’d have limits of where we could go. We’d go hide in trees and all. It was a totally different world to now. We never used to be in the house. No. And if we were, if I went home with my shoes wet. [Boing.] So I used to, I used to have socks on of course so I’d rub my bloody shoes up my socks so I wouldn’t get that bloody slap back from my mother. My father never touched us but my mother made up for it. Oh aye. Those were the days oh yes. And as I say I was, I was starting work at fourteen because well the money was seven and six a week then.
BW: And so you were working from the age of about fourteen when you left school up until the point, as you say you joined the RAF and you were a machinist at that point.
SB: Yeah. Like I, Elswick Hopper Cycle Works and I used to be in the machine shop. I was foreman’s stooge I think. The stooge was a fella called Tup Franklin and he said, ‘You’ve no need to mess about with turning Steve. Just do whatever wants doing. Put belts on and sharpen tools,’ and he says ‘Just sharpen drills’ he says and I got on very well with him and not being tied to a bench or anything like that it was just the job I wanted. And er -
BW: And then when war broke out you say you felt -
SB: Oh well.
BW: It was your duty to join up.
SB: Oh me and a fella called Donald Cook who was a pal of mine we were sat on, there used to be a drain goes past our houses and into the country and there used to be a [form sitting ?] where the road went over it and we were sitting one day and I said to Donald Cook, I said, ‘Right, Don. I’m going to join up.’ He said, ‘Right, Steve. I’ll join up with you.’ So we got on the train and the ferry. I think it was six pence and we joined up in Kingston upon Hull. Aye the old paddle steamer and the bar, of course we weren’t old enough really for drinking we didn’t drink but the bar opened up as soon as they cast the ropes off the pier. The bar opened and it used to close as soon as it got to the other side. Twenty, twenty minutes normally but as I was reading somewhere, I don’t know where, something about the estuary the Humber being very dangerous. Sandbanks. And I remember the sandbanks. If you got the ferry at low tide oh it’d take ages to get back. Only a, you could spit across nearly from Hull to New Holland and I had a friend, Noel, Noel Stamp. He was a shop assistant in Hull and the times he used to be late coming home. Two or three hours oh aye oh yeah but were no worse for it. We, we did very well. All my family did fair. As I say I met my wife in Blackpool. She was on a fortnight’s holiday when there used to be wakes weeks and Burnley used to have a fortnight followed immediately by Blackburn and there were her and a couple of cousins and I’m stood outside a pub waiting for it to open. A shortage of beer at that time and I got talking to a sergeant and an Irishman, a soldier, in, while I were in the queue and when the pub opened we dashed in and we got sat at the same table as three young ladies. One of them of course happened to be my wife. And she died though. She’s been dead forty odd years. A grand lass but it had to be, but it’s funny how things work out. I mean no one would have expected me to be finish up a manager of a ruddy weaving mill. I couldn’t, I never, I was never a weaver but I had to be a weaver to be an overlooker but Harry [Makenson], this guy who stopped and asked me what I was doing when I was shovelling bloody coal, he, he put me in to be an apprentice overlooker in [Burnley] and my wife was correct. They turned me down. I wasn’t local. My family didn’t work in the mills or anything like that so as my wife forecast they turned me down. So I saw old [Makenson] and I said, ‘Oh Harry I got turned down.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it. Come to Blackburn.’ He said, ‘I’ll get you in.’ I went to Blackburn. I went to the front of the committee and oh yes, oh yes and I was in and I was an apprentice. Harry [Makenson], he looked after me. He was a bit crude at times. I was his apprentice overlooker which I’d never been a weaver yet. Totally foreign to me and he said, ‘Right, Steve,’ he says, ‘Them boxes there.’ He says, ‘There’s machines in them, I want them running.’ He says, ‘You’ve got a bricklayer there to do anything you want him to.’ I opened these boxes and they were automatic [widening?] frames in them and with faults and mistakes I got them all running. He said, ‘Right, you’re coming up to [Longsham?] Mill.’ He said, ‘You’re going to be an overlooker.’ I said, ‘At last?’ He says, ‘Yeah.’ I was there about six months and I got called into the office and me and a fellow called Jack Sowerby, he was in the same position as me and Harry [Makenson’s] there. He says, ‘Now then,’ he says, ‘I know what I’m doing.’ He said, ‘I’m asking,’ I forget his name, Jimmy or Harry or whatever. He says, ‘I’m going to ask you do you want to go down to Highfield Mill and it’s shift work and this Harry said no. ‘Right. Steve, you’re going.’ [laughs] I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He says, ‘You’re going to be an overlooker.’ I said, ‘I know I am. I’m an apprentice.’ He says, ‘You’re not. Not anymore.’ He said, ‘I’ve one finished. A foreigner.’ He said, ‘He’s finished down at Highfield Mill. You’re going there’ And they were Japanese looms and I used to spend the first few days looking to see what happened and I got on very well. I had maybe good luck and good judgement I don’t know but I was immediately an overlooker and then he opened another mill. He said, ‘I’m opening a mill Steve. You’re going to look after it.’ ‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘Christ almighty what next?’ But that mill it closed down through slump and then I came back to Burnley. I was in Blackburn for twelve years and I came back to Burnley and that’s where I still am. I don’t regret anything.
BW: No.
SB: No. I’ve had a, I’ve been a coal miner, I’ve been a ironstone miner at Stanton at Scunthorpe, I’ve been an industrial painter. I’ve, I’ve tried everything until I got settled in textiles. Aye.
BW: Interesting that you had a couple of jobs as a miner and yet when you were in the prison camp you didn’t fancy tunnelling.
SB: No.
BW: Did you ever feel claustrophobic as a miner?
SB: No but I, that, that, that totally different. A coal mine is six to eight feet high.
BW: Ahum.
SB: Other than the actual face and as they move the face along they move this passageway and rails so it was a different atmosphere. In the ironstone mine that was what they called room and pillar system and they’d go that way and go that way and leave a diamond shape to support the roof. That was the room and pillar and I was a a pipe fitter strangely enough but the, I forget, I think they called them eggs. I’m not sure only the pipes were made with a lip on and you put this adaptor in and it was airtight. It was all compressed air was the machinery fans and drills and everything and so I finished up as a pipe fitter but that was thirty foot high and it’s all, I think it’s closed now. Not, not because I left it but [laughs] it’s amazing what you can do when you have to do, oh aye.
BW: And were you aware of other tunnellers in the, in the camp? Were other activities going on like that?
SB: No. I don’t know of any. No but I did hear say that if they found any they’d, instead of pumping the toilet on the field they’d pump it into the tunnel. That would be a deterrent of course [laughs] but I never heard of any but as I say I was surprised I didn’t know any air force fella do the same as I did but I don’t know why. I mean to sit there and play bloody cards all day long there, Oh no it’s, you’ve got to get moving and of course there was always the chance of being shot I suppose. I don’t know.
BW: Some of the other activities here that went on in some of the other camps I’ll just show you were there similar things going on in other in Lamsdorf at all or not. They show a meal at one Christmas and they show a sports team -
SB: Oh yes.
BW: And amateur dramatics.
SB: There was. Oh we’d ladies. [pause] Oh yeah. Oh yes there used to be baseball and as I say ladies. They were fellas dressed as ladies and I knew one and the last time I heard of him he’d died on the isle of Ibiza. What did he die of? Aids. He was a queer. Denholm Elliot. And the first time I I saw him after the war I was, we were in the Odean cinema in Burnley and before the programme there used to be a screen come down with adverts on and lo and behold Denny, Denny Elliot was there advertising cocoa. But it didn’t, he was, he was definitely feminine. Oh his attitude and he was one of the main actors or actresses whatever you might call them and they used get organised and they would give a concert occasionally, oh yes.
BW: Did you sense any of that with the other guys who maybe dressed up?
SB: I didn’t meet any. Denny was the only one I met. Oh no he was a nice, nice lad. Very inclined to be a bit delicate but nature’s a queer thing. I never criticised Denny. I mean he lived his own life. He was seventy odd I think when he died but he died of aids on Ibiza.
BW: And was he in, he was in the same camp as you then.
SB: Yes.
BW: At that point.
SB: Oh yes.
BW: That’s where you met him first.
SB: Aye. No, I mean, in between times I mean we used to play cards. We knew cards inside out. Bridge. Bridge was the main game of cards and I used to, we used to cheat like hell. Like not really cheating but you might, I don’t know if you know bridge at all.
BW: I don’t know the rules of bridge to be honest.
SB: Well, it’s a case you make bids. I’ll bid one club. Well I’ll be the diamond which was over a club and then bid the heart and then the spade was the top card and we’d, we used to have, we had two packs of cards and we used to use we used to get thirteen cards each if I remember right and we’d start bidding. Well me and my partner we worked it out that I’ll bid a diamond or a diamond you missed the [?] out and of course that told your partner something about we were about a real system of cheating but there was nothing at stake. I mean it was just friendly. Well to a point it was friendly. But oh no but I suppose it was a hard life.
BW: Were there opportunities for sport?
SB: Pardon?
BW: Were there opportunities for sport?
SB: Oh, no. You were, you were pinned into your own compound. They were kicking the ball about but as a team no there wasn’t ‘cause I mean it was a transit camp. Here today and gone tomorrow working parties.
BW: Did you get to see much of the commandant?
SB: No. Oh no.
BW: Did you ever see him when you were brought back to camp having tried to escape? Were you taken to him?
SB: No. I went -
BW: For punishment or -
SB: I only saw his underlings. Aye. But no it was a fixed effort. You got seven days, you got fourteen days, you got twenty one days depending on how often you went there. I got to twenty one but er -
BW: Twenty one days in solitary.
SB: Yeah and it was solitary. They, they, you could figure out you could sit somehow and get comfortable and the guards would creep down but it was a concrete floor and they had jackboots on and it used to crackle so they gave themselves away. We’d stand up then immediately we heard this crackling. Oh yeah.
BW: And what sort of size of cell were you in?
SB: Pardon?
BW: What sort of size of cell were you in in solitary? What sort of size of room were you in?
SB: Oh only a little room. A width of a bed and another bed. About that maybe.
BW: So maybe six foot across most.
SB: Yeah six or eight foot maybe. We’d a high window and we’d hear a frog [croakus?] at night. Oh aye, the frogs kept us company at night. Oh yeah.
BW: And so was the window high up. Was it open?
SB: No. No it wouldn’t open.
BW: Oh.
SB: No.
BW: But even then you could hear the frogs outside.
SB: Oh yes. oh yes there was twelve solitary confinement cells but as I say it was solitary apart from this quarter of an hour we used to have walking around this circle which was one of the Geneva Convention rules that they had to have exercise.
BW: And do you think they treated you fairly in the camp in respect of the Geneva Convention or were there things that they should have done that they didn’t or -
SB: I think they were fair in so far as it wasn’t everybody who could have white bread. It was the sick and infirm who got white bread and this brown bread that we got which soldiers got as well it was bloody awful. It was so packed it was like clay and you could cut it as thin as a newspaper but we only got a tenth of a loaf so it didn’t really trouble us a lot [laughs] Oh yes. Yeah.
BW: And you mentioned getting the Red Cross parcels. Were they regular or did you -
SB: Oh no -
BW: Sense that they had kept -
SB: Intermittent.
BW: They were intermittent. Did you sense -
SB: Now and again and as I say two to one parcel.
BW: Do you think they were keeping those parcels behind for their own good?
SB: I don’t know. I’ve no idea. No. I never give it a thought.
BW: Yeah.
SB: No. But no I can’t say we were ill-treated they just hadn’t anything to give us. I mean, as I say, white bread was very unusual. You had to be ill or something. That was for ordinary people not us prisoners of war. No. I think, like they say, the Germans prisoners of war who we took got a lot better treatment. They got better treatment ‘cause it was available.
BW: Did you feel that you were treated differently to the Russians? You say they were in the compound next to them. The Germans had quite a different view of the Russians. Do you feel that or did you get an idea that -
SB: No I -
BW: They were treated more harshly than you?
SB: I didn’t, I didn’t have any idea to compare. I’ve no idea how they treated them. I mean funnily enough I was on the, oh Ibiza and I used to go drinking and my, I was favourite in a bar run by Germans.
BW: So many years after the war you went to a bar in Ibiza that was run by Germans.
SB: Yeah. Oh yeah. I got on very well with the Germans and they got on very well with me I suppose but no it was all over and done with and hope it never happens again.
BW: And in the years following how, how has it been when you’ve seen public response to Bomber Command and the, let’s say the commemoration of them? How have you, have you seen a change over the years that people from Bomber Command have been treated?
SB: Pardon?
BW: How do you feel the veterans of Bomber Command have been treated after the war? They’re, do you feel there’s been a change in attitudes since.
SB: Well I think just a nucleus of people forgotten. It’s one of those things that happened and that was it. I mean Bob Featherstone, an Australian. I mean he came from Australia. He was a school master and then he finished as a rep for the immigration authorities persuading people to go to Australia and I’d been mean I was working in Blackburn at the time and I went home, and my wife said ‘There’s been a man to see you Steve.’ I said, ‘Who was it?’ She said, ‘I don’t know.’ I thought. ‘You’ve to go down to the Labour Exchange at 8 o’clock tonight.’ I says, ‘Why? I don’t know that I applied for any position in anywhere.’ Anyway I went down and there’s Bob Featherstone sat. ‘Come and sit at the side of me Steve.’ And he was talking to people and he was telling them the truth. He said well, the whole point is you’ll get accommodation and you’ll have to, after three months you’ll have to find your own accommodation and different things and I was talking to him afterwards and I says, ‘What about me going Bob?’ ‘Oh you can go anytime’ He said, ‘I can find you a job. I’ve two houses. I’ve one in Geelong and I’ve one in Sydney.’ He says, ‘You can one for as long as you want.’ Oh I thought, ‘Bloody good.’ Anyhow, of course he was only in Burnley for a day and he came to our house and had a meal with us and then he went of course on his travels. He said, ‘Keep in touch, Steve.’ He says, ‘You can fly or you can go by sea.’ He says, ‘Let me know.’ And I was talking to the wife and I said, ‘Alice,’ I said, ‘You’ve got to think one thing.’ I said, ‘You might never see your parents again.’ I said, ‘It’s twelve thousand mile away, ‘I said and you won’t be able to pop over at weekends.’ ‘I don’t want to go Steve.’ I said ‘Ok.’ So I rung Bob and I said, ‘Bob,’ I said ‘it’s off. The wife says no.’ I often wonder what I would have done in Australia.
BW: Yeah.
SB: And Laurie. He was, he was another Australian. He worked on the railways. And Tommy Fouracre. He died. He was the first to die I think. He were a farmer in [?] or some such ruddy place. And the Canadians I don’t know what the Canadians were. I have no idea.
BW: It’s interesting that on that raid as you said before all of you escaped from the Lancaster as it was shot down and yet the three other aircraft that were lost on the same raid over Berlin all the crews were killed.
SB: That’s amazing. I’m wondering if it was as I say I didn’t think or I couldn’t remember ackack. I wonder if the ackack was kept off and the air fighters came in. I mean -
BW: And none of the other crew in your aircraft indicated to you what had happened even when you met up with them afterwards.
SB: No. All I know the plane crashed. Whether it, what it was hit, where it was hit, if it was hit I don’t know and as I say Bob only a few minutes with us and then he was off to an Offlag so I couldn’t get to know off Bob.
BW: And were you all, I don’t recall this being mentioned before and it’s only just occurred to me were you all kept together in the same camp apart from Bob who was taken off to an Offlag were the other six of you kept together? Or did you -
SB: In Stalag 8b?
BW: Yeah.
SB: We were. Oh yes we were held together. We used to play cards with one another and we used to, but nobody wanted to do what I did. I don’t know why. We all have our own funny ways.
BW: So the other guys although they’d all been taken prisoner and all detained in the same camp didn’t try to escape like you did.
SB: No. I mean the, to get out of the camp itself was impossible because there was such a depth of barbed wire and these towers on corners with machine guns. I mean it was hopeless. So there was only one way. Changing identities with somebody who got fed up with working.
BW: And when the camp was emptied and you were walking presumably westwards at what stage were you technically liberated? I mean were you taken to another camp and held there or were you -
SB: We were, I don’t know how long we were on the march. We were like bloody zombies and we finished up in this camp. There was Frenchmen in it in actual fact. There was four Frenchmen killed by a French aeroplane who mistook the camp and and we went to this camp and as I say there was a bloody great big marquee and branches on the floor for us to sleep on and in actual fact there was a young fella younger than me he got frostbite and it had -
BW: Infected his leg.
SB: Aye. He died. He died. He was only twenty one and we were there for maybe a couple of days and then the Americans came. The Germans had gone. There was nobody in the camp only us prisoners and then as I say the old Dakota came along and took us to Cosford and -
BW: And then you were back in this country.
SB: Yep. I was back to work. [laughs] Aye. I enjoyed being in India. I was in Bombay. I was in Madras and I was in Delhi and of course being a warrant officer I had a bit of a [sway?] and some of the lads they all, they always called me Red. I had red hair. If anybody was around it was sir but otherwise it was, ‘Hey Red, just a minute.’ ‘Oh Red. How about getting us on to the race, Guindi racecourse.’ I said, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ And I’d get the big, I forget what they called them, bloody thing, the big van thing with windows and we’d go to the races at the weekend. Oh aye. It was useful being a warrant officer [laughs].
BW: Rank has its privileges.
SB: Oh yes. And like if I put my raincoat on and the cap badge or the same as officers and they’d salute me and I’d salute them back the silly buggers. I remember going, going to, oh I was going from Blackpool to Barton. I changed, I was travelling by coach and I changed coach at Leeds and as I got on the coach, ‘Oh very good. Right. Ok now.’ They’d been waiting for an air force officer and mistook me for him and the ruddy coach had been waiting for this fellow and it was convenient. It took me to Hull.
BW: Very good. I think that is all the questions I have for you. So -
SB: Well it is nice talking about it again.
BW: Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. It’s been great talking to you.
SB: It was an experience.
BW: It was a good one I hope. It was for me.
SB: Oh yeah.
BW: So thank you very much for your time Mr Bacon. Thank you.
SB: It’s been a pleasure.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ABaconSG160216
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Stephen Granville Bacon
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
02:21:47 audio recording
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brian Wright
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-16
Description
An account of the resource
Stephen joined the Royal Air Force in Kingston upon Hull. He wanted to be a pilot but became a mid-air gunner instead. He started at RAF Dalcross where he trained on Boulton Paul Defiant aircraft and went to 12 Squadron at Wickenby on Lancasters.
Stephen describes the preparations for missions, the cold and how the pilot would corkscrew as he approached targets. Following two trips to Essen and on his second trip to Berlin, his aircraft crashed. Another three Lancasters went down with no survivors. Upon landing in the snow he was captured by the German home guard and sent to an interrogation camp at Frankfurt. A person, claiming to be from the Red Cross tried to interview him but Stephen had been warned of this ruse and refused to answer any questions.
He and the other crew members were taken to Stalag VIII-B in Lamsdorf, near the Polish border. The conditions were very difficult with very little water and food. They burnt bed boards from their three-tier bunks to make tea and replaced them with string from Red Cross food parcels. The sanitary conditions were poor. Stephen, however, felt they were treated fairly.
He describes in detail the deplorable conditions in the camp. During his stay he escaped three times by exchanging identities with a member of a working party but was recaptured every time and punished by solitary confinement. He knew he had little chance of escaping as he couldn't speak German but wanted to keep the Germans occupied. He discusses some of the amusing incidents which occurred and outlines the entertainment activities in the camp. Stephen’s mother was informed he was missing, and his name read out as a prisoner of war by Lord Haw-Haw [William Joyce].
In 1945, he embarked on a gruelling march to escape from the approaching Russian army, often resorting to eating raw chicken and rabbit. Eventually the guards disappeared and he was picked up and looked after by the Americans and flown back to England for medical treatment. Stephen developed beriberi, weighing only seven stone. He was flown back to RAF Cosford in a C-47. After treatment he was sent to India as there were no flying post available in England. After the war ended, he was sent home to Blackpool for demob and worked in the coal mines, as a coal handler in the mills, a maintenance engineer and finally as a mill manager.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Poland
England--Lincolnshire
Poland--Łambinowice
Germany
Germany--Berlin
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Terry Holmes
Sally Coulter
12 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bale out
bombing
Defiant
Dulag Luft
escaping
military service conditions
Nissen hut
prisoner of war
RAF Dalcross
RAF Wickenby
sanitation
shot down
Stalag 8B
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/359/5527/PFraserDW1504.2.jpg
e83b7596b2100cb8c2b204db7e6daf7f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/359/5527/AFraserD150713.2.mp3
8a9fa28cd8459c111675c687c272ffe4
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Fraser, David
D Fraser
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Warrant Officer David Fraser.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-27
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Fraser, DW
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
AM: Ok, so this interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is myself Annie Moody and the interviewee is David Fraser. The interview is taking place at David’s home in Winchelsea in Kent. No.
DF: Sussex.
AM: Sussex.
DF: East Sussex.
AM: In East Sussex.
DF: Yeah.
AM: On the 13th of July 2015. So if you can just tell me just a little bit about your, your family background, schooling and childhood?
DF: Yeah.
AM: Schooling and what have you.
DF: I was born in Northumberland. And I was there until I was seven. Then we moved to Wales and that’s where I was educated, in Wales. But, but education was nil. Just the three Rs and I didn’t get to grammar school or, I sat the scholarship but failed [laughs]. Then pressed on and left school at fourteen. And I was too young to join the RAF even as an apprentice but I was determined to join the RAF from an early age. From the time I was a toddler I was always interested in aircraft. And so I had to wait till I was seventeen and a half, which I did.
AM: So what did you do in between?
DF: Oh.
AM: Between fourteen and seventeen?
DF: I had various, I had a great time ‘cause there was plenty of jobs about and I just went - I had a factory job in a radio factory. I had one in a motorcycle factory. And I just bided my time until I was seventeen and a half and then I joined the RAF.
AM: So when you say I joined the RAF. Just talk me through that. How? What did you do first? How did it work?
DF: Oh I just made an application and they gave me an appointment up in London – Kingsway and I had this exam to be done which was easy and wrote an essay about my experiences in London and I joined as a flight mechanic. I thought, I was under the impression that a flight mechanic would be associated with flying and, but I wasn’t. I was a humble mechanic.
AM: Did they give you a choice or did they say that -
DF: I could have had any choice really. When the flight sergeant read this essay he said are you sure you want to be a flight mechanic? I said yes. So I enlisted as a flight mechanic.
AM: And this was in? 19 -
DF: 1939.
AM: ’39.
DF: February ‘39.
AM: So before the war had started.
DF: Yeah and -
AM: So then what happened?
DF: And then I went on a flight mechanic course which involved a lot of filing metal and God knows what and I, I tried to fail the course. I just wasn’t interested in flight mechanicing and at the end of the course I saw the CO and I explained that I was not interested in the thing and they passed me with forty percent, the lowest possible pass mark. He said when you get to your squadron when you’re posted you’ll [remaster?]. So that’s what I did and what they wanted pilots, navigators and gunners and I volunteered for the pilot’s course but the waiting list was three or four months and I was afraid I might miss the war so I got the gunners course.
AM: Where, where, where were you living at this point?
DF: Cranwell. I was at Cranwell then.
AM: Ok.
DF: Which is not far from Lincoln. And -
AM: So you went, you went on the -
DF: Went on the gunnery course in Scotland.
AM: In Scotland?
DF: Evanton Gunnery School.
AM: And this is still just pre-war or?
DF: No the war was on then. That was 1940.
AM: Was on. Oh right. Ok, so what was that like?
DF: Great fun. Flying about. We had lumbering pre-war aircraft and in a high wind they’d fly backwards.
AM: What, what aircraft were they?
DF: They were Harrows, Handley Page Harrows. They were so slow that coming back one day I was in the rear turret and we were trying to fly over the High Street parallel with the high street and which was rather, which was forbidden and I saw the local copper get his book out and take our number [laughs]. He took our number. When we got back we got reported and hauled up before the CO for low flying.
AM: And this was still, so this is while you were in training
DF: 1940.
AM: And this is while you were training?
DF: Yes. While training, yes.
AM: Ok, so what, what was the training actually like? What did that consist of?
DF: Oh. Firing. Air to air firing from air to air firing and air to ground firing. Stripping guns and learning all about the mechanism of them and how they worked and we had a month. That took a month and then after that we went to operational training unit which is another three months.
AM: So where was OT?
DF: That was in Scotland.
AM: That was in Scotland as well?
DF: Yeah. Yeah. Lossiemouth, Scotland.
AM: So what did you do there? What did that consist of?
DF: We got there and one morning we were told to report to the hangar and the hangar was full of bods just milling around. The idea was to just mill around and find people you had something in common with and that’s how you crewed up. It was a marvellous system. And you, you found chaps you took a liking to and they reciprocated and that was the way a crews was formed. There were six of us in the crew.
AM: Who chose who?
DF: Hmmn?
AM: Who actually chose who? Who took the lead in it?
DF: Oh pilot, one of the Australian pilots. We had two Australian pilots. They’d been around the offices and seen who got the best marks. And that was what happened. I had good marks at gunnery so they, ‘well he’s a good bloke’ and picked me and that was it.
AM: Were you with anyone else that you’d done the gunnery training with? Oh no you would all have been together wouldn’t you and milling around as you put it.
DF: Oh yes we were all there and we just formed up crews at that, on that morning.
AM: So you’ve got your crew. Then what?
DF: Then we started training as a crew.
AM: As a crew.
DF: Yeah.
AM: In what kind of aircraft?
DF: Wellingtons.
AM: In Wellingtons.
DF: Yeah and -
AM: So how did that go? What was that like?
DF: Well it was a bit dicey because we used to lose on average one crew per course. There were six crews per course and we used to lose one, an average one, one every course. Weather conditions primarily, hitting mountains or getting lost, snowstorms and God knows what, not and aircraft maintenance wasn’t the best ‘cause they were rushing things through and I think things got missed and -
AM: So as a rear gunner training?
DF: Ahum.
AM: What were you shooting at?
DF: Oh whatever they – sometimes they’d send a spitfire up and we’d have cameras, and have camera gunnery and they would develop later on, see how we’d got on. And and other aircraft again drogue, with a drogue towing - you’d fire at that and it was good fun really. We were there for about three months – November, December, January, February, March – yes just over three months. Then we went to the squadron.
AM: And at -
DF: At Marham.
AM: At Marham so -
DF: Norfolk.
AM: Which squadron?
DF: 115 squadron.
AM: 115.
DF: Yeah and we were only there just over a month, then we were shot down. [laughs]
AM: So how many operations did you actually do?
DF: Four.
AM: Four.
DF: Yeah.
AM: Where did you go on operation?
DF: Emden was the first one. Then Brest after the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau battle ships and the last one was Hamburg when we were shot down.
AM: And this was in, still 1940?
DF: ‘41.
AM: We’ve moved to ‘41 now.
DF: ’41. May 10th ‘41 we were shot down.
AM: So describe that to me. The shooting down, and what happened.
DF: Well we were, went up and approached the target and just before we got there we were knocked off course by a, with a blast of blasts so we went around again and that was our undoing. If we’d just got out, got out of it we’d have been ok but went around again doing the job properly and then caught in a cone of searchlights. There was one pilot beam which, and that latches on to you and the rest follow and you’re caught in this cone of lights like a sort of gnat [laughs] and they shot the hell out of us and hit, hit the hydraulics so I couldn’t operate any guns. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t operate, I had no gunsights which was electrical had been knocked out so I was useless. Nothing. I couldn’t manipulate anything. The gun, nothing would move ‘cause we rely upon hydraulic pressure for movement. And there I was. And then there was a silence. That meant a fighter was coming in and come in he did and he proceeded to sort of knock the hell out of us, set fire to the flares in the flare rack and she started blazing and that was the start of the, the whole thing.
AM: So then what happened? Describe it to me if you can.
DF: Of course, normally as a rear gunner you could just turn, turn the turret around, jetison the doors and just drop out but of course I couldn’t do that because the damned thing was jammed up so I squeezed back in, went up the fuselage towards the nose and there I saw Alex the second pilot, Aussie, he was lying bleeding profusely. He was bleeding in the arm and chest and I got him, stuffed him through the hatch, put my hand through to the rip cord. I said, ‘pull for God’s sake’ and anyhow I pushed him out and I looked out and saw him. His parachute opened so that was ok [laughs] and he recovered later on but he was badly wounded.
And then I bailed out and the country I landed in was very much like Romney Marsh. All level and no cover at all, there were no trees [laughs] or anything. I really felt exposed but I hit the ground and as I hit the ground I was swinging. I swung forward and landed on the base of my spine and I thought I’d broken my back. So I just lay there manipulating toes and hands to see if I was ok. Everything moved, worked. And a great herd of cows gathered around me. Friesian cattle. They all came out sniffing around the parachute so I just lay there for about half an hour ‘cause they were good cover and they just, they were nice and warm too these cattle, and I just laid there.
And then when I came to my senses I got the parachute and stuffed it into a dyke and sank it by putting a great, a bit of rock on top of it and I thought now where I shall go. The obvious thing was Denmark and that was occupied by Germans so anyhow I made, I was making for the Danish border. I thought I might have a bit of luck, get over it, get picked up by Danish patriots.
I hadn’t gone more than about a quarter of a mile and as dawn was breaking I came to a hut. It was a hut occupied by searchlight crews and there was a sentry outside and he saw me. He said, ‘ach Englander flieger for you the war is over. Come’. And that was it. I was hauled in to this hut and there I saw Alex lying on this table.
AM: Alex was the Aussie?
DF: Who was wounded, yeah
AM: Ahum.
DF: I thought he was dying. But he was breathing, shallow breathing and he said to me, “Look what they’ve done to my best shirt.” His shirt was all mangled and bleeding and then I was whipped away and put on to a lorry and taken away. And I I didn’t know what had happened to Alex. I thought, honestly thought he’d died until nine months later he turned up in the camp. He’d recovered.
AM: What happened to the rest of the crew?
DF: Well Bill the navigator, when I bailed out I put Alex through the hatch I looked across at Bill who was bent over the main hatch and I yelled, “Come this way.” But he made a gesture like that - so I left, at him waving, went out assuming he’d got out from the main hatch. But what had happened, I didn’t realise, what what had happened, when my turret caught fire Bill came down to give me a hand with the fire extinguisher by which time I’d got the fire out so on returning, he was returning to position and he got the second burst of machine gun fire, was hit in the intestines, went right through the back and right through the front and I didn’t realise he’d been wounded. Yeah.
Then the skipper called out and got no reply so he assumed we were all out and he bailed out and Bill was left in the machine on his own. He was a navigator, he wasn’t a pilot and he thought, ‘well I think I may as well, I’m wounded I may as well dive into the, dive into the deck and get it over with’ and he suddenly thought no he’d carry on. He took over and brought the aircraft down, the wheels, brought the aircraft down and he just came below some high tension cables, past a row of cottages in front of a hospital [laughs] and again they came and cut him out of the aircraft and whipped him into the hospital and this eminent French surgeon who was there, one of the the leading surgeons in France performed an operation on him and that saved his life. But later on he got dysentery and the stitches all broke and that was it. He never ever recovered properly. He always had this open wound and, but the skipper, Andy he bailed out and drowned in the river. He just didn’t release his chute obviously and there was - so one killed and two wounded and three whole.
AM: Three in one piece. So you’re on the lorry. You’re being taken away somewhere.
DF: Yes.
AM: Then what?
DF: And went, went to the officer’s mess, of the -
AM: The mess in?
DF: The squadron who’d shot us down. German officer’s mess but first of all we were interviewed by the couple of bods there and they were trying to get information out of us there and I just gave my name, rank and number. And they said, “Hang ‘em. Hang ‘em.”
Anyhow I didn’t say anything at all and they let me go into another room. Then they took us, a car came and took us to the mess and then we met the guy who shot us down. And he gave us Cognac and coffee and had a general chin wag with them and they said don’t worry the war won’t last long about another six months and the Fuehrer will be riding on a white horse down Whitehall and we said, “Wait and see” and this amused them this ‘wait and see’. And we finally left and they all came on to the front steps to see us off and they all said, “Wait and see” ha ha ha and we said, “Yes wait and see.” And I often wonder how many of them remained alive to wait and see.
AM: And you say us. So how many of you were there?
DF: There were two, there were two of us there.
AM: So, you because -
DF: Two of us and one was a bit further afield and he joined us later on. So there were three of us at [unclear] we were picked up and eventually made our way – or were taken to Hamburg station, put on a train and taken to Dulag Luft which was a reception depot.
AM: Ahum.
DF: And again we were interrogated by, by a guy speaking flawless English. He was, he could have been English and we gave our name, rank and number and he wanted to know what squadron we were from and they were interested in the Stirling. The Stirling at that time had just come operational and they had no information on it and they wanted to know about it. Anyhow, I didn’t give them any information and he pushed a packet of cigarettes and he said, “Didn’t I compete against you at the University Games in London?” I said, “No. No.” And he gave me these cigarettes which I politely refused. I was a non-smoker. After about an hour he, they let me into the compound with the rest, the rest of the bods and we met up in the, in the main sort of main hall. And there were about thirty aircrew there who had been shot down in the last few days. And they had permanent staff there who had been shot down way back. And we then went, the RAF camp wasn’t ready, hadn’t been built so we went around various other camps, army camps and we went to Austria, Poland a sort of cooks tour of Germany and we finally settled up and we ended up in Lamsdorf which an army camp near Breslau and there we remained until the RAF camp was ready which was Stalag Luft III.
AM: So how long were you at the one before Stalag Luft III? How long were you there for?
DF: Oh about, our wanderings, we were wandering about almost a year.
AM: On trains or -
DF: On trains yeah. We’d go, they’d take us to a camp. We might be there two months. Another camp we might be there for three months.
AM: And who was in, you said they were army camps.
DF: They were army camps yeah.
AM: So who else was in them?
DF: Well the last one, in Austria in a place called Wolfsburg, was a French army camp. There were about eighteen thousand Frenchmen. And -
AM: What did you do?
DF: We just -
AM: When you were in there?
DF: We just lived. Existed really. We commandeered the ablutions there and made them fit for use, our own use after the French had made a terrible sort of mess of them. The odd French peasant he doesn’t mind where he, where he sort of goes does he?
AM: But you were a bit more discerning.
DF: And we cleaned it up and it became our own, our own ablutions and everything.
AM: So then Stalag Luft III. Tell me about that.
DF: Oh that 1942 we got there. End of ’42. And that was where we really organised there. An organised camp. There were libraries there and skilled teachers. That’s where a lot of guys started their university experience. Qualified in the intermediate.
AM: Amongst the POWs?
DF: Yes.
AM: So they, who ran the -
DF: Ran the, ran the camp, yeah. Now my pilot, the one who was wounded, he took his intermediate economics exams on [?] university and he ended up being the deputy vice chancellor of the University at Perth.
AM: What did you do?
DF: What did I do? I did, I learned German. I read a lot and increased my knowledge generally and of course mixing with all different types of people what they knew rubbed off on you and I just gleaned information that way.
AM: And you were there for how long?
DF: All told four years.
AM: Four years.
DF: Ahum.
AM: I can’t imagine it.
DF: And we dug tunn, I was involved in five tunnels.
AM: Oh tell me a bit more about that.
DF: Well the first one we dug was what we called a moler and it was just, the actual tunnel was about the same size as your body, your shoulders and it was a question of knees and elbows and digging with a implement and the earth was shoved back like a mole does and after about a half an hour you had to give up and signal you were passing out. Of course you had a rope around your ankle and when you gave a signal they pulled you, hauled you back. Next man in and so it went on.
There was a brand new washhouse there the Germans had built, they weren’t using it, between us and the fence and we thought if we could get to that washhouse and crack a pipe and get some fresh air and I happened to have been digging with the pipe and there it was, this lovely salt glaze pipe and I had a bit of a rock with me and I gave it a couple of bangs and it broke and the fresh air came and, oh marvellous. And then the winter came along and the position we were in it was visible. We had dug during the summer by putting up two sticks with a blanket and just were sunbathing ostensibly but it was just that it was just the cover and there was just the blanket was just high enough so that the guard couldn’t see over it. And we dug this and yes carried on for some weeks and then we had to give up because winter started you couldn’t sunbathe.
AM: Don’t sunbathe in winter. So that was one tunnel.
DF: That was the first one.
AM: And what happened to it? Where did it, did it actually get to the outside?
DF: Oh yes it got about forty yards and we had to give it, had to leave it so I don’t know what happened to it. It probably caved in in the end.
AM: So that was the first one?
DF: The first one.
AM: And then?
DF: The second one was one from the one that had been discontinued, again in a washhouse and that was, that was quite a big one and I started on that and that’s when the Americans came into the camp then. American officers and I’ll never forget this ‘cause I was familiar with Roger and Wilko they were the sort of references to Roger and out or Wilco - will cooperate and this guy was a captain. I was handing up sand and he kept saying Roger. And I honestly thought he had two blokes up there - one called Wilkins and the other called Roger. [Laughs] You simply say passing the bucket to one guy Roger, Roger,
AM: And that was sand?
DF: That was compact sand really.
AM: So how did you stop the tunnel collapsing?
DF: Well we dug with, I had a big tablespoon just with the handle off and dug like that ‘cause it was easy digging. Too easy actually. Got some collapses and so had to retain a dome shape. So it kept its own shape and that damp got in to that and we gave it up. And the big tunnel, the best tunnel was the biggest one and that was again near a wash house, near a soakaway. We started on that. Dug down about ten feet down for the shaft and then along towards the wire and it hadn’t rained, we got about fifty yards, it hadn’t rained for about, nearly a month and suddenly it belted it down and it didn’t stop for about five days and we were digging near the soakaway so there was a subsidence in the soil and we saw a German ferret, we called them ferrets, snooping around and we saw him probing cause he saw the ground subsiding and so we went, we went to the barrack hut and the next thing we knew there was a hell of a commotion and there was German fire engine came dashing in and this guy had fallen in through into the soakaway and this fire engine came in and they got a special harness and put it around him and hauled him out and everyone cheered and they got their pistols out and started firing. I’ve never seen blokes move so quickly.
AM: Firing in what direction? At you?
DF: Oh in the direction of us, yes. So I saw blokes making for the huts, diving through windows and [laughs]
AM: Was anybody killed?
DF: No.
AM: Was anybody shot?
DF: No.
AM: No.
DF: No and then, it was then that they started issuing notices saying that all materials because you had we had to used beds and bed boards which in the German eyes was sabotage and they just said that anyone caught tunnelling in future and misusing German material would be guilty of sabotage and would spend a long time in prison or might, could even be shot. That didn’t dissuade us. We just carried on.
And then we went up to Barth a place called Barth on the Baltic coast and started a tunnel there cos the Yanks were there and we.
AM: So you moved up.
DF: Yes.
AM: From where you were.
DF: Yes.
AM: To a different camp. And what camp was that?
DF: Barth B A R T H
AM: It was actually called, right ok.
DF: And we started a tunnel there with the Americans and we were sent back to our own camp again then we started another one from a barrack, from a barrack hut which meant moving a big stove each time, each time and that got us, it was arduous so we gave it up and that was the end of the tunnelling really.
AM: So you never actually got any of them out?
DF: We didn’t no.
AM: Were you aware of what was happening with the ‘great escape’ tunnel?
DF: No we, we knew the Germans were getting trigger happy. They were very concerned about people using materials, sabotage and God knows what and they issued notices in the camp - escape is no longer a sport, it could result in death. And the first information we had was when we got – where were we then – up near Konigsburg. We’d all had to go, move camp and in through the gates came a convoy of motorcycles and vehicles all armed with heavy machine guns and they proceeded to cordon around us. We were out in the open some sort of roll surrounded us and this German, CO, German CO read out what had happened. He said that fifty, fifty officers had been shot and we all booed and then they clicked their safety catches and started getting - so our senior man said, “Cool it blokes, cool it blokes” don’t want any disasters but we knew. They said they were shot while trying to escape but they they’d been recaptured and then shot. We found -
AM: Did you know that or found out later on?
DF: Later on yes yeah. Marvellous, good men lost their, the whole secret organisation leaders were shot and there were several Germans hanged for it after the war.
AM: So what, going back to you and where you were then. So we’re getting towards the end of the war. What things started happening?
DF: Yeah.
AM: What?
DF: Well we ended up at a place called [Fallingbostel?] it wasn’t far from the main autobahn between Hanover and Hamburg and things were getting a bit tight and all of a sudden one day you’re going to march, got to get out and march. So everyone packed up their belongings and gathered, and carried what they could and assembled outside the gates. We thought to hell with this. This could lead to hostage taking so we said no we’re not marching so there were five of us avoided the Germans. They were searching the whole camp get people out of it. We hid up in various places and when the coast was clear we went out through the wire and made contact with our own army.
AM: How? How?
DF: We just went out into the open and we passed through the German lines and saw Germans laying mines in culverts and we met up with - we saw a tank coming towards us over the brow of a hill and the gun swung around and the gun, comms tower was opened and a black bereted head popped out. We said, “Don’t fire. We’re English.” So they drew up about twenty yards from us, the crew got out and gave us cigarettes and there we were smoking and -
AM: You were a non-smoker.
DF: No. No. I tell you what, when I was twenty one, on my twenty first birthday there was a consignment of Red Cross parcels. So everyone – ‘oh food, marvellous’ but it wasn’t food it was tobacco. Cigarettes. The issue was thirteen per man so I had my thirteen cigarettes. I thought well I can’t eat I might as well bloody smoke. That’s when I started smoking. Twenty one.
AM: So here’s the tank.
DF: And, and they drew up and we sat there chatting on a grassy bank and we’d earlier, before we’d met the tank, we’d come to a farm. Went into the farmhouse and there at a long farm table were the farmer’s wife and about six Germans – troops. So we questioned them and obviously they were no longer interested in fighting, they just more or less deserted, or given themselves up. And when we, when we spoke to the tank commander and told them about the guys in the farmhouse his eyes lit up so he sent a guy, one man up to the farm about a mile back and he came back not with six blokes but about thirty. They were all skulking in the cowsheds.
And this guy he’d sent up there was an Austrian and who’d been in England since 1936 and he joined the British army, marvellous bloke. And I always remember this squadron, this tank commander was called Major Hepburn and everyone called him Kathy [laughs] and when these, these Germans came down, he lined them all up and they put their packs in front of them and he said, “Right open them up” and they opened them up. There were tins of beef and pork and eau de cologne and cigarettes, cigars so he said, “There you are blokes take what you want” so we took, there were tins of meat and God knows what and put them in our packs. And then he said you’re running, you’re running a bit of a risk he said ‘cause there are still troops hiding up in woods. This was the SS. And so they armed us with rifles and ammunition and gave us a driver and a jeep and we went back about ten miles up to divisional headquarters and dropped us off there. So we were free once again.
We just we went back through the lines again everywhere like a lot of bandits with rifles and and yards of ammo wound around us and if we felt hungry we just caught up with the nearest army thing and they fed us and gave us a bed for the night and it was a marvellous week really. It was, was blazing hot sun. Marvellous.
AM: And you just worked your way.
DF: Yeah worked our way across the -
AM: Where did you end up?
DF: Well we saw six RAF blokes coming down the road so we said, “Where are you from?” And they said, “Oh we’re from a transport squadron he said but a bit further back, about a mile along there’s a fighter squadron flying Tempests,” and we thought they’re the boys so we walked up there and the sentry said, “Halt” and brought the guard out and took our weapons away and we made statements they gave us pieces of paper saying the bearer is an escaped prisoner of war.
And then we had a marvellous shower and then were, we were guests of the officer’s mess where we drank and oh I’ve never drunk before in my life and funnily enough it must have been because we hadn’t drunk for ages but we couldn’t get drunk. We just, it was a marvellous sense. But the CO, the group captain he went slowly under the table, just collapsed really under the table.
And then there was another guy who saw us - he turned around and embraced one of our mates. He was, Gerry Clark who was with us, he was bilingual French and this guy saw him who was a French, French ace and he turned around and he saw him and, “Oh Gerry” and they were from Biggin Hill. That’s where they’d last met. And Gerry had collided with a German in a dog fight and he and the German were in the same hospital. But Pierre Clostermann was the name of this, this French ace. He wrote two books Flames in the Sky is one and Big Show is the other one.
AM: Ahum.
DF: And he always wore, always wore a pair of guns like he was some old cowboy. He was quite a flamboyant creature and after the war he became an MP.
AM: Ahum.
DF: Alsace yeah from Alsace.
AM: So how did you actually get back to England?
DF: Oh then they thought there’s an Anson going back to Dunsfold tomorrow and oh lovely we can go back just as we are and just as we are dressed in scruff order but they had to, they had to inform Movement Control and we had to go through channels and they gave us army uniforms, all brand new and we had to go through, go through with the rest of the guys and we ended up at Brussels and they were flying in petrol in jerry cans and flying out prisoners of war. So we flew back in a Stirling and I flew back in the rear turret. And then we, we had, after that we went, we had, to Cosford to be debriefed at Cosford and given RAF stuff. RAF uniforms.
AM: Proper uniforms.
DF: That’s it. And then given pay, indefinite leave and that was it. Anti-climax.
AM: So what did you do?
DF: I went back. I went home and that was it. Show over.
AM: When you said they gave you your pay so that’s for all the time that you’d been gone.
DF: Oh they didn’t give us the lot. They gave us an instalment.
AM: Right. So what did you do afterwards then?
DF: What?
AM: You’ve had the anti-climax. You’re back. You’re home.
DF: Yes.
AM: Then what?
DF: I just remained in the RAF till my demob number came up and meanwhile I met my wife. Met her in June and we were married in October. And it worked out marvellously well and she was demobbed first and then I was demobbed and then I thought well what do we do now?
So I got a government grant and trained as a chartered surveyor but I failed the ex, again my mind wasn’t a hundred percent. I just went through the motions and I just failed the exam in one subject and then I gave it up. And I’m glad I did because the idea, in retrospect the idea of being in a routine job never appealed to me so what I did I joined, later on I joined a company selling farm buildings and it was marvellous. I was a freelance representative out every day, living in a place I wanted to live in – Cornwall. It was marvellous. That’s where the family were brought up. We were twenty years down there.
AM: Right. And here you are.
DF: Here we are.
AM: In Winchelsea.
DF: Yeah. In our second love, Romney Marsh.
AM: Ahum. Any other stories for me or shall we switch off?
DF: Hmmn?
AM: Any other stories for me or shall I switch off?
DF: I could go on forever I think but -
AM: Do feel free.
DF: No, then we were in Cornwall and the company, the company I was with, I was a freelance agent and the company I was with thought it was too far too come to erect buildings in Cornwall. They were, they were in Herefordshire so they just withdrew the labour from Cornwall and left me high and dry. So I thought to hell with it I’ve just about had enough of this bloody rat race so I gave it up and I started gardening and I’ve never had a more pleasant time in my life. Self-employed gardening. Marvellous. I used to do a bit of building.
AM: Out in the weather.
DF: Marvellous yeah.
AM: Wonderful so you had a good life.
DF: I had a good life. Very fortunate, very lucky. I had sixty nine years of married life. Marvellous. Got two nice daughters and a son in Australia. Good family.
AM: And you go swimming
DF: Yeah.
AM: When you can. In the sea.
DF: Yeah.
AM: At 94.
DF: Yeah.
AM: I think on that note.
DF: Yes.
AM: I’ll switch the recorder off.
DF: Ok
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with David Fraser
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-13
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AFraserD150713
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending OH summary
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
David Fraser enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1939 and was trained as a mechanic. He remustered as soon as he was able and flew four operations as an air gunner with 115 Squadron before his aircraft was shot down over Hamburg, in May 1941. He spent the next four years as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft 3.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Annie Moody
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:45:54 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
England--Norfolk
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Hamburg
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941-05-10
1942
115 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
bale out
bombing
crewing up
Dulag Luft
flight mechanic
Gneisenau
ground crew
Harrow
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Evanton
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Marham
Scharnhorst
searchlight
shot down
Spitfire
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
Stirling
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/733/9288/PCarswellA1702.1.jpg
6a021403a718f2d9ad8a17280e5548de
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/733/9288/ACarswellA170614.1.mp3
ea881ccab4c5a417073323e2bfde14f7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Carswell, Andrew
A Carswell
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Squadron Leader Andrew Carswell AFC (b. 1923). He flew operations as a pilot with 9 Squadron but was shot down and became a prisoner of war.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Carswell, A
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DK: Ok. So, I’ll just introduce myself. This is David Kavanagh for the International Bomber Command Centre interviewing Andy Carswell on the 14th of June, I always get the dates wrong. 2017.
AC: 13th. Isn’t it March the 13th?
DC: 14th.
DK: Oh, it’s the 14th . Yeah.
AC: 14th eh?
DK: 14th. 14th of June 2017 at his home in Toronto. I’ll just make sure that I said Toronto. Make sure everybody knows I’m here. So, if I just put that there.
AC: Now, you have the address of the home in Toronto and all that.
DK: Yeah. I’ve got all the address. Yeah.
AC: That’s good.
DK: If I keep looking down I’m not being rude I’m just making sure it’s working. There’s been a couple of occasions when I’ve been beaten by the technology when the battery has just stopped or something.
AC: I see.
DK: Right. Yeah. I think we’re ok.
AC: Do I have to speak any louder than normal or —
DK: No. Just, just speak normally. Just sound like that.
AC: That’s good. That’s good.
DK: Firstly, what I wanted to ask you was what were you doing immediately before the war started?
AC: Ok. I was going to high school. I was, immediately before the war started I guess I would be about sixteen years old or so. And just before my eighteenth birthday the principal of the high school I was going to — I was in Grade 12 and in those days you needed twelve grades in order to graduate in to university.
DK: Right.
AC: But they changed it. The timing on the thing so that you had to have thirteen grades. So, I was at the end of my twelfth grade. I was just coming up to eighteen years old and the principal, in one of his lectures said, ‘Anybody who wants to do war work can get off early.’ And so of course I stuck my hand up and said, ‘Yes, I want to do war work.’ And so I got off early and the first thing I did was I went downtown to the RCAF Recruiting Unit.
DK: Right.
AC: On my eighteen birthday. I was eighteen years old and I walked in there and they said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I want to join the Air Force.’ They said, ‘Oh. What do you want to be?’ And of course everybody watched the movies. I said, ‘I want to be a pilot.’ So they said, ‘Ok.’ And they put me in and I went to, to the local unit in the Toronto International Exhibition there and, at Upper Avenue Road, and they sent me to, to Belleville. They had taken a school for the deaf and dumb and kicked everybody out.
DK: Right.
AC: And I don’t know what they did with them. And they put us in there and some of us were sort of dumb too [laughs] but anyway we were selected there on the basis of various tests to be pilots, air gunners, or navigators.
DK: Right.
AC: And you had to be smart to be a navigator. And you had to, you had to be, I guess a good shot to be an air gunner so I was trained as a pilot. So, they selected me as a pilot and they sent me to, right off the bat to what’s the name of the place?
DC: Goderich.
AC: Goderich. Yeah. A little town on the Lake Huron and where there was a civil airport operating and there were volunteer instructors at that time. And there I soloed. Learned to fly an aeroplane. And then they sent me a couple of hundred miles away. Down to a place called Bradford which is also in Ontario. And they, they were flying Avro Ansons.
DK: Yeah.
AC: The very first order of Avro Ansons where you had to crank the undercarriage up and down by hand. And so I graduated from there as a pilot and I got to wear a pair of wings and I was a sergeant pilot.
DK: Did you, did you find learning to fly easy? Is it something that came naturally to you?
AC: Oh yes. It was very easy for me because I had spent most of my time outdoors. I was in the Boys Scouts.
DK: Right.
AC: And I did a lot of hiking and that kind of thing. And so they gave me a couple of weeks leave and then they sent me to England. Here I was, still just a little over eighteen by then I guess. And, and in England I went to Bournemouth where all the Canadians went.
DK: Just, just going back a bit how did you come over to England? Were you on one of the —
AC: On a ship. A boat.
DK: Right. Yeah.
AC: I forget the name of it. It was a — had normally been a freighter, I think.
DK: Oh right.
AC: And I was not too, not too — my memory is kind of clogged there with all the other things that are in it. But anyhow I went over by ship, you know. Evading the German submarines and so forth.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And eventually we ended up in Bournemouth. And in Bournemouth they sent me to, on more training. And I took three or four different courses on different kinds of aircraft. Getting larger, larger and larger from the smallest multi-engine aircraft to, to things like the DC3 and whatnot. And finally they put me on the Lincoln. Which was the brother of the Lancaster but it had different engines in it and it would only fly on one engine if one engine quit.
DK: Was that the Manchester?
AC: The Manchester. Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
AC: They put me on the Manchester.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And nobody liked the Manchester because they knew that if one engine quit the other one wasn’t enough to keep it going.
DK: Right.
AC: So, anyway and then they graduated me up to the Lancaster.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And I spent several weeks or a month or two flying the Lancaster and then they sent me up to number 9 Squadron.
DK: What did, what did you think of the Lancaster as an aircraft? Was it —
AC: Oh, great. The Lancaster itself was a very good aircraft and it was as easy to fly as the Avro Anson or any of the other aircraft. It wasn’t very cosy inside like the American aircraft. The Americans had lots of nice cushions in their front seats [laughs] And all kinds of good lighting and whatnot. And the Lancaster was just basically the controls that you needed and the — that was, that was basically all there was. You had your rudders. And there was no, no engine activated controls, you know. Everything was done.
DK: Manually.
AC: By force of —
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
AC: Force of habit.
DK: Had you, had you joined up with your crew at this point?
AC: No. No.
DK: Oh. Right then.
AC: They sent me to number 9 Squadron. And then they had a [pause] I’ve been trying to — that’s a good question. I’m trying to remember where they had the — I think we had the crew selection before I got to 9 Squadron.
DK: Right.
AC: And then people would go around saying, ‘Look. I’m a navigator. Do you want a navigator?’
DK: Was that then —
AC: ‘I’m a rear gunner,’ and all that.
DK: Right.
AC: So, anyway that was supposed to be my selection but I didn’t know any of the other people involved. I just picked people who looked like nice fellows [laughs] and we ended up with a crew of seven or so.
DK: And was the rest of your crew, were they Canadian or were they British?
AC: They were a mixture. The flight engineer was Scottish.
DK: Right.
AC: Jock Martin his name was and —
DC: Paddy Hipson.
AC: Paddy Hipson was Irish. Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And what else have I got? I had a couple of English guys. My wife’s got a better memory than I have. She, she, we’ve been married seventy years and she can still remember every bad thing I ever did [laughs]
DC: There was three Canadians besides you.
AC: Who, who were they? Three Canadian besides me eh?
DC: [unclear] The fellow that froze to death.
AC: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
DC: And —
AC: That was my navigator.
DC: And then there was —
AC: That navigator was a Canadian and he was just —
DC: Claude Clemens.
AC: Claude Clemens was a Canadian. He was a rear gunner. Yeah.
DC: West Ontario.
AC: That’s right.
DK: Was that — I’ve got your crew here as yourself. Sergeant Martin.
AC: Martin. Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
AC: That’s Scottish.
DC: Martin.
DK: Scottish. And what was he then?
AC: He was the flight engineer.
DK: Flight engineer. Galbraith. Galbraith.
AC: Galbraith. Yeah.
DC: He’s the one that froze to death.
AC: Yeah. Galbraith was the navigator. He was a Canadian.
DK: He was the navigator. Hipson?
AC: Harry Hipson was English.
DC: Irish.
DK: English. Irish?
AC: Scottish.
DK: He was Scottish.
AC: Scottish. And what was he then? The wireless operator?
AC: Hipson [pause] Oh, I know. He was the, not the — bombardier.
DK: Ah bombardier. Yeah. And then Sergeant Phillips.
AC: Sergeant Phillips.
DK: Yeah.
AC: Sergeant Phillips.
DC: Eddy Phillips.
AC: Eddy Phillips.
DC: The one that got a leg broken on the march.
AC: Yeah. That was Eddy Phillips was, I’m glad you’re here Dot to remind me of these things. Eddy Phillips was a part of our crew and he broke his leg after we landed.
DK: Right.
AC: And he moved about in different hospitals. I never saw him again.
DK: Oh right.
AC: But he didn’t die. He got home ok apparently.
DC: What did he do in the aircraft?
AC: Eddie Phillips was a mid-upper gunner.
DK: Air gunner.
AC: I think that’s what he was.
DK: And I’ve got Sergeant De Silva.
AC: De Silva. Yeah.
DC: English fellow.
AC: Oh. He was a mid-upper gunner. Yeah. Sergeant De Silva.
DC: De Silva. Yes.
AC: De Silva. And —
DC: His parachute didn’t open.
AC: And he was killed because his parachute didn’t open.
DK: Right.
AC: With him improperly loaded up into the aircraft, I guess.
DK: And then Sergeant Clemens, I think it says.
AC: Claude.
DC: Yes.
AC: Claude Clemens was the rear gunner. Yeah.
DK: He was the rear gunner. Ok.
AC: And he was a Canadian.
DK: Right. Ok.
AC: He just died a while ago.
DK: Ok.
AC: Big talker.
DC: Twelve years ago.
AC: I’m surprised that they’re still sending people out because I’m one of the youngest of the whole lot and I’m ninety four and Dorothy is ninety five. We’ve been married seventy years.
DK: Years. Well, congratulations.
AC: She remembers every year of it [laughs] Sometimes that’s not a good thing.
DK: Don’t ask me how long I’ve been married. Twenty two years. There you are.
AC: Twenty two years eh. Well, there you go.
Other: We’ve got a long way to go.
DK: [unclear]
AC: Anyway, so that’s, that’s how we got crewed up.
DK: Right. So, you were —
AC: As you know, that they normally the captain of the aircraft was normally commissioned and he was —
DK: Yeah.
AC: Started off as flying officer and then went to flight lieutenant and so forth. Well, on my first trip I was a sergeant pilot. I was the only pilot on board a Lancaster and I was only a sergeant. And there was no other, no other officers in the crew of course.
DK: Right.
AC: And they sent me on a couple of trips with other people just to see how I did and I would take the flight engineer’s spot because they only had one pilot in those aeroplanes. And then they put me on operations fairly shortly after that. And the first trip was fairly normal, I think.
DK: Can you remember where that was too?
AC: To, to Berlin.
DK: So, your first trip was to Berlin.
AC: And the second trip was to Berlin.
DK: Right.
AC: And then they stopped it. They lost so many aircraft that they stopped it for a while. They had aircraft going down all over the place. In fact when we were shot down we were about half way between [pause] what’s the name of that little town? I can’t remember now.
DC: Well, John took you on that trip.
AC: Yeah.
DC: To retrace your steps.
AC: Yeah. I’m just thinking yeah. But anyway, it was about half way between the [pause]
DC: Do you have any? You can look.
No. No. I don’t have any notes.
DC: Yeah.
AC: We weren’t supposed to take notes.
DC: We went to the wrong place when we were in Germany.
AC: Yeah. We went down to that town.
DC: You sat opposite.
AC: Where I got shot down.
DK: So, so this was the fourth operation then was it? You were shot down.
AC: Yeah.
DK: Can, can you say a little about what actually happened on that particular operation?
AC: Well, we were, we were at twenty thousand feet or so and a, and a barrage of flak came up around us and the next thing I noticed the navigator was pointing at the right hand engine. And the right hand engine was on fire and the fire was creeping towards the gas tanks. It still had a thousand gallons or more gasoline in them. So, I, I gave the order to bale out and so the rear gunner baled out, and the mid-upper gunner baled out and the mid-upper gunner’s parachute didn’t open as you know. The rear gunner, he only died a few years ago. And the rest of the crew all got out but my navigator who had recently been married and he was so anxious to get home he didn’t care what was wrong with the aeroplane. He kept saying, ‘You should go. Take — ’ such and such a course. And so we had a bit of an argument and I said, ‘If you don’t go out I’ll go out ahead of you because we’re going straight down.’ The aeroplane was on fire by then. And so he finally went out and I went out and that was it. And then I found myself in a tree and I [pause] that’s all in that book anyway, I think.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And I decided I’d walk towards Switzerland [laughs] which was a stupid idea. But I was walking pretty well all night and eventually I realised that I had two choices. Either give myself up or just hide in the woods until I froze to death. And I didn’t think that was a very good thing to do so I walked a little farther and I saw a farmhouse in the distance, down a side road. And I went down there and I knocked on the door of the farmhouse. Some woman opened a, opened a window up above and yelled something at me. And I just said, ‘It’s pretty cold out here. Let me in.’ [laughs] The next thing I know I hear is a crunching noise in the side driveway and this little old guy with a gun almost as big as himself came out, pointed it at me. And I said, ‘Don’t shoot.’ And then the wife came out and yelled something at him. And they decided to take me in. And I went into their living room and they had a Chesterfield about that size there and they told me to sit down there. And I sat down there and fell asleep. When I woke up again there was a great crowd of people wandering around and looking at me. And a little boy was looking at my arm here. It said Canada on it. He said, ‘Oh, Canada.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And then everybody sort of thought that I understood German. Which I didn’t. And eventually a car pulled up with a couple of Nazi soldiers in it and they made sure that I didn’t have a weapon on me. And then they put me on the car. They took me down to the town hall which was — oh it’s in that book there anyway.
DK: That’s all right. Christine, can you have a look through there and see if you can find out the town he parachuted into? Just see if you can find it.
AC: I was trying to think of the name. I had a beer there too. Not after I got shot down but after.
DK: Yeah. When you went back.
AC: When I went back with me wife.
DK: You didn’t get a beer the day you were shot down then.
DC: He went back with John.
DK: Yeah.
DC: Our son took Andy back.
Oh yeah. That’s right. You weren’t with me on that one were you?
DC: And John has a very very good memory [unclear]
CK: Was it Zerbst?
AC: Pardon?
CK: Zerbst Town Hall. Z E R B S T.
AC: Zerbst.
CK: Zerbst.
AC: Yeah. Z E R B S T. Zerbst.
DK: Yeah.
AC: We were quite close to there when we got shot down. And so, I was, I was kept in a private room with a young fellow with a gun sitting there. And finally he went out to get something to eat and he came back and said something to me and he offered me some food too. So, he gave me something to eat. I had a sandwich along with him. And then I stayed there for a day. And the next day a bunch of soldiers came in and marched me out into the parade square where they had a crowd of people around. And they were all looking at this strange guy that had just got shot down nearby. And from there we went to a Luftwaffe station where they put us all in cells and various people came in and interviewed us and whatnot. And they were fairly decent, you know about the whole thing. And after that they put us all together except for the dead people. They couldn’t find the navigator. They didn’t know where he was. And neither did I. I suspected he was hiding in the woods, you know. Which would be not a very smart thing to do in sub-zero temperatures. But so they eventually found him. He’s buried near Berlin right now.
DK: Right.
AC: And —
DK: So, he had frozen to death then.
AC: Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
AC: He just stayed out until he froze to death. It wasn’t a very smart thing to do either. But he was so much in love with this woman he’d just married that he figured he could get home. Sad eh? So, anyway that was, that was the beginning of my two years and three months in a POW camp. And they moved me to a place called Lamsdorf.
DK: Yeah.
AC: The rest of the crew was there and I spent the next [pause] And what did I do there? I figured I should do something useful so I escaped a couple of times and I got caught a couple of times. Let’s see. Three times I escaped, I think. Two. Must be. You’re right, Dot. Two times I escaped. Lucky I’ve got somebody to correct me. So, I escaped twice. I got caught twice. I spent time in three different prisons.
DK: ‘Cause reading your book what you seem to have done is exchange places with an army —
AC: Oh yeah.
DK: Was that how it was?
AC: Swapped over. Yeah. That was the, the theory that the people running the place you know. The RAF people decided that that was the way to go. We didn’t dig tunnels or anything like that. We swapped over. And I swapped over with a couple of different fellows.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And they went up into my barracks and wore my uniform. And I went down into their barracks and waited for my name to be called. My fake name. And then I got marched out with the rest of the people and —
DK: And the Germans never cottoned on to this then. That this was what was going on.
AC: Oh, I think they, they suspected. But I mean to them a POW was a POW. You know, they all looked the same.
DK: Yeah. Because I was very surprised when, when you were captured you were still that army person.
AC: That’s right.
DK: And even they took you back they still didn’t realise that you were —
AC: That’s right.
DK: Air Force.
AC: That’s right.
[background noise]
DK: Can, can I just stop?
[recording paused]
AC: I didn’t have much of a record as a bomber pilot.
DK: Yeah.
AC: I got shot down on my second trip really as captain. And it was all very sad. And after that I don’t remember anybody who ever flew a Lancaster who was below the rank of flying officer or flight lieutenant, you know. They automatically commissioned people to be captain of a huge aircraft like that. But anyway, that’s the basic. The rest of the story is in the book.
DK: I see with your second escape you were actually captured and held by the Gestapo.
AC: The Gestapo.
DK: It was the Gestapo?
AC: Yeah. We were, we were arrested [laughs] for eating lunch in a park. And you got —
DK: So, what was your plan of escape because you’re —
AC: We were going to Stettin and we were going to —
DK: Right.
AC: Get on to a Swedish ship to go to Sweden.
DK: Right.
AC: And that was, if I’d known more about it I would have gone to Denmark I guess because there they hated the Nazis.
DK: Yeah.
AC: They were driving people over to Sweden all the time.
DK: So, you’ve got false documentation now, presumably.
AC: Yeah.
DK: And you’re taking the part of, of foreign workers.
AC: That’s right.
DK: Is that the idea?
AC: That’s right. And they didn’t, nobody knew we weren’t foreign workers. We didn’t tell anybody.
DK: Yeah.
AC: The thing about the Gestapo was that they were just a mean bunch. I think they had to be mean to be selected. Our own guards were nice people, you know. Basically —
DK: Yeah.
AC: And some of the people, some of the Germans we met like you may remember a part where we had just got to Czechoslovakia and we were being taken back to our camp by a guard and he was quite friendly. And he, and he spoke to the other fellow a lot because the other fellow spoke German. You know. Had been a prisoner since Dunkirk. And any time an official looking German walked by, you know he’d change his story and be talking about something else. And, but he asked why we took a freight train. Because when we took a friend train all the way to, you know from where we jumped. Where we escaped the working party.
DK: Yeah.
AC: We jumped on a freight train. And I was pretty good at that because I used to do that as a kid. I had, when I went to high school you know. We went out to the freight yards. We’d jump on a freight train and go —
DK: Yeah.
AC: For a couple of miles and then jump off again. But anyway, so we came down in a freight train because we jumped on it. We were at a slight slope uphill and the freight train was going at a fairly slow rate, you know. And we’d run along beside it and jump on. And the guard said, ‘Well, why didn’t you jump on an ordinary train?’ And my friend who spoke German said, ‘Yeah. We, we took a freight train because the ordinary trains have got all these Gestapo people on them.’ And they, they said, ‘Oh, that’s, that’s not true,’ he said, ‘Most of our trains are full of people. Workers.’
DK: So the German guard was giving you advice on how to escape.
AC: Yeah. So, the German, the German guard was telling us how we, so, he said, ‘The next time you escape you should go on a passenger train.’ You know, this is a German guard.
DK: Yeah.
AC: Yet the Gestapo guys they were really mean. If you put your head out of line to look down you get hit on the back of the head with a rifle butt. You know. They just amused themselves and they’d take the women in there and march them around. Make them sing patriotic songs. And then they would take the men down there, march them around and make them go on their hands and knees. You know. Just —
DK: So, how long were you held by the Gestapo then?
AC: Oh, a couple of weeks.
DK: A couple of weeks.
AC: I think it was. I think it was more than a week anyway. Two weeks.
DK: Right.
AC: And, and then a guard came and rescued us you might say. He —
DK: So, had you, had you been trying to explain to the Gestapo that you were escaped prisoners then? Prisoners of War.
AC: Oh yeah. They — but they didn’t bother them.
DK: No.
AC: They, they didn’t give any particular respect to Prisoners of War or anybody else. But anyway the, the guard who came down who was very nice. As a matter of fact, on our way out the main, the main part of the prison I mentioned to the guard that they had taken my watch away from me. I had a Rolex Oyster. And that’s about a two thousand dollar watch, you know. And he said, ‘Oh. Ok.’ So, he went to the fellow on the desk and he started yelling at him in German and telling give me back my watch. The guy opened the drawer.
DK: Wow.
AC: And gave me back my watch.
DK: Wow.
AC: So there was, there was a guard. An ordinary, an ordinary soldier giving the Gestapo a hard time. And we had to give him advice on how to get back the best way because he didn’t know the railroads as well as we did.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And so we went back there. That was my last attempt at escape. And then after that I got back. And nobody ever caught us in the form of our, nobody ever proved it or even suspected that we had changed identities a couple of times.
DK: So you went back to the camp then as this army person.
AC: That’s right.
DK: And then you swapped over again.
AC: I swapped over again. I re-swapped over and I —
DK: I’m just amazed that the Germans never quite cottoned on to this.
AC: So am I but the like I said the average guard there would be a postman or something who would just as soon be a guard in a prison camp then fight the Russians. You know, the Russians were really mean. They were even meaner than the Germans. They still are I think but —
CK: Can I just ask which camp this was? Was this Stalag 8?
AC: Stalag 8B. And then they changed the name to 344, nearer the end for some reason.
CK: You mentioned in your book about a couple of coincidences. You met a couple of chums from Canada or something.
AC: Oh yeah. That’s right. I met a, I met a couple of chums who had gone to the same high school that I went to.
DC: When you first went in the camp.
AC: When I first went in the camp. Yeah. That was my first visit to the camp where they unloaded the train and then they marched us all down to the camp. And a couple of these fellows actually met us and said, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ I said, ‘Same thing as you. What are you doing here?’ That camp had a maximum capacity of about twenty five thousand. There were a lot of people there. So, and you can imagine the guard’s problem.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
AC: You know. Keeping track of all these people. In fact they had a compound which, where they supposedly punished people who were trying to escape and what not. I’m trying to think of the name of the compound. Anyway, it’s in, it’s in my book. And, and we never saw the inside of that but we heard about it, you know. If you were caught climbing a fence or trying to beat up a guard or something then you go in to that camp and get punished. So, anyway that was my, my whole period there. And then the, the end came when the Russians were so close you could hear the guns firing and they decided to take us off out of the camp and they tipped the whole Air Force compound at once. They marched us out about 3 o’clock in the morning and we were going west on the, on the side roads. And we were sleeping in barns and so forth.
DK: Had you been expected to be evacuated as the Russians advanced?
AC: Well, we didn’t know. Nobody told us everything. And they decided they were going to take it because having a bunch of prisoners in fairly good condition was a good thing to do when the British were obviously winning the war.
DK: Yeah.
AC: I think most Germans knew that the war was pretty well lost by then. And they marched us all the way there. And the most interesting place we stopped at a train pulled over, stopped because there was going to be an air raid. And the name of the place was Halberstadt, which means half a town. Halbe is half and stadt is town. And the RAF came and bombed the place. Shot up the place quite, and some of our own people were killed there which was fairly normal for wartime you know.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And they and so the next morning they gathered up, they buried the people that were killed and they put the rest —
DK: So, you’ve been both. You’ve been both dropping bombs and on the receiving end of them.
AC: Oh yeah. That’s right. I was on the receiving end.
DK: Right.
AC: And so they put us back into another train and they took us all the way to West Germany. And, and in West Germany we were in a camp that had just been evacuated. They had taken a bunch of officers and people out of there that they wanted us to hang on to and they put us in the camp. And then we were in that camp when what was his name? Not Montgomery. Montgomery. Yeah. Montgomery and his army came by that area.
DK: Right.
AC: And they, they released us. I was quite disappointed because I met a couple of British soldiers that were telling us where we could go to steal things from houses. You know. How you can loot houses. They’d just walk into a place with the guns and start to look around.
DK: Really?
AC: And take stuff off the mantelpiece and whatever.
DK: And this is, this is —
AC: I was quite disappointed with that, you know.
DK: Yeah.
AC: After the way we had been treated. But you’ve got to remember we also knew that the Poles and the Jews and the Russians and a few other people like that were treated really terribly by the Germans.
DK: Yeah.
AC: The Germans. I guess we were the best treated, treated of the lot because we were connected with the Red Cross.
DK: Yeah.
AC: And you know what Germans are like. They go by the book and the book said the Red Cross was in charge of us. And so the Germans —
DK: So, just going back a bit to your time in the camp would you say you were fairly well treated then?
AC: Yes. I think we were fairly well treated and any, anybody who wrote a book saying we weren’t well treated I think they were probably stretching the truth a little bit.
DK: Do you think the Red Cross parcels made a big difference then?
AC: Oh yeah. They made a big difference because we would get an average of maybe one, one or two Red Cross parcels a month and one Red Cross parcel particularly the Canadian ones were full of butter and jam and all kinds of things that you didn’t get. Because our normal food, God only knows what was in but you know, dead horses and whatever. And that is why I’m so old, I think. I’ve eaten so much crappy stuff. I’m, I just had my eighty fourth birthday and Dorothy —
DC: Eighty fourth? Ninety.
AC: Oh, ninety fourth. Yeah.
DK: Ninety fourth. Yeah.
AC: Ninety fourth. Yeah. And Dorothy’s birthday is coming up. Her ninety fifth is coming up at the end of next month.
DC: Ninety six.
AC: Yeah. She’s going to be, she’s going to be ninety six. Well, she’s got a much better, better memory than I have. So, I didn’t meet Dorothy until after the war.
DK: Right.
AC: And she was working for a big oil company. Imperial Oil. And she was, had a pretty good job too. I didn’t marry her for her money of course but —
DC: Oh yes you did.
AC: So, but anyway and I was a starving student, you know. I had to go back to school and get my grade thirteen. And then I went to university and I got admitted in to university as an architectural student. And in the second year I realised that this would be a pretty boring occupation doing stairways and tall buildings and things like that after what I’d been through. So, on top of that I didn’t have a job or anything and didn’t have any money. Dorothy had some money. But anyway we got married and, and I re-joined the Air Force. Did I join the Air Force after we got married?
DC: [unclear]
AC: Yeah. And I re-joined the Air Force and that was about — 1945.
DC: 1949.
AC: ’49. Yeah. And I was in the Air Force for the next twenty odd years. And then I was too young to start over again then so I went to Transport Canada. And in the same capacity as a pilot.
DK: Right.
AC: And doing safety work. And my job there was to look after the safety programmes in the Province.
DK: Oh right.
AC: I was the head safety officer. Anyway, so, and that’s, so I’ve been a pilot all my life. From, from age nineteen to, to now.
DK: And could I just take you back a bit? When Montgomery’s armies turned up and you’d been liberated how did you then get back to England from there? Or Canada really?
AC: Well, actually they took us by truck down to the nearest airport and then they flew us back in Dakotas, you know.
DK: Right.
AC: You know what a Dakota looks like. And there they sorted us all out and like an idiot I said I want to go back to Canada when I should have stayed and looked around England a bit first. But anyway, so I went back to Canada pretty well —
DK: Right.
AC: Shortly after. Before the war was even over. And that was the end of, that was the end of my military experience. And I got a, I got a private pilots or a commercial pilot’s licence and I got an instructor’s job at the local airport.
DK: Right.
AC: Then I joined the Air Force, and —
DK: So, what were you flying between 1949 and the twenty years you were back in the Air Force.
AC: Well, they didn’t put me on Lancasters. They put me on Cansos.
DK: Right.
AC: I was flying Cansos and, and the first year I was flying as a co-pilot with another chap whose name was [pause] I can’t think of it right now. But he’s probably dead anyway. But anyway he was flying all over the Arctic and looking for the North Magnetic Pole and this and that.
DC: The [unclear] Magnetic Pole.
AC: Do you remember his name, Dot?
DC: Just a minute. [pause] I have to think about it for a minute.
AC: Yeah. Anyway, anyway, so his job was, you know relocating the North Magnetic Pole and a few things like that. And the following, the following year they decided to make me a captain so they moved me to Vancouver.
DK: Right.
AC: Where I took a course on the Canso. I thought I was going to be flying the Lancaster but no I went on to the Canso and I must have done fairly well on that because when I came back I was a captain on a Canso for the next couple of years. And then after that just to make things different they moved me on to Cansos in Vancouver. And I spent another five or how many years were we in Vancouver.
DC: Seven years.
AC: Seven years in Vancouver. There you go.
DK: Yeah.
AC: So, I was seven years in Vancouver. And most of our work was rescue work, you know.
DK: Yeah.
AC: Locating crashed aeroplanes and things like that and that’s where I got that medal from the Queen there.
DK: Oh right.
AC: See the picture of me and the Queen.
DK: Yeah. Oh yeah.
AC: I sent her a picture. I sent her a letter asking her if she would sign the picture. She said —
DC: Oh no.
AC: She said, I got a letter back from her assistant saying sorry but we can’t do things like that. You can imagine the problem we’d have writing to everybody who wanted our signature. So, she said, “I appreciate your enquiry,” and so forth and so on. It was the same as the Air Force Cross except it was a peacetime medal.
DK: Oh right.
AC: And it was for rescuing a guy who was having a, some kind of a heart attack in his head out on a weather ship. You know.
DK: Oh right.
AC: In those days they had weather ships way out.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
AC: In the middle of the ocean. And so I went out there and landed close by and they brought this sick guy over on a life boat and loaded him into the back of the aeroplane where there was a couple of nurses there. And then this guy was loaded in to the aircraft I’d got to take off in fairly rough water. But I had put two JATO bottles in the aeroplane.
DK: Right.
AC: One on each side. And do you know what a JATO bottle is?
DK: Is it a —
AC: It’s a rocket.
DK: Jet Assisted Take Off
AC: And it lasts for two or three minutes and so we managed to get off at about the second bounce. We got off and stayed in the air and flew this guy to Victoria where he was sent to a hospital and apparently lived to tell about it. So, anyway that was one of the more spectacular ones I did but I did lots of picking guys out of the water and flying them home and things like that. So, that was my job in Vancouver. And then they sent me to Toronto. A staff college again wasn’t it?
DC: You went to Goose Bay, Labrador first.
AC: Oh yeah. I went to Goose Bay, Labrador as a chief operations officer there. I was a squadron leader by then. And then I was told that there were so many people due for promotion that they were going to have to pass me over and start promoting some younger people otherwise everybody would be retiring at about the same time. Which was fair enough. So, I never got any higher than squadron leader.
DK: Yeah.
AC: But it was a pretty good job anyway doing that.
DK: So, so you never flew the Lancaster again post war.
AC: Oh, I flew the Lancaster again in Vancouver.
DK: Oh.
AC: Having been a Lancaster pilot they chose me to check people out in the Lancaster.
DK: Oh right.
AC: And so, I checked quite a few people out in the Lancaster. I flew a few tours myself looking for various crashed aircraft and whatnot.
DK: You didn’t, you didn’t fly the one that’s still flying did you?
AC: No. I didn’t.
DK: No.
AC: I didn’t fly that but no, I’m, I’m listed as a Canso pilot. I got thousands of hours in a Canso. And my son, one of my sons started a business which he called Canso. And he’s got the whole, and it’s doing pretty well.
DK: Yeah.
AC: So, and he’s got his whole office full of Canso pictures and parts and things like that. So, it’s quite flattering to see.
DK: Yeah.
AC: All these Canso things are out. So, anyway that’s my story. It’s not much of a story.
DK: Oh, it’s a great story. Just going, looking back now after all these years. How do you feel about your time, you know in the Air Force during the war and particularly as a POW? How do you look back on that now? Your feelings.
AC: Well, considering the fact that my father and mother both died in their 60s. My older brother died many years ago and he was a couple of years older than I was. My younger sister, who was quite a few years younger than me died just last year. I figure, and I may be wrong but I figure that the bad food that I got used to in the camp and the good treatment I got, pretty well, you know went together and made me sort of, I’m still, despite what my wife may think I’m still fairly healthy.
DC: I watch his diet.
AC: Just, my recent call to the doctor, he said, ‘You’re very slightly on the diabetic line.’
DK: Right. Yeah.
AC: And so I —
DK: So, you think it —
AC: I told Dot this and now she gives me hell every time I have a cup of sugar.
DK: So, you think it made you a stronger person. Is that what you’re saying?
DC: Yes.
AC: Yes. I think —
DK: Yeah.
AC: I think it, I think it made me stronger. The fact that, you know, some of the people like my rear gunner Claude Clemens he never went outside the camp once, you know. He just sat there and played bridge and played cards and had a good time and then got released. And I and a number of other people thought that we should be doing something useful like trying to escape.
DK: Did you see it as your duty then to escape?
AC: I thought so. Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
AC: So, I mean I was a young fellow I’d believe anything in those days. But —
DK: Was it partly then to stop the boredom? You know. That you were doing something. This was —
AC: I was doing something yeah. And I was hoping to get to, to get out, you know. Actually have a successful escape. And they never did send the escapers back on operations. They used to send them back to Canada or someplace.
DK: Right.
AC: So they could propagandise the other people. So anyway, that was my reason for trying to escape but I think that it actually did me some good because I can eat almost any kind of food. Can’t I Dot?
DC: Yes. You don’t like certain kinds of green vegetables.
AC: So, anyway that’s, that’s my story.
DK: Ok.
CK: Did you keep in touch with some of your crew?
AC: They’re all dead.
CK: After the war.
CK: Ah.
DC: Well, we did keep in touch with them.
AC: We kept in touch with them. Yeah.
DC: But there’s none of them left.
AC: Claude Clemens was one of them.
DC: And Mac.
AC: And, yeah.
DC: And John Marchant, he’s dead.
AC: Yeah. They’re all dead now.
DC: And —
AC: And I’ll probably be dead in a couple of years. That’s why I wondered about you guys waiting ‘til, waiting so long to do this. There’s all kinds of —
DK: It’s taken a while. Yeah.
DC: De Silva’s grandson keeps in touch with us. Michael de Silva. His father got killed at [unclear]
AC: Who are you talking about?
DC: De Silva’s. You know the —
AC: Oh, the son of the fellow.
DC: That was the grandson.
AC: The grandson. Yeah.
DK: So, that’s de Silva’s grandson is still in touch with you.
AC: Can I make a cup of tea?
DK: Oh, I’d love one, I think. What I’ll do is —
AC: Let me make the tea, Dot. You just sit down.
DK: What I’ll do is I’ll just stop this now.
AC: Yeah.
DK: But thanks very much for that. That’s been —
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Andrew Carswell
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Kavanagh
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ACarswellA170614, PCarswellA1702
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:44:31 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
England--Lincolnshire
Poland--Łambinowice
Germany--Berlin
Description
An account of the resource
Andrew Carswell volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force in his native Toronto. He trained as a pilot and on arrival in the UK and completion of his further training he was posted to 9 Squadron. His first operation was to Berlin. On their final operation they were attacked by a night fighter and in the subsequent departure from the aircraft one member of the crew broke his leg, one crew member’s parachute didn’t open and another had resisted all prompts to leave the aircraft. Andy was taken as a Prisoner of War and was sent to Stalag 8B which he escaped from twice before being recaptured.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
9 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
bombing
escaping
final resting place
Lancaster
Manchester
navigator
pilot
prisoner of war
Red Cross
shot down
Stalag 8B
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/870/11111/AHextellGJE160104.2.mp3
37d80c475d2be9fba2485ea100ad6789
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hextell, George
George Joseph Edwin Hextell
G J E Hextell
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Warrant Officer George Hextell (1141319 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 51 Squadron and became a prisoner of war.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-01-04
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hextell, GJE
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
GH: Yes well, I’m [unclear] Hextell, Hextell, I was a WO, my number 1141319.
MJ: So, how did you manage to get into the RAF then?
GH: How did I manage to get into this? Well, as I say, I was conscription, in 1940, all called up, all the people, the young people, and then I was [unclear] going to be dragged into the army, I thought when I got into the RAF I couldn’t be a pilot, cause I thought, I haven’t got the education for that, I going underground staff cause I worked in a factory, Morris motors, in Birmingham and I went into Birmingham and signed up one Saturday lunchtime, I hadn’t finished my job, and I wanted to know what happened to me cause I was called up after two or three days and posted to Warrington Padgate RAF training station where I did my square bashing and all that stuff and as I say, I hadn’t packed my job and eventually my mother had to get into the factory and tell the bastards I had joined, what did he do that for? They said, you know, there was a job here for him, if he wants it, I thought, no, so I trained as a flight mechanic, cause I was interested in wheels [unclear] and cars and engines and I went to after about three or four months at Padgate I was posted to number 5 school of technical training at Locking in Somerset and I went on a course on engines and aircraft there, you know, and I was there till end of 1941 and I passed out after that was posted to Scotland, Castletown, right up in the north of Scotland, you could almost see Norway, from where we were but we were only there about two or three weeks and [unclear] library, not doing much, any odd jobs and then we were eventually posted, as I say, to number 5 school of technical training Somerset, big long train ride down from up in Scotland and, I was there till the end of 1941 as I say when I got posted to Scotland and all I did, I worked and see all these different engines and aircraft, you know, worked on the Merlin engine, you know, and when I’d finished that they sent me to a maintenance echelon in Kent, [unclear] End, I worked on the maintenance echelon, squadrons came and went but I, we’re always permanent there like, you know, and Spitfires and all I could remember during there the Battle of Dieppe, when they landed in Dieppe in 1942, that was in September, that was disastrous, I remember that morning and I got up early, about five o’clock as something was on but nobody, oh, the second front started but that’s what it was, it turned out to be, Dieppe and they after the German [unclear] headquarters at Lorient and of course a lot of casualties, a lot of Canadian soldiers took part, a lot got killed, lot got captured and [unclear] after that we went to, so Dieppe, we just servicing the Spitfires that’s all, I was an engineman and we just served the Merlin engine up you know and it was good but, stop there for [unclear]. Well it was [unclear] at Gravesend but one day the engineer officer called us all in and wanted to know who wanted volunteer as flight engineers on the four engine aircraft that were coming into service, the Lanc, Halifax and the Stirling and of course there was three of us there, I put me name down for it, and I said, oh I can’t do any [unclear] but I was the only one who passed the medical, we had to go up to Euston House in London, aircrew candidate selection board and they explained to us all about how to fly, you know, [unclear] up and dark nights and flying over the oceans and that, you know and [unclear] and all this kind of thing you know but I went through with it and I was sent to St Athans in South Wales near [unclear], Cardiff and I did a course there and these four engine bombers would come in and they what they wanted to know was, there was a great big crowd of us volunteered and all the chaps going in for the Lancaster, you know, cause it got a famous name but and the squadron leader, I remember, he got us all lined up in the hangar, a big long queue of us and he said to stop any argument about who wants to go on, which was the best aircraft. He divided us up into three and he said that’s it, Stirlings, Halifaxes, Lancasters. Well, I got the Halifax, I went into the Halifax, and that’s how I came to be trained, trained at St Athans. And that’s a while I was posted to Marston Moor into Yorkshire and that was a conversion unit, number ten conversion unit and where pilots and aircrew met up and cause you see the crew I got in eventually had been flying on Whitleys then at St Eval in Cornwall on Coastal Command but they all stuck together and of course I was coming up [unclear] a conversion unit so it was there I turned up with them and became the flight engineer and of course there was seven of us in the crew, pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, rear gunner, mid upper gunner and all like that and that’s how I came to be with 51 Squadron. But it was only [unclear] I don’t know what they’d done before but, quite a bit before we went on our operations but the first operation we went on was mine laying off the Dutch coast, dropping mines in the sea and we used to have a naval officer explaining how important it was just [unclear] dropping it in the right place and the right height and all this kind of thing, that was the first flight I flew but of course I did many, we did many hours [unclear] circuit and bombs training, I mean the pilot was, all the crew was getting trained and I was getting trained as well in [unclear] that’s how I came to be with them but as I say the 51 squadron was only like just four men, and there was not many before, you see, you know a lot of names but I didn’t know many because I wasn’t there that long and I went there in the end of January ’43 and we went on, I went on two bombing raids with a crew, with our crew to Lorient in France and one night I went with my own crew and another time I stood in for somebody who was absent for another crew, they’re all officers, pilots, navigators, they was all officers, and I flew with them and I remember the first night we went on, we got back at about three o’clock in the morning and we couldn’t get back to our [unclear] I was stationed at Snaith in Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and couldn’t get back on our own drome so we had to land at Stowe-in-the-Wold in Gloucestershire and everybody, I think it was the first time I’ve seen these giant four engine bombers, you know, and all the people came out and looked at it, they were a big aircraft it was and after that I came to be [unclear] but as I say we did two operations in Lorient but that’s all I did and I just saw the operation mine laying, two to Lorient and on the fourth operation we did on Dusseldorf on the 27th of January ‘43 and I thought, oh, blimey, that’s done it, cause the briefing officer told us it was a heavily defended area, well we knew that because of all the Ruhr and all the places around there, Essen and all those places, I mean, it’s taken a heavy toll of our aircraft but of course it, well, it didn’t bother me and you know, but I thought we’ll get through it alright. But we were shot down over Holland, got over the North Sea alright into Holland, never heard a word, everything quiet and then next thing, I was sitting, I was standing in the middle of the fuselage, putting a flare in a flare shoot for taking photos with the cameras, you know, when the bombs dropped and whilst I stood there all of a sudden on the starboard side, right that at [unclear] machine gun bullets you know [mimics machine gun fire] couldn’t believe it, you know, couldn’t understand it, [unclear] one side or the other, he caught the port engine which controls all the hydraulics and pumps and that and the aircraft and I thought, oh, that was, looking into the astrodome it caught fire, the wing caught fire and I was horrified and the pilot was trying to save it but the aircraft you know dodged about and that but we were going down and we were all rushing, putting our parachutes on and the next thing I knew was I was flying through the air and the second pilot was a New Zealander, he explained it he could he’s written a little book about from where he came from in New Zealand who landed off, and as we were blown out, I was blown out, there was three of us out of the seven and three escaped, the New Zealander, our wireless operator and myself, the other four chaps got killed, pilot, navigator, the bomb aimer and rear gunner. I’ve never heard a word from them at all. And it was in Mill in Holland, place called Mill and it was five past six took off and from up in Yorkshire, ten past eight I was in a prison cell in Holland. Germans wanted to know, you know, why come bombing our women and children, and all I said, well, for the simple reason that you are coming and bombing our women and children and then of course they [unclear] interrogated me and I was there about a week I think and we went to the Dulag Luft interrogation centre and were there a while. Then they sent us to Amsterdam in a big prison, a big prison or whatever it was, big [unclear] and we were locked up in solitary confinement and had a lot of questions asked, you know, and were there about a week and one Sunday they transferred us from Amsterdam onto a train to take us to in [unclear] was Stalag VIII-B but they renamed it later Stalag 344 because Sagan, the Stalag Luft 3 where the air, the air people, where the aircrew prisoners went, they were full, the two, to many, so I had to go to a Stalag but this was at Lamsdorf in Upper Silesia near the Polish border, what’s the name? [unclear] I think or something like that and that was where I ended up but I know the night we flew, we had a brand new aircraft, it had only come from the manufacturers the day before but it hadn’t got a mid-upper turret [unclear] you got [unclear] hadn’t got a mid-upper turret on this particular one, the wing commander said it will give you more speed and all the rest of it you know and [unclear] he didn’t need a mid-upper gunner, so Taffy Jones, our mid-upper gunner he didn’t fly with us that night, he got away with it but as I say, I mentioned a second pilot, but I forgot to mention that before we took off at six o’clock at night from Snaith and staff come up and the group captain came up with this chap and he was a New Zealander, Jack Cardey and he said, I want this chap to fly with you tonight, he said, it’ll give him a bit of experience and that was the first time we met him and he got on board and that was his experience, he became a POW, and I’ve heard from him once or twice but not lately but yes, that’s how I came to be in Poland. Yes, capacity of the Halifax I think it was eleven hundred and ninty gallons but the first flight engineer, the idea was to run the engines as quickly as possible, to have the throttles open all the time, you know, to give, put [unclear] and get the engines to performing properly and another thing before take-off you were testing your engines before one by one and ramp them up to about three thousand ribs [unclear] a minute and then switch one of the magnetos off, there’d be a drop of one of the rears, I think, what was it so many percent, five percent was it, you were allowed if you that went below that [unclear] was faulty, yes, all the four engines [unclear] two magneto on each side of the Merlin was a marvellous engine [unclear] this is a backdrop somewhere ok, ok for take-off. Yes, it was quite an experience but we got through it alright and as I say with Jack Cardey, second pilot who flew with us, he didn’t act as a pilot, as I say, he was only a passenger, he was more than a passenger than I was. But he was in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and I think he’d come from Wellingtons and flown Wellingtons before. And of course at Snaith where I was stationed, 51 Squadron, they’d done all our operations from there and we hadn’t been there for long, as I say, there was only like just four men squadron up and I didn’t know any of the people that went before, you know, I mean, you just mentioned I knew a lot of people who [unclear], well I wouldn’t know, I think I knew about two, a Canadian, [unclear] Stewart or somebody like that and I know I went to Berlin one night and back or something, Slim Stewart, he was a Canadian, but no, as I say, I didn’t have enough time there to get to know anybody, I knew the group captain Grey, he was a station commander, I was in b flights squadron leader Moore, [unclear] Moore, h flights was name Russell, squadron leader Russell, and quite alright, yes I was, but as I say, we didn’t do many operations but [unclear] good the Germans were, night fighters, defences and that and as I say, we didn’t know this fighter was creeping up on us, never heard a word, never heard a word from the rear gunnery and I was horrified as I stood there and saw the tracer coming through the fuselage, you know, it caught fire, but as I say, we were blown out, that how [unclear] Netherland the cottage to walk up to the door and by [unclear] you do see these [unclear] but I was found myself floating through the air, and I saw lights going out in front of me going round and round a big roulette wheel, always remember it, and I was [unclear] I better pull this, the ripcord and I landed as I thought was a field but it was a bit of a built up area than that and I laid there for a bit I thought [unclear] a fine death or [unclear] something like that you know people come running up the Dutch farmer and he came up to me and I said, where am I? Where am I? And he said, Nederland, Nederland, I thought, where the hell is that, suddenly dropped the Netherlands, you know, and up to his house, he’s got two young daughters, they’re all clever [unclear] they brought [unclear] and money and souvenirs and [unclear] but they said that there was a couple of priests there who [unclear] quickly, they said, we’ll hide this, you know, that [unclear] a parachute and I said, we’ll have to notify the Dutch police, I presume they had to do it with any prisoners, there was a Lancaster shot down in the same area at the same time cause they picked the crew up with us and we were in this Dutch policeman’s house, he’s a Dutch police and I said notify them and he said, well, we’ll have to notify the Germans and they sent a minibus and when they opened up the doors, there was George Farmer, our wireless operator, he was a member of our crew and he’s a New Zealander and also a Lancaster crew as well, I think they were all intact, they picked them up in the same area and next thing I say I was being interrogated at a local station wanted to know where I’d come from, what the squadron was, bomb load was carrying, what [unclear] was and everything else, where you’re stationed, you know, and all that kind of business and yeah and as I say, I spent the night [unclear] and fetched up in front of this chap of the Luftwaffe, he wanted to know every day where we come from and what we were doing and all the rest of it, next thing we went to Dulag Luft [unclear] interrogation the treating of all the and then Dulag Luft, went to Amsterdam and I saw the big army place there, our second pilot, he’s been since the end of the war [unclear] travel I don’t know but I mean [unclear] we’ve been to Holland and we’ve sorted the place out with the war graves commission, we’ve been to the scene where our four chaps were buried because we had to identify them, cause the Germans said, you have to come and identify your crew and that got to [unclear] a church or somewhere and they took us down and there was four wooden coffins and there were the bodies lying in there and I said early, most of identify to let the people know, you know, but I couldn’t look at them because it upset me but [unclear] Farmer, our wireless op, he was thirteen years older than me, a bit more mature and he identified them, apparently they are buried in an air force base but after a while we in Holland that they buried them in this place where we went on a weekend in May and May is a big [unclear] first two or three days in May there were all flags flying out in Holland and, you know, as I know you come from England they will treat you well and really good. [unclear] Well, what I would like to do is to, you mentioned one chap [unclear] where he went to, I want to know how many miles we did from when we came after the camp in 1945 on that march, I mean, the names of the first, we went to Lamsdorf on the 22nd of January 1945, we could hear the Russian gunfire on the Eastern Front [unclear] and an Anson came over the Channel to evacuate the camp and we got ready to move out, we got nothing, bits of food stored up, which we took with us and out to the dark then they found us a barn, they herded us all in this barn, that’s where we slept and that’s we did, [unclear] months and months and as I say, it was the 22nd of January and [unclear] about April time before we never knew where we were like you know, I didn’t know then, I should have loved to know, I know the name of some of the important towns as Gorlitz, went from Lamsdorf to Gorlitz, oh, that was a terrible place, [unclear] Russian prisoners there, they treated them like, well, dogs, [unclear], never forget, filthy place [unclear] about a week and then moved us on the road, we never went to another camp, we went to, I can remember Jena, you know where, there are the famous optical lense [unclear] and what is the other place, where they did the porcelain? In German, Meissen [unclear], Meissen, heard about Meissen ceramic wares, marvellous, innit? [unclear] To plot the route we took and what we covered many miles [unclear] I said, end of January in April ’45 and the Germans got to be [unclear] you know and they used to catch you every morning, every night but I was with three of the [unclear] family wireless operator and we met up with another chap who was a [unclear] bloke some kind of destroyer in the Mediterranean and he decided to leave the company [unclear] like you know and we stayed, they put us in a barn one night and we stayed up there all the next day until it got dark, then we headed across the fields cause one got a compass, we could hear the Russian gunfire on our right in the East we could hear the Allied gunfire, the Americans and British on the left and we headed towards them and I know it was a terrible cold [unclear] in the [unclear] it was one of the coldest winters that I experienced.
MJ: Did you have a coat this time?
GH: Pardon?
MJ: Were you lucky enough to have a coat?
GH: A coat?
MJ: Yeah.
GH: Yes, I had a grey coat, yes, had a grey coat and one of us got a [unclear], a little [unclear] or a little saucepan. And I remember, the next morning when we woke, we [unclear] in this forest, we woke up, decided to have a cup of tea, [unclear] now we had a cup of tea, we lit a fire, made this tea and after a bit we sent a German, young German officer coming across, we thought, [unclear], this is the end, you know, [unclear] come around and put you hands up but all he said, he knew we were British and all he said was, don’t forget to put the fire out when you’re finished cause the smoke will attract aircraft in [unclear] always remembered saying that and we thought, oh, we got away with it, he got his Luger on the side, you know, he could have shot us easy, there’s four of us and the next day we saw a bloke, we were near a village, we saw a bloke with a big loaf of bread, a big cart with a loaf of bread, and we wondered where this bread had come from and we stopped him and asked him and he says, American tanks and troops so many kilometres down there, is the Third American army, the sixth army division, the Third American Army, General Patton and it was they who took care of us, they wanted us to go with them, they got a spearhead going through towards [unclear], come with us, they said, I said, no, we want to go home, we want to get back to England and they took us day by day, with these big six wheeler transport used to bring the supplies in, they took us back a few miles each day towards Paris and that, that’s where we finished up in Paris, one [unclear] did the time, that flew us from Paris to, forget the place now, I remember we had lunch [unclear] fish our fish is the best of all the Sunday lunch I’ve ever known, interrogated as quarter [unclear] as regards the performance of the aircraft, any spies, any stool pigeons, anybody like that, it was a bloke, forget his name, dammit, he was notorious but then I knew all about him and I don’t know what happened to him. But yes that was Lamsdorf for [unclear] yes. As I say, German officers sent for us, sent for me one day and in the main office and there was a German guard behind me walking with his rifle always walking behind you [unclear] shoot me but he wanted to know what my attitude was to the Russians, what my attitude was to the Russians, now they were dead scared of the Russians, yes, dead scared of the Russians, what do you think? I said, [unclear] if they attacked England, you know, I joined up and attacked them like to defend the country [unclear] saying that you know, wanted to know what my attitude was [unclear], I don’t know If I was the only one but they sent me two or three times and I, he was American cause he said to me, he said I’m a goddam American in the German, the German army, you know, and I could say, what are you doing in the German army [unclear] and things like that [unclear] I don’t know but that did happen, yes, want to know what your attitude was, what the British attitude to the Russians were, was alright, the Russians were alright, yes [coughs]. [unclear] to the camp, the barb wire, look out through the barb wire, see the typical German trees and the greenery enough in the spring and summer was nice, in the winter was bloody awful, I mean, there’s a [unclear] and you could hear the dogs patrolling the outside of the guard [unclear] you know, and there are all lights [unclear] and you went in the door of the hut, was a great big bulk kind of thing that they used in the night in case you had to [unclear] you know you couldn’t [unclear] the compound the [unclear] conditions were bloody helpless, just a [unclear] shed with a lot of wooden seats with [unclear], no cover, it’s not awful in the summer, terrible at [unclear] you know and it was whilst speaking earlier about the Dieppe prisoners, the Canadians, a lot of French Canadians killed and I reckoned, the Germans reckoned that our people took the German prisoners and chained them up with the result that we finished up in chains, you could just get under your pocket, handcuff [unclear] and you walk about like that, you sat, you sat [unclear] every morning, detail two or three blokes [unclear] big [unclear] all the chain across and bring them up from the office and then put them on you know, you walk about like that all day and if you wanted to tend to the nightshift, you get somebody of the German to unlock them, [unclear], we did all that, did all that and the parcels, [unclear] they were coming through but of course had always blame the RAF for bombing the railways or the Russians, was always blaming them, [unclear] the parcels, what you expect, we can’t get the transport, you’re bombing the railways and all that business but when we did get them, I mean, used to go down and I mean, I forget what country [unclear] parcel [unclear] us but perhaps put a pair of socks inside, just a pair of socks and [unclear] chocolate and cigarettes and of course the Germans all that when they used to go in the office and collect the parcels, this is a private parcel [unclear] that I [unclear] and cigarettes had stuck in [unclear] any messages inside and things like that you know and yeah and oh there’s a lot of chocolate, well of course that was the currency, soap and chocolate, you could get away with it, if you could bribe the Germans with that definitely and one of the blokes did and then another thing, you could go out on a working party if you wanted, if you felt that way inclined, go out on a working party, you’d pick somebody who looked you like [unclear] same way [unclear] and all this stuff and [unclear] identity, I’d go and [unclear] you [unclear] on a German farm, you know, work on a farm, get food and all that, get as much food as I wanted, you know, [unclear] like that, yeah, but we had the chance to do all that but [unclear] what you do to your [unclear] and I [unclear] by going, you know, to work you’re helping them, if you’re not, you’re not helping them and that was the idea but the parcels obviously they [unclear] parcel pretty good and milk and all that kind of stuff and there used to be one [unclear] every week was the M & V meat and veg bourse, they decided the cook house, the British blokes working in the cook house [unclear] German, they take a tin of meat and vegetable out to you parcel every week and cook it up for you kind of business that used to be great but of course there was a lot of racket going down there with blokes pinching more than one tin and all that, you say lot of that going on meat and veg always [unclear] and but we still lived alright work in twos parcel you get a parcel two a week [unclear] Tuesday or Thursday I think he does and collect the parcel and two of us living on the one parcel for two or three days and they try and get another one [unclear] part of our beds, there’s a little, have a little cupboard and a shelf and tins of this and tins of that and tins the other and cause I remember when [laughs] we had, came over the tannoy that we got load the camp at two o’clock in the afternoon the German commandant came over and he said that, you know, you gotta be ready for two o’clock, it was all queuing [unclear] all blankets and all that, you know, and we got tins of condense milk and all that kind of stuff [unclear] you know I remember I was sick of the bloody[unclear] wouldn’t let it fall under the Germans or under the Russians and, yeah, we took all this food and when they threw us, the first night when they threw us into this barn, great big barn, with straw on the floor and no lights and anything, no [unclear] and nothing like that and I felt sick and I wanted to be sick and I remember I got some new handkerchiefs had been more than seven days before and I was sitting all these handkerchiefs and that, you know, I’ll always remember that, sick as an [unclear], get up the next morning, you don’t know where you are going, what you were doing, I asked for a drink of water, no one would give you one, someone would give you drink of water, others wouldn’t, had promised you some [unclear] potatoes, cooked potatoes in big wicker baskets at the end of the day but you never got at the end of the day, you never got them, cause I [unclear] one or two of the German officers I reported it [unclear] one of them books down there I mentioned his name [unclear] what his name was but what happened I don’t know but they weren’t very, as I say, they never treated us, they never treated us too bad, anybody getting beat up or anything, cause lots of people, as you say, [unclear] to us, French Canadians captured at Dieppe, there were Sikhs and Indians and all kinds of, Palestinians [unclear] a year, the interrogator, he was a Palestinian, [unclear] Zelba, I don’t remember his name, and he used to do all our deals for [unclear], he used to get us a bit more coal to put [unclear] brickets to put on the stove, in the [unclear], you know to keep warm and we used to give him cigarettes and [unclear] and he used to bribe the German guard, he could speak German, he was born in Hamburg, as I say, he joined, he was with the RAF in Cyprus, and when Cyprus fell of course he was captured [unclear] Germany [unclear] collect cigarettes and all that, that’s how we used to get our stuff, listen to the radio every night [unclear] the bulletin come round, anybody caught with radios [unclear] every so often they would come and have a search they turn you all outside on a day like this, they turn outside early in the morning and they’d be out there all the bloody day, turning all your bed was ripped out, all that, you know [unclear] and put in detention, you know, and he ran away and the Jerry guard on a, it was on a Sunday and we was all lined up outside we saw all this going on and he ran away the chap did and the German guard got down on his knees and shot this bloke you know, he told him to halt and all that but he wouldn’t and that was going out on working party, yeah, but of course we gotta a senior British medical officer in the camp and he used to look after and he complained [unclear] and the leader of the camp was a regimental sergeant major [unclear] during some [unclear] and he had the badge at the back of the camp because [unclear] artillery [unclear] once and they always wore the at the back [unclear] he’s a camp leader but, you see, he outer perimeter [unclear] look at the people strolling and on a Sunday afternoon in the summer, I was looking and also he was looking [unclear] and former [unclear] and they had a dance round there and you could study, got to night school and [unclear] did a bit of that but [unclear] a bit smoking and could have a bit of walk now and again, you know, yeah, waiting for the news every night how far the Russians had got, how far, yeah, it was an experience, but as I say, really [unclear] one thing trying to get [unclear] more to do a book on the great escape or something but it was written by the one of them Tornado pilots or navigator who got shot down and of course [unclear] the forty’s war was lighter and he [unclear] but [unclear] I can’t read properly although I do a lot of reading. I met a German air force officer and he stopped and talked to us, spoke perfectly English and he said he was sorry for what we’ve been treated and he got us for that night, he got us in his barracks kind of place, like a German naffy, we [unclear], we could eat a German eat [unclear] in their naffy and he got us some brickets to put on the stove and there was straw on the floor, pallet on the floor, and pack of ten or twenty Polish cigarettes [unclear] concession [unclear] for what we’ve been through and we’ve be going through cause that was a [unclear] German, I remember I loved to know where we went and how many miles w covered, I never got to know that [unclear] laughing but I was a bit more serious on that and of course I combed me hair and do myself up but when our working party went out that was the main gates past the office where all the girls worked, checking identities and that cause look at your photo and, you know, oh that’s not you, you’re somebody else and used to be play the band and then march out and I knew a couple of guards, officers, forget what I was in, was in the cavalry, I was six foot, very look smart when I went out and that was to intimidate the Germans cause I looked a real scruffy lad. I think it was on the route to, perhaps on the route to Lamsdorf and they put us in a waiting room and there was all German soldiers in their uniform sitting, all [unclear] drinking and eating but we had to head up the corner, was about half a dozen or more of us and I remember the pipes was on, was warm in there, I mentioned it was warm and this one German, he says, we’ll make you sweat before long, you know, make it hot for you, always remember that, we were there cornered up in the corner, no sitting at the tables, long long waiting [unclear] the station in the waiting room, no, they wouldn’t let us sit at the table, on the chairs [unclear] on the floor and when they took us to one Sunday lunch on they took us to get on the train to go to across to this camp, all the Dutch people was crowding round us cause we stood there in a circle, was guards there with the rifles just waiting for the train to come and the Dutch people would inquisitive, you know, and I was given just a [unclear] and laughing at the Germans backs, you know, [unclear] that them kind of things, you could see [unclear] definitely.
MJ: On behalf of the International Bomber Command I’d like to thank George Hextell, Warrant Officer, from Squadron 51 for his recording on the 4th of January 2016 at one thirty. Once again, thank you again.
GH: Right.
MJ: And that was one hour and
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with George Hextell
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mick Jeffery
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-01-04
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AHextellGJE160104
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:55:04 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
George Hextell joined the RAF as a flight engineer and flew operations with 51 Squadron on Halifaxes. After being shot down over Holland, he became a prisoner of war. Gives a detailed account of how his capture, imprisonment and liberation. Describes various episodes from the POW camp Stalag VIIIB: living conditions; food barter; witnessing an attempted escape.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Schulze
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Great Britain
Poland
Netherlands
France--Dieppe
Poland--Łambinowice
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
1942
1945
51 Squadron
aircrew
Dulag Luft
final resting place
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
Halifax
mechanics engine
mine laying
prisoner of war
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Padgate
RAF Snaith
RAF St Athan
recruitment
shot down
Spitfire
Stalag 8B
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/890/11129/PHumesEL1701.2.jpg
b7e2bdab74eff6b6808ac8b8bdfd9361
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/890/11129/AHumesEL170826.1.mp3
8e7d785f41f1ca0887f9c3ad8481803a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Humes, Eddie
Edward L Humes
E L Humes
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Eddie Humes (b. 1922, 642170 Royal Air Force), RAF personnel document and a memoir. After serving in Balloon Command, he flew operations as a navigator with 514 Squadron
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Eddie Humes and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-08-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Humes, EL
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
SP: This is Susanne Pescott and I’m interviewing Eddie Humes today for the International Bomber Command Centre’s Digital Archive. We are at Eddie’s home and it is the 26th of August 2017. So first of all, thank you Eddie for agreeing to talk to me today. So, did you want to tell me about your time before the war?
EH: Well, before the war, I left school at fifteen, with my ‘tric but didn’t follow education through partly because of the circumstances at home, you know. We had a big family and needed workers and employment situation was bad unless you wanted to go in the mines and my parents didn’t want me to go into the mines so we had a little bit of an argument and eventually they agreed to me going to the RAF and the following, follow on is printed in just another story so there’s no point in me going on that. Uhm, I got my wish eventually, I got onto aircrew, that’s in there as well. I joined in on the 3rd of May 1939 and did my basic training, drills and what have you, and then expected to be posted to be a rigger on aircraft but the war was imminent and when we met to be told where we were going, I was told I was going to a balloon squadron and it didn’t please me very much and but the comment from the powers that be was you’re in the Air Force now, you do as you’re told so I was posted to a balloon centre, training centre and stayed there till I passed my exams. And then I joined a squadron where 90% of the people on it were over fifty, they were auxiliaries who at night and that was their choice to be balloon operators, I wasn’t very happy but that was the situation. Finished the training, went to a cricket ground in Leyton, Essex and our billet if you like, put it that way was a tennis hut which housed twelve of us with cold water and nothing else virtually and our balloon was flown from there and I kept asking, could I transfer to aircrew but nobody wanted to know. Fortunately I played football fairly well and on one occasion when we were coming back, I spoke to one of the officers and he said, make another application straight away, so I made another application to transfer to aircrew and they sent me to a drifter on the Thames to fly balloons from a drifter on the Thames which was, again wasn’t very nice, a) it was at the mouth of the Thames and we got the incoming tide, the outcoming tide which, I wasn’t a sailor, it didn’t suit me very much, there were half a dozen airmen and half a dozen old, very old sailors, fishermen and sometimes we got the balloon up before the German fighters came, other times we didn’t and if we didn’t get it up, then we were strafed. Fortunately, I was posted back into the East End of London onto another balloon site, which had few younger people than I was used to previously and it was during the Blitz, there were all sorts of stories but they don’t want. Uhm, and then my posting came through, did I still want to go to aircrew? And I was in, a week I was in St John’s Wood with lots of other people a) who were transferred and b) who had just joined up and we were there for two or three weeks and then posted to St Andrews in Scotland, the university, and we did our training, were billeted overlooking the golf course which was nice and we did our ground training at the university, part of it, this consisted of everything, gunnery, Morse code, astro, everything, and when that was finished again as a result of football I had a leg injury and I, I wasn’t there for the passing out parade sadly but we were then posted to Manchester, which was a holding centre, and at Manchester normally you stayed for two, maybe three weeks and you were posted abroad, you were told what you were going to be, and you were posted abroad. We were told, I was told that, we were on parade, that there was going to be, that I was going to be trained as a navigator, I didn’t mind that even though I’d flown and soloed I didn’t mind that at all but there were some Belgian pilots there who had already flown against the German Air Force and they were reclassified as navigators as well, so they turned off and went down to the Belgian embassy and we never saw them anymore. But we’d been there, dozen of us had been there about getting on twelve weeks and we talked among ourselves and they designated me as the senior airman only because I’d been in the Air Force the longest, to go and see the adjutant and I did that and the adjutant said, ‘You’re not here’. I said, ‘I am here, obviously, and there are a dozen others beside me’, and he made a few enquiries and he said, ‘Right, you better go off home on leave’ and we went on leave and ‘We’ll call for you when we need you’. And about three weeks afterwards we were called back and expected to be posted abroad like everybody else but unfortunately, we were posted to Bridgnorth. And we did the remaining of our ground training at Bridgnorth. And then from Bridgnorth we went, up to this time the only aeroplane we’d seen was Tiger Moths at school in Scotland. And we went from Bridgnorth to Dumfries to do our flying training and there we were in pairs, two trainee navigators to each aeroplane, we flew on Ansons, sometimes in the morning, sometimes during the day, sometimes in the evening, that was quite an experience, and obviously we were putting into practice all that we learned on the ground. Getting near the end, when we were getting near to our examinations, people came in from that’d been trained in Canada and they’re already sporting their brevets and their stripes, commissioned, badges and so on, which didn’t please us very much, and it pleased us less when we were paired up with them to fly and they’d never flown over a darkened city, all their flying had been done over places where there were lights and they had to learn practically all over again at night-time. Anyway, we got over it and obviously satisfied the examiners and got our stripes and so on, went on leave and were posted to Chipping Warden, that’s in Oxfordshire and there we met the Wellington for the first time and met crews, pilots, air gunners, bomb aimers, all the rest of it. And you had a couple of weeks to wander about and get to know people in between lectures and then you were gathered together and you were expected to crew up there, some did, some didn’t but it was voluntary, you weren’t directed to anybody and said you’ve got to fly with him, you’ve got to fly with him, it was voluntary. And then you complete so many hours on Wellingtons, we had pilot, bomb aimer, navigator, wireless operator, rear gunner, five and then at the end of your training, if you passed satisfactory for the officer commander, we went on leave and then you got a posting to your conversion unit and when I got to the conversion unit, it was Lancasters and we were, well, I was surprised because they had radial engines, they didn’t have inline engines but that’s what we were going to fly, Lancaster IIs and the place that we were at was called Little Snoring which is a particularly peculiar name, but we did our further training on there, we picked up another gunner, mid-upper gunner and an engineer, completed the training, posted to Foulsham to join 115 Squadron and when we got to 115 Squadron, we thought 115 Squadron, but we were told, no, you’re not, you’re forming 514 so we were then into 514. We transferred, took aircraft from Foulsham, flew to Waterbeach and we were very happy at Waterbeach because it was a peace time aerodrome and all the buildings were brick, hot and cold water, bathrooms and so on and so on. So then we again, we settled as a crew and had to do all sorts of training until we were called on operations. And on squadron, we were delayed going onto operations because we had to train on a new system called Gee-H, which was navigator’s job and it was something like a television, it had two, what do you call them? Two bars going across in opposite directions and when the, the underlying one, the navigator pressed the bomb, to drop the bombs, uhm that took some time because we had to do high level and low level, we had to practice near Lincoln at high level and near Heeley [?] at low level, but again, we became proficient and that was satisfactory. Our first operation was to, and there is some doubt in here, but it’s verified in the pilot’s logbook, that we went to Biarritz, which is the north of Spain, border of Spain and France and we couldn’t quite believe how easy it was ‘cause there was supposed to be other aircraft there but we didn’t see any other aircraft and we didn’t have any opposition, there was no flak, nothing and when we got to Biarritz, circled round for a bit because we were supposed to wait for other aircraft but they didn’t come so, we bombed and came home. But when we got to the British coast and were heading for home, we were picked up by our own searchlights and directed west and each time we tried to turn and go home, they picked us up again and directed us west again and eventually we landed in Exeter, which was a Polish fighter ‘drome and as we landed, one of the engines packed up, so we were there for a few weeks, a couple of weeks and ordered home, we had a military escort home and when we got home, the rear gunner was getting off the train and somebody kindly helped him with his parachute but they held onto the silver handle and the thing blowed out. Well, we were in trouble when we got back to base, the navigation officer and the commanding officer didn’t like it all and they weren’t ready to believe our story, but eventually after enquiries they found that a Wellington had put out a mayday call and the observer corps had mistaken us for a Wellington and taken us to Exeter, so that was all sorted out. And we just went on, we did four or five to Berlin, Mannheim, Leipzig, but the logbook, I don’t know this, I did ten, the pilot and the rest of the crew did twelve, and I did one with another crew to Mannheim. And then, as I say, we went to Nuremberg, which wasn’t a very pleasant, and then Aachen was the next trip we were to do and the shortest virtually and that’s when we were shot down coming home from Aachen. The port wing was hit first, and then the port engine, port outer engine caught fire and the engineer was adamant that he could put it out but he didn’t for a few minutes and eventually the engine fell out and obviously the aircraft couldn’t fly on, so the skipper told us to abandon aircraft. I got smashed all the navigation instruments and so on, tore up the log and got to the escape hatch, found that it was open and the bomb aimer had done his job, opening the escape hatch, as I went to go through, I noticed that his parachute in the whole day had gone without his parachute he’d gone but his parachute was still there. And as the aircraft was spinning, I tried to get out but I couldn’t, I couldn’t get out with the force, and I pulled my own parachute, that pulled me out of the aircraft and in doing so, it broke, I broke my femur, as I say in the story, on the way down, the only person I wanted was my mother, pray to God that I’ll be alright. I hit the ground and I didn’t hear the aircraft anymore and shortly afterwards there were some foreign voices and I called for help and I called in English of course and they told me to be quiet and they were Belgians and they took me to a house, took me in there, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t see them, couldn’t see the house, couldn’t see what was inside it [unclear] blind, and when I woke up in the morning, there was a group around me and I could only assume they were praying ‘cause they were all voice were monotonous and they brought the doctor, and the doctor looked, he said, I’m sorry, I can’t do anything, you’ll have to go to hospital and the only hospital is a German hospital. So, they called the Germans and he put garden, took wood from the railings in the garden and put a splint on my leg and the Germans came to take me and the lady wouldn’t let them take my, take the, me without the sofa, I had to go on a sofa and this was verified by her daughter, whom I’ll talk about later who was there at the time and she said, my mother wouldn’t let them take you without the sofa. And then, I went to the German hospital, wondering what gonna be in front of me and they were very kind, first meal wasn’t very pleasant but they were very kind and they did the operation, they said, we’ve got to operate, there wasn’t much I could do about it, I couldn’t say no, and I was put, when the operation was completed, I was put into a room, a kind of pleasant room, with French doors and big open window, big frame window, and in traction, no plaster or anything like that, I was just in traction and there was guard inside and a guard outside and when I asked why they were there when I couldn’t walk, I was in traction, they said, it’s to stop the Belgians from coming in and taking you out. So, that was fine for a few weeks, quite enjoyed myself there, didn’t do anything of course, just talked to the German guards who wanted to, didn’t want to speak English, they wanted to speak, they didn’t want to speak German, they wanted to speak English, for when they came to England and they, they ruled England. And then one night I was, flares dropping round everywhere, you could see them out of the window, and within minutes the place would be being bombed and the hospital was very badly damaged. My ceiling came in, the door and the windows came across the cage, fortunately the cage stopped anything from dropping on me and in the morning the surgeon came, he was still in his apron, which was pretty bloody, and he had a scalpel in his hand and I thought, that’s the end for me, but it wasn’t, he was fully apologetic, and it wasn’t the Germans’ fault, it was the Air Force fault for bombing the place. Well, he said, obviously you’ve got to be moved, is not, your leg’s not ready yet to come out of traction so he said, I’ve got to take it off, you can’t be moved as you are, so they took it off, and the way I went in a back of a lorry and the lorry went over a bomb crater and I fell off and broke my leg again. We stopped overnight in a place that was a rest home for German forces and that was just overnight and of course again I had several people come to look at the strange fellow and then I went to Brussels and in the Brussels hospital we were in an annex and there were several aircrew in there, injured aircrew, American, Canadian, there was even one Italian, he wasn’t aircrew, and one Russian, who ill, they’d been put in there and we stayed there for about, I suppose, seven or eight weeks, I’m not sure. And then again, the British forces were coming and the German officer in command came in and said if we would sign a letter to say we’d been well treated, he would leave us there. So, obviously we signed it and the Germans left and on the morning, I’m not sure, the sixth or seventh of September, the British headed into Brussels but just before they came into Brussels, our doors burst open and the SS came in and we said, you know, we got this paper, well, not me, the commander senior officer said, we’ve got this paper and they just tore it up and said, you know, doesn’t mean a thing. And we were put into a bus and headed out of Brussels which was in a state of chaos because they were evacuating Brussels and Brussels, part of it was on fire. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and on the way out of Brussels, we were attacked by RAF fighters and the, there was a wing commander with us, and he took his life in his hand because the two old German guards were old like home guards, they wouldn’t get off the bus, so he tackled them and disarmed them and we got off the bus and went into a pigsty on the side of the road, and whilst we were there, three, three people made the attempt to escape. Now, I know that one of them survived and got back home because he was on our squadron and I know he got home but I don’t know what happened to the other two. And when it was all over, we were put back on board and taken to Holland. We arrived in Venlo and were, the bus was attacked by Dutch people who thought we were Germans and we were taken to a convent, excuse me. The, whoever was in charge put us on the top floor of this convent and when we asked the nuns why we were on the top floor, they said, well, it’s a tall building and maybe no one will notice you’re here. And we were there for three or four days and then one of the Canadian prisoners got a bit furious and he walked out onto the balcony and looking over and people saw him and waved and of course, as it happened, there was the Gestapo down at the bottom and we were quickly shipped off to Dusseldorf in Germany and Dusseldorf was a workers camp, French, Polish, Russians, Italians and we had a couple of brushes with the French people because they were taking the British Red Cross parcels and we were getting the, the rubbish, you know, the French which was not as good as the British ones and they said, well, they were entitled to it because they were working, we weren’t, as NCOs, you didn’t work, only a few volunteered to work, and we didn’t have any problems with other people, the Russians came and helped, they were glad to have a cigarette or a bite of bread or anything that we could give them ‘cause they didn’t get anything, they had to sort out for themselves, and the Germans put the Polish people on guard at the Russian compound and the Russian people on guard at the Polish compound and they weren’t bothered much about the Italians and that, that was alright until we were moved from there and the medical officer, the French medical officer asked me, would I leave my crutches and take a stick, I said, well, I can’t walk, you know, which going back, that had happened in Belgium, in Brussels, the Germans told me to walk, I said, ‘I can’t walk, I’m still in a cage’, so they gave me crutches and said, they took the cage down and said, walk, so I did my best, and the same thing happened in the French camp, they asked me to leave the crutches because they were short and would I walk with the walking stick. Well, being young and stupid I said yes, I managed alright and then we went from there in cattle trucks, yeah, I think was there, yeah, from there in cattle trucks to, no, I’m sorry, we went from Venlo to Dusseldorf in cattle trucks and the cattle truck was divided by a barb wire, sort of fence across the inside of the truck, and the German guards were on one side and eight of us were on the other side, and during the night, there was quite a commotion, one of the German guards had got too close to the fire and his uniform, his overcoat had caught fire, there wasn’t much we could do about it because there was barbed wire between us and his big moan from then on was what is the officer going to say when he arrived in Dusseldorf? Well, we don’t know ‘cause we arrived in Dusseldorf just after a bombing raid. And when we got off the train and on the busses, the people quite rightly were annoyed about the air raid and they tried to attack us but the German guards kept them in their place and we arrived at the interrogation centre where we were put into single rooms and there was no windows in my room, no heater, just a bed with a straw mattress on it and a little signal that if you wanted to go to the toilet, you pushed this signal and a guard would come and take you but we had, they tapped on Morse code between the pipes but I couldn’t read the Morse codes, too quick for me and if your neighbour banged on the wall, that meant that he was going to put his warning down that he wanted to go to the toilet and then you’d put yours down and so you kept the guard running up and down all the time. That was a couple of days there, then we went for interrogation, now we’d been warned back home about the interrogation, what would happen and what wouldn’t happen and so on and the things they told us exactly happened. You got a form [coughs], you got a form to fill in and as I say, what we’ve been told would happen did happen, we were given a form and asked to fill in all the details on the form and you wrote your number, your rank and your name and handed it back [coughs] and they warned you that you hadn’t finished and gave it to you back then and you gave it back to them and this went on a few minutes and then they appeared to get cross, which we’d been warned about really, and a hand went under the table and obviously pressed a button and there was a shot outside and again we’d been warned about that and they said, that’s what happens to the people who don’t cooperate [coughs] and they gave me the form and I gave them back 642170 and he appeared to lose his temper, he didn’t but that was his attitude and he said, ‘As it happens, we know more about your squadron than you do’, and he handed a cap down, he said, the name was inside, Stead, Sergeant Bill Stead and he said, ‘He was on your squadron, wasn’t he?’ Well, I knew damn well he was but I couldn’t say that to him. He said, and the squadron did this and the squadron did that and I just sat there. Eventually he said, ‘You’re a waste of my time, you’re a waste of everybody’s time’ and he called the guard in and I was transferred to another place a few hundred yards away and there we got new uniforms, American uniforms and a case full of good pyjamas, soap, toilet, all the rest, all the things you needed and you had to be careful what you were saying because you didn’t know whether the people in there were planted by the Germans and we’d been there two or three days, we went to our first prison camp, no, not to the first prison camp because we were, those who were injured like me went to a camp near Meiningen in Thuringia and it was an old opera house and there were, I suppose, a hundred or more people in there who’d been injured, different types of injuries and in there was that, Warrant Officer Jackson who got the VC for his efforts, he was in there at the time and you were there until such times as you were transferred to another prison camp and whilst you were there it was quite pleasant because there were concerts and meetings and outside of the camp there was a group of circus performers who practiced every day and that was quite good for us but we didn’t know how they’d evaded being in the army, we never found out and then we were transferred to a camp in Poland and this camp in Poland was fairly new, it hadn’t been open very long and we were given a block number and at the beginning there were six or seven of us in the room but after a few weeks the place had filled up and there were I think twelve in the same room, twelve bunk beds, and I say, we didn’t grumble about, we knew we were there for a while and there was a stove on one wall and in the Red Cross parcels we used to get something called Klim, was a milk spelled backwards and when the tin was empty, we used to put it on the pipe and extend the stove a little bit further and would eventually get it into the middle of the room, so everybody could get warm because of this pipe and then that’s when the Gestapo would come in and smash it all down, start again. And again we had concerts and we had education classes and so on and so on and then Christmas eve ’45, no, ’44, I was shot down ’44, Christmas Eve ’44, we were told to pack our things, we were likely to be moved, and we had a concert that night, there was a Christmas concert, and we had a priest there, we had mass as well, and in the morning, we were told to move, we had to get out, the Russians were advancing and it’s a rule of war that prisoners have got to be moved away from the battle front and so we set off and we walked, the snow was very deep, very deep indeed but we set off for Germany, we were in a place called Kreuzberg, Poland. We set off for Germany and by the time we got to the river which divides Poland and Germany, we picked up children, people had left their children, left them, thinking we’d look after them, but of course we couldn’t but we walked across the river which was frozen to a place called Oppeln and the children were moved away, I don’t know what happened to them, but from then on it was a case of walking, a few nights in a camp, walking, a few nights in a camp until we got to Lamsdorf, which was a, thousands of prisoners in there of all nationalities, thousands and the first room I was put into I wasn’t very happy, they weren’t, they weren’t clean, they weren’t, they weren’t very nice people to be with, let’s put it that way, you didn’t want to live with them after what you’d had in the other prison camps and I asked for a move and I got a move, was to a oh no, I was taken to a camp for interview by the Swedish Red Cross to see whether I was suitable for repatriation but it transpired that I wasn’t bad enough for repatriation so I moved to another camp, which was an army camp, and there were only two or three airmen there, they’d had airmen before but they’d been moved and we were sort of in with the army, we weren’t there very long and then everybody was moved and when the move was mooted, you were told to get yourselves in groups of seven or six, seven or eight, and there was a group of people there who said to me, will you join us? And I said, yes, of course, you know, I’d join anybody, they’d been prisoners since Dunkirk, so they knew the ropes and I said, yes, willingly. They said, well, the thing is, we want somebody to be quartermaster and you are obviously not one who can go and pinch things and take things for your own, so , you’ll be quartermaster and we will keep the things coming in which worked out very well. And we left there, walked down, walked through, I used to walk during the night and sleep in the woods during the day, in case find a source, walk in and think we were German troops, so we walked during the night, slept during the day and ate during the day obviously and then we got a lift on cattle trucks, about forty was in the truck, and we finished up in Prague and when we got off the truck, you were allowed off the truck to use the loo and ladies came like the WVS, German equivalent of the WVS and gave us soup, no, gave us hot water from the engine so that we could make soup and we did that but that wasn’t a good idea because the next day we were all complaining with stomach ache, the water from the engine obviously hadn’t been very clean but we got over it and this was the routine for the next few days on a truck for a while, off a truck walk and we got to Munich and when we got to Munich, there wasn’t room for us at Munich so we stayed the night and set off walking again the next day. And by this time we were in Austria and we were put into a school in Austria but not the original people I was with, about eight of us airmen and a couple of strangers and I think the second night we were there, I went out the morning ‘cause there were no guards, I said, ‘Well, where have the guards gone?’ They weren’t there, young boys actually, they had taken over from the old men, but they’d gone and I saw a lot of people going to church, I asked them, ‘Why are they going to church?’ I said, I was a Catholic and that wasn’t a feast day, as far as I knew. And they said, oh, you don’t know that the war is over. So, I went and told the others, and we walked to a nearby airfield with all the aircraft there was smashed in, they’d been destroyed by the Germans. And the Americans came through and told us to hang on they ‘d be other trucks coming through and they’d bring us food and what have you which they did and then they picked us up and took us to Reims, in France, and there we were grouped and told then aircraft would be flying back in and again with my luck the aircraft that we were going to fly back in, the navigator was missing all the night, and the people I was with, the army people said, well, you’re a navigator aren’t you, I said, ‘Yes, but the pilot might not want me’, anyway they went to the pilot and said, this fellow’s a navigator, and the pilot said, ‘How long was it since you flew?’ I said, ‘Oh, about twelve, thirteen months or so on’, he said, ‘Well, you think you can map read till we get to England?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m sure I can’. So, they gave me the map and off we went. And we got to England and when we got to England they were in wireless contact then and we stopped at a place called, an aerodrome called Wing and there we weren’t very happy, we were taken to a tent and fumigated [laughs], we had puffers put up our sleeves and down our necks and what not and a bit humiliating but there, it had to be done and from there we went home on leave. And at the end of leave, we came back to Cosford and we stayed at Cosford to people like me who were wounded, who had recuperation. And the Japanese war ended, and I remember it well, I was in the swimming pool, and when somebody came in and said, the war in Japan is over, I got out the swimming pool got dressed and went, went to what I thought was home. But, oh, I had a pass to go home, but by a direct route, I couldn’t divert southwards, I had to go northwards and on Woolhampton station, train came in for Liverpool and the next thing I knew I was on the train for Liverpool, I thought, what am I doing here? Well, I’d left a girlfriend who lived near Liverpool but actually in my prison time, I never heard a word from anybody, father, mother, family, friends, no one, it was a bit of a joke when the post came there was nothing for me but I’d moved so many times that nobody had an address and when they wrote it was just passed on and it never caught up with me. Anyway, I got to Liverpool and I thought, well, here it goes, and I went over to my girlfriend’s house, knocked on the door, mother opened the door, she said, ‘What do you want?’ And I said, ‘I’m Eddie.’ ‘Eddie who?’ she said, ‘cause I’d lost, well, about three and a half, four stone in weight and my clothes were pretty, new uniform was pretty hopeless, it was hanging on me, and I was nearly black with the sun being out in the weather all the time and she said, ‘You’d better come in then’, ‘cause she didn’t remember who I was. At roundabout half past five the door opened, Nora came in, looked across the room, saw me and went out again and it transpired it, she had a date for that night but she called to her friend’s to cancel the date and from then on we were together and we married in the September of ’45. And, well, we stayed married for seventy years. And then I was discharged from the Air Force because I wanted to fly and they had so many fliers they didn’t want people who’d been injured, so, they had enough fliers. So I took discharge and went to a special unit where you worked out what you’re going to do afterwards and I made the suggestion that I’d like to be in education but again it came up the question you haven’t got university qualifications and you haven’t been to a training college and so on and so on, however I got over all that, and the education officer said, ‘Why don’t you go a step higher and try for teaching?’ I said, well, you know, as has happened in the past, ‘I might qualify for teaching’, he said, ‘If you’re qualified as a navigator, you’re qualified for teaching’. So, I had a test and passed the test, and I went to a teacher training college, they wanted me to go to, the one year, but I wanted to do a two year and I, I became a teacher. And eventually I spent a couple of terms in the Wirral, near Liverpool and then I came to Worksop taught fifteen year old, fourteen, fifteen, it was the first year I had children had to stay until they were fifteen and I had the first class in this particular school, fourteen, fifteens, they’d all, they weren’t, I’m not being unkind, the majority of them weren’t clever, they hadn’t passed the eleven plus, they hadn’t passed the thirteen plus, but some of them were quite bright, anyway that’s beside the point, and I stayed there for ten years. And then we talked it over and Nora had a good job, we talked it over and it was become quite obvious that I was going to get any further in a secondary school, I was in an all age school, so I decided to transfer to primary school, and we moved to Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire and I was deputy head there for, I think 1967, ten years, and then I got a headship in Derbyshire, [unclear], and I was head there until 1984, then I retired. Came here. And that’s the story so far. Well, I eventually got in touch with what’s the squadron association and began going to the reunions and I had the wife of the commanding officer wanted to start a museum and she asked all of us who were there and at that time there’d be about eighty, ninety ex-squadron members there, if they had anything that would start the museum and I asked, I said, ‘I haven’t got anything really but I’ve got my prisoner of war identity card, would that be of any use?’ ‘Oh yes’, she said, ‘Let me have it. So, I did. And I suppose a couple of years afterwards, I got a phone call, ‘Please don’t put the phone down, I’m not a double glazing salesman, my name is Clive, you might remember my uncle, Clive Hill.’ I said, ‘I remember him very well, he was my engineer.’ ‘Oh’, he said, ‘Well, can we start from there? My mother has been ill and they have told her that her illness was due to worry about not doing anything about finding what happened to her brother.’ Rightly or wrongly, that’s what they’d said, and he said, ‘I’ve taken over and the Ministry of Defence wouldn’t give me any information about anybody but my uncle, they wouldn’t let me have your information. But I’ve talked to the secretary of the association, squadron association and he has given me your address and phone number, can I talk to you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ And she’d gone down to Waterbeach to the museum, to try and find out something about his uncle and he’d given up and as he walked through the door, coming out, he saw this card on the wall and eleventh of April ’44 and he said, that was the night my uncle was shot down. And there was only one aircraft shot down. So, you must be the survivor, he said, I had an inkling there was a survivor, because there’s only six people buried. And, well, from then on, we kept in contact and the then secretary of the association was ill and he wanted to give up and Clive took over and all the information was dumped on his doorstep and he’s been the secretary ever since and he does a fantastic job and of course we’ve kept in touch as families, we’ve been away together, we went to Belgium together, to put the monument up, he went to Belgium to find the spot and as he was looking round, the farmer came up and said, you know, are you from the police, are you looking for somebody? He told him why he was there and of course things blossomed and they gave us the plot to put the memorial on. And we were entertained for the weekend by the local council.
SP: Did you ever meet anyone from the farm after the war?
EH: Oh yes
SP: Who had taken you in?
EH: Yes, the wife of the farmer came to the last reunion and was delighted and so were we. And I met the sister of the family that took me in, but she died. We stayed with her overnight at the time we were putting the monument together, but her brother had died and her parents had died, she was the sole survivor. And we’re still in touch, Clive he, if he can’t arrange a pickup for me on squadron association reunions, then he comes himself, comes from Castle Bromwich, picks me up and takes me and then brings me back again, which is a long journey. So, we are looking forward to next year, which would be the seventy-fifth anniversary of the squadron forming, so hopefully we get there. I think that’s about everything.
SP: Okay, Eddie, well.
EH: I can remember as I’ve been helpful or not.
SP: That’s been very detailed, so thank you very much for your time on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. It’s been an
EH: Oh, thank you for putting up with it
SP: Excellent story, lots of details. Thank you very much for that.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Eddie Humes
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Susanne Pescott
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-08-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AHumesEL170826, PHumesEL1701
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:54:55 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Balloon Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Cambridgeshire
Belgium
Belgium--Brussels
Germany
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Thuringia
Poland
Poland--Łambinowice
Description
An account of the resource
Eddie Humes flew as a navigator on Lancasters with 514 Squadron during the war. He chose to join the RAF in May 1939 instead of going to work in the mines. He was initially expected to be posted as a rigger on aircraft but was then sent to a balloon training centre, which didn’t please him very much. After finishing training, he applied for transfer to aircrew, but was posted to a balloon drifter on the Thames and from there, to the East End in London. Then his posting to aircrew came through and so he transferred to St John’s Wood for aircrew training and then to St Andrews and to Manchester, where he trained to be a navigator. Was then posted to RAF Chipping Warden on Wellingtons, RAF Little Snoring and to RAF Waterbeach on 514 Squadron. Remembers his first operation to Biarritz. Gives a vivid and detailed account of when they were shot down in 1944 over Belgium, on the way back home from Aachen, when the port wing was hit. Six members of the crew died in the crash, leaving him the sole survivor, breaking his leg in the landing. He was taken by a Belgian family but, because of his severe injuries, he was handed over to the Germans, who brought him to hospital, where he underwent surgery and spent a long period of convalescence. He then spent the rest of the war being moved from camp to camp, in Belgium, Germany and Poland and was then forced to march hundreds of miles from Poland to Austria, from where he was sent to France and repatriated. After the war, he went into teaching and ended up as a deputy head, until his retirement. He joined the squadron association and together with the association’s secretary, his engineer’s nephew, he went to Belgium to build a memorial to his lost crew.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Schulze
Carolyn Emery
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1944
1945
514 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
bombing
Gee
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 2
navigator
prisoner of war
RAF Dumfries
RAF Little Snoring
RAF Waterbeach
Red Cross
shot down
Stalag 8B
the long march
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/920/11165/PLawrenceJ1701.2.jpg
8f465cc3d7c812b00cee04912bd3f2d6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/920/11165/ALawrenceJ170510.1.mp3
e51fceacb81837afefd0f45e304345bb
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lawrence, Lawrie
Jack Lawrence
J Lawrence
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Squadron Leader Jack 'Lawrie' Lawrence (b.1919, 533877 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a wireless operator air gunner with 61 and 83 Squadrons. He was shot down and became a prisoner of war.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-10
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lawrence, J
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DM: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is David Meanwell. The interviewee is Lawrie Lawrence. The interview is taking place at Mr Lawrence’s home in Sevenoaks in Kent on the 10th of May 2017. So, Lawrie if you could perhaps tell me a little bit about where and where you were born and your early life.
LL: Well, I was born in this little town, Ossett. I just did the normal schooling. Grammar School. Worked for a year and then joined the Air Force.
DM: What did you do when you worked for the first time around?
LL: Oh well, I did a little, an electrician. And when I was seventeen and a quarter that August, joined. I could join the RAF.
DM: And why did you want to join the RAF?
LL: I wanted to fly. When I joined they said, ‘What do you want to be?’ I said, ‘A pilot.’ He said, ‘Well, do you want to make a career of the Air Force?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course. He said, ‘Well, don’t be a pilot. Go to Cranwell. Be a wireless operator or something.’ Which I did.
DM: And that was ok with you was it? You —
LL: Yeah. Yeah.
DM: You weren’t too disappointed?
LL: No. Well, I was a bit disappointed but he said there was no career. A pilot was four years on, six years off. That was it. So I had no choice actually.
DM: So how long was the training at Cranwell? Can you remember?
LL: A year.
DM: And then what happened?
LL: Then I was posted to Hemswell. They had old biplanes. Just getting rid of them, and we got Ansons which were just coming into service. It was just like flying in a flying club. Weekends we’d give displays everywhere. It was very nice indeed.
DM: How many crew in an Anson?
LL: Well, we flew with three but you could fly with two. But that was it. It was like being in a flying club. I used to go up, take one out on weekends. Go out and see friends. It was, it was very nice. But then we got Blenheims and that was the start of the trouble. We filled the graveyard at Hemswell Cemetery. Crashing. Crashing. Crashing. I’ve got photographs somewhere. This is a book. My daughter made me write it.
DM: Is that your memoir basically.
LL: Yes. What I could remember. They were not bad to fly in but they were very dangerous because they were the first Blenheims produced. That was about it.
DM: So this was a Mark 1 Blenheim obviously.
LL: Yeah. Yeah.
DM: Yes. Were you based at Hemswell the whole time with, with —
LL: I was at Hemswell. Yes. We got the Blenheims. We didn’t have them very long and we got the Hampdens of course. And I was suddenly posted from Hemswell to Waddington. I went to the, formed the what we called the little high speed flight at Waddington. We went and collected a new Blenheim and we were briefed to fly to Africa. And we were detailed for September the 4th.
DM: What year was this?
LL: ’39.
DM: Right.
LL: But of course the war broke out on September the 3rd so we suddenly flew back to Hemswell and we were operational. And we took off and made our first flight in February.
DM: Can you remember how you felt when war was declared? You know. What? Was it an exciting time? A frightening time?
LL: Just a normal time quite truthfully. Until February because we didn’t do, we didn’t go into, we never made a bombing flight until February.
DM: So, what were you doing between September and February?
LL: Just training.
DM: And that was still at Hemswell.
LL: Yes. Yes.
DM: Ok. So, if we go forward to February 1940 then.
LL: Right.
DM: What was your first sortie? You first mission.
LL: Oh. I can’t, can’t remember.
DM: It was a bombing mission.
LL: Oh yes. It was a bombing mission. And I’d been with this crew for three years. We had no trouble bombing aerodromes and things like that. We didn’t see, didn’t see much action. But getting, getting there at night was a bit of a trouble [laughs] Frightening the place.
DM: So how many of you in the crew?
LL: Four. And we never saw anybody from take-off to landing. We were all separated. Yeah.
DM: And how many missions did you fly on that first?
LL: Pardon?
DM: How many missions did you fly on your first?
LL: I flew thirty seven. I should have stopped at thirty but something happened. I went on to thirty seven. By which time we were, the crew had been together all that time and we were doing quite well finding targets, dropping our bombs. One morning we thought we’d got to Blackpool but it was the tower in Paris.
Other: Arc de Triomphe. .
LL: Pardon?
Other: Arc de Triomphe.
LL: Yeah. Arc de Triomphe.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. We were flying around it before — we thought we were in Blackpool. Things like that happened.
DM: Right. Yeah. That was, that would have been a bit worrying wouldn’t it? So when you came to the end of those thirty seven.
LL: My tour. Yes.
DM: Yeah. That tour. Yes. You obviously had some leave.
LL: I went to Upper Heyford as an instructor.
DM: Right. Ok. And instructing on wireless or gunning or — ?
LL: On everything to do with flying. Yeah.
DM: What did you think of that?
LL: A bit fed up actually. A bit dangerous too because sometimes you met a pilot who had never flown one before. And so after three months I volunteered to go back on flying and I was sent to Scampton. 83 Squadron. And I went with my pilot and we had to form C Flight. We ‘d got brand new crews coming in. We had to train them. It was a pretty dangerous sort of job.
DM: So that was just as dangerous as the job before.
LL: It was [laughs] Yes.
DM: But you had the same pilot as you had the first time around.
LL: I had the same pilot. We, we started, we formed the flight. C Flight. 83. And on our sixth flight we were attacked by a Messerschmitt. Messerschmitt. We never saw him. He opened fire and the port wing was completely on fire. The engine was hanging down and I was on the floor of the cockpit. A bullet had taken off my left part of my ear.
DM: But it didn’t take your ear off obviously.
LL: It didn’t. No. But it deafened it. Yeah.
DM: Was that the first time in all your missions you’d been attacked by another aircraft?
LL: No. We were attacked by a Dutch fighter before Holland came into the war.
DM: That was more of a warning was it?
LL: Fired back at him and he just waved to us and went off. Yeah. And we had [pause] we landed all over the place. We’d done, we’d done six.
DM: So this was your forty third trip.
LL: I’m trying to remember. Yes. Before I left [pause] before I left Hemswell I had a bad attack of pleurisy.
DM: Oh right.
LL: They took me off a flight and as I went to [pause] my crew flew. And then they gave me another crew but when I, when I was sick for a fortnight my crew was shot down. And the chap who took my place lost his left arm on his first trip.
DM: Did your crew survive?
LL: The pilot. The pilot was, yeah but on my second tour when we were shot down the pilot was killed.
DM: What about your old crew when the chap who replaced you lost his arm? So he obviously survived.
LL: They were prisoners of war.
DM: They were all prisoners of war.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Right.
LL: Yeah.
LL: So, ok so if we come forward now again to when you were shot down.
DM: Yeah.
LL: You were attacked by a Messerschmitt.
DM: Yes.
LL: The plane was badly damaged.
DM: [unclear]
LL: You were on the floor with your ear piece missing.
DM: Yeah.
LL: What happened next?
DM: Well, I shouted. There was nobody answering me so I just assumed everybody had baled out except, you know. So I baled out. I got out at about thirteen thousand feet so I was alright.
Other: And the rest of them?
LL: Pardon? Well, I didn’t, I didn’t, I never saw them again.
DM: Right. So, at that moment you didn’t know whether they’d survived or whether they hadn’t. Obviously later on you found out.
LL: Not at that moment. I didn’t know. I knew they’d gone.
DM: Yes.
LL: But I didn’t know what had, what had happened to them.
DM: Right. Ok.
LL: I landed in a field in Holland and I was in a hell of a mess. My right ankle was [pause] wasn’t broken but it was —
DM: That was from the parachute landing was it?
LL: Yes. Yeah. Parachute landing. So I went to the nearest house, knocked at the door and a chap came and [noise] so I told him who I was and he invited me in. And I don’t know what happened but I was busy stuffing all my gear into their fire and the Germans arrived. I don’t know where. They’d come from the guardroom, they said which was about fifty yards away.
DM: Oh right. So, you were in a, were you in, actually in a camp?
LL: Yes. But I was on the borders of it. Yeah.
DM: And what sort of a camp was it?
LL: I don’t know.
DM: A labour camp I suppose, was it?
LL: I have no idea.
DM: Right. So they arrived and arrested you obviously.
LL: They arrested me. Yes. They were charming.
DM: Really.
LL: Absolutely charming. Yes. And they took me to their guardroom and I met a young man there who had been to college in England.
DM: A German.
LL: A German. He gave me a tin of Woodbines. I’ll never forget that. I was talking to him. Suddenly the door flung open. In come the Luftwaffe. They started to knock me around. They took me in a car. They took me to their headquarters and I was just in solitary.
DM: So, how, were you sort of put in solitary confinement?
LL: Yes. Yes. And then I was interrogated by, I call him a gentleman. He said he was the Red Cross representative and he seemed to know more about my squadron then I did. I kept my mouth shut and I stayed there for about a week.
DM: Before you, before you were captured had you had training back in England about what the interrogation process would be?
LL: Nothing.
DM: Nothing at all.
LL: Nothing. It was going but I’d never had one. No. No.
DM: So you didn’t know what to expect.
LL: I didn’t. Absolutely not. I didn’t. I was quite raw. Yeah. And [pause] that’s right, then they sent me to Dulag Luft by train.
DM: Where? Do you know whereabouts? Is that in Germany or what?
LL: Germany.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. It was the camp where all, all prisoners went through.
DM: Right.
LL: [unclear] When I got to Dulag Luft I thought I was going to be interviewed by an officer and they showed me into this room and the officer was this bloke who told me he was the Red Cross representative.
DM: Same man.
LL: So I wasn’t very good mannered and I was given a fortnights solitary confinement [laughs]
DM: And were you in Dulag Luft for very long?
LL: I was there about a month I think.
DM: What was life like there? Was —apart from the solitary confinement of course.
LL: Well, it was up and down. For instance when I came through, or rather when I left Holland they sent me to Amsterdam. I beg your pardon. I’d forgotten that. I went to Amsterdam. I was in a prison there and this young Rhodesian chap came and he was in Stalag 3 and we were quite friendly. A nice chap. He said he’d baled out of a Manchester. And when we got to, he travelled to Dulag Luft. When we got to Dulag Luft there was another crew of a Manchester there and they told him after he’d baled out the pilot changed his mind and just flew back. So, he was a different person altogether then. And when I was in the Amsterdam prison in solitary I met a chap called Peter Thomas. And we could talk through the wire. I’ll never forget. He said he would never escape. He’d just passed his intermediate solicitor and when he was going, when he was in the camp he was going to study and when he got back to England he could become and full time solicitor. Then he was going to get into parliament. And he said, ‘I’ve got to get a very safe seat. And when I’m in parliament the Prime Minister will [unclear] for me. And I met him again long, long after the war and it had all come true. He was walking down the street with Neville Heath and he was the deputy. He was Deputy Prime Minister and became Foreign Secretary for a while. Peter Thomas.
DM: Amazing.
LL: He was an amazing chap. Yeah. I just saw him then but he’d made his mind up. This was ’41. August ’41. Yeah. He was an interesting chap. Yeah.
DM: So, Amsterdam. You were there for a little while.
LL: About a month I think, you see, yes.
DM: And was that an Air Force camp or was it a —
LL: It was. It was an Air Force. They called it an interview camp. Everybody was interviewed by a representative supposedly of the Red Cross. Things like that. Who knew more about what was happening than he did. And we were all very raw. Who did I meet? I met one or two well-known people. Bader.
DM: Oh, he was in there.
LL: He was there. Just went through. Yeah. And then we were separated one morning and said we were going to the, to an Air Force camp and as I was a senior and I was a flight sergeant, everybody else were sergeants we were put on a train and we went to a place. Stalag 357. It was an Army camp and we got moved into a room full of Air Force who had been naughty boys at a camp in Barth. Stalag Luft 1. And we were not treated very well.
DM: But you weren’t naughty boys.
LL: Pardon?
DM: You hadn’t been naughty boys there had you?
LL: No. But they had you see.
DM: Yeah.
LL: And they was held there.
DM: And you were treated the same as they were.
LL: Yes. Yes. And I met one chap coming down and he was interested in escaping. So we talked about it and talked about it. Anyway, we decided we’d change identities with a private soldier. And we were very lucky. A gang of New Zealanders had just arrived from Crete and they were in a hell of a mess. They just wanted to sit down. So I found a man who wanted to change identities. And a football match was arranged. A fight broke out and while that was, while the Germans were dealing with that I was changing my beautiful blue into his flea ridden khaki and I went back to the Army compound. He went back to the Air Force compound. And Jock, he also changed over. He became Army. So there were two of us.
DM: And why did you decide you wanted to be in that barracks.
LL: Because if you were a private soldier you could volunteer to go out to work. And if you get a working party of less than fifteen you only had one guard. Which made escaping pretty simple, I must admit.
DM: Right.
LL: Yeah.
DM: So obviously nobody gave you away. None of, none of the people in the camp.
LL: The only thing that happened was I’d been there about a month and they got me out one morning and sent me down to the hospital. I didn’t know what was going on and daren’t say anything. Anyway, a doctor came in and said, ‘Shave.’ ‘Oh, thank you sir.’ So I shaved my beard off. And he gave me, he shouted a load at me. He said, ‘Shave down there.’ They were going to circumcise me. This bloke had gone sick in Crete. His papers had just caught up with him. They were posted. I’d had it done many many years ago. Anyway, the Germans wouldn’t believe their papers were incorrect. Never would. So it took a bit of talking out of.
DM: But you managed to talk them out of it.
LL: I managed it. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
DM: So did you go out on a few working parties before you tried to escape?
LL: Well, I started. We started looking around for a working party and then we came into our first difficulty. We were with the Army now and the people in charge of all this stuff had been caught in Dunkirk, the early part of the war. And they were living like kings. They had their own beds and everything. They were in the same hut as all the food was stored. So if they were hungry they just went and helped themselves. And when they heard we were there to try to escape which would cause trouble they were non-cooperative. I’ll come to this a bit later on. Saved my life this, but they were uncooperative. We just found one sergeant. He’d been caught early and he fixed us up with a working party. And off we went [unclear]
[recording paused]
DM: You went on a working party. You went out on a working party.
LL: We went on this working party at the house.
DM: Can you remember what you went to do? What the work was?
LL: Oh, my God [laughs] I’m trying. I’m sorry about this.
DM: Oh, don’t worry. Don’t worry.
LL: Oh yes. Yes. This was a working party in a small village. A very small village. And they had been formed of privates caught in the beginning of the war and they were having a hell of a time. A good time. And one bloke who was there couldn’t read and couldn’t write. That was the type they were. And on a Saturday two of them were allowed to go to the local and have a beer. I was astounded at all this. And I was working on a quarry. I had to push for these things. Anyway, we decided we’d get away and one night, in those days you all slept together and your clothes were in a room with bars.
DM: So they locked your clothes away.
LL: Yeah. So we get [Maximal?] managed to hide them. Anyway, we were, we sawed through the window in the afternoon, half way through, steel things. And that night our one guard was asleep you see. We tried, I tried to get through the bars and all the wall came down [laughs] Anyway, we got away and we were walking more or less due east. We, we were heading for Yugoslavia and we, on the map we had a lake marked out where the Sunderlands were flying. Landing arms for Tito. And we wanted to get there by Czechoslovakia. Anyway, we walked as the crow flies. If we came to a river we swam it. If we came to a bridge we had to go underneath it and we never saw a soul. We used to start walking at 10 o’clock. Finish at five. Find a place to hide for the day. And then go on the next day.
DM: What did you do for food?
LL: We carried it. We carried quite a bit of food with us that we’d found in this working party. And one day we were going along and because we’d left the train and everything so we reckoned we were very near [unclear] and the border in to Czechoslovakia. And we were resting during the day as usual and a chap came up and smiled at me. So I smiled back and he went away. And we had a little natter the two of us. We said, ‘Has he gone for help? Has he gone to tell the Germans? Is he not going to bother doing anything?’ So we decided we would wait and see. And we were wrong. We were surrounded by Germans. They thought we were Russian parachutists. Anyway, the policeman they brought with them, he was, he was a nice gentleman. He said he’d lock us up but before he took us to his police station he took me around the back and shook hands with me. He was [pause] And then went to the police station and then we were interviewed by the Gestapo for the next, oh ten days. Knocked around a bit of course and then they decided we were what we said we were. Two private soldiers. And we were sent back to the camp. And on the way we were on a train, we had a the guard and we got off the train and there was a man sat there with his luggage and he said, ‘Hey, you blokes, come and carry my luggage.’ He spoke English. We said, ‘Oh, get lost.’ Anyway. when we got to the camp he was the war officer. I finished up with a month solitary [laughs] So I did solitary and then went back into the camp again.
DM: And you were still a New Zealand private.
LL: Yes. Oh yes.
DM: As far as the Germans were concerned.
LL: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And then after we put our names down for a working party again and they said, ‘You’re not worth it. It’s not worth it.’ Anyway, one night this sergeant came to see us. He said, ‘I’ve got two vacancies in a party made up by fourteen privates.’ But they were all commandoes. They’d been caught on the raid to St Nazaire so, you know, they were wonderful to be with.
DM: Yes.
LL: People of the same mind. And we were posted. We were sent to Görlitz. It was an Elementary Flying School. So of course we told them who we were and everything. And the idea was we would try and steal an aircraft because they were all over the place. But we found out that they always stored their aircraft with empty tanks. Now, in the Air Force you always left your aircraft with full tanks. They stored them empty. So it was a no go. And we worked there for two or three months I think it was.
DM: What sort of work was that?
LL: Oh, anything they could find. My job was every day I had to get these two oxon, we named them Spit and Cough and then had to collect a German guard and we’d to go down to the nearest town, collect the rations, drive them back. That was my day’s work. I was very lucky. And one of them, one of the chaps there was an ex-cook from Savoy. So we really, we did live well. We’d no [unclear] We did very well there. And then we decided we would escape. So one night —
DM: Was this just the two of you again or —
LL: No. Two commandoes were coming with us. So, one night we got out, a simple sort of through, you know barbed wire and everything. And we were told that we were on top of a mountain and there were three ranges so the idea was to walk down and up and rest the next day. But when we got to the first range we could see eleven more [laughs] So we were doing that. Walking. What happened to us then? [pause] During, during the day we covered ourselves up with foliage. At night —
DM: Had you taken food with you again?
LL: Oh yes. The Savoy.
DM: He’d made meals for you?
LL: Because I was driving the rations back. So harmless I could slip a few into this thing or hide it in the cart or give the rest to the Germans.
DM: What direction were you heading this time?
LL: Czechoslovakia.
DM: Right.
LL: Yeah.
[recording paused]
LL: We came to the River Oder where we had a shave and a clean up and swam across it.
DM: What were you, what were you wearing? Because obviously you weren’t in a uniform.
LL: Oh, these khaki shorts and —
DM: So you were sort of —
LL: That’s all I had. Yeah.
DM: Right.
LL: Yeah. Yeah.
DM: Which is I suppose one of the reasons you had to travel by night.
LL: Pardon?
DM: That’s one of the reasons you had to travel by night.
LL: Yes. Yes.
DM: Yes.
[pause]
LL: Caught near [unclear] on the border.
DM: How did that come about this time?
LL: It was the local gendarmerie caught us again. And then we were, we were taken to a place called Ollmuth and was delivered into the hands of the Gestapo.
DM: Again.
LL: Again. Yeah. And then after a few days we went back to the thing.
DM: So, I mean you said the first time when you were being interviewed by the Gestapo —
LL: Yeah.
DM: They knocked you around a bit. Was it the same the second time? Similar techniques or —
LL: Similar techniques. Just the same more or less. Yes.
DM: They didn’t think you were paratroopers this time. Or did they?
LL: Pardon?
DM: Did they think you were, you were paratroopers again or did they think you were just escaped prisoners?
LL: Just escaped privates.
DM: Yes.
LL: And I was a New Zealander with a Yorkshire accent.
DM: Which I suppose they didn’t know.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. I missed quite a lot out quite truthfully.
DM: Well, you can go back.
[pause]
LL: Far more detail in there than I can remember [pause] When we were, when we were taken, being taken back to Landsdorf on the train. We got off the train and they took two of us to a house. They took us downstairs, put us in a cellar, there was no bed. Nothing. And we were there and we had one meal a day. And then on the Sunday they called me out. Took me to the bottom of the garden and said, ‘Stand there.’ That was 8 o’clock. At 9 o’clock six Army, six Army arrived with rifles and this bloke said I’d been looked at, investigated and I was going to be shot. This was 10 o’clock. And at 12 o’clock —
Other: Morning or night?
LL: Pardon?
Other: Morning or night? Morning or night?
LL: Morning.
Other: Morning.
LL: And at 12 o’clock I was stood there. The Army was stood there. A Luftwaffe officer arrived and said, ‘Come with me.’ Took me, and they took me back to the cellar. And I never knew why I wasn’t shot until three weeks —
DM: Three weeks ago.
LL: Yeah. There was a programme on TV. It was called shot soldiers or something. It appears that Hitler had, after the Great Escape from the thing he said anybody who escaped and was shot was to be, anybody that escaped and caught was to be shot. And the Gestapo was to carry out the shooting. Anyway, the Gestapo refused to do the shooting and that’s why I wasn’t shot.
DM: Right. So the fact that the Luftwaffe officer, it wasn’t because they’d discovered you were an airman.
LL: Pardon? No. that was —
DM: That was just coincidence.
LL: Just coincidence. He had an idea I think. And it appears that according to the dates that Hitler made this order, the Gestapo refused on the Saturday and I was on this to be shot on the Sunday. And they took me back to the cellar. Threw me in the cellar and that was it. He said, he said I’d been court martialled.
DM: In your absence obviously.
LL: In my absence. Yeah. And that was it.
DM: So, eventually they took you from that house back on the train, did they?
LL: Back on the train. And when I got on the train it was a truck and it had a barbed wire roof. So they put my hands through the barbed wire and handcuffed me. I travelled like that for twelve hours. Yeah. By which time I couldn’t care less they’d knocked me about so much. Anyway, I got back to Landsdorf. Yeah.
DM: So, you’ve escaped twice.
LL: Yes.
DM: Been caught twice.
LL: Yes.
DM: And you’re still a private in the New Zealand —
LL: I was still a private. And, oh then I was, that’s right they found out I was Air Force. I never found out who, how but they said who I was. I was, by this time I was so fed up. I’d been knocked about. I’d been, and I went into solitary confinement and Bader was in the next cell. So I had a natter with him and he tried to change identities.
DM: With you?
LL: No. With a private —
DM: With a private.
LL: Gave the game away. He was a big mouth. A good flyer and everything but one to stay very clear of. And they stuck me in Stalag Luft 3. And I was in the bed by the next door, hut rather and I was a bit brassed off. You know. So I started studying economics and then out of the blue one day they said, ‘You’re going on the train tomorrow to Hedwigenkoog.’ Which was, which was north. And I went to Hedwigenkoog . And this instructor came too so he formed a school. And I studied. Anyway, when I got back, it’s in the book. One day he says, ‘The Germans allowed me to take the exams from Oxford University. But the Germans will be there. You know. Make sure you don’t talk to anybody,’ because there was about eight of us. And we took, we took the exam. I took eight papers and after I’d been home for six months I had a letter from Oxford University to say I’d got honours in six. Yeah. Anyway, we stayed at this Hedwigenkoog, and suddenly we heard the guns. The Russian guns. So the Germans got us out quickly and marched off the road. And we were in a column and there was a column in front of us of people who had been prisoners a year more than me. And there was, and so Spitfires arrived and shot up the column with the oldest in and killed about a hundred. Yeah. We were only about a hundred yards behind. Very lucky. Anyway, we decided that we’d, we’d had enough so one night we deserted the column.
DM: And when you say we, who was —
LL: Two of us.
DM: Right.
LL: Two of us. And we walked on. That’s right. We kept going and we got to the German lines and up ahead we heard a bit of a battle going on. And it was a small village and there was a tank. A battle between Canadian tanks and German tanks. So then we waited for that to finish and then we walked down and met the Canadians and told them who we were. They said, ‘Well, look what are you going to do now?’ I said, ‘We’re going to walk to the Rhine and get across.’ They said, ‘Look, there’s a brand new Mercedes in that garage. Go get it and we’ll fill it full of petrol.’ So we got this new Merc out of this garage. The owner was shaking his fist at us. And they filled it full of petrol and we got to the Rhine but we couldn’t go across. There was only traffic in one direction. So we swapped it for a camera and walked across. I got to the nearest aerodrome and got a lift back and landed at a little place called Wing. And we were jolly and the WAAF were there to kiss you and everything. And then I was asked to go to the Endsleigh Hotel in London. I said, ‘Well, what’s, what’s wrong?’ ‘Oh, we want to interview you.’ Anyhow, I got to the Endsleigh Hotel. Nothing happened for about a week. And suddenly one morning I was taken to this office of a genera and he was asking me all about when I was a private. You know, a private soldier and what I did and everything. And he started picking. Picking holes. So, I said, ‘Look, you know your blokes were the least, you know the biggest worry in Germany were your blokes. They were having such a good time there wasn’t one of them fit to go. None of them would help us. Only the people caught in Dunkirk I think.’ Anyway, one bloke turned out to be warrant officer Sheriff. And he’d just been given the OBE. So my temper really let go. And it appears I was seeing this general, they were thinking of giving me medal. I don’t know what. Conspicuous Gallantry medal. Something like, like that. But the general told me to get out. [unclear]
DM: So do you think someone had given bad reports about you? Somebody —
LL: No. The general. I shouted my head off.
DM: Right.
LL: I was a fool. I was there. I was so [pause] this bloke was building the Army up to me and I’d had no help from the Army whatsoever. In fact just the opposite apart from one sergeant. And I told the general. He wouldn’t believe me. I lost my temper because I’d just been home for a short time. I wasn’t really myself. And he said, ‘Get out.’ So I got out. Never heard any more.
DM: So where did you go? Went back to —
LL: I went home and then a posting came through. I forget where it was.
DM: Had you found out by then what had happened —
LL: Pardon?
DM: Had you found out by then what had happened to the rest of your crew?
LL: Yes. I got the address of my pilot. He was buried in —
DM: Oh right. So you —
LL: Yeah.
DM: You had a letter that told you —
LL: Only the pilot. The other two I never, never —
DM: But the other two survived did they?
LL: I presume so.
DM: You didn’t run across them before or after.
LL: No. No. I never saw them again because I was in this Army camp for and attached to it for two years. So, I don’t know where they got to. But I’ve been to my pilot’s grave.
DM: And where’s that?
LL: There you are.
DM: What does it say? [pause] Holland. Jonkerbos War Cemetery in Nijmegen.
LL: Yeah. Yeah.
DM: So you have visited him.
LL: Yes. Yes. I have. Yeah.
DM: So where were you posted after you came home?
LL: Oh.
[pause]
LL: Oh, I was posted to a place called Bromley.
DM: Right.
LL: Which was a, one of these plotting stations. Plotting. It was a big house which had been taken over and it was a plotter and I was, I was duty officer for eight hours.
DM: Were you still a flight sergeant?
LL: I was warrant officer.
DM: A warrant officer.
LL: A warrant officer. Yeah. And I was there some time. I think from down there I went down to [pause] I can’t remember now [rustling papers] From Oxford you see. That’s the post I actually got [unclear] in.
DM: Was examined at Stalag Luft 6. 357.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Under the Authority of the University. Amazing.
LL: That came through, is it March ’64.
DM: It took a while.
LL: Yeah. I was a prisoner. Seven stone seven when I came home. That was me after three weeks, after three months at home.
DM: Fattened up.
LL: Yeah. I went to Biggin Hill, and then North Weald, and then Padgate. And then I was posted to Vienna.
DM: So what date are we?
LL: Pardon?
DM: What date are we now? What year are we in that you went to Vienna? Still 1945?
LL: Yes. And then in Vienna I collapsed. Oh, I got married and we went and I was posted to headquarters in Vienna and I collapsed one day. My lungs were bleeding so they flew me back to Wroughton Hospital. And then they decided I had six months rest. Then they decided that my right shoulder, there was a little, the [scab] was too bad. They had to cut it out. So I went up to, I went to another I can’t remember what hospital it was but it was a civilian hospital. Bader was in next door.
DM: You kept coming across him.
LL: Yeah [laughs] Cheshire, the bloke who had the homes.
DM: Oh, Cheshire.
LL: Cheshire. He was in the next. They treated it like a college but they, it was a wonderful place to be to be quite truthfully. One morning the doctor came around and he was a well-known surgeon of course that specialised in lungs. And he was telling me my budgie’s died, ‘I bet he died from bloody TB.’ And do you know he did a post mortem on my budgie and it was a heart attack. And he was, he was the biggest surgeon in England just about. Oh, and then I was posted to Hendon. At Hendon, I was commissioned now, I was posted to Cyprus. Headquarters Cyprus. And I retired from there.
DM: And what —
LL: As a squadron leader.
DM: And what year did you leave the Air Force?
LL: [unclear] yes.
Other: Oh, a bit later.
DM: So about 1964.
Other: What year did the, what year did Turkey get invaded?
LL: Pardon?
Other: ’71. So —
LL: What year were you born?
Other: ’55.
LL: It was after ’55 then.
Other: Yeah. Yeah. Because I was, you were in Wroughton when I was born.
LL: Yeah.
Other: And then you went to Germany. You are in Wildenrath in Germany. Dusseldorf.
LL: Dusseldorf. Yes.
Other: Then we were in, you were at the Ministry of Defence. We lived in —
LL: Pardon?
Other: Then you were at the Ministry of Defence at [unclear] Aerodrome.
LL: Yes. That’s where I met Peter Thompson. The navigator. That’s right.
Other: Then Hendon.
LL: Then from there I was posted to Cyprus.
Other: From Hendon to Cyprus. Yes. Yeah.
LL: Out there.
Other: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. And I did a tour as squadron leader in charge of all flights in the Near East. Nice posting.
Other: ’67 I think he might have —
LL: Pardon?
Other: Sixty — I think it’s ’64 you must have come out.
DM: So, if I take you back to —
Other: No. It’s later than that. Because I came back to, well you came out of the RAF. I went to Churston and I was —
LL: I came out in ’59.
Other: Yeah. No. No. It was later than ’59.
DM: ’69 probably. ’69.
Other: ’69.
LL: Yeah.
Other: Yeah.
DM: So, take you back to 1945.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Why did you decide to stay in the Air Force?
LL: Well, I was, I was a career. I always —
DM: Oh yes. of course you, yes because you joined as a career person when you were seventeen years old. Of course. Yes. Yes.
LL: Yeah. That’s why I became —
DM: So that was always the plan.
LL: That’s why I didn’t go on the pilot’s course, I thought.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Earlier on when we were speaking before we started recording you said that when you, before you joined the Air Force you played Rugby League.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Did you carry on playing rugby through your Air Force career?
LL: Yes. Yes. I played for Cranwell. Yeah. Cranwell Command.
DM: That was Rugby Union.
LL: Rugby Union. Oh, of course.
DM: What position did you play?
LL: Centre.
Other: Eddie Waring was your manager at one time.
LL: That was Dewsbury.
Other: Oh that’s —
LL: That was Rugby League.
DM: That was when you were young man. Yeah.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. And I wasn’t happy in Cyprus. I didn’t feel as though I was getting anywhere. And I wrote to somebody. Anyway, they put me in touch with Barclays Bank and when, when they realised I’d got six honours from Oxford they offered me an immediate job as a first cashier. They said, ‘Where do you want to go?’ And I was mad on sailing because in Cyprus you worked in the mornings and sailed in the afternoon and I was mad on sailing. So I said, ‘I want to go to the seaside.’ So they gave me a choice of three. Anyway, that morning we had to, we were testing our Comet and we flew over Torquay and Paignton and the other one was up on the north coast. Anyway, there was three. But where did we go?
Other: Brixham.
LL: Brixham. Brixham seemed the best to I put in for Brixham. Came down to Brixham and that, moved in to a house and I did ten years.
DM: Always in Brixham.
LL: Pardon?
DM: Always in Brixham.
LL: In Brixham. Yeah. Oh, yes. I was in charge of the bank and that was it. Six years. Until we’d had enough and one day my wife and I were talking and she said, ‘Why don’t we go abroad?’ Anyway, we finished up I retired. We came to Spain and we saw a house half built on the, we arrived on the Sunday, saw the house on the Monday, bought it on the Wednesday [laughs] And in a pub we met a chap who did furnishings and we gave him a cheque. Just gave him a cheque in a pub. Five hundred pounds. And that was June. And we came in September and it was finished, furnished and we were there for ten years. No. Twenty five years.
DM: Whereabouts in Spain was it?
LL: [unclear] which is five or six miles from Malaga. And nothing went wrong with us the whole time. We trusted them, they trusted us and we had a marvellous time until my wife died of heart trouble. And then talked me into coming back out. I was five years by myself but that wasn’t very nice.
DM: In Spain.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Sold it with no trouble. Came back. And that’s it.
DM: Have you kept in touch with the RAF?
LL: Only through the POW. And I got friendly with Charles Clarke, a bloke called Anderson. But there’s not many of us left now. The next reunion is in September I think at Henlow. I shan’t bother. It’s too far to mess around.
Other: We got invited to —
LL: Pardon?
Other: We went to Number 10 though, didn’t we?
LL: Oh, that was that was, yeah. Got especially picked for that. But for the old POW they go to Henlow every year now. They want to stay the weekends. Go in the mess. Too much trouble.
DM: If I can take you right back.
LL: Yes.
DM: To when you were a young.
LL: Please.
DM: Whippersnapper.
LL: Yeah.
DM: Did you have any brothers or sisters?
LL: Sister. Yeah.
DM: And did your dad fight in the First World War do you know?
LL: No.
DM: Serve in the First World War?
LL: No.
DM: He didn’t.
LL: No
DM: So he was the wrong age I guess.
LL: Yes.
DM: So he was one of the lucky ones really.
LL: Yeah. Just worked in a mill.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. Yeah.
DM: What became of your sister?
Other: Your sister was older wasn’t she?
LL: She was a few years older than me. Yeah. When did she die?
Other: She died. Oh, quite a few years ago. She got dementia. Yeah. Very badly.
LL: Yeah.
Other: And was in a home for quite a long time.
LL: Yeah. Yeah.
DM: So, looking back. Do you think, this is probably an unfair question what part of the Air Force was your, was your happiest time?
LL: Oh. Bomber Command before the war. Marvellous.
DM: The flying club era, so to speak. Yeah.
LL: Wonderful. Yeah. Yes. It was wonderful. We were happy all the time but there was no bullshit or anything like that. And it was, it was grand. Yes.
Other: So you used to test the planes then, didn’t you?
LL: Pardon?
Other: You used to test the planes.
LL: Yes. Yes. On my, when I was shot down I was already on my sixth trip and when we formed C Flight, 83 our job was to meet new crews straight from training and take a navigator and a rear gunner, take them up with us for their first trip. So every time I went with my pilot the other two crew were on their first trip. Every time. It was a bit of —
DM: Yeah.
LL: You know. Because we usually, we had so many crashes. We crashed on, the navigator was lost half the time. And after [unclear] one day we crashed on Blackpool Racecourse. We crashed on Shoreham front. We had two bad landings where we wrote the aircraft off. Ran out of petrol. That was the six.
DM: So none of them were pilot error. They were all navigational error and things like that.
LL: Navigation.
DM: Yeah.
LL: Yeah. I used to try and home on places but there were so many other aircraft homing, you know and because as I say when that [unclear] and the tower came up the navigator said, ‘Oh, Blackpool.’
DM: But it was the Eiffel Tower. Yeah.
LL: Yeah. Which I’d flown around in 1938. Below the thing. The celebration of the Bastille.
Other: You flew, you flew through the arch didn’t you?
LL: Pardon?
Other: You flew through the arch.
LL: Oh, that first time. Yeah.
Other: Yeah.
LL: We went around below the tower. Yeah. The three of us.
DM: So to be clear when you were shot down which was on your second tour but the —
LL: Yes.
DM: That Was with a raw crew as well? Was it?
LL: Yeah.
DM: Just you and the pilot —
LL: That’s right.
DM: Were the only two experienced members of the crew.
LL: That’s right.
DM: You were the only experienced member of the crew who survived
LL: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Six trips. We did six trips and each time we had to take a brand new navigator, a brand new air gunner and keep telling them all the way how to climb around, keep looking around out there. It wasn’t very nice but it was a job to be done and we did it. Yeah.
DM: But you must have wondered, why you?
LL: Because we formed the flight, you see.
DM: Yeah.
LL: And with the crew Danny and I, Danny Wilcox, his, his best man when he was married was [pause] I’ve forgotten his name. The bloke who lost his arm in the air force.
Other: There will be a few of those, dad.
LL: Pardon?
Other: There will be a few of those.
LL: Yeah. He was very well known. I can’t remember his name now. But we were together. That was it. Yeah. Because we were all [unclear] captains you see, six months if that.
DM: Did you meet your wife during the war?
LL: No.
DM: After.
LL: No. When I was at Padgate. I’d just, I’d just been commissioned. I was posted to Padgate as officer in charge of closing it for recruits going through Padgate. Which was [unclear] yes. Yes. I left the Air Force ’69. March ’69. That’s the letter from them saying goodbye to me.
DM: So you were in the Air Force for thirty three years.
LL: Thirty seven.
DM: Thirty seven years.
LL: Til ’69. Yeah.
[recording paused]
LL: I always remember when I went, came from Amsterdam to Dulag Luft they were marching me through Amsterdam and a lady came and gave me a medal. The Germans knocked the hell out of her. Yeah. [unclear] concentration camp. Ollmuth Civil Prison. Görlitz. Nixdorf punishment camp. Sagan. [unclear] A bloke called Grimshaw who spoke perfect German and he got out and he fixed something up in the dams, I think. Anyway, the Gestapo got him. Shot him.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Lawrie Lawrence
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Meanwell
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-05-10
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ALawrenceJ170510, PLawrenceJ1701
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:01:26 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Jack ‘Lawrie’ Lawrence planned on making a career in the RAF and joined in 1938. He enjoyed those early days when it felt like he belonged to a flying club. This was interrupted by the start of war and operational flying. He flew in Blenheims and notes they ‘filled the graveyard’ because of the accident rate with the aircraft. He volunteered for a second tour after a spell as an instructor. He was shot down and became a prisoner of war. He swapped identity with a New Zealand soldier so he would be able to volunteer for working parties which would give him the opportunity to escape. He made two attempts but was caught and delivered into the hands of the gestapo. On his last recapture he was held in a cellar before being called out into a garden where he was told he would be executed. He was unexpectedly reprieved and returned to prison. During the Long March he made his last escape and met with Canadians. He and his friends drove a Mercedes to a bridge and they then swapped the car for a camera and continued their journey on foot until they reached freedom.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Poland
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Oberursel
Netherlands--Amsterdam
Poland--Żagań
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1945
83 Squadron
aircrew
Blenheim
Dulag Luft
escaping
Hampden
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Cranwell
RAF Hemswell
shot down
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
the long march
training
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1001/11341/BHiltonPHiltonPv1.2.pdf
4df75a71f26ae98e9ae65a7e04afb7fd
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Joseph, David
D Joseph
Description
An account of the resource
22 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Joseph (1576383, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, log book, memoirs, correspondence and a list of prisoners of war at Stalag Luft 4. He flew operations as a pilot with 76 Squadron from RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor until his aircraft was shot down on 18 March 1944 on an operation to Frankfurt and he became a prisoner of war. The collection also contains a letter to Mrs Ramsay about the loss of her son, Flying Officer Kenneth Ramsay and photographs of his final resting place. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Brian Joseph and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Grant Ramsay is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/223173/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-05-22
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Joseph, D
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Blank front page of booklet]
[Page break]
Written by Paul Hilton.
[Underlined] CHIEFY [/underlined]
On the night of 1st June, 1942, Bomber Command mounted the second of the now famous thousand bomber raids on Germany. The night before, amidst much publicity, we had taken part in the first thousand raid on Cologne, my first as Captain of a 4 engined Halifax.
All 35 Squadron (at Linton-on-Ouse) returned safely that night and we all felt that at last we were doing something positive to help the war effort.
The Germans were somewhat taken by surprise and our overall casualties were low considering the number of aircraft taking part.
On 1st June our target was to be Essen in the Ruhr valley with Krupps as the pinpoint.
Tremendous excitement and enthusiasm was general with ground crews as well as aircrews and we all attended briefing and prepared for the take off with hopes for another successful show.
In due course we were taken to our dispersal point in the usual trucks where we unloaded parachutes, harnesses, charts etc., and duly went through the run up and check procedures. We had air tested our aircraft that morning and everything was still functioning satisfactorily, so in due course form 700 was presented to ne for my signature by the LAC of our ground crew.
I signed and then with all four engines running we started the slow crawl from our dispersal point towards the end of the main runway.
We must have moved about 50 yards when one of the ground crew ran in front of us furiously waving two torches. I pulled up smoothly, strict RT silence of course, and soon someone shouted up through the front escape hatch “return to dispersal.” We managed to turn the heavily laden Halifax and return, where I was told to switch off engines. Flight Sergeant (Chiefy) McKay, a dour little Scot then appeared and told us we had a glycol leak in our port inner engine. How did he know?
[Page break]
- 2 -
He said he could smell it. He had just happened to be walking behind our aircraft when he caught a whiff. No doubt, we couldn’t go.
I was furious, how long to fix it. Not tonight, too bad.
The rest of the Squadron were all taking off and disappearing into a black sky, and soon all was quiet. We trooped back disconsolately to the Sergeants Mess feeling very dejected and sorry for ourselves. Once again, our Squadron operated without loss, only this time we had missed out.
On reflection, however, we would almost certainly have lost that engine either during take off or very soon afterwards and the thought has often gone through my mind, would a 20 year old pilot with just 400 hours in his log book have coped with an aircraft full of fuel and 6,500 lb of HE and incendiary bombs. I know I would have tried a landing had we managed to get airborne, but who knows.
I can’t remember if I thanked “Chiefy” for almost certainly saving us. I don’t think I ever bought him a drink in the Mess. If he is still around I should like to do it sometime. You see we didn’t have much time, we were shot down the next night, so perhaps it didn’t matter much after all.
[Page break]
[Underlined] Gone for a Burton [/underlined]
Early in May 1942 I returned to my old station “Linton on Ouse” in Yorkshire, where I had previously served with 58 Squadron on Whitley Vs. I had been with “58” from October 1941 until they joined Coastal Command at St. Eval in Cornwall early in April 1942. At this point I elected to convert to Halifaxes at “Marston Moor” near York and managed to get posted back to Linton where I joined 35 Squadron.
With 58 I had survived the winter as a second pilot, sitting helplessly in the right hand seat for five operations and in March had successfully completed the customary two “Nursery Trips” as Captain.
During May I was crewed up and together we did a number of cross countries and other details working up towards the big thousand bomber raids starting with Cologne on 30th May.
Both my parents lived in Seremban, Malaya and with the entry of Japan into the war, they had been forced to make their way with other Europeans to the Island Fortress of Singapore. The surrender stunned us all and I had anxiously awaited any news of my parents whereabouts.
I had lived through the winter at Linton and had no illusions as to our chances of survival on Bomber Command. Both 58 and 35 had had their share of losses. Of the course of six pilots at Driffield just after Christmas on a blind approach procedures course, I was by then the only survivor.
Singapore had fallen in February and the chances of either of my parents reaching safety by now seemed somewhat remote but with the complete lack of news there was nevertheless a remote chance that one or the other might still turn up.
I thought in that case, particularly my mother might need some financial assistance which would ultimately be my responsibility. If I was around, I would be able to arrange a dependant’s allowance, but in my absence, this might be a bit difficult.
[Page break]
- 2 -
I decided to seek the advice of the Squadron Accounts Officer and had an interview with the Flying Officer Assistant i/c Accounts. He listened to my unusual story and was obviously at a loss to comment. He was used to straightforward questions with answers neatly tabulated in his little book or covered by the syllabus of his Chartered Accountants examinations and seemed reluctant to pass this on to higher authority. He paused for a while and then at last drew himself up in his chair and with great deliberation said, “Well Sergeant, if you are afraid of going for a Burton, why don’t you make a will?
My total assets, £25 in the Post Office Savings Bank and a broken down Austin 7 in the car park, seemed unlikely to be much help in the support of either parent for any length of time and I felt that further discussion was unlikely to lead anywhere so I thanked him kindly and took my leave.
I intended bringing the matter up with “Welfare”. I believe we had someone in that capacity, or more to the point, Wing Commander Marks or my flight commander, Sq.Ldr. Peveler. I knew either of these two would have raised the roof, but I determined to await an appropriate moment.
I had often wondered what “gong for a burton” was really like and very soon on the night of 2nd June I found out.
Incidentally, neither of my parents were in need of any help I could have given them. My father stayed the whole time in Changi Jail, Singapore, but Mother nearly made it. She was on board one of the last ships to leave Singapore, the “Vyner Brook”, a small coastal steamer loaded with refugees which was bombed off the south east coast of Sumatra. Mostly women and children, they were all interned in camps at “MuntoK” and “Palembang” where more than half of them, including my mother, succumbed to the rigours of malnutrition and tropical diseases.
Bomber Command crews had a slim chance of survival whilst actually flying but once we became “Kriegies” (POWs), thanks to a comparatively civilised enemy and thank God also for the Red Cross, most of us lived to tell the tale.
[Page break]
[Underlined] Curse my luck. [/underlined]
Not many of us fighting on the Allied side ever thought we would welcome the sight of advancing German troops. In my case, I reckon they arrived just in time to save my life.
I was pilot of a “Halifax” returning from a raid on Essen in the Ruhr valley on the night of 2nd June, 1942 when we were unfortunately jumped by three JU 88 night fighters. It was a clear night with a full moon, our exhaust flames must have been clearly visible for a considerable distance and the fighters soon made short shrift of both our inner engines. Our two gunners put up a spirited fight despite the unequal battle between out 303 rifle bullets and the enemy’s canon fire, but the action was inexplicably broken off, leaving us limping homewards on our two outer engines.
We were just sorting ourselves out when alas our starboard outer developed an internal glycol leak, whether it was overstressed or due to enemy action we shall never know, but this meant the end and I had to give the inevitable order, “Bail Out”.
We were a bit low by then and when my turn came, the thought of ditching on what looked like a patch of swamp or water seemed my best chance. I turned off course towards this area but very soon found this to be ground mist obscuring a row of trees and some houses. Too late, I was on the point of a stall and mushed into a house. The starboard wing was ripped off at the root and the remainder of the aircraft spun around in a flat cartwheel through 180 degrees. I was in fact thrown backwards in my seat.
I must have been unconscious for a second or so as when I came round, the port outer engine had just caught fire. I then had a violent struggle with the escape hatch over my seat. It moved at last and then I managed to crawl out onto the top of the fuselage and jump down onto the port wing. The dinghy was inflating and I just had enough presence of mind to grab the package of iron rations as I passed.
[Page break]
- 2 -
My first reaction was to get clear as quickly as possible, there were still several hundred gallons of high octane too close to the burning engine, so I started running towards the cover of the trees I could see almost alongside in the moonlight.
I ran between two of them and was just about to go along the road that they were bordering when there was a piercing scream of “Halt” from right behind me. Almost immediately I was prodded with a viscious [sic] jab from a rifle muzzle in the small of my back.
A terrified lone German sentry had just escaped being hit by the Halifax which by now was nicely ablaze and too darned close for safety. My captor didn’t seem to be aware of our imminent danger and continued prodding and screaming in a hysterical manner. I wondered where his trigger finger was. The safety catch would certainly be off and guns, I was always taught, were dangerous and shouldn’t on principle ever be pointed at anyone. My greatest fear was that he would let the darned thing off by accident. He was so excited that anything could happen. He might do it on purpose, “The Englishman started to run”, no one would disbelieve him. Perhaps his family had been bombed in Cologne three nights before. Such thoughts raced through my mind. The fire was getting hold of the port wing and I knew all those gallons of high octane were bound to go up at any moment. Any minor explosion would make him jump and pull the trigger inadvertently. The prodding and screaming continued, how long could this last, my all too short twenty years seemed almost over. A pity, I had so much to experience and done so little. This was the moment of truth. I felt so helpless and had no control of the situation and this was when I really knew what fear was. I was hot but the sweat running down my back was cold. A minor bang, one of the outer wing tanks had blown up and another prod. I was still there, but how long could this go on. Suddenly a torch shone in the distance and I heard some shouts and saw another torch. Fortunately my sterical [sic] captor saw and heard them too, and the tension began slowly to ease, eventually after what seemed an eternity, I was surrounded and someone had the sense to move us all away to a safer distance. Just in time, the main wing tanks went up with a muffled roar and we could all feel the blast of heat. My original captor melted into the background. I never even saw him but could hear his excited story being related in the distance.
[Page break]
- 3 -
I stood for a while with my liberators and we watched the remains of the Halifax burning furiously. A fearsome sight, one I hope never to get too close to. I remember one of the troops found my parachute harness and “Mae West” life jacket which I had dumped in the field in my haste and I was then led off to the local barracks. I was later to find out this was in St. Leonard near Brecht in Belgium, right in the middle of an intense curfew area, literally crawling with German troops.
I was taken inside and led to a standard German army double tier bunk bed, complete with wood wool palliasse, a type I was to get to know so well over the next three years. I suppose I must have been suffering from a certain amount of shock as I lay down, boots and all and went out like a light.
I didn’t have time to curse my luck at having been shot down, but later I came to realise that far from being unlucky I had in fact survived a whole succession of miracles in the short space of less than half an hour.
[Page break]
[Underlined] FOR YOU THE WAR IS OVER [/underlined]
By now we were some way inside Germany en route from Cologne to Frankfurt in a corridor type railway coach. We were free to wander along to the toilet and our three guards had completely relaxed. They undid their belts and left their revolvers lying on the seats. After one visit to the toilet I actually sat for some time on one of these weapons and only moved off because it was somewhat uncomfortable.
I was dressed in the usual clothing, battledress, submarine sweater and, of course, the inevitable flying boots, the old green canvas type, fur lined, in which one shuffled along as if wearing oversized carpet slippers. The thought of being able to walk any distance, let alone run from a train in broad daylight, was quite out of the question.
When first captured in Belgium the story was quite different. I was pounced upon within minutes of stepping from the blazing wreckage of the Halifax, and the local German army unit and the Feldgendarmarie kept a very close watch on my every movement. They handed me over to the Luftwaffe in Antwerp airport who continued the process. Sitting on a toilet seat looking at a jackboot keeping the door open is an unforgettable experience and quite puts one off the job in hand.
Our guards on the train were flying types, one Feldwebel (Sergeant) and two Obergefreighters (sort of Corporals). One spoke a little French and with him I tried to carry on something of a conversation. I learned he was a Navigator and had recently seen service on the eastern front. He and his comrades would get a couple of days leave near home after escorting us to Dulag Luft, the reception and interrogation centre at Frankfurt.
The time was early June 1942. The Germans were at the height of their success. Tobruk had recently fallen and their troops were at their furthest points in the Caucasus. Our position was not encouraging. Singapore had
[Page break]
- 2 -
fallen only four months previously, but we still endeavoured to keep up the appearance of high spirits, even though we knew we were in for a long wait. Sooner or later the obvious remark had to come. My navigator friend grinned from ear to ear and said, “For you the war is over”. I smiled back and said, “Yes, aren’t we lucky, but for you it has not yet started.”
[Page break]
[Underlined] GOOD APPETITE [/underlined]
We always called him Cyril. This wasn’t his real name but that of the chap with whom he had swopped identities. I was one of the large mob of new Kriegies brought in to Luft 3 Sagan just after the thousand bomber raids on Cologne and Essen in May and June 1942. We were housed in 39 and 40 Blocks, but somehow a few old Kriegies from Lamsdorf, the big Army Stalag, had been pushed in with us. Most of the batch from Lamsdorf were swop overs.
When Goering decided to bring all the RAF Kriegies together at Sagan, quite a mixed bag was collected and Cyril was one of these. What his real name was I have quite forgotten. It was unpronounceable. He was from Israel, ‘Palestine’ in those days, and he had served in the British Army, Military Police I think, and was captured in Greece. I believe he was born in Riga but had emigrated to Palestine when quite young. He already spoke a number of languages, Russian, Polish, German, French and, of course, Hebrew and Yiddish. Only English seemed to have escaped him and so, finding himself among British soldiers was a blessing in disguise. He soon set about the task of learning the best of English with all the necessary Anglo-Saxon descriptive adjectives. When I knew him these were apt to get somewhat out of context, especially when he got excited, with comic results.
I an effort to learn better English he decided to swop identity with an RAF navigator. As a private soldier he had to go out on working parties and at Lamsdorf many RAF sergeants swopped over to get out of the camp with the obvious possibilities of escape.
At Sagan, Cyril made the best [sic] use of the library, such as it was, and was soon one of the best read among us. I was also trying to learn German and Cyril was always a great help. He had a great sense of humour and was able to tell a joke against himself.
[Page break]
- 2 -
English, it would appear, is about the only language that does not have an expression equivalent to “Bon Appetite” or “Guten Apetit”. We only have “Cheers” or “Bung Ho”, or some other equally fatuous expression before we drink, but, alas, nothing before we eat. Whilst in his early days at Lamsdorf, Cyril was endeavouring to say the right thing to his British Army comrades and one day noticed one of his friends just about to start on a bowl of soup. He quite naturally made a literal translation of “Bon Appetite” and said, “Good appetite my friend”. His friend stopped short, looked up and said, “What do you mean ‘Good Appetite’? Of course I have a ****ing good appetite!”
[Page break]
[Underlined] 40 HOMMES 8 CHEVAUX [/underlined]
It would be interesting to know just how many thousands, nay, millions, of troops, prisoners, internees and others have travelled, some on their last journeys, in this famous four wheeled French rail wagon in both the last two wars. I can well remember our trips from Heydekrug (East Prussia) to Thorn and later from Thorn to Fallingbostel during the summer of 1944.
The side doors were opened wide and each end was crossed off with barbed wire spread over wooden frames. A small door or gate was built in for access.
Three guards occupied the central area, about one third in total, and 24 prisoners were confined to each end. Space was somewhat limited and we all lay heads to the outside with a pile of feet in the middle. No toilets were provided. On long trips prisoners had to wait until the train stopped and were then allowed out in batches to operate in the countryside. The two trips I remember were relatively short and there were no stops for calls of nature, however, during daylight we were allowed singly to come through our little holes in the wire and pass water along the line through the side door, hanging on to the vertical rail on the side of the wagon.
I recall the journey from Thorn to Fallingbostel was by night and at first light the queue started. This became a verbal process among us and my turn was some way down the line, by which time I was nearly desperate and had built up a good head of steam. At last it came and I scrambled through the hole and clung on to the vertical rail with my right hand, with my left I feverishly undid the remaining metal trouser buttons (they were always popping off, no zips in those days), and started literally groaning with relief.
At this point or shortly before, the train had been slowing up and to my horror (I was still a bit embarrassed), I saw that we were slowly approaching a level crossing on the outskirts of a German village. About
[Page break]
- 2 -
thirty citizens of Hitler’s Reich were patiently waiting to cross and I passed slowly by, just out of reach, still in full spate.
I noticed no reaction from my hosts, so I can only assume that they were used to being shown respect by their captives in this manner. Needless to say, my embarrassment soon passed and I enjoyed my unique point of vantage. I even had an almost uncontrollable urge to give a Nazi salute which I thought would be appropriate, but of course, my right hand was fully occupied in holding on to the rail at the side of the door. A pity, I felt this would have completed the performance.
[Page break]
[Underlined] “Welche Nummer” [/underlined] (What Number)
There are few more morale shattering sounds than that of a heavy cell door shutting behind you and the bolt going clonk in the lock. There is something positive and very final about it and it gives one a feeling of complete helplessness. There you are, it’s no good banging on the door, no one will take any notice.
It was early autumn 1943 in Stalaf [sic] Luft 6 Heydekrug in East Prussia near the Baltic coast. One particular morning an unusual number of ‘Ferrets’ (security troops) in dark blue overalls with all their tools had descended on our barrack block. They were proceeding to turf us out and to tear the place apart. I don’t know what they were looking for, a tunnel perhaps, but they meant business. In the initial confusion we were all milling around and I happened to be close to a table where a lot of the tools had been laid, hammers, crowbars, jemmys, saws, screwdrivers and a large pair of pliers. I took a fancy to the pliers and when no one was looking they quickly disappeared into my trousers pocket. Unfortunately, when I grabbed them they were open and in my haste they clicked shut. One of the Ferrets heard this, looked round and started asking his friends whether any of them had picked up his pliers. I took this as a cue to get lost and started to saunter out of the block. I looked for anyone I knew to off load but before I could get a dozen paces away out of the door I was grabbed and hauled up before the security officer, Major Peschel. He growled something which I suppose meant “Lock him up”, and there I was in the so called “Cooler”.
The cell was six feet wide and nine feet long. It had a double bunk bed with a complete set of boards but no palliasse, a stool and a metal jug for water. The tiny barred window had a “Lichtfanger, a wooden partition on the outside allowing a view of sky or a small area immediately beneath the window.
I sat down on the stool for a while to assess the situation. I was there for I knew not how long, so I supposed I had better make the best of it. I was allowed to send a note into the camp for a few things,
[Page break]
- 2 -
tooth brush, razor, knife, fork and spoon, and a couple of books. One was a German Grammar which I was steadily ploughing through. Now here was a chance, I could really get some useful work done and might even get some help from my jailers.
There were about half a dozen other inmates in the twelve cells and one soon learned how to make contact and to know the ‘drill’ or mode of life. The legendary W/O John Snowdon was already there doing one of his numerous stretches, so advice was readily available.
The cooler was a rectangular building with only one entrance. The guard room was just inside the door. A corridor with six cells on either side had a toilet at the far end. I forget what type and a fire bucket of sand near the toilet served as a post box. Only one inmate was allowed out at any one time apart from the half hour daily exercise when we walked around in a large circle, well spaced apart.
When you wanted to visit the toilet you knocked on your door. The duty guard would come out of the guardroom and shout “Welche Nummer” to which you had to reply (in German of course) the number of your cell. In my case “Sieben Bitte” (seven please). He would then say “Komme sofort” (coming) and go back and fetch the key to your cell. He would then have to hang around while you operated, no doors or partitions, and when complete lead you back to your cell and by then someone else might be waiting to take their turn.
The cooler was outside the main compound but in the so called “Vorlager” an outer area but still within the main outer barbed wire fence. Our own medical officer had pronounced the cooler water unfit to drink so we had to have bottled water from the main camp cook house. To this was added milk and sugar and tea or coffee. It was understood that the guards helped themselves which was allowed for at the cookhouse. Food was another problem. We were supposed to be on bread and water with one day of normal food in every three. Sometimes if the guards were willing. A prisoner on his good day would be sent in enough food to feed the others as well. It depended on the guards. There were two shifts of 24 hours each with an “Unterofficier” (Corporal) and two or three men.
[Page break]
- 3 -
One of these shifts I remember well. We didn’t see much of the Corporal, but I got to know “Bruno”, a thick set chap with closely curled hair and “Franz”, a tall, gangling, untidy type with spectacles somewhat out of line. He had no pretensions as a soldier. It wasn’t for the sake of cigarettes or any other form of bribery but Franz and Bruno both wanted a quiet life and seemed to respond to common courtesy. Impatient inmates who shouted abuse and banged on their cell doors generally had to wait while those of us who “cottoned on” got the best service, or at least the best of what was going. As I was trying to learn German I was soon learning all the best polite phrases and making good progress through my grammar book.
As the cooler emptied somewhat (the population was always fluctuating), the service improved. We dropped to about three inmates and by then Franz used to knock on my cell door first thing in the morning and I would say “Come in” and Franz would hand me my coffee in bed. With a cheerful “Guten Morgen Herr Hilton” we would converse for a while, any news, the weather etc. We both seemed to know instinctively that this was the sensible way to behave. It cost nothing and generally made the best of a bad job. We were not alone in this. At another time in the same cooler I heard tell of a German guard trying to learn English who was taught to say “Good morning, Sir. Your coffee, Sir.” I never managed that, but to both Franz and Bruno I was always Herr Hilton, even though they were both considerably older than I. But alas, all good things come to an end. One night the Heydekrug tunnel broke and unfortunately only five or six managed to get away, the remaining thirty odd being dug out and pushed straight into the cooler with us.
Chaos reigned for a day with up to four to a cell until all were documented and the majority sent back to the main camp to await their turn for the customary sentence of fourteen days.
For the rest of my time in the cooler we stayed two to a cell. No more coffee in bed and I was now subjected to a companion who talked incessantly.
One had to wait ones turn, quite a long time on occasion, for the inevitable trip to the toilet. On one of these poor Franz quietly apologised to me for the deterioration in the service, but hoped I would understand.
[Page break]
[Underlined] The Hero’s Return [/underlined]
Appearances do seem to have a marked effect upon the way one is treated through life and the healthy, robust figure usually commands respect. The invalid or under-nourished, on the other hand, has often to struggle to keep his place in society and to attract any attention.
I had just returned from Germany after three years as a P.O.W. I was one of the first batch to be released and we had gone through the RAF reception depot at Cosford rather before they were ready for us. Although they had done a surprisingly good job, they had nevertheless omitted to order enough badges of rank so the first of us, mostly Warrant Officers due to automatic promotion, were sent home on leave in Airmen’s tunics and greatcoats with no badges on our sleeves. Not that we cared much for that but these things seem to make a difference in a somewhat class conscious society.
I was released early in April 1945. Most of our camp were marched eastwards towards the River Elbe, but because I had spent most of the winter in our camp hospital with a chronic form of bronchitis and a bout of pneumonia thrown in, I was left behind in our camp hospital. My 6ft. 2 inch bone structure was carrying an all up weight of about eight stone with a “Belsen Horror” like expression to match. RAF Cosford clothing stores had done their best, but I was never an easy one to fit anyway.
I left Cosford on leave with new kit but also as much of my old kit as I could manage to salvage which had survived the delouser. I think we were done at least three times, clothes and all. DDT was squirted up sleeves and trousers with reckless abandon until I was quite raw in many sweaty and tender areas.
I passed through London and deposited my considerable collection of kit at the Services left luggage office on Victoria Station. I wanted to visit the hairdresser in the catacomb under the station. A haircut was long overdue, “these things were important then”.
[Page break]
- 2 -
I settled in the chair for the first proper haircut for some considerable time. I thought that this was also a special occasion and I would be having to kiss a number of female relatives within the next two hours or so, so on completion of the haircut I suggested a shave. The barber stroked my 23 year old chin contemptuously with the back of his hand and said, “You don’t need a bloody shave.”
To this day I have still never had a shave at a barber’s.
I crept back to the left luggage office and started to load up my two kit bags and haversack only to hear a loud Australian voice, which could be heard halfway across the station, “Why don’t you hang your ( ) out mate”, a well known coarse service expression meaning if you load up like a horse why not dress like one.
In the compartment of the train to Haywards Heath I was obliged to listen to the sad tale told by an ATC officer of a young clerk who had recently been jailed for masquerading as a Wing Commander, complete with DSO’s, DFC’s etc., and who had given thrilling lectures to factory workers and ATC squadrons. It was considered by all to be a huge joke and such a pity the poor lad was jailed. The authorities certainly lacked a sense of humour.
I am afraid I couldn’t comment. I had known too many real ones, mostly now dead, and if anything I felt sick. I crouched further into my featureless greatcoat and when we arrived at Haywards Heath I loaded myself up again like a horse and crept quietly home.
[Page break]
[Underlined] CORNED BEEF [/underlined]
I had just arrived back from Germany and was unpacking my kit. Apart from being equipped with new clothing from Cosford, a specially organised reception centre for ex-POWs, my belongings were meagre. I had a half kit bag of new gear and a small army rucksack which I had acquired just before leaving Thorn the previous August.
I took out the few items brought from Germany, tin mug, fork and spoon, toothbrush etc., and a small tin, 1/2lb I believe, of Corned Beef. I can’t remember when I first got hold of this tin, sometime during the last autumn when Red Cross stocks were still available. These petered out during the winter and we had been subject to very small issues for some time, leaving us on German non-working civilian daily rations, i.e. 400 gm bread, margarine and jam to cover this, and about 1/2 litre thin swede soup (pea soup Sundays).
Being a careful sort of chap I usually had a few odd bits left over, a small tin of jam but not much else. Once opened, a tin of meat had to be eaten and I had managed to hold on to the corned beef for the last emergency. I remember eating one in the cattle truck ride from Thorn to Fallingbostel, digging the meat out with my pocket knife and gnawing at a piece of hard bread. My reactions were to do that again, but I then thought ‘Why, here I am back home in civilisation, I can’t behave like that now’, so I took the tin downstairs to the kitchen and handed it to my aunt.
I was staying with my father’s two sisters, one was married with a daughter a little older than myself. Despite the war time shortages, my relatives always kept up appearances and did their best to live in proper style. The next lunch time was no exception.
The highly polished dining room table was, as usual, set with place mats and lace doilies. The sub [sic] shone on the cut flower vase and the two sparkling cruets. Each place set with two, or was it three, knives, forks,
[Page break]
serviettes in silver rings, the lot. Salad was the order of the day with the usual salad creams, vinegar etc., and then, somewhat to my surprise, a large plate was produced upon which stood in solemn state, a small naked piece of corned beef. My long treasured tin had been breached at last.
My uncle, an engineer, took great pride in his ability to carve and was always meticulous in the sharpening process. I remember this day he paid particular attention to a long corrugated knife which he then used with great dexterity on the tiny lump of corned beef. Wafer thin slices soon started to fall to one side and at last these were dealt out rather like cards.
At this point my cousin came into the room and exclaimed, “Corned beef, Mummy! Where did you get that?”. “Paul brought it”, was the prompt reply. Here my other aunt joined in, an ex-nursing sister and sometime deputy matron with a voice and manner to match, “Paul brought it! Good heavens, we haven’t seen corned beef for months.”
Like most ex-POWs I was suffering from so called “withdrawal symptoms” and I was quite unable to add anything to the conversation. My throat contracted and it was some time before I was able to swallow. My thoughts at this point were ‘What’s the use.’ I soon forgot this incident and only remembered it about ten years later when I was able to regard it with some humour.
[Page break]
[Blank back sheet of booklet]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Flying Stories by Paul Hilton
Description
An account of the resource
Nine accounts of flying activities during the war.
Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.
'David Joseph's son Brian met Paul Hilton in the 1980's through work, and he was wearing a prisoner of war tie. In conversation it became clear that Paul had some common experiences with David's, and a meeting was arranged. They had been in the same camps and on some of the same forced marches, had many common memories, but had never previously met.'
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Paul Hilton
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
20 typewritten sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Essen
Belgium
Belgium--Antwerp
Poland--Toruń
Lithuania--Šilutė
Germany
Lithuania
Poland
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BHiltonPHiltonPv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
35 Squadron
58 Squadron
bombing
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
dispersal
displaced person
Dulag Luft
fear
ground crew
Halifax
Ju 88
prisoner of war
RAF Cosford
RAF Driffield
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Marston Moor
Red Cross
sanitation
shot down
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17112/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-03.1.pdf
bc36af3388bfb1480d3997730ad3fd96
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Prisoner of War
[symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES'S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1 [symbol]
Vol 3. No. 36. Free to Next of Kin April, 1945
The Editor Writes –
THERE is god news regarding the distribution of supplies from Switzerland to camps in different parts of Germany to which prisoners from eastern Germany have been sent. Fifty railway wagons, 48 with food and two with medical supplies, which left Switzerland for the neighbourhood of Moosburg, some distance north of Munich, have reached their destination and supplies are being distributed from there by lorry to British and United States prisoners of war in the vicinity.
Supplies by Road
Eighteen lorries which crossed the Swiss frontier into Germany for Northern Czechoslovakia have reached their destination and distributed food parcels to some 18,000 British and United State prisoners of war in the Eger, Prague, Marienbad and Carlsbad areas. An extra 100 lorries are available in Switzerland for use as opportunity offers.
In the north at Lubeck, two large lorries already in use by the I.R.C.C. have been supplied with petrol and oil and it is hoped to obtain further lorries for use in this area from Sweden.
Ex-Prisoners at Odessa
Various estimates have been made unofficially of the total number of prisoners of war released by the Russians, but the only information that has been verified is that which has been given in reply to questions in the House of Commons. On March 6th Sir James Grigg announced that the arrival of 14 officers and 464 other ranks at the transit camp at Odessa had been reported by our Military Mission in Moscow, and on March 9th Mr. Arthur Henderson, Financial Secretary to the War Office, in answer to a request for information about the 2,600 prisoners reported on their way to Odessa, replied that no further information had been received. Sir James Grigg has, however, given an assurance that he will give all the information he receives.
The advancing armies in the West are also overrunning prisoners of war camps, and one report speaks of 3,000 Allied soldiers, liberated from Krefeld, but there has as yet been no official confirmation of this report.
Exchange of Prisoners
Negotiations for the exchange of British and German able-bodied prisoners have not yet been completed but if they are successful the proposed scheme may well affect a considerable number of British and Commonwealth prisoners, captured before July 1st 1940. But, lest too high hopes are raised, I must emphasise that the whole matter is still in the preliminary stages. During this war most of the prisoners exchanged have been gravely wounded men and non-combatants covered by the Geneva Convention of 1929, and the present negotiations are the first for an exchange in which the prisoners involved would be active and physically fit men.
Six British Red Cross welfare workers are waiting at a northern port ready to embark for Sweden.
As I write, approximately 800 Britons, Turks, Portuguese and Argentines have arrived in England in the repatriation ship [italics] Drotningholm [/italics] for an exchange of German civilians.
[photograph]
OFF TO SWEDEN. Officers of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John, bound for Sweden to look after British repatriated prisoners, take leave of Colonel Montague Brown at Red Cross Headquarters in London.
Leave for Repatriates
Repatriated prisoners of war are given 42 days' leave as soon as they are fit to go to their homes after arrival in this country. They are able to obtain ration cards, vouchers for handkerchiefs and Naafi ration of chocolates, cigarettes and tobacco. Arrangements are also made for them to be placed on the Service register as electors.
This was officially stated in the House of Commons
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
last month when it was also announced that if an ex-prisoner on leaving hospital is discharged from the Army on medical grounds he is given not 42 but 56 days' leave.
New Arrangements
Repatriates receive this amount of leave only if they are not subject to the new arrangements for members of the Forces. That is, if their in-patient treatment in a Service or E.M.S. hospital is not complete, they will not be discharged from the Services until at least eight calendar months, including 56 days' notice leave have elapsed from the date of their first absence from duty through illness. The new rule does not apply to patients such as those suffering from tuberculosis, once they have been transferred to civil sanatoria. Nor will it shorten any longer period of retention in the Service now allowed under normal regulations.
Tribute to Medical Officer
A prisoner in Stalag 383 who has been suffering from a badly septic hand has written home praising enthusiastically the British medical officer who has been attending to him in hospital. Of his time in hospital he says: “Of course, I've had a lot of pain and it made me ill, but, oh, the treat to be in this quiet room (only four men with me) after years in the crowded Stalags and to be out of the bitter cold. We get a little more food in here too, and I'm afraid that means a great deal to all of us now.” Like many other prisoners, he spends a lot of his time studying, and goes on: “I have had to give up my Spanish studies as I find that two subjects will be as much as I can cope with before next summer, as the standard is, of course, much higher than matriculation. My period of study for European history is 1500-1914, which is a big undertaking. My Polish teacher is now one of my closest friends. He is very fond of music and we go to a lot of gramophone recitals together. I hope I can show him a little hospitality after the war, in England, before he returns to his own country.”
Contents of Food Parcels
It has been announced that from the beginning of April food parcels for prisoners of war will each contain 8 oz. of butter. Up to the present time 54 per cent. contained butter and the rest margarine. In future no more margarine will be sent.
May I call the attention of next of kin to the important announcement from the G.P.O. about parcels which appears on page 16.
[photograph]
INDOOR MEETING. Men at Stalag IVB meet together in one of the camp huts.
Camp Hospital Conditions
I am grateful to a repatriated prisoner for information about conditions in the tuberculosis camp hospital at Reserve Lazaret 742, Elsterhorst. He wrote to the parents of a staff-sergeant who is official interpreter at the hospital and camp: “I was a prisoner at Lazaret 742 for six months, where I was able to see the splendid work your son is doing. He runs the administration of the whole place, and runs it very well indeed.” The food and living conditions, he added, were much better than in the ordinary prison camps.
A Rifleman's Violin
A rifleman in Stalag IVC had a very agreeable surprise last November, when he received his violin. It had been sent off to him two years before by his wife. Writing to Red Cross telling the story, she says: “It had been to Italy and followed him to Germany. I felt you would be interested to know this, as I brought the violin up to St. James's myself and your organisation packed it and sent it off for me. It says much for the way it was packed, for it arrived quite intact and my husband was able to play it at once.”
Lucky Reunion
By a chance in a thousand, a captain captured in Normandy found to his amazement, on arrival at Oflag 79 that his elder brother was in the camp. His brother, who has been a prisoner for about three years, was captured in Egypt, had been a prisoner in Italy and in several camps in Germany as well. Sheer coincidence brought them to the same camp. In brotherly fashion, the captain writes: “Try as hard as I can, I can detect neither mental nor physical difference in him, there isn't any. Neither fatter than he was nor thinner; neither older nor younger, in looks or in manner. Take it or leave it, Olly is Olly, and if anything a bit more so... so far I have been unable to do anything at all except talk and talk and talk to Olly.”
Repatriate's Tribute
I much appreciated a letter sent me by a private recently repatriated from Switzerland. “Without your marvellous organisation,” he wrote, “it would have been just a horrid existence.” He added that since he had been home he had derived a lot of pleasure from reading [italics] The Prisoner of War. [/italics] “They must have proved a big help during that worrying time.” He enclosed a donation with his letter, writing: “May I help others who are still behind the confines of the prison camps even as others helped me whilst I was in the same position?” A letter received from an officer in Oflag VIIB shows that those who are still prisoners are hearing news of repatriated prisoners. He writes: “I knew a number of officers from here who have been repatriated, and we sometimes hear from previous repatriates. They seem to have ample rations, petrol, clothing coupons, etc., given them on arrival.”
Food for Body and Mind
Over 28,000,000 Red Cross parcels of food and invalid comforts and over 1,000,000 next-of-kin parcels have been sent to British prisoners of war and internees in European prison camps since the beginning of the war. But it must not be forgotten that while the greater number of food parcels are packed in England, all the Dominions, and the British communities in the Argentine and Brazil contribute to the work either by packing, by financial aid, or by provision of bulk food, for which a parcel equivalent is included in the figure above. In addition many thousands of pounds have been spent by the Red Cross on sending to the prisoners about 500,000 books of every kind needed for education or recreation, on music and musical instruments, indoor games and outdoor sports equipment. Not only the body, but also the mind of the prisoner of war has been kept fit and healthy.
[inserted] HAVE YOU MOVED?
If so, do not forget to notify the Army, Navy or R.A.F. authorities as well as the Red Cross of your change of address. [/inserted]
[page break]
April, 1945 The Prisoner of War 3
Released by the Russians
[photograph]
Russian seamen at Odessa watch the ships depart.
(By courtesy of “Soviet War News”)
RELEASED by the Russians during their swift advance into Eastern Germany, 400 British prisoners of war are, at the time of writing, on their way home to the United Kingdom. They form an advance party which will be followed by others, bringing an even larger numbers of freed captives back to those who have waited so long for their return. The majority of these men come from camps near Torun, Stalags XXA and XXB.
A second shipload of repatriates follows closely in the wake of the first.
Upon arrival in the United Kingdom they will receive 42 days' home leave, after which they will attend a medical board. Then, depending on their state of health, they will either return to their units for a course of training in the United Kingdom, or receive the hospital treatment which has been prescribed.
Three Welfare Officers of the British Red Cross and St. John War Organisation passed through Moscow, where a special British staff is now established to contact released British p.o.w.s, on their way to Odessa.
Other Red Cross personnel plan to join those now in Russia, and together they hope to set up a semi-permanent depot at Odessa, with supplies of Red Cross comforts sufficient for 10,000 men.
These comforts include books, games, tobacco, cigarettes, soap and other toilet requisites, handkerchiefs, gramophones with recordings of E.N.S.A. shows etc. Food, clothing and medical supplies are also being sent to supplement those provided by our Russian allies.
Special consignments of tea, milk, sugar and biscuits will be available to repatriates during the journey home, so that they may enjoy “elevenses.”
More Are Coming
Almost every day trains draw into Odessa, chief southern port of Russia, bringing prisoners rescued by the Red Army – British, American, French, etc. – a great many of them civilians freed from internment camps.
When they reach this old fortified city of the Ukraine, built by the Empress Catherine in 1784-1792, and now badly damaged in the war, British p.o.w.s are taken to warm and spacious quarters in large buildings adapted as rest homes, where hot baths and excellent food are provided. Worn uniforms and ragged underclothes are exchanged for new outfits, comprising great-coats, battle-dresses, and warm underwear. New badges of rank and medal ribbons are issued to those entitled to wear them.
“See you in Berlin”
Various entertainments have been arranged to fill in the days of waiting until ships can take the men home.
Winter in the Ukraine is both longer and colder than in Western Europe. In January the temperature is much the same as in Stockholm at that time of year, whilst in July it is on a par to that experienced in Madrid.
As the first repatriate ship, a luxury liner of pre-war days, weighed anchor with her load of excited, happy men, someone shouted to the crowd of Russians watching from the quayside: “Thanks for everything. See you again soon, in Berlin.”
The remark brought a thunderous reply from the Russians – “Da da” (Yes, yes) roared back from a dozen throats.
Ex-Internees Welcomed Home
[photograph]
Homeward bound internees leave Liebenau camp.
AFTER years of internment, between two and three hundred British civilians, men, women and children, have been released from the German camps of Biberach, Wurzach, Liebenau and Ilag VII.
The large majority of those freed are Channel Islanders, who were forcibly deported from their homes by the Nazis in September, 1942.
A number of medical cases with their families were included in the draft. Fourteen men who joined this repatriation had been scheduled to join a previous one, but were held up in Sweden at the last minute. They had been detained at the request of the German Government when the total number of British to be exchanged was found to exceed that of the German.
Help and Gifts
At the port of embarkation at Gothenburg, in Sweden, and during the homeward voyage in the [italics] Drottningholm, [/italics] the Swedish Red Cross looked after the comfort and welfare of the repatriates. When they reached the United Kingdom they were met by officers of the British Red Cross, who gave them every assistance in addition to dispensing gifts of chocolates, cigarettes and newspapers. Warm clothing costing up to £10 per head had been provided by the British Red Cross, through their Swedish colleagues, to each ex-internee before sailing.
The Ministry of Health is responsible for all arrangements made for the reception of British civilians released from enemy hands. There are excellent hostels provided at the port of disembarkation, where those requiring temporary accommodation may stay.
Previous repatriations took place in January, 1942, October, 1943, and August and September, 1944.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
[picture] [picture]
The Brighter Side
[inserted] Most of the paragraphs on this page refer to activities in the big base camps and it should not be assumed that they are typical of conditions in all camps or in outlying working detachments where facilities for sport and amusement are much fewer. [/inserted]
Pantomime programme at Marlag und Milag Nord.
FEW camps have put on a more impressive selection of shows than Marlag und Milag Nord. [italics] Bandwaggon and Marlag Coons [/italics] are among the regular features. Such well-known plays as [italics] French Without Tears, Hobson's Choice, and The Importance of Being Earnest [/italics] have been produced; while Gilbert and Sullivan have been well represented with [italics] H.M.S. Pinafore, The Gondoliers and Pirates of Penzance. [/italics] Pantomimes are regular favourites and the men have produced [italics] Aladdin, Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe and Dick Whittington. [/italics]
Their skill in reproducing all of the atmosphere of a West End show is shown by the front and back covers of the programme devised for [italics] Dick Whittington, [/italics] which was written and produced by one of the prisoners. There were three acts of two scenes each and music by Mac and his Grand Pantomime Orchestra. The cast consisted of 25, with a chorus of ten villagers and eight “rats.”
On New Year's Eve the Merchant Navy arranged a Fancy Dress Ball with some of the prisoners dressed up as girls, and had an excellent entertainment.
Hogmanay Dinner
A prisoner in Stalag IVC writes of the New Year celebrations in the camp: “Two of my pals, being Jocks, they insisted that at New Year we should have a real Hogmanay Dinner. One chap, a sign-writer, did some excellent painting of seasonal greetings, decorated the room and gave it a really cheerful and cosy appearance. Three of us did the cooking and 18 sat down to dinner.” Afterwards they had impromptu turns and a sing-song accompanied by an accordion and guitar, and finally finished up with a supper.
In the same camp they recently put on the sketch [italics] The Monkey's Paw. [/italics] It was originally intended to produce it as an “eerie hair-raising drama,” but as things were rather hectic they eventually put it on unrehearsed as a farce, rather, it appears, to the despair of the promoter. Still, the audience got plenty of good laughs.
High Opinion of Shakespeare
They have a very high opinion of Shakespeare in another camp, where [italics] The Comedy of Errors [/italics] is halfway through its run. It is being played as a sort of pantomime farce, with song and dance, bright colours and red noses, and one prisoner writes: “I think the audience enjoy it, but they can't get over an almost religious respect for William Shakespeare; they sit and chuckle, refuse to applaud the songs and afterwards tell one that they are coming to see it twice more. Very odd . . .”
On Tour
A corporal from Stalag 344E3 has written home to say that he is now at an entirely new place, 600 miles from his own camp. It appears that he is out on tour with one of their shows, [italics] Night Must Fall, [/italics] which they are playing to prisoners who are not able to put on shows of their own. He added: “I am having some quite novel experiences. It is quite a change after four years in E3. You have probably read of the camp in the papers. It is a very nice place.”
Plenty of Entertainment
There is plenty of entertainment to be had at Stalag IVB and prisoners have a choice of going to the pantomime or the musical revue, listening to music, or reading, playing football or indoor games. At Christmas they produced a modern nativity play, [italics] Christmas on the Green, [/italics] which, in the words of one prisoner, recalled “a beautiful Miracle play of the Middle Ages.” The pantomime started its run just after Christmas, following a musical revue, [italics] Springtime for Jennifer, [/italics] which had been written by a prisoner and was “one of the best yet.”
English football enthusiasts at the same camp are feeling very pleased with themselves because England recently beat Wales 3-0.
Another prisoner who writes home is more enthusiastic about music. He writes: “Bolt, who recently gave the [italics] Unfinished, Rosamunde, [/italics] Ballet and Gluck-Motte Suite, has thrilled us with Beethoven (Ind. Sy. [italics] Fidelio, Egmont [/italics] and that exquisite poem [italics] Romance in F [/italics]). The orchestra of 45 men is international and now plays finely. A young Warsaw violinist gave a sensitive rendering.”
Prisoner Playwright
As a pleasant reversal of the usual conditions, it is interesting to be able to record that a prisoner of war in Germany was able to bring laughter and joy to a large number of people in England this Christmas. L/Sgt. Derek C. Lunn, a prisoner since Dunkirk and now at Stalag 357 (22), was asked by his fiancée in Woking to send her something for her Girl Guides to perform. He forwarded a delightful outline of a pantomime, which, being too ambitious for her small company, was taken up by the local Commissioner. A treatment was worked out by an amateur playwright in the neighbourhood, and four performances were played to crowded houses.
The net result was a cheque for £100 being handed over to the Y.M.C.A. Appeal Fund, and the pantomime has been so successful that hundreds of would-be spectators who were unable to secure tickets have insisted on further performances in the near future. The whole of the cast, comprising Brownies, Guides, Rangers and Sea Rangers, signed a special letter of thanks to the author.
Indoor Games
At this time of year indoor games and recreation are naturally very popular. In Stalag IVB they organize quiz shows, and entertainments and lectures as well as all the usual indoor sports. Before the prisoners at Stalag Luft III were moved to the south-west, the camp had for a time a special
entertainments section, with provision for lectures and classes. The most popular were those on French, German and shorthand.
[page break]
April, 1945 The Prisoner of War 5
[photograph]
Hot showers are enjoyed by all.
Escaped Prisoners Reach Italy
DOROTHY M. CLARKE,
Official Red Cross Correspondent, Describes Their Reception There
ONE Belgian and thirteen British soldiers who had escaped from German prison camps reached Italy at the end of December. Several of them had been prisoners of war since 1940, when they were captured defending Metz during the Battle of France.
Private J. Creighton, whose home is in Sligo, Eire, was one of those taken at Metz. After a long period in prison in German Occupied France, he managed to break out and reach Switzerland. Then, when the American Army invaded Southern France and advanced to the Swiss border, he crossed the frontier and joined them.
Private William Powell, who comes from Sydney, Australia, told me that he had been on the run in Northern Italy for many months after escaping from a German prison camp. After many adventures he made his way through the enemy's lines into Allied territory.
Upon arrival at a special reception camp in Southern Italy each man received a hot meal and a comfortable bed. Next morning after breakfast, which was served from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., the new arrivals had to report at the reception office and fill in forms giving full particulars about themselves and their movements. Then they went to the disrobing-room and removed their somewhat heterogeneous collection of garments, which were taken away for disinfestation whilst the men themselves enjoyed hot showers. This was followed by medical inspection and injections, and a full issue of fresh clothing from the Quartermaster.
Called on the Red Cross
Dressed in their new outfits, the men called at the British Red Cross store, where an officer of the War Organisation presented each with a Red Cross “Glory Bag” containing various toilet necessities, writing paper, etc.
The men had next to be interrogated by officials of the Security Department, who checked their credentials and established their identity; after this they received their first pay as free citizens – a memorable occasion they will not easily forget.
Whilst awaiting repatriation to their homes the men are at liberty to enjoy all the amenities of the reception camp; their only fatigue, if it can be called such, is attendance at the one parade daily to answer their names at roll-call.
Three times a week a cinema performance is given at the camp. In charge of the large and well-equipped club room, with its billiard and ping-pong tables, dart-boards, and E.F.I. canteen, are two English ladies, members of the W.V.S. One is Mrs. Dimbleby, mother of the well-known broadcaster.
The days of waiting need not be spent in idle leisure only, for a fatherly War Office has provided the facilities of a warrant officer's education for those desiring to avail themselves of the opportunity of hearing lectures, studying maps, joining in discussions of topical interest, and making use of the well-stocked library.
From the Folks at Home
The British Red Cross Welfare Officer attached to the camp has been largely responsible for equipping the sick bay and small chapel. She made the altar-cloth in the chapel herself, and on her orders local craftsmen executed the wooden crucifix and candlesticks.
Gifts of the British Red Cross in the sick bay are the cheerful looking yellow counterpanes, hiding drab Army blankets; and the bright curtains at the windows, which give the plain flambo [sic] hut a more homely appearance. The wireless set, gramophone, easy chairs, hot-water bottles, bedrests, floor rugs, heating stoves, flower vases, games, etc., which do so much to ease and cheer sick men who have known little comfort or happiness during long years of captivity, were all bought with those pennies subscribed each week by the folks at home.
“When you write your report there is one thing I would like you to be sure to mention,” the Camp Commandant said to me before I left; “and that is, that every man who comes to this camp tells me he would not be alive if it had not been for the British Red Cross food parcels which he received whilst a prisoner.”
I can report how Red Cross money is being spent, but if only subscribers at home could actually see the use to which their gifts are put, then they would be amply repaid for what they have given. It is not only the material contributed, but the spirit of remembrance and gratitude of the giver, which means so much to men in exile. As Sir Walter Scott wrote:-
“It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind,
In body and in soul can bind.”
When the “cease fire” sounds, and all prison gates open, the still captive comrades of these men will return to a changed world; but not, one hopes, to a world in which people will easily forget their sacrifice and their suffering.
[photograph]
The first real rest in years.
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
Official Reports from the Camps
[photograph]
BESIDE THE STILL WATERS.
View of Oflag IXA/H.
DULAG 339, MANTUA
This is the new name for the transit camp in German-occupied Italy formerly known as Stalag 337. The camp is intended to serve as a transit camp for prisoners captured on the Italian front while awaiting transfer to Germany. As a rule prisoners are here only two or three days, but lately, owing to the bombing of communications and transport, prisoners have been kept two or three weeks. On the day of visit there were 321 British and 95 American prisoners of war in this camp.
The camp is situated on the outskirts of Mantua, near the Lake Inferiore. Four large buildings and an old garage have been converted and made habitable, two are used as dormitories, one is reserved for stores, and the fourth is used for workshops, showers, etc. A kitchen has been installed in the middle of the camp and underground there is an air-raid shelter to hold 500 prisoners.
The dormitories are not heated and are well aired. The temperature is at present adequate. Each prisoner has three blankets. The beds are two-tier type. There is practically no lighting in the camp.
There is a large washhouse with running water. Fifteen shower-baths have been installed, but there is no hot water. The prisoners receive soap. The kitchen is run by a German N.C.O. helped by six prisoners. The food was not plentiful, but appeared sufficient. Supplementary rations are provided for prisoners who work. It has not been possible to install a canteen in the camp. There is a shortage of clothing.
Medical treatment is available at the neighbouring hospital, where the prisoners can also have dental and eye treatment. There is no British chaplain.
The prisoners are entitled to send a postcard to their next of kin as soon as they arrive in the camp. Permanent staff may write every week.
There is a library of 350 English books, and the prisoners have supplies of games and playing cards.
(Visited November, 1944.)
OFLAG IXA/H, SPANGENBERG
Upper Camp
28 newly captured officers had arrived from the Western front, making a total of 185 officers and 36 other ranks.
Interior arrangements are adequate at the moment, but it is feared that if many more prisoners arrive from the Western front the dormitories will be overcrowded. This will also apply to the library and recreational rooms.
All the Roman Catholic prisoners of war have been moved to Oflag IXA/Z, since there is no priest in this camp.
Recreational facilities are satisfactory. Walks are organised twice a week.
Lower Camp
Total strength on day of visit was 210 officers and 34 other ranks.
The situation with regard to overcrowding was the same here as in the Upper Camp. Many dormitories are already very full. If many new captures are sent to this camp the overcrowding is likely to be serious.
The central heating will be out of use when the present stock of coke is exhausted. It is hoped that further supplies will be forthcoming, this being a camp for senior officers, the average age being 43 years.
Recreational facilities are well organised. The prisoners go for two walks each week and in addition parties go out of the camp nearly every day to collect wood.
Mail is stated to be very good. Letters from England arrive within two or three weeks.
The general impression from both the Lower and Upper Camps is that at present conditions are fairly satisfactory; but it is the future which causes anxiety, in that if there is to be a large increase of officers, both camps will be seriously overcrowded and the existing facilities such as heating and lighting, water supply, and sanitation, will be unable to stand the increased burden.
(Visited November, 1944.)
OFLAG IXA/Z, ROTHENBERG
Total strength 405 officers and 56 other ranks.
Interior arrangements are satisfactory at the moment, but an increase in the camp strength is expected, which will cause overcrowding.
[photograph]
CAPTIVE BUT NOT DOWNHEARTED. A smiling group of men at Stalag IVF.
There has been no improvement in the lighting of the camp, and if extra lighting is to be given in the recreational rooms it will be necessary to reduce the lighting in some of the other rooms. Central heating is at present only available for a few hours in the evenings. The shortage of coal, owing to transport difficulties, is currently throughout Germany, and it was considered unlikely that the full scale of coal could be delivered before the winter. The officers are allowed to go out most days to collect wood.
[page break]
April, 1944 The Prisoner of War 7
[inserted] In every case where conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/inserted]
[sketch]
LAST CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY?
A sketch of Oflag IXA/Z drawn by a senior British Officer, and sent as a Christmas card to the Red Cross.
Owing to the shortage of coal, hot showers are available only once a fortnight, and the prisoners are only able to have a hot evening meal four times a week.
Nearly 300 prisoners have been inoculated against typhus, with anti-typhoid inoculations to follow. German supplies of drugs and medicines are now better, but most of the supplies are received from Red Cross sources.
There are three chaplains in the camp – one Church of England, one Roman Catholic, and one Baptist.
The spirit in this camp is high, and it is hoped that there will be no considerable increase in the number of prisoners, since the existing facilities are likely to prove inadequate.
(Visited November, 1944.)
LABOUR DETACHMENTS
Dependent on STALAG IVF
No. Z128, Marienthal. – 20 prisoner of war work in a tramway factory 10 hours daily. Sunday is generally free.
The only complaint is a lack of working gloves, which the Germans promised to provide.
9 British prisoners at W123, Bogenstein, are employed digging air-raid shelters for 55 hours weekly. Sundays are free.
[photograph]
HOLD IT NOW!
Members of a work-party at Stalag IVG pose for their photograph to be taken.
There are no complaints at Detachment No. Z15, Suedkampfbahn, where 97 prisoners of war are engaged on various maintenance jobs for nine hours daily.
No. G168, Glauchau. – This camp is housed in a large wooden barrack and has good air raid shelters. There are 26 British prisoners of war employed in an artificial wood factory for 60 hours a week, with Sundays generally free. There are four sleeping rooms with a separate dining room and a separate room for the medical orderly and the cook. There are sufficient tables and chairs. Some of the roofs leak. Each prisoner has two blankets.
The washing facilities are adequate and the prisoners can have a hot shower each week in the factory. There is a small library in the camp, also a gramophone. Prisoners are able to play football.
Detachment No. L106, Loessnitz. – The 38 British prisoners of war in this detachment live in a two-storied stone building near a small village. There are no air-raid shelters in the camp, but there are good shelters at the factory where the prisoners are employed manufacturing cotton for 60 hours a week. Sunday is generally free.
Interior arrangements are adequate. There are two sleeping rooms. Lighting and heating are in order. Every prisoner has two blankets. Hot showers are available at any time in the factory. The prisoners of war have their own cook. Prisoners do their own laundry, but the soap issue is said to be insufficient.
Detachment No. 87, Oberstuetzengruen. – 53 British prisoners work 60 hours weekly loading and unloading wood. Every third Sunday is free.
The prisoners had only been having a hot shower once every fortnight. In future they will be able to have one every week. The 191 British prisoners of war in Detachment No. 104, Kohlenschacht Lugau had no complaints. They work eight to nine hours daily on the surface of a coal mine, and every second Sunday is free.
At Detachment No. 129, Rachau, 20 British prisoners of war work in a paper factory. The hours are 60 a week with Sunday generally free. The 16 prisoners at No. A13, Lindengarten, work for the German Red Cross eight to nine hours a day, and had no complaints.
There were no complaints at the following detachments:-
No. W149, Wuestembrad, where 18 British prisoners of war work for 8 1/2 hours a day at digging air-raid shelters; at No. C89, Neemestrasse, where 24 British prisoners of war work at load-
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War April, 1944
ing and unloading glass for nine hours a day; and at No. C104, Limbacherstrasse, where 7 British prisoners of war are employed in a brickworks for 9 1/2 hours a day.
(Visited November, 1944.)
RESERVE LAZARET HOHENSTEIN
(STALAG IVF)
On the day of the visit there were 41 British and 38 American patients in this hospital. There are two British medical officers and four British medical orderlies on the staff of the hospital. There were no complaints on either the conditions or the treatment at this hospital.
The drug supply is in order, and there was a good stock of medicaments. Dental treatment is done by a French dentist and is reported to be satisfactory.
(Visited November, 1944.)
[photograph]
RED CROSS STAFF AT STALAG IVG, where the general health of prisoners is reported to be good.
LABOUR DETACHMENTS
Dependent on STALAG IVG
The delegate only visited a few working detachments, but met most of the district Men of Confidence.
District Leipzig East. – There are 971 British prisoners of war in 11 detachments. The Men of Confidence had no serious complaints.
District Leipzig Nord. – 344 British prisoners of war in five working detachments. The only complaint was that in this district all stocks of Red Cross parcels have been moved outside the camps and the keys not given to the Men of Confidence.
District Leipzig West. – 497 British prisoners of war in seven working detachments. Here again the Men of Confidence complained that stocks of Red Cross parcels are inaccessible. Arrangements will be made to secure more storerooms.
District Espenhain. – 500 British prisoners of war in three working detachments. The chief complaint was that there was a French doctor in charge of the prisoners who does not speak English. As it will hardly be possible to get a British medical officer to this area, arrangements will be made to secure an interpreter.
District Grimma. – 368 British prisoners of war in six working detachments. There were no complaints.
District Wurzen. – 533 British prisoners of war in ten detachments. There were no serious complaints.
District Berna. – 266 British prisoners of war in five detachments. The only complaint was that at Detachment No. 102, Bad Lausick, the men had been unable to play football although there is a sports field at their disposal. It was agreed that prisoners will again be allowed to play football on their free Sundays.
Detachment No. 654, Coswig. – 26 British prisoners of war are employed 65 hours a week in workshops and had no complaints about working conditions. There was no Sunday work.
The prisoners are well accommodated in a large barrack with two sleeping rooms. Lighting and heating are satisfactory. There are adequate air-raid shelters. The clothing position is bad in this camp. The laundry has to be sent out to a German firm, who often lose the prisoners' garments. Medical attention is good.
Detachment No. 434, Grossteinberg. – 79 British prisoners of war work in a stone quarry for nine hours a day. Prisoners work one Sunday in each month. The prisoners sleep on wooden three-tier beds and have two blankets each. Lighting and heating facilities are in order. Medical attention is satisfactory. The camp is visited regularly by a padre. There were no complaints.
Detachment No. 104, Rittmitz. – There are 41 British prisoners of war in this camp, some of whom work in a factory and the others in a stone quarry. There was no Sunday work. Living quarters in a stone building are adequately furnished with double-tier beds. Hot showers are available at the factory. A stove for cooking Red Cross food was expected to arrive shortly. The general impression was that this was a fairly satisfactory camp.
(Visited November, 1944.)
RESERVE LAZARET
HAID(b)/ TRAUN
This lazaret is attached to Stalag 398. It consists of several barracks forming part of a large compound housing foreign labourers engaged in a nearby ironworks at Pupping.
The hospital accommodates prisoners of any nationality. At the time of the visit there were 30 British prisoners, and 14 Americans for whom special rooms are reserved. These arrangements are considered satisfactory.
Clinical equipment is adequate. There is one British medical officer who is able to carry out any treatment required. The British medical staff work amicably with the German authorities. Cooking is done by foreign prisoner cooks and the rations are considered to be very unsatisfactory. The chaplain from Stalag 398 pays regular visits to the hospital. There are sufficient recreational grounds within the compound.
(Visited November, 1944.)
Reports on Stalag IVG, Oshatz and IVF, Hartmannsdorf, will be found on page 16.
[photograph]
BRITISH AND SOUTH AFRICAN
Back Row, Left to Right: Bobs Tatham (Natal); Ned Sparks (Gt. Britain); Bob Cullen (Natal); Ronald Abbot (Cape Town); Geoffrey Reid (Cape Town).
Front Row: Bobby Gain (Cape Town); Paddy Doyle (Gt. Britain); Neil Orpen (Cape Town); Billy Reynolds (Somerset West); Zander Dewar (Natal); Tony Burch (Uitenhage).
[page break]
April, 1945 The Prisoner of War 9
The Letters They Write Home
[photograph]
THE FIRST ROUND OPENS. – Men of a working party at Stalag XVIIA hold a boxing match in a wood.
Like Great-Grandmother's
Oflag VIIB. 26.12.44.
AS by a German order all reserves of food in the camp must be consumed before new parcels are allowed in, everyone has had (and is having) a very well-fed time of it. I made a really excellent brawn from bully, meat roll and bacon, and Steve and I produced a Christmas cake which would not have made too bad a show of it even in the presence of the genuine article [italics] à la [/italics] Great-Grandmother's recipe!!
The ingredients may interest you: 1 small tin Horlick’s, 3 Canadian Red Cross biscuits ground to flour, egg powder, milk powder, bicarb, of soda, chopped raisins and apricots, and prune kernels and hazel nuts, butter, sugar.
Officers made toys, which were auctioned and the money and toys are to go to the Ilags for the children – mostly from the Channel Islands.
We had an old-time Boxing Booth [italics] à la [/italics] Sanger. They produced an excellent Christmas number of our magazine, with a ghost story and a new poem on Cheshire. Steve and I got up in darkness for the 7 a.m. service, and it was jolly cold, but we made it.
We are able to help the new boys out over food, and just at present there is plenty for all and the future will have to look after itself.
Carved Crib with Razor
Oflag VA. 27.12.44.
WE have had days now of very hard frost; Christmas Day itself was beautifully sunny, clear and crisp, without a cloud all day. I managed to finish the crib I tried to make. It finally consisted of a very plain stable of cardboard, with a star over it, and inside Joseph, Mary and one shepherd. The Child was a vague head sticking out of a bundle of cloth in the manger – only just adequate – but Joseph was quite imposing with a green robe, and Mary was really very sweet, in blue, sitting on a stool, leaning forward to put a covering over the Child. The Shepherd, in what looked like a brown gym, tunic, was kneeling at the other side. It was put in the chapel, and, I says [sic] it as should not, really looks very nice.
I really enjoyed carving the figures – though with nothing but a razor blade some bits were difficult, and, to begin with, my “anatomy” was bad – arms and legs would not come right.
I went to Mass at 7.30, when there were 140 there. At 9 o'clock there were twice as many.
We had a good breakfast in the mess (porridge, sausages, eggs and coffee), and later on an excellent lunch (meat pie, mashed potatoes, peas, trifle, cake, mincepie [sic]), complete with orchestra playing.
Christmas in Cookhouse
Stalag 383. 27.12.44.
CONSIDERING the circumstances, we had a very good Christmas as prisoners of war. Wacky and I spent Christmas Eve and Day with Dai (a sergeant in the Welsh Guards) who, being in charge of the soup kitchen, has a room in the cookhouse.
On Christmas Eve we had a litre or so of beer and a bit of a sing-song. The following morning we started the day with an English breakfast (we managed to save a few tins during better times). Our dinner consisted of mashed and roasted potatoes, peas, swede and roast meat, followed by an excellent pudding (made with bread and raisins) with “Klim,” washed down with a bottle of beer. I suppose the beer here is no stronger than it is at home nowadays.
We had a very nice cake for tea; Ivor spent a few hours endeavouring to give it the necessary seasonal appearance and finished up by having the words “A Merry Christmas” printed on the wrapper.
Imposing Little Ceremony
Stalag IVF. 6.11.44.
My last outing was on All Souls Day, when I went down to the hospital cemetery to attend a short memorial service conducted by the French chaplain. I went there with the French and Belgian Men of Confidence, and the Italian chaplain, in the French Red Cross lorry.
A large contingent from the hospital marched down to the cemetery. After prayers the names of prisoners of all nationalities who had died, were read out. Our senior doctor read the British names.
Then we went on to the civilian cemetery in the town, where other prisoners are buried, and the service was repeated. It was quite an imposing little ceremony.
A Pretty Decent Chap
Stalag IVD. 23.2.45.
THIS week has been a record for illness. We all have rotten colds – It has run all round the [italics] Stube [/italics] – 40 of us. Tons of snow and very cold still. But hope you are free from colds yourself.
Still plenty of work and the hours are long. Am on night shift every other week on a metal press. Have a pretty decent chap in charge named Max, who has a bit of sympathy for us. No cigarettes or mail yet, but tell Hilda to get the baking pans ready as we are betting on seeing you in the near future.
Fire Fuhrer
Oflag VIIB. 1.1.45.
AT present, as I am our room “fire fuhrer,” I seem to spend my entire days trying to make lumps of wood fit into our tiny stove, which won't burn when we want to cook, and soars through anything when we try to damp it down.
It really isn't fair, this business of ten officers living, sleeping and eating in the kitchen; or you might call it cooking, eating, living in one bedroom.
To-day I spent hammering old tins out flat and joining them together to make tops for cooking pots, my tool kit consisting of a rusty iron bar and a jagged knife. I get quite a bit of amusement out of it really.
To turn to a less squalid side of life, I've spent half to one hour daily, for the last week, on skates on the flooded hockey pitch.
News and Rumours
Stalag IVF. 29.10.44.
MOST of our lads have just received their first personal parcels, and are they happy? Socks with the foot complete, shirts in one piece, and cigarettes are arriving as well. So just at a time
[page break]
10 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
[photograph]
CLOTHES AND THE MAN. – An Able seaman gives a realistic rendering of Lady Bowden during a theatrical performance at Stalag 344.
when things looked black, owing to food parcels being cut to one between two men, we are laughing again. It is good to see how everybody takes all hard knocks with a smile, and they are numerous these days.
You were asking in your letter, do we get news of the progress of the war? Yes; we hear and see enough to help us form opinions on what is happening. But genuine news is far out-weighed by rumours, so we have to sort it out.
I notice you have not been able to make any plans for the post-war. I believe that applies to most of us. I often think of the worry ahead for all of us. What a splendid opportunity for all of us to make a great effort to create a better standard of living in Europe. Nobody should go short of food after six years of suffering. May we be able to give the lead to other nations. I am continuing my letter on another card.
Arguments and Discussions
Stalag 357. 5.11.44.
THE location of this new 357 is quite good, being on grass this time, and down the side of a real Scottish wood. There are about 6,500 men here, mixed R.A.F and Army and all nationalities, so arguments and discussions are many and varied. We have electric light installed, and now have a hot-plate in each hut.
Lights went out again last night at 7 p.m., so we had an evening's community singing with all sorts of songs and stories. An Aussie in the bed above me is pretty good!
I have been issued with a pair of new boots and a French great coat, so am now well equipped.
Making a Start
Stalag 357 20.9.44.
WE are gradually organising our social life in this new camp. The library has opened and once again I spend a few hours in it every day. For sport we have football, rugby, cricket and racing.
It should not be long before the school is opening and then I will be able to resume my studies.
Saw Volkssturm Practising
SEEING the Volkssturm practising on the range near the camp on Sundays is just like seeing the Home Guard at home.
To-night I saw at the theatre [italics] Spring-time for Jennifer; [/italics] these productions are excellent and amazing.
The editor of [italics] New Times, [/italics] the paper for 4,000 English-speaking prisoners, has asked me to join the editorial board and contribute regularly, so I am not out of touch with my life as it was and as it will be.
Each day I cook our two meals for my “mucker” and myself I am modestly an increasingly good cook. You would be amazed to see me in my skyblue French overcoat, maroon beret, etc.
Midnight Parade
Stalag XIA. 25.12.44.
CHRISTMAS DAY here was really quite amazing. All the boys have entered into the spirit of things and are determined to have as merry a time as possible. On Christmas Eve we had a carol service complete with orchestra and choir. After that we had a concert in our room, and finished up by parading round the other rooms at midnight singing at the tops of our voices.
The following morning at 6 o'clock they had their own back by waking us with a fanfare of trumpets, trombones, drums, etc.
Our Christmas dinner was a great achievement; we had saved some stuff from our parcels and made a big pudding for sixteen of us, and our three-tier cake was the talk of the camp.
We are all feeling a little uncomfortable now, but nevertheless contented. We toasted you all after dinner (in tea) and feel sure we will be with you soon.
New Arrivals
Biberach. 26.11.44.
WE have quite a mixed crowd of people in the camp, including about 140 (men, women and children) who arrived recently. Special arrangements had to be made on their arrival, and they are now getting more settled down. The women are up fairly early in the morning, and soon the lines outside their barracks are full of washing.
We now have 84 persons in our barrack with none in hospital. There are 17 in our room.
The hospital and Red Cross staff have had a little more to do lately, and have done it well. About 2,000 Red Cross parcels arrived here recently, and are very welcome.
Nearly a Black Christmas
Stalag IVD. 26.12.44.
IT looked like being a black Christmas for us here with no parcels, but on Christmas Eve the works foreman came in dressed as Father Christmas and brought some good news. Parcels were at the distributing centre and he had been able to make arrangements for collecting them on Christmas morning. After that the band got going with a swing and the dance was on.
On Christmas morning we went to the pictures. The big picture was an ice skating film and was very good. Also news and a short picture taken in Salzburg area. Going again on New Year's Day, the picture being a circus film, which should be good.
It has been very cold all the holiday – well below freezing point. Start work again to-morrow.
[inserted] SEND US YOUR PICTURES AND LETTERS
TEN SHILLINGS will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate sheet of paper, showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten Shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James's Palace, London, S.W.1. The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
[page break]
April, 1945 The Prisoner of War 11
“Rookery Nook” at Stalag XXA
[photograph]
GERALD: “She's just a sweet, [italics] innocent [/italics] little girl.”
[photograph]
Putz leaves in a nasty rage.
[photograph]
Clive and Gerald tell Twine to get Rona's clothes from the German.
The well-known play [italics] Rookery Nook [/italics] was first produced in London many years ago when Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls and Robertson Hare played the original parts. Since then, it has been revived by many theatrical companies, including those in prisoner of war camps, and is a favourite everywhere. The theme of the play is a matrimonial muddle at a country house, and as the scenes shown here were not marked on the photographs from Germany, we asked Mr. Ralph Lynn to caption them. In returning them he says, “I think they have done wonders by the photographs. God bless them, and good luck to them all.”
LETTERS (Continued from previous page)
Table Bombs
Stalag XIA. 25.12.44.
TO-DAY we put on the best show for the camp at 10 o'clock until 12 mid-day. We all put our iced cakes and puddings on show and all down the centre of the room on the decorated tables were paper flowers and table bombs. They really looked well. Mind you the inscriptions would not pass the censor, but none the less for that we all enjoyed it.
The table bombs gave us all enough hats and flags for the room. To-morrow I have to arrange, by way of entertainment, a mock trial for some unfortunate individual. For all this good food and so on we have to give our thanks to the Red Cross.
A Wizard day
Stalag Luft III. 26.12.44.
WE had an absolutely wizard day yesterday, which I shall always remember as one, I think, of the best in my life. After ten weeks of pretty lean diet on half parcels, a consignment of American Christmas parcels arrived, and from them we enjoyed, among many good things, turkey and Christmas puddings which were the last word.
One fellow from our room has cooking right at his finger tips, and we were supplied through the day with an assortment of eats which, in my opinion, would have graced with distinction the tables of a Royal household! We have plenty left over for to-day and the New Year, which includes a 16lb. cake untouched from yesterday.
Excuse all this talk about food, but here at times it is an interesting topic.
3,000 Feet Up
Stalag XVIIB, B.H.V.101 3.12.44.
THE snow I wrote about went away, but to-day it is snowing again. This time we want it for the sleighs to get in the winter firewood. The Austrians tell us that they get snowed up here.
We are 3,000 feet up in the mountains. One place where we have been working is higher still. On a clear day we can see the Alps in the distance.
I shall soon be a Jack of all trades. We have been chaff-cutting on a motor saw, laying floorlogs, forestry and road-making – a bit of everything. I am keeping fine despite all.
We have a cat that catches the rats; it is hard to feed her these days.
Bit of a Miner
Stalag IVD. 25.12.44.
I HAVE now changed my kommando and am no longer at the sugar factory, but am a bit of a miner. The work is hard, but I am used to that, as you know. Work makes the time pass more quickly.
This Stalag is very well organised, which is a great asset. Last night they held a dance which was a “wow.” You would be surprised to see what wonderful looking girls some of the chaps turned out to be. Went for a laugh and I certainly had it.
To-day we went to a service, and although it was only held in a hut it was as impressive as any held in a church.
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
[inserted] How They Help
I addition to those mentioned below, we wish to thank the many kind readers whose help to the funds this month we cannot find room to record here individually [/inserted]
MR. PAYNE, of “The Crown and Anchor,” Gallows Tree Common, near Reading, has collected £33 7s. from a sale of goods given by his customers, which he forwards with the comment: “It is only a little, but I must thank you for the Red Cross parcels received by my son who is a prisoner of war in Germany.”
With the help of friends Mrs. Agnew has collected £94 7s. 6d. in Jarrow, also for food parcels.
Mrs. Kellow, who writes from Liskeard that she has recently had two cheerful letters from her nephew in Stalag XIA, sends £3, and a total of £15 is reached by a fifth contribution from Mrs. Millard, Risca, Monmouthshire. On behalf of his staff at Llantwit Major, W/O. A.S. Hamblin has forwarded £20.
Father Helps Son
A further donation of £5 17s. 6d. has been received from the staff of Nicholl's Stores, Kensington, and the staff of 50 at Messrs. R.W. Greff and Company of Bishop's Stortford, who have two colleagues prisoners of war, one in Europe and the other in the Far East, have raised the sum of £112, an increase of £2 on the total for the previous year and the result of the sale of their handwork and toy making.
“Friends at Electra House, London,” have been keeping their eye “on the ball,” and over £2,000 has been collected in sixpences during the past eighteen months or so, and they give us the following “crazy” figures realised from other recent efforts:-
A dart-board ... £15
Three fruit cakes ... £13
A portable gramophone and tennis racquet ... £55
A trug of fresh fruit ... £22
Bunches of cut flowers, per bunch ... £4
Shell eggs ... £1 a piece!
Nat Gonella, the ace trumpeter, and the dance band of the Royal Tank Regiment were the star attractions at a ball and cabaret held in the Bournemouth Town Hall, which resulted in £71 15s. 8d. being raised for prisoners of war. Mr. Leo Wells, the promoter, has a son who is a prisoner of war and he writes that he is already organising another ball which promises to be an even greater success.
Another successful dance, organised by the Aeronautical Inspection Department, raising £170 17s. 4d., took place at the Co-operative Hall, Nottingham.
Jean Medlock and some of her friends at Shefford, all nine years old, wrote and performed a play, and from the entrance fee of 1d. per person were able to send 5s. Rita Burgess, of Luton, who is also nine, has given a second donation, mentioning that she is knitting mittens from the pattern published in the journal, for her father, who is a prisoner of war.
Prisoner Wins Prize
Half of the proceeds of three plays presented by the Upper Killay Young People's Dramatic Society have been devoted to the Red Cross, and the carols of the Wantage Rangers profited the fund by £1. £2 in Victoria pennies has been saved by Jean Rome, Dunstable, and the combined efforts of the Parsons, Jones and West families at Tirphil, New Tredegar, in collecting threepenny pieces have produced £5.
The East Wales vs. West Wales Secondary Schools Union rugby match, which was played on the Gnoll Ground, Neath, was the means of raising £192 1s. 4d., which is a particularly fine result, as the match had to be postponed on the first date arranged because of bad weather.
The two organisers of the Blaenclydach and District Prisoners of War Fund arranged a competition which brought in £120. The prizes were donated by Mrs. Thomas, Tonypandy, and one of the winners was previously a prisoner of war in Italy.
Gave Own Coupons
A courageous helper is Mrs. Futcher, of Catford, who is 87, who through physical disability can seldom go out of doors, and then only in a wheel-chair. Mrs. Futcher gave her first donation in March, 1942, and has now contributed £42 earned from the sale of kettle-holders at 6d. each, and towels purchased with her own coupons which she converted into face cloths.
Mrs. Say, of Marlborough, has sent in £1 10s., which, she writes, “is the result of turning out sundry small things which have been put out of sight. A lot of people perhaps would like to follow suit.” Domino tournaments and competitions run by Mr. A. Garrett, of Hedge End, near Southampton, have produced the splendid figure of £115, while patrons of the Mansfield Hotel, Hove, have raised more than £500 over fifteen months and are aiming at £1,000.
By January 31st, 1945, expenditure and allocations to p.o.w.'s food and comforts has reached £15,511.000.
[facsimile]
Five young tracers of Messrs. Powell Duffryn of Ystrad Mynach, sent the above poem with a donation to the Penny-a-Week Fund.
[page break]
April, 1945 The Prisoner of War 13
Prisoners of War Artists
[cartoon]
Packed and Ready !
A cartoon sent home as a postcard to his wife by Corporal Harold Coulter.
[sketch]
A view seen looking north from an Oflag theatre painted by Major W.F. Anderson.
[cartoon]
Pinocchio was painted by Warrant Officer Gordon C.G. Hawkins and sent home from Germany as a birthday card for his small son Richard.
and
[sketch]
A barbed-wire view painted by Lieutenant Worsley, Official Naval war artist.
[cartoon]
'Pooky Rabbit' was crayoned in bright colours for Richard by his father, Warrant Officer Gordon C.G. Hawkins.
[sketch]
A corner of the hospital was the subject of a first attempt at a pen and ink sketch made by Captain Robert Ferguson who has taken up drawing and painting as a winter occupation.
[page break]
14 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
Examination Successes
SINCE the beginning of the year over a thousand examination scripts have reached the Educational Books Section from camps in Germany. Many more are arriving almost daily and are being forwarded to the examining bodies concerned for correction. It is very encouraging to have this evidence that the autumn and winter examinations have been able to be held before the break-up and dispersal of some of the camps owing to the Russian advance.
Applications for future examinations are also coming in in great numbers: as one camp leader says of the men in his camp, “Will their keenness never flag?” and it does not look as if it will, as since the New Year nearly 1,200 examination entries have been received.
More than one camp education officer has written about the difficulties under which the examinations have been taken, e.g., intense cold, interruptions due to air-raid alarms, shortage of stationery, etc. We have every reason to be proud of the men who can work and study in such conditions.
New Pass List Ready
The most recent edition of the pass list giving the examination results for July to December, 1944, is now available. Copies are obtainable on application to the Educational Books Section at the New Bodleian, Oxford. 3d. in stamps should be sent with the application.
Some copies of previous lists are also still available (July to December, 1943, and January to June, 1944).
News From Camps
Lieut. D.C. Crichton has been elected an Associate Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers on the results of the examination which he took in camp last year.
A Canadian flight-lieutenant, J.P. Gofton, has been credited with written papers in chemistry and biology towards a medical degree at the University of Manitoba. He took papers in these subjects in the first M.B. examination of the University of London under a special arrangement whereby members of the United Nations may take London examinations for the purpose of obtaining credits in the equivalent examinations in their own country.
Two prisoners of war have passed the Final Examinations of their respective professions, viz., Lieut. E.S. Bell, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and Sgt. R.C. MacKenzie, the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants.
Another accountant prisoner of war, Sgt. P.C.G. Montgomery, has passed the First Division of the Final Examination of the Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
Lieut. A.H. Eagles, who passed the Associate Membership Examination of the Institution of Sanitary Engineers last year, has been elected an Associate Member of the Institution.
One civilian internee in Ilag Kreuzburg has passed the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English examination, and three in the same camp have passed the Lower Certificate.
Lieut. G.C. Sunley has passed the examination for the Certificate in Russian of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
A corporal who passed the written papers for the City and Guilds of London Institute examination in Gas Fitting in Stalag XXA in 1942 has now been repatriated, and has applied to take the practical part of the examination. Arrangements are being made for him to do so.
[inserted] RESULTS AT A GLANCE
[tabulated figures for each six monthly period ending] Dec. 1942 June 1943 Dec. 1943 June 1944 Dec. 1944 Feb 1945]
Applications for examinations ... 450 3,425 5,923 10,738 14,272 15,448
Candidates who have already taken examinations ... 200 853 3,300 5,639 6,333 7,245
Results published ... 176 486 2,265 4,408 5,707 5,964
Candidates who have passed outright ... 126 363 1,760 3,471 4,491 4,680
Candidates who have passed in some papers ... 16 55 101 244 355 372
Candidates who have failed outright ... 32 68 404 693 861 912
Camps in which examinations have been held … 19 24 37 53 82 82
THE ABOVE FIGURES GIVE THE TOTALS BY THE END OF EACH SIX-MONTHLY PERIOD. [/inserted]
Proportion of total successes for results published during February: 82 per cent.
OFLAG 79 – Described by a Repatriate
OFLAG 79 was previously used by the Germans as a Luftwaffe Cadet School, and in consequence the fittings, buildings, sanitation, etc., are of a higher standard than one expects to find in a normal Oflag. There are seven double-storey buildings in the camp, which are sub-divided into small rooms accommodating anything from six to fifteen persons. The centre of the camp has a large pine-grove, which helps to break the monotonous barbed wire outlook. The inside perimeter wire is about a mile in circumference, so really one need not suffer from lack of exercise.
The camp is not actually in Brunswick, but is situated in a small village about 5 kilometres east of the town. The village is called Braunschweig Querem.
The German rations were not good. The sole diet, with a few exceptions, was black bread and potatoes. Occasionally vegetable soup, millet and fresh meat were issued, and once weekly a small ration of ersatz margarine, sugar, jam, coffee and tea.
This diet, of course, would have been almost impossible without the aid of the Red Cross food parcels which were issued to us weekly. I really feel that one cannot do enough to help the Red Cross in the wonderful work.
The chaps in the camp have things fairly well organised. When I left they had the theatre going with a new play every week. The Junior University – covering almost every subject under the sun – was operating very efficiently. The camp library (most of the books from private parcels) was fairly well stocked, and the indoor and outdoor games were going strong.
The treatment from the Germans was not bad, and I personally have not witnessed any individual acts of cruelty.
H.D. G.
[italics] NOTE: This account was written by an officer p.o.w. repatriated in the Autumn of 1944 and therefore describes conditions at the time he left Germany. [/italics]
[page break]
April, 1945 The Prisoner of War 15
An All-Purpose Pullover
WITH SHOULDER CABLE STITCHING
[photograph]
Reproduced by courtesy of Harrap Bros. (Sinlar Wools) Ltd.
[knitting pattern and instructions]
[page break]
16 The Prisoner of War April, 1945
New Film on Loan
A New film entitled “Prisoner of War,” complied for the British Red Cross and St. John by the Gaumont British Picture Corporation, Ltd., with commentary by F.V.H. Emmett, is available free of charge, for private or public display.
The film is 35mm size, one reel, with sound recording, and takes ten minutes to run. It is the story of a man captured in Europe, and records various incidents which occur during his sojourn in enemy hands.
Applications to borrow [italics] Prisoner of War [/italics] must be made at least two weeks before the date fixed for showing.
Private individuals should apply to:- The Central Film Library, Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London, S.W.7. and pay return carriage.
Professional requests should be sent to:- The Publicity Department, Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, 24, Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1.
Please Note
OWING to urgent last-minute alterations at the time of going to Press, three errors were made in the camp names in the March issue of “The Prisoner of War.” On page 2, in the article [italics] Transport of Food Parcels, [/italics] Oflag VIIIB should have read Oflag VIIB. On page 16, in the first paragraph of [italics] Camp Transfers, [/italics] Stalag IV should have read Stalag Luft IV; and in the notice [italics] Parcels, [/italics] Luft VIII should have read Luft VII.
REPORTS FROM THE CAMPS
(Continued from page 8)
STALAG IVG, OSCHATZ
The main camp was not visited, there being only 19 British prisoners on the permanent staff. There are 64 British working detachments in the Stalag area containing 4,055 British prisoners of war.
The three British medical officers in the Stalag area reported that the general state of health is good. Dental treatment is done by local dentists and is satisfactory.
STALAG IVF, HARTMANNSDORF
There are only 27 prisoners of war in the main Stalag. The total number dependent on the Stalag is 5,524 British and American prisoners of war, who are dispersed in 95 labour detachments. Interior arrangements in the main Stalag are good and there were no complaints.
[inserted] NUMBER, PLEASE
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/inserted]
Camp Transfers
LATEST NEWS OF PROGRESS
(Red Cross Map Reference Shown in Brackets)
PRISONERS FROM, DATE OF INFORMATION, LOCATION
Stalag IIB, March 10th, Marching to west part of Wehrkreis II (3D/E).
Stalag IID, March 10th, Marching to west part of Wehrkreis II (3D/E).
Stalag IIIB, March 10th, At Maerkisch Rietz (E.4).
Stalag IIIC, Match 10th, At Scefeld, near Werneuschin (E.4).
Stalag 344, Feb 27th, Teplitz Schonau being used as assembly point (E.6).
March 7th, 4,000 British and American sick journeying by rail to:-
Stalag IXB – Fallingbostel (C.4).
Stalag XIIIC – Hamelburg (C.7).
Stalag VIIA – Moosburg (D.8).
Stalag IXB – Wegscheid Badorb (C.6).
Stalag VIIIA, March 9th, Head of southern group (marching towards Nuremberg) east of Jena (D.6). Sick prisoners and British Medical Officers remained at Gorlitz (F.5).
Stalag VIIIB, March 7th, Advance group at Rakonitz (E.7). Rear groups at Melnik (F.6).
Stalag VIIIC, March 9th, Head of northern group (moving towards Hanover) west of Soemmerda (D.5). Head of southern group (moving towards Cassel) near Gersund, west of Fisenach (C.6).
Stalag XXA, Feb. 25th, Prisoners collected in Uckermark region (E.3) and moving westwards.
Stalag XXB, Feb. 21st, Near Malchin and Tetorow (E.3) and moving westwards.
Stalag Luft III, Feb. 23rd, Prisoners transferred to S.E. region of province of Oldenburg (B.4), Stalag IIIA Luckenwalde (E.5) and other camps (see March Journal).
March 7th, 480 sick here at Sagan (F.5).
Stalag Luft IV, March 10th, 1,500 British and U.S. prisoners proceeding to Stalag Luft I, Barth (E.2). 1,550 British and U.S. prisoners proceeding to Nuremberg (D.7). 3,600 British and U.S. prisoners proceeding to Stalag XIB (C.4) and Stalag 357, Fallingbostel (C.4).
Stalag Luft VII, Feb. 20th, Reported at Stalag IIIA, Luckenwalde (E.5).
PARCEL POST SUSPENDED
THE Postmaster General announces that in the present phase of the war, transport conditions make it difficult to forward next-of-kin and permit parcels to prisoners of war in Germany.
Although, therefore, it is hoped that it may still be possible to forward some, or all, of the present accumulation of these parcels to destination, it is necessary to suspend further posting of next-of-kin and permit parcels for the moment.
Labels and Coupons
No more labels and coupons will be issued for the present. This applies to first and later issues.
Next of kin and acting next of kin (including county branches, associations and packing centres) are asked particularly not to return issues already in their possession, but to keep them until further notice. Parcels partially prepared should also be kept intact with any remaining unused coupons.
The Red Cross will repack and hand over to the G.P.O. any parcels received at the Packing Centres at Finsbury Circus or Glasgow, which were posted before the G.P.O. announcement was made.
[inserted] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS Journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoner of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/inserted]
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, The Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, 14, Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by The Cornwall Press Ltd., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, SE1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 3, No. 36, April 1945
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial concerning supplies to prisoners and numbers released by Russians in Odessa; released by the Russians; ex-internees welcomed home; the brighter side; escaped prisoner reach Italy; official reports from the camps; the letters they write home; 'Rookery Nook' at Stalag XXA; how they help (fundraising at home); prisoner of war artists; examination successes; OFLAG 79 described by a repatriate; knitting pattern for an all-purpose pullover; camp transfers; parcel post suspended . Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Sixteen page printed document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-03
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Roger Dunsford
arts and crafts
entertainment
faith
prisoner of war
sport
Stalag 3A
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 7
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17114/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-05.2.pdf
bd9d254b2967d596ff47071e58589a86
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Prisoner of War
[symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES'S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1 [symbol]
Vol. 3 No. 31 Free to Next of Kin November, 1944
The Editor Writes –
IT has always been evident that as the Allied ring tightened round Germany the situation of our prisoners there would, for various reasons, become more difficult. Prison camps near the frontiers would tend to be moved into the interior – and this must mean leaving well-organised permanent camps and probably moving into improvised and over-crowded quarters. Moreover, under the increasing weight of our bombing attacks the transport position inside Germany was bound to become more and more disorganised. Both these processes have already started, though not as yet on a large scale. The latest figures as to stocks in camps bring us up to September 15th and indicate that until then, at any rate, Geneva were still managing to get our parcels through. Clearly, the seriousness of the situation will depend on whether the Germans fight all the way back to Berlin or whether organised resistance ceases fairly quickly.
Four Ships at Lisbon
There is good reason for hoping that the Lisbon-Marseille-Geneva route will very soon be re-opened, though on a limited scale, owing to the reduced capacity of the Marseille-Geneva railway. In anticipation of this four of our ships, fully loaded, are waiting at Lisbon. In addition, there is an accumulation in our warehouses in Lisbon and elsewhere that will take some time to work off, so that it may be some time, too, before despatches from this country can be resumed.
Christmas Parcels
The suspension of shipping made it impossible to despatch the Christmas parcels, which were ready at the end of July, so that I am afraid that the chance of their arriving in time is not great. Efforts are now being made to give them priority, but I wonder if it is realised that one week's food parcels for 160,000 prisoners weighs about 800 tons. The prisoners will, of course, be disappointed, but will appreciate the reasons, of which they have been informed. In contrast with this I am glad to be able to record that we have managed, in spite of recent difficulties, to get through to Geneva a not inconsiderable quantity of urgent supplies, mostly medical.
Planning Their Return
With victory approaching hopes are centred on the speedy liberation of prisoners of war and their quick return home. The problem is, of course, one for the military authorities and not for the Red Cross, although the Red Cross will have a hand in it, and I understand that plans are being worked out in great detail with the object of bringing them home with the least possible delay. But obviously 160,000 prisoners scattered in innumerable camps and labour detachments cannot be assembled and brought home in a few days.
Back from Switzerland
The 1,000-odd officers and men who arrived back from Switzerland so unexpectedly, recently, were in exceptionally high spirits and good health. During their two days in a pleasant dispersal camp just outside London they were entertained by continuous films and E.N.S.A. shows. After that, they all went on six weeks' leave.
Service at Belfast
Nearly 1,200 next of kin of prisoners of war recently attended the special service of intercession at St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, arranged by the Ulster Gift Fund. The Governor and the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland were present, and the service was conducted by the Dean, the Very Reverend W. S. Kerr, B.D., the Rev. R. J. F. Mayston, M.B.E., Deputy Assistant Chaplain-General for Northern Ireland, being the preacher. The collection on behalf of the Red Cross was taken by six officers from the three Services, the Naval officer being an ex-prisoner of war. Realistic plans for the building up of our national and home life were urged by Mr. Mayston
[photograph]
A rugger team at Stalag XXB.
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
in his address. He said that when prisoners were welcomed back at the end of the war their active co-operation would be needed to help in the reconstruction of society.
Improved Conditions
Last month we published an official report on conditions in Oflag 79 to which, at the beginning of May, the 1,893 officers and men from Oflag VIIIF at Marisch Trubau were transferred. It appeared that the camp was not ready to receive the prisoners, and that in many respects the facilities were inadequate for the number of prisoners as they were then housed. Next of kin and relatives to whom this report may have caused anxiety will be pleased to know that we have much better news from the father of a prisoner in Oflag 79. His son, he tells us, has written “in a letter dated August 10th, that the long-promised extension to the camp has at last taken place, and they are very much more comfortable in a very good building, ten in a room, with excellent wash rooms, showers and lavatories, with two-storey wooden beds, a couple of tables, stools and cupboards. And they have much more room for walking and games . . .”
Flourishing Law Society
Also from Oflag 79 comes news of a flourishing Camp Law Society. This Law Society was originally formed in the Italian camp at Chieti in November, 1942. The prisoners were subsequently removed to Germany, and the Society was refounded [sic] in Oflag VIIIF in December, 1943. The Society was refounded for the second time in May, 1944, when the prisoners were removed to Oflag 79. Membership of the Society includes 15 English solicitors and 18 articled clerks, and there is a very active Law School. The president and committee of the Society are elected every three months. Six of the articled clerks passed (two with distinction) the Law Society's Final Examination, for which they sat in Oflag VIIIF in April.
There and Back
“Is this a good record?” asks Capt. G. H. Cook, a repatriated prisoner of war in a letter reporting the arrival at his home on September 30th, 1944, of a parcel that turned out to be the next of kin parcel which his wife had despatched to him at Oflag IXA/H on August 3rd, 1943. The parcel was intact and had been to Germany and back, as made clear by the writing on the wrapping. It should be added, perhaps, that the credit for the safe delivery in Germany and the return to this country of the parcel in question, is, of course, due to the G.P.O. and to the postal authorities in the other countries.
Mail from Germany
I am sorry that I cannot give any definite information about a resumption of the normal mail services to and from Germany. So far as concerns the outward mails, which were formerly covered by German aeroplanes from Lisbon, alternative and more direct routes have been found, and these services have been maintained without appreciable breaks and generally with improved efficiency. But the gaps in the arrival of mail in this country have been much longer. The problem is being energetically tackled by the Post Office, and I can go so far as to say that I am hopeful of an early improvement. Many of our readers will be glad to know that 11 tons of medical supplies which were held up at Lisbon have been brought back to England to be despatched by a more expeditious route, in spite of the changed conditions brought about by the liberation of France and heavy bombing of Germany.
The Tale of a Box
Red Cross boxes, tins and string have by no means exhausted their usefulness by the time they arrive at prison camps. The senior British officer at Stalag VIIB has sent us a list of 97 different articles made in the camp workshop from these rough-and-ready materials. It includes 44 cooking stoves (described as “highly efficient”), 12 flag posts, four mah jongg stands, one cake drier, one beehive, 14 card tables, 150 bookcases, and 31 cool boxes. String from the Red Cross parcels has apparently been transformed into 260 floor brushes.
Eton v. Harrow
Capt. Harris, a recently repatriated medical officer of the original 51st Highland Division who was captured after Dunkirk, tells the story of an Eton v. Harrow cricket match played in his camp. The Harrovians were one short so, by virtue of the fact that his practice is in Harrow, Capt. Harris played for them. Their bat was made out of Red Cross cases, while their ball was of string, coated with plaster from the hospital. Similarly the Eton toppers and Harrow boaters were all made from Red Cross cartons; the stumps were chalked on another carton. One Old Harrovian had lost a leg, but he insisted on playing, so he kept wicket sitting on a box, which his batman carried to the other end after each over.
Sporting Gesture
More topical than cricket at this time of year is the account of the football “internationals” received from a prisoner of war at Stalag XI-A. He writes, “I captain the English side here against the Belgian, French, Italian and Jugoslav football teams. We won the league and I got a flag from each of the countries we played. . . .” This exchange of gifts is a sportsmanlike gesture that might with profit be adopted in international sports after the war.
Parcels' Day Faces
“Good luck to the Red Cross and to the rest of my friends who are still 'behind the wire' and who depend so much on you and your great work.” When I visited Southampton I was shown this tribute which had reached the Red Cross and St. John headquarters there from a local man who had come home after escaping from a camp in Italy. One of his first actions was to return thanks “for the many favours extended to my family and myself.” The best recompense that Red Cross workers could see, he added, would be “the faces on 'Parcels' Day,' and, believe me, we did receive our parcels regularly.”
He Enjoys the Journal
Another Italian escapee – from P.G.53 – in a long and grateful letter, remarks that he has been reading through back issues of this journal with great pleasure, and says that some of the letters bring back vivid memories. “I am grateful that they will be still coming to this address.” (The explanation of that sentence is that his brother had the bad luck to be transferred to Germany, where “I know that he will be well looked after by the Red Cross.”) He had arrived in Italy from Africa in a very weak condition, and the receipt of a share of real chocolate, real jam, and real tea from a Red Cross parcel was “like a dream.”
[photograph]
The majority of “Charsies” club men at Stalag 383 who number sixty. The word “Charsies” is derived from “Char,” Hindustani for four, as the men in the picture all belong to the 4th Hussars.
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 3
THE FOOD THEY LIKE
[photograph]
Above: Parcels being expertly packed by Red Cross workers. Left: Contents of a typical food parcel.
[photograph]
FOOD rationing has made people begin to think more about the nutritive value of what they are eating. Everyone knows now that certain things, such as vitamins, are absolutely necessary to keep them in good health, but the department of the Red Cross responsible for planning the contents of the food parcels for prisoners of war had to delve into the subject much deeper than this. Much thought and care has been necessary to ensure that the food parcels contain the maximum possible nourishment. The “hidden value” of the parcels is perhaps the most important thing of all.
Naturally, their first idea was to get the best expert advice on this complex question, so they consulted three different authorities – a well-known dietician, the Scientific Adviser's Section of the Ministry of Food, and the Medical Department of the War Office. All these experts gave their advice most generously and unstintingly as to the kind of food which the parcels should contain. That is, they studied the rations given to the prisoners in the camps, noted the important things in which there was a deficiency, and told the Red Cross that these must be put into the parcels.
This was not easy, because the parcels were not allowed to exceed a certain weight, and the dimensions of the box had to remain the same throughout; also, it was no use sending the prisoners food which they would not enjoy because it was dull or monotonous. What they should get in the parcels had to be, as nearly as possible, the sort of things they liked and that they were accustomed to eat at home. At the same time, nutritive value had to be as high as possible.
As a general rule the meals which the ordinary housewife provides do consist of the most nourishing foods, even if she does this quite unconsciously. Every woman knows in a general way that she must feed her family on milk, butter or margarine, cheese, meat, fish, eggs, fruit, vegetables, and so on, if they are going to keep fit and have enough energy to do their work and enjoy their leisure. These had to go into the parcels. Then there were certain things that everyone knew without being told that prisoners would want – chocolate, tea, jam, biscuits, good satisfying puddings and other articles.
Next came the big problem – did this mixed parcel contain sufficient vitamins, calcium, iron, protein, etc., and was there enough energy-giving food? The experts added the nutritive value of the parcel to that provided by the camp rations, compared the total with the quantities which a man is known to require daily, and reported that there was a shortage of protein and calcium. They also said that the quantity of certain vitamins must be increased somehow, especially those known as A, B1 and C. So they advised that some of the foods should be “fortified” – that is, the necessary vitamins, etc., added. The taste would not be affected, and the prisoners would not know that anything had been put in.
Vitamins could not be added to just any article, but only to particular foods. Everyone knows that there is a great deal of “swopping” carried on in the camps, so the Red Cross had to try to make sure that the really important additions were put into those foods which the prisoners were least likely to exchange.
Practically every man ate his own ration of biscuits, so the required calcium was put into the flour of which the biscuits were made and also into the oatmeal, which the prisoners liked for making porridge. Vitamin C which is important in preventing scurvy, was added to the jam. And as most prisoners do not give away their chocolate, vitamins A, B1, and other necessaries were put into the weekly quarter-pound packet. The protein was provided by a generous allowance of cheese, milk, meat and fish in every parcel; the weekly half-pound of butter or margarine supplied enough fats, and the fruit, vegetables and other foods made up other deficiencies.
There was also the important question of preventing the parcels from being monotonous, as far as it could be done, for if a man was going to get the same parcel week after week for years he would obviously become so sick of the food in it that he would not be able to eat it with the same enjoyment and benefit. The Red Cross determined always to have a number of different parcels being packed and to change the whole set every few months.
Not all parcels had cocoa in them, but a large number had. Some had pancake batter, which most of the prisoners love, and though it did not supply much nourishment it was so popular that a little was always sent. Bacon was alternated with sausages and dried fruit with puddings. After some time dried eggs came along. Quite apart from the fun which prisoners get out of making all sorts of dishes which are only possible with eggs, the nutritive value is exceedingly high.
In this way food parcels were achieved which gave the prisoners as much nourishment as could be fitted into the box, and at the same time supplied food which was of the highest quality that could be procured. As Canadian, New Zealand and British parcels are pooled for distribution, the weekly diet was varied still further and the standard of nourishment increased.
As a result of these efforts medical advisors have said that men can, in an emergency, live for a considerable time without serious danger to their health on half a parcel a week, and this has been confirmed by more than one returned prisoner of war.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
The Brighter Side
[inserted] The paragraphs on this page are based on letters from prisoners of war. Most of them refer to activities in the big base camps and it should not be assumed that they are typical of conditions in all camps or in outlying working detachments where facilities for sport and amusement are much fewer. [/inserted]
[photograph]
August Bank Holiday, Sports and Carnival at Stalag 383.
THERE has been plenty of international football at Stalag IVB. At soccer, England lost to Scotland, while the amateurs triumphed over the professionals. And South Africa has beaten Wales at rugby after first defeating the Anzacs.
Shows put on recently have included [italics] The Barratts of Wimpole Street, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and The Petrified Forest, [/italics] and as one soldier writes: “If you could see the Empire Theatre, I am sure it would shake you more than somewhat.” The camp has enough good musicians to supply a theatre orchestra, two dance bands, a light classical orchestra and a brass band. Several pieces of music have been composed.
An Unholy Noise
Music is also composed at Stalag 357, but in a rather more original way. Nor is it apparently always received with rapturous applause. Thus one letter relates: “My mucker has taken to playing the flute, and what an unholy noise. Paddy, our Irish mucker, says it reminds him of a banshee howling in an Irish bog. I can't even get a squawk out of the thing. Another weapon they have here is a Sousaphone – It looks like a ship's ventilator and produces a sound like an air-raid siren with a cold. Apart from this, we're a happy family . . .”
Camp Club Life
From Stalag IVB comes news of the formation of two new clubs. One is a Birmingham club, known as the “Forward Club,” and the other is the “Devon and Cornwall Club,” the membership of which is already well over the hundred mark, and one prisoner has written to say that he has been chosen to enter an Empire Day carnival dressed as Sir Francis Drake. They will probably be looking around for club mascots soon. In one hut a cat gave birth to five kittens in a parcel box under a bed and these are now used as mascots for the football team.
There are plenty of other camp pets for them to choose from. One man shaking his mattress found a nest of mice inside it, and the camp dog has just presented them with her third litter. There are also nine baby sparrows that were accidentally ejected from their nest when they were about a week old. No one thought they would live, but they managed to survive on a diet of parcel food, and two have already made a test flight and returned to the box in which they live.
English Films
They had a pleasant surprise in Stalag VIIIC when instead of the usual German film they saw an American one called [italics] Orchestra Wives [/italics] with Glen Miller's orchestra. And a captain of Oflag VIIB writes that it was a big event when they saw their first film in English at the camp; it was a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers' musical comedy, [italics] Shall We Dance, [/italics] which he says they all enjoyed tremendously.
Triangular Sports
They took advantage of a spell of really hot weather to organise a triangular sports meeting at Oflag VIIC. A military band provided the musical entertainment, and “the Dominions beat Scotland with England a poorish third.”
A brass band complete with banner played gallantly all the afternoon at the sports meeting organised at Luft III and the events were run off like clockwork. Away to one side were the side shows, “coconut” shies, roulette, darts and many others. Most popular of all was the show organised by “a gentleman with a red nose” who implored everybody to roll up and see his troupe of native dancers, brought straight from the Zambesi, do their famous firewalking [sic] act. Finally, the band rounded off the day by giving an open-air concert.
A Change of Air
A private writes from Sonder Kommando 517 that he has been having a “change of air and a change of scenery” for four or five weeks helping to provide entertainment for the two hundred-odd men there for a rest. The majority had been working in the mines and hadn't seen a show for a long time.
There were forty in the concert party, including twenty or so of the camp orchestra who went to play during the shows and who also gave band concerts of their own. Our correspondent writes of his own part, “I myself am doing the stage setting, make up, looking after the costumes and wigs and learning up my lines for the next show in my spare moments.”
The Lambeth Walk
The latest entertainment at the theatre at Stalag 344 was provided by the [italics] Lambeth Walk, [/italics] based on Lupino Lane's famous show at the Victoria Palace, [italics] Me and My Girl. [/italics] It was a great success, and one of the audience writes to say that they laughed for a solid two hours. Nor do they have all their fun indoors. The struggle to win the “P.o.W. Association Cup” provided plenty of thrills. The final was eventually won by Manchester, who beat the London team, West Ham, by 3 goals to 1. And their carrots, onions, lettuce and cucumbers are almost ready. So everything in the garden appears to be fine.
[photograph]
They are proud of their vegetables at Ila. VIIIZ.
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 5
The Letters They Write Home
[photograph]
Men from Camp O at the Military Internment Camp, Bornhausen. Most of the internees from Switzerland are home now.
Prison Test Match
Stalag 383. 22.8.44.
THE Test Match resulted in a draw, but we had our fill of excitement. Aussie put England to bat on a drying wicket and they made 242. Aussie were put out for 225. England second innings 220 for 8, declared, leaving Aussie 2 1/2 hours' batting. Appreciating the sporting gesture, they went out for runs and we saw some of the best cricket ever.
A quick wicket at 8 runs; the next fell at 201 (!) and left half an hour to go, and then the fireworks really started. In the last over, having previously lost two more wickets, they lost four more trying to get 15 runs to win. A 6, a 4 and 2 singles left 4 runs to make sure, off the last ball, but a really magnificent piece of fielding got a run out, and everybody was very, very pleased by a splendid effort by both sides to force a decision.
From a Hospital Chaplain
Stalag VB. 17.7.44.
SINCE it is not yet possible to return home to you and to the children, I am immensely grateful for the privilege of being here at this military hospital. I find that those who have suffered most are often the most cheerful. The fellows are a real tonic and it is a joy to seek to serve them.
The new chapel we have created on the top floor looks lovely, decorated in white and two tints of pale blue with three “port-hole” windows above the altar, and the men have manufactured the electric fittings with a concealed light above the little sanctuary. Best of all, the interest of the men in the services is, I believe, very real: the room is filled to capacity at night. Some come on crutches, others on stretchers.
I walked for 2 1/2 hours to-day with medical orderlies and German sentry. There are glorious pine forests and hills, reminding me of holidays in Switzerland and in Canada.
I cannot tell you how happy I am to be here. Words seem too paltry, too feeble to say what I am feeling – the joy of experiencing the love of Christ reaching out to others who have suffered so much; the joy of seeing the love of Christ in so many who have found Him in their suffering.
Hard Work Suits Him
Stalag IVF. 14.8.44.
MY time is well filled. Work from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., then wash, eat, bath and bed. This is for six days, and then our “day of rest” with washing and a 101 other jobs. Never a dull moment, eh!
My hands are as corny and hard as any navvy's, engrained with dirt and my nails are broken and disgraceful. I've certainly developed a lot more muscle and am very brown and fit-looking as we work stripped to the waist.
We are surrounded by lovely country, with rabbits, squirrels etc., and wild raspberries all round us (the strawberries are finished).
I am quite happy in the camp. They are very friendly lads and our working gang of 14 are a fine set of fellows, and considering the hard work and graft we keep amazingly cheerful. What I don't know about plate-laying isn't worth knowing! I am more at home with a pick and shovel, too, as you will see by my writing.
Life of Variety
Oflag 79. 21.8.44.
ANOTHER move has brought me to this, my permanent address – a much larger place, highly organised.
This evening I could have seen [italics] Sweeney Todd the Barber [/italics] or a German film, but it is a joy to write a letter for a change. There are two theatres in the camp with stages cunningly contrived from Red Cross packing cases. I saw a nostalgic London revue the other night – the pre-war London, of course, with elegant masculine dancing damsels and the literally flickering lights of Piccadilly – an advertisement for Veno's drugs and for Bovril. “Crazy Girl” starring Judy Garland, was on view last night, but as the cinema gets a bit hot with the windows shut, I preferred a gramophone concert – overture to “Die Meistersinger,” and a piano concerto by Brahms.
Education comprises five faculties: languages, engineering science and maths., commerce, agriculture, law.
My German classes have necessarily lapsed and I am pleased to be able to concentrate on a little purposeful reading.
Three boys from school are here – I am meeting them for a morning drink tomorrow. One came to make my acquaintance this evening. I could hardly recognise him, so bald are some of my generation becoming.
Don't imagine life is one riot of pleasure, or that I shall be sorry to leave such entertainment.
Fit and Tanned
Stalag Luft 3. 11.7.44.
ALL our spare time is spent outside. We sunbathe and even go out in a thunderstorm with hardly anything on, and I am getting a nice tan. I can even say that I am fitter now than when I was shot down. We have had a nice lot of fresh vegetables sent in, and the other day had a good feed of onions. We have also had food from our own garden.
A Day in IVB
Stalag IVB. 2.8.44.
THIS is a brief summary of a day in the camp: Reveille, 6 a.m.; roll call 6.30. Brew of tea and breakfast (usually few biscuits or toast). Wash and tidy up and then stroll round compound while hut is being swept. The distance right round the two larger compounds together is approximately three quarters of a mile. Drink of tea again at 10 o'clock. Weight-lifting class, 10.30 till 11.30 a.m. German potatoes and vegetables issued next, but we keep
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
[photograph]
Camp building at Stalag IVD/ZW Heilag on Queen Ann of Saxony's Estate, from which many repatriations take place.
the spuds and re-fry them about 4 o'clock with something from the parcel and another brew.
At 8 p.m. comes the second roll call, followed by a free-for-all fight to be first back in the barrack for supper, which is usually the same as breakfast. We usually manage five brews a day from one packet of English tea per week! The in between time is easily filled.
Raisin Wine and Other Brews
Oflag 79. 19.7.44.
OUR food situation has improved at the eleventh hour. English parcels are arriving to-day – and more to come.
We play a variety of squash rackets here now in a room in the basement with wooden rackets and a tennis ball, and it is very good exercise, but more important, it is a change.
I am experimenting with a raisin wine this week. Some people have had remarkable results with brews.
The Next Holiday . . .
Stalag XXID. 24.7.44.
OUR holiday is nearly over and we go back to our own camp this week. It has been grand – English pictures, sport, swimming and excursions to the Olympic Sports Stadium and to Potsdam. A real holiday in every sense of the word. I can go back in the hope that the next holiday will be with you and the kiddies.
Everything has been done to make us feel that we were human beings and not criminals. I shall always remember this three weeks, and now I am ready to go back to work feeling fitter and fresher than I have been for the last four years.
All-English camp
Stalag VIIIB. 19.7.44.
THIS is an all-English camp now. We are having quite a sort out of Colonial troops, the New Zealanders going to one camp, Australians to another, and South Africans to another, leaving our camp only 300 strong – all English.
I have been very lucky by being put on a staff job in my own trade (joiner). So you will see that I have stopped working down under and hope to be on top for good now. We haven't used the basement yet which I helped to build, but we have had one or two black-outs.
[photograph]
A recent photograph of the hospital staff at Stalag IVA.
Flying Cucumbers
Stalag XXB. 1.8.44.
THE weather is very warm and sultry here, but my garden is doing fine. Tomato plants are 4ft. high and cucumbers about 4in. long. I had to fix a new fence to-day – two cucumbers took wings.
Six nationalities in my village, and my brain is in a whirl trying to speak one at a time. I made macaroni to-day with tuition by [italics] the [/italics] experts.
Summer Pursuits
Marlag und Milag Nord (Marlag “O”). 14.8.44.
CRICKET rather restricted through lack of bats and balls, but we have some good games.
I had another parole walk last week, my second, and thoroughly enjoyed the change. We walked through some lovely woods and picked blackberries, and the workers in the fields gave us some peas.
I am due to go to the holiday camp in Bavaria in a fortnight's time for a month – eight officers go at a time from here and seem to enjoy themselves, so I am looking forward to it and am keen, too, to see a bit more of Germany.
We had an arts and crafts exhibition yesterday; there is a naval war artist here. Some of his paintings and sketches were first-class. There were also wood carvings, ship models and knitting.
Red Cross parcels coming in well and mail has improved.
The “New” 357
Stalag 357. 12.8.44.
AFTER a decent train journey we arrived here three days ago. When it is completed and things get organised a bit I reckon it will be quite a good camp. We are seventy-two to a big room and we all have beds, good cooking facilities and, of course, Red Cross food parcels – so things are not too bad.
We went for a swim yesterday. We have a good swimming pool but it is rather dirty, not having been used for a long time. It will be fine when it is cleaned out.
Some of the chaps have received mail here – quick work, eh?
Repatriation Camp
Stalag IVD/ZW. Heilag. Recent, but undated.
I AM working on the staff at a repatriation camp. The camp here is definitely the best I have been in since a prisoner of war. The accommodation
[photograph]
Interior of hut at Stalag XXB.
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 7
is very good and treatment is fine – the whole atmosphere seems entirely different from anywhere else, and I feel a lot more contented knowing I am doing something for these lads.
His Spanish Class
Stalag Luft I. 6.7.44.
OUR garden is doing fine. We have already had one lot of mustard and cress and one lot of radishes. The lettuces have scarcely done anything since we planted them a month ago as little plants; but they haven't died, so perhaps they were waiting for the warmer weather which we are now having.
We had two films last week: one with Richard Dix – “The Iron Road” – with plenty of riding and shooting. The second was Judy Garland in “Presenting Lily Mars,” and it gave us many laughs.
My Spanish class has suffered the fate of most classes and dwindled considerably, but six have stuck it out. We have just done all the grammar absolutely necessary and a couple are expressing themselves quite well. As we only have two periods a week it is really quite satisfactory as there have been interruptions. It says a lot for them that they have kept on.
[photograph]
Posing with a smile at Stalag XIA.
Improving His Russian
Oflag 79.
I WAS very pleased to be able to borrow a copy of Pushkin's “Captain's Daughter” the other day from a brilliant young linguist who has just come into the camp. To try and get my Russian a little more accurate I am starting to try and teach three lads who want to learn it. I have been helping another lad for an hour every day for the last six weeks, in which time we have finished the first part of Vol. I, “War and Peace.”
[photograph]
Half a pint of the “best” at Stalag IVG.
Full Programme
Stalag 357. 28.7.44.
LIFE is not as bad in a prison camp as you think. This is how I fill in my time: 6.45 p.m., [sic] get up; 7.15 a.m., breakfast; 8.15 a.m., roll call; 9 a.m., take sick parade. Then either do some washing or darning socks till 12 noon. 12.30, dinner; 2 p.m. rugby; 3 p.m., cold shower under pumps; 4.30, tea; 6.30, basket ball; 7 p.m., supper; then a walk around the camp; 9 p.m., bed.
Invalid Diet
Stalag 344. 13.8.44.
I HAVE been ill with the old complaint but, thanks to the medical side of the Red Cross, I have been living on Ovaltine, Horlick's, rice pudding, jellies and fruit. I feel in the pink again now.
A prisoner of war's life would be most miserable if it were not for the splendid aid of the Red Cross.
Tomatoes Better at Home
Stalag Luft III. 15.7.44.
WE are getting through the summer and our garden has started producing. So far we have had some lettuce, onions and radishes. Amongst other things not yet ready are peas, beans cabbages, Indian corn, cucumber, marrow and tomatoes. It is very useful being able to grow tomatoes out of doors, but I think our own climate is better. This goes too much from intense heat to torrential rain with a lot of thunder. I'd give a lot to see some good old-fashioned Scottish weather.
[photograph]
American Independence Day on July 4th was celebrated in style at Ilag VII where many Channel Islanders are interned.
Harvest Time
Stalag IVF. 17.8.44.
CORN harvest is in full swing, and on a walk lately we watched six binders at work in quite a small area. The miles of corn fields are a lovely sight. There are a few tractors, but most farms use horses, and I saw a bullock reinforcing a pair of horses in a binder! Cattle in the waggons are common, of course.
[inserted] SEND US YOUR PICTURES AND LETTERS
TEN SHILLINGS will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate sheet of paper, showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten Shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James's Palace, London, S.W.1. The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
Official Reports from the Camps
[inserted] In every case where conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the
Protecting Power has acted it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/inserted]
[photograph]
B.A.B. 21. Marching and (below) other prisoners resting.
[photograph]
STALAG LUFT IV, TYCHOW
Another new camp situated in “safe” country about 30 miles from the sea in the north of Germany. At present the camp is still being built but when finished and various minor adjustments have been made it will be a good camp. When completed there will be five compounds – one to be used for administrative offices, storehouse for Red Cross parcels, camp lazaret, delousing plant, etc. The other four will be living accommodation for 6,400 British and American prisoners of war – 1,600 in each compound. At the time of the visit only one was completed and inhabited. The following report, therefore, is based on one-quarter of the camp only.
Each compound is composed of 10 living huts for 160 prisoners each, and will consist of a separate camp. The barracks are of the usual new type of German wooden huts with a central passage and five sleeping rooms on either side for 16 prisoners. The rooms are furnished with double-tier beds, one or two tables, and enough stools for all the prisoners. Each prisoner has two blankets.
Lighting (day and night) is adequate and coal stoves will be installed in each room. Ventilation at night is bad owing to the wooden shutters. Lights out at 11 p.m.
Washing and toilet facilities are not at present adequate, but the Camp Commander will issue more basins, etc. Water has to be drawn from a pump outside the huts. There is hot water, but no showers. A delousing plant is under construction and when this is completed showers will be available.
Prisoners of war do their own cooking in a large well-appointed kitchen. The food issued appears good and sufficient – no complaints received. At the moment there are no facilities for cooking individual Red Cross parcels (a consignment was received from Geneva and a stock is held), but a large stove has been ordered and will be installed in the main kitchen for this purpose. In the meantime certain items such as meat and fish are extracted from the Red Cross parcels and cooked in the main kitchen for the whole camp.
Each compound has its own sports field, but at present there are no organised recreational facilities. The Y.M.C.A. have promised to send sports gear, games, books, etc. There is no canteen so far in the camp. The position with regard to clothing, laundry, mail and religious activity will be greatly improved when the camp is completed and thoroughly organised.
(Visited June, 1944.)
STALAG 344, LAMSDORF
Since the last visit in February, there has been a slight reduction in the number of prisoners of war in the camp. At present there are 9,525 British and 121 Americans in the main camp, 9,658 British in the 237 work detachments, and 576 British in hospital. This reduction at the main camp has resulted in a lessening of the overcrowding, and none of the lower bunks are now used.
The chief deficiency at present is the water supply, which is still quite inadequate for a camp of this size; consequently bathing and toilet facilities are also bad and insufficient.
No complaints were made on the food, but the potato ration has again been cut and substitutes by millet or barley.
A new barracks is being constructed in the camp infirmary to be used as consulting rooms. This will greatly relieve the overcrowding in the sleeping quarters of the M.O.s. There are 18 M.O.s and three dental officers. The situation in the camp hospital is much better, there being no overcrowding. The supply of drugs in the infirmary and hospital has improved lately.
The clothing situation is still bad and stocks held are only sufficient to clothe new prisoners of war. The installation of the new laundry is now completed; 250 men are able to do their washing every day.
Recreational facilities are better than ever before. Soccer and Rugger teams from work detachments are able to visit the main camp. The standard of the theatrical shows remains high and is well supported by the Camp Commandant. Mail has improved.
(Visited June, 1944.)
WORK DETACHMENTS DEPENDENT ON STALAG 344
Detachments 117 and 118, Bolka. – 38 prisoners of war form Detachment 117 and 37 prisoners of war Detachment 118. Both detachments work in factories, the former making concrete and the latter linseed-cake.
The living quarters at Detachment 117, which are in two buildings of the factory, are rather overcrowded. A wooden barrack is under construction which will improve the position and also enable the men to be out of doors after working hours. At present they are
[photograph]
A Boxing match at Stalag VIIIB draws a large crowd.
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 9
[photograph]
The football team at Stalag 344
locked into their living quarters except for two hours recreation time, which is spent by the nearby river Oder swimming or playing ball games.
At Detachment 118 the men live in a small stone house near the factory. At present there is no overcrowding. Swimming in the Oder and ball games in the courtyard of the factory are allowed.
Mail is satisfactory but slow. A padre from Stalag 344 visits both detachments. Cooking and laundry is satisfactorily done by German women. There is no canteen at either detachment, but there are stoves at both for the cooking of private parcels. Washing and bathing and toilet facilities are adequate. Medical attention is good.
Detachment E.165, Oppeln Oderhafen. – This is not such a good detachment. 64 prisoners of war are engaged in loading and unloading barges in the harbour. The living room is unsatisfactorily situated in two old barracks. A new and better barracks is, however, being built. There is no overcrowding. Washing and toilet facilities are inadequate. German women are not cooking the prisoners of war food satisfactorily. The prisoners of war do their own laundry.
Recreational facilities are meagre but will improve when the new barracks are finished, affording a larger compound.
Detachment E.196, Oppeln Hafen. – 66 British prisoners of war are working in a cement factory. This detachment is quite good, the prisoners living in a large stone building belonging to the factory. A new kitchen is to be installed which will enable the men to cook their own food.
Detachments E.275, Gross Stein; E.100, Tarnau; E.428, Dershau; E.770, Ottmuth; and E.132, Gogolin, were also visited. The men are engaged in work of various kinds, chiefly in factories. The conditions in these camps are reasonably good with the exception of E.275, which at present is very unsatisfactory.
(Visited June, 1944.)
STALAG VIIIB, TESCHEN
There have been few changes here since the last visit. The camp is still merely an administrative centre for the surrounding labour detachments and is very satisfactory. There are at present 724 prisoners in the camp, of whom 20 were in the infirmary. There are three M.O.s and two chaplains in camp. With regard to mail, letters are bad and parcels good. The Man of Confidence is able to visit the work camps whenever he wishes.
(Visited June, 1944.)
TOST HOSPITAL
This is a new hospital intended to serve the coal-mining area in Upper Silesia (Stalag VIIIB). It is situated in the former civilian internee camp at Tost which is being converted into a hospital. There will be three separate compounds for British, Russian and Italian prisoners of war. The British section when completed should prove to be entirely adequate with all the necessary facilities for comfortable wards, operating theatre, laboratories, X-ray room, etc. At present there are only 16 British patients, but the compound will have a capacity for 200.
Fourteen British M.O.s (of whom 13 have recently arrived from Italy), one dentist and one padre are already at the hospital. There are also 133 medical orderlies, all of whom may not be required. When completed this should be a very satisfactory hospital. The German General commanding the prisoners in Wehr VIII seems very anxious to do all he can to improve conditions for all prisoners.
CIVIL PENITENTIARY, WARTENBURG
Treatment of the four British prisoners of war here is satisfactory. There were no serious complaints.
(Visited June, 1944.)
B.A.B. 21
The only change at this camp since the last visit has been the replacement of the dental officer. There were no complaints from the 1,157 prisoners. The chief difficulty, which is common to all camps in Germany, is the shortage of materials for working overalls. The best musicians and entertainers from this camp are being sent to the holiday camp at Genshagen.
Air-raid precautions are adequate.
The men manage to smuggle fresh eggs into the camp on their return from work, although the guards search each prisoner in turn.
(Visited June, 1944.)
MILITARY PRISON GRAUDENZ
There has been some improvement in the conditions at Graudenz since the last visit in March. 315 British and two American prisoners are at present undergoing detention, 250 of whom will be shortly transferred to a special labour detachment near Wormditt, in East Prussia, to work in the forests.
Bulk food from Red Cross sources is sent from Stalag XXA which increases the proportion of parcels to four per man per month. Medical and dental treatment is good. A padre from Stalag XXA visits the prison regularly, but is not allowed to give Holy Communion. Until they are moved to the special labour detachment the men are engaged in digging air-raid shelters in the town. Books are exchanged regularly with Stalag XXA.
(Visited June, 1944.)
WORK DETACHMENTS DEPENDENT ON STALAG VIIIB
Detachments E.72 and E.411, Beuthen. – E.72 is badly overcrowded. There are 597 prisoners here, and 41 at E.411, which is a better camp. Both detachments are working for the same firm.
There has been little change at Detachments E.209, E.580 and E.538 since the last visits. The men at E.538 are expecting to be moved shortly. Detachment 746, Königshütte is still under construction, but when completed should
[page break]
10 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
[photograph]
Fourteen of the prisoners at Stalag 398. General conditions at this camp are satisfactory.
be a good camp. A new camp is also being built for the prisoners at E.724; conditions in the existing camp are fairly satisfactory.
193 prisoners at E.734 are working on the railway line from six to eight hours daily. They have a day and a half free each week. There were no serious complaints at this detachment.
Detachment E.587 was visited for the first time and found to be an excellent camp. The 297 British prisoners of war work in the coal mines. There are two shifts – the day shift from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the night shift from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Every other Sunday is free.
Both working and living conditions are satisfactory. The men have a hot shower daily at the mine. There is a large stock of Red Cross parcels – the prisoners can cook their own food. Football is played daily outside the camp.
643 prisoners at E.715 are engaged on constructional work for a local firm. Their living conditions are satisfactory.
(Visited June, 1944.)
STALAG 398, PUPPING
There are only 15 men in the camp at Pupping, the remaining 586 are in the surrounding work camps. Stalag headquarters is accommodated in a large and airy barrack. The men have single beds and the general conditions are satisfactory.
(Visited June, 1944.)
Work Detachments dependent on Stalag 398. – All detachments visited gave a good impression and general conditions were satisfactory.
The ten prisoners at Detachment C.2797/L, Aschach, are well accommodated in freshly whitewashed rooms in the Castle of Aschach facing the Danube. The prisoners are engaged on forestry work.
Detachment C.2813L, Haag, is situated in a former monastery. The ten prisoners do forestry and agricultural work. The hunting box belonging to the Duke of Brunswick – Cumberland, is the headquarters of Detachment C.2789/L, near the small Alpine lake of Almsee. The 20 prisoners work in the forest. The 15 prisoners at C.2811/L also do forestry work and are happily accommodated on the first floor of a concrete building.
Prisoners at Detachments C.2810/L, and C.2535/L, are all engaged in forestry work; living accommodation in these camps is good. To reach Detachment C.1278/L at Schwarzer See, two hours' mountain climbing is necessary. These prisoners of war also work in the forests.
(Visited June, 1944.)
STALAG XVIIA, KAISERSTEINBRUCH
There have been few changes in this camp since the last visit. There are still 608 prisoners in the camp, chiefly non-working N.C.O.s, and consequently the overcrowding has only decreased slightly.
There are two prime movements, one is the inauguration of a large new recreation room and the other is the installation of extra showers so that each man has one every week.
Books continue to arrive daily and a good library is being built up. The clothing position is still poor and the mail situation is deteriorating. Dental treatment is unsatisfactory.
(Visited June, 1944.)
Work Detachments Dependent on Stalag XVIIA. – The three detachments visited were all reported to be good. They were A.7013/L, (strength 20 prisoners of war), A/941/GW (strength 68 prisoners of war) and A/E1498 (strength 121 prisoners of war). All these prisoners of war are engaged on surface work.
(Visited June, 1944.)
HOSPITAL IIA, VIENNA
Five British and eight American prisoners receive excellent medical treatment at this lazaret, which greatly impressed the visiting inspector.
(Visited June, 1944.)
FREISING HOSPITAL
Medical treatment at this hospital is also excellent. At present there are 72 British and 79 American patients. The medical staff is assisted by one American doctor with three American and two British medical orderlies.
(Visited June, 1944.)
CAMP LIST
STALAG 357 AND STYALAG 355
WE are now informed that Stalag 357 has [italics[ not [/italics] been closed, but that the camp has been moved from Thorn to Oerbke, near Fallingbostel (Map Square C.4).
So far as it [sic] known at present, there are no British prisoners at Stalag 355.
Please add the following to your camp list: STALAG IIIC, ALT DREWITZ. Map Reference F.4. (Camp reopened for Indian prisoners.)
Please delete STALAG 6.
We understand that civilian internees previously at Giromagny, Belfort, France, are now at a camp in Germany, the address of which is: ILAG WESTERTIMKE, Bei BREMEN, GERMANY. Map Reference C.3.
Green Howards’ Fund
5,743 clothing parcels, 1,543,800 cigarettes, and 1,600 lb. of tobacco have been despatched to prisoners of war in Germany by the Green Howards' Comforts and Prisoners of War Fund which helps men of the regiment.
The Fund has received many individual requests of a special nature from prisoners, and in response to these has been instrumental in supplying books of all kinds, gramophone records, water colours, spectacles, etc.
A gift of £2,629 has been sent by the Fund to the British Red Cross Society.
[photograph]
A large group gathers for a photograph at Stalag 344, which is one of the biggest camps in Germany.
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 11
SCENES FROM CAMP SHOWS
“The Ghost Train.” of which scenes are illustrated below, was produced by internees at Civilian Camp, Ilag Kreuzburg, Germany. Later, they were allowed to perform it at Stalag 344, which is a neighbouring prisoner of war camp, where it ran for 14 days and was seen by an audience of 9,000 men. An extra matinee was given at the end of the run to meet the demand.
[photograph]
[photograph]
[photograph]
[photograph]
“Charley's Aunt” was produced by a theatrical party from Stalag 344 (formerly VIIIB) who were allowed to show it at the Civilian Camp, Ilag Kreuzburg. The Camp captain's comment on the “ladies” in this party was: “the ladies were too good to be true, or perhaps too true to be good.”
Notes on Oflag VA
LIVELY ACCOUNTS BY TWO OFFICER P.O.W.s
YOU ask what the camp is like, so here is a description. Situated in a small valley amidst hilly country, thickly wooded and very beautiful. View of approximately two miles one way and 400 yards the other three; a hill at one end with farm, vineyard and a civilian swimming pool; Sugar Loaf Hill the other end, surmounted by a picturesque old castle, with quaint little village nestling at its foot.
Aspect that of any barracks the world over – acres and acres surrounded by all the paraphernalia one expects round a prison camp! Contains 15 army wooden huts. Double-berth beds, two tables and a stool and cupboard in each.
In the space outside, of the 400 x 50 yards, there are a few small trees, one baseball field, two basket ball, three hand ball, five tennis quoits, and slit trenches for all of us. In the evening it’s like Oxford Street on a Saturday morning! Recently, we get the walk to a sports field 1 1/2 miles away in the woods and one ordinary walk per two weeks.
Usual pastimes are watching farming ops., trains pass and the local fair sex in the pool. After two years one develops telescopic eyes even at 400 yards – or imagination!!
“Cabaret Balalaika”
WE have just opened the “Cabaret Balalaika.” Nightly at 6 a huge crowd gather outside the “Empire Theatre” to watch guests arriving to dine – nearly all arrive in fancy dress or smart uniform. Famous Bill Millet, D.S.O., is the brilliantly dressed commissionaire ushering in the diners. They gasp as they see for the first time the transformed theatre.
The whole ceiling is light baby blue, the walls treated in graded shades of blue ranging from light to royal – single-line animal décor fill the dark panels in apricot to match the other furnishings, brilliant white napery, glittering silver and glass, and bowls of brilliant flowers fill the tables. Smartly uniformed waiters, mâitre d'hotel and head waiters in immaculate tails strut the floor shepherding diners to their reserved tables. The males seek the bar, their ladies gossip together admiring their dresses. On the stage a large accordion bands [sic] plays lively music.
“Dinner is served,” a five-course dinner commencing with iced soup, to coffee and [italics] petit fours, [/italics] during which the accordions are replaced by a Gypsy Orchestra, the leader serenading the ladies on his violin. Then the Cabaret dance Orchestra, immaculate in white monkey jackets with blue lapels, bow ties and cummerbunds, play. The guests dance, the wine flows freely, a beautiful iced cake is raffled nightly and each night £35 or so goes to the Y.M.C.A.
In a spot-lit semi-circle on the floor comes the first turn of the floor show.
All the best features of London clubs have been hired to entertain – “Ranson and Rossita,” dancing divinely, “The Masqueraders.” a Russian trio in excellent voice; “Bubbles” that famous child impersonator; the “Western Brothers,” as British as ever; a fencing dance to rumba rhythm, and a musical mime “Hey Taxi.”
The floor show is over, the diners dance – the iced cake is presented to the lucky ticket holder – the guests depart. Three hours of London night life have been brought to every officer in Oflag VA.
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
[inserted] How They Help
In addition to those mentioned below, we wish to thank the many kind readers whose help to the Funds this month we cannot find room to record here individually [/inserted]
[photograph]
This three-year-old of Westcliff-on-Sea collected £1 14s. 11 1/2d. for her uncle a prisoner of war for 4 years.
THE magnificent sum of 1,000 guineas was recently accepted by Dr. Shaw from the Northampton and County Master Butchers' Association on “cheque” night. Mr. A. E. Smith, treasurer of the Association, recalled how he had suggested a few months before, at the time when his nephew was taken prisoner, that a subscription list should be opened. £100 was granted by the Association, and it was decided to aim at £250. This amount was very quickly raised and the target continually increased until the final sum was achieved.
A gymkhana, horticultural exhibition and fête in aid of the Red Cross, organised by well-known members of the High Wycombe Furniture Trade, was attended by 3,000 people and yielded the splendid total of £712. The gymkhana events, which attracted a large number of entries, included some of the best horses in the county. H.M. Queen Geraldine of the Albanians presented the prizes and a guard of honour was formed by the Buckinghamshire Constabulary, the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance Brigade.
Belfast Helps P.O.W.s
There has been a lot of activity in Belfast in aid of prisoners of war. More than £500 was raised and nearly all the goods offered were sold in the first hour at a sale of fruit, vegetables and groceries held at Wandsworth House by “F” Group of the Civil Defence Authority. The children's fancy dress parade which was held on this occasion showed great variety and ingenuity. A prize for the most original costume was awarded to Elizabeth McClure, who carried a lamp and represented the time when the lights “go up,” and Corrie Little, who was dressed as an Eskimo, won the prize for the most handsome costume. “G” District also organised a fruit and vegetable sale.
Shirley Hewett has written to the Solihull Regional Officer of the C.H.S.S. describing how she and her friend Nancy gave a play and a fancy dress parade and served refreshments so that they could send a special contribution of their own. Shirley and her friends are among the many children of Solihull who have contributed in various ways to the regular support given by their town.
Special Efforts of Sportsmen.
News reaches us that sportsmen in many parts of the country have been making special efforts to swell the funds. The Southampton Touring Club have now played their last cricket match of the season and have reached the sum of £400, and, in spite of a very heavy thunderstorm on the morning of the event, the Fund has benefited to the extent of £118 4s. 1d. from a match organised by the Blackpool Cricket Club and played between Jack Iddon's XI and George Duckworth's XI. A wrestling tournament with four contests was held in Portsmouth in aid of prisoners of war, the chief of which was a 60-minute heavyweight bout between George Finnie, of Portsmouth, the heavyweight champion of the Royal Navy, and Stan Jackson of Hammersmith.
More Successful Sales.
Hard work and careful preparation by supporters have produced many more successful sales of work. As the result of a casual suggestion made around the fireside, the family of John Barker, who is at present in Burma, including his mother, sister, and two cousins, set to work “to make something for the Red Cross.” As time went on, more relatives and friends gave assistance, and the church the family attend allowed the use of the men's club for the sale. The sequel came a week later when the seven ladies handed in their takings – £247 9s.
With the help of her friends, Mrs. Gudgin held a very successful sale of work in her garden, which raised £115. Almost everything was home-made and all the goods were sold in double-quick time, as also were the teas at 1s. each.
The women of Tynedale Road and Readbead Savings Group have sent £114, the result of a sale and whist drive held at St. Paul's Hall, South Shields, organised by Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Perry and opened by Mrs. Wilson. The Women's Auxiliary of the Nottingham Boy Scouts' Association held a bring-and-buy sale and the proceeds of £150 were for the Red Cross and the British Sailors' Society. Pamela Haith has given £7 16s. 7d., which she has made by holding a jumble sale.
Among the many pleasurable evenings which have been held with the object of helping prisoners of war was a dance organised by Hoby Village Hall Committee, which realised £27; and Mrs. A. Brown, at Oxted, whose son has been a prisoner since Dunkirk, has raised over £100 from a series of small dances and whist drives.
The Secretary of the Institute of Certified Grocers has forwarded £10 10s. and a further gift of £100 has been received from the Cheltenham Masters' Cake Bag Fund.
Appreciation from Germany.
It is only possible in these columns to record a few of the many ways in which people have been helping the funds, but a letter from Mrs. Harrison's son (by showing which in Liverpool she has collected £10) expresses the appreciation the men who are prisoners of war feel toward those whose hard work and enterprise enables the Red Cross to help them:-
“Congratulations on your collections for the Red Cross. You may tell your subscribers from me that there is not a more deserving organisation. The work they do is terrific. I never dreamed that an organisation could do so much. I think it takes a prisoner of war to realise just how much they do accomplish. It is beyond the comprehension of people who do not come under its direct influence. Good luck to your effort!”
[photograph]
Mr. Day, and old age pensioner of Cwmbran, who, with his wife, raised £45 by selling garden produce and flowers.
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 13
Three Men of the Spearhead
GEO. H. GRIMALDI, Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, tells how he met three prisoners of war on the road to Arnhem
IT was late afternoon when, as I stood in the courtyard of a hospital in a liberated town in Holland, the first of the three men spoke to me.
This hospital had been in enemy occupation only a few hours before. Now it was the location of a Field Dressing Station of the R.A.M.C. Outside, along the divisional axis road of the Second Army's “corridor,” endless double-banked convoys of supplies were racing in the wake of armoured columns for the bridge at Nijmegen.
The ceaseless rumble of wheels and clatter of tracks on the cobbled road deadened the ear-drums until one became conscious of the din only by contrast with the serenity of the flower-bordered quadrangle formed by the hospital buildings of mellow Dutch brick and tile. Above the thunderous bass of the advancing army soared the treble overtone of the cheers of throngs of wildly happy children.
At intervals ambulances swung smoothy through the arched entrance gate to Reception, where alert R.A.M.C. orderlies sprang to co-ordinated action, in which training had welded speed, efficiency and an infinite tenderness.
A little to my left an R.A.S.C. driver was loading a truck from a chaotic mass of abandoned effects of German wounded, so recently evacuated that dark red patches on discarded garments were not yet dry. . .
Details of the pitiful trash heap focussed themselves as I drew closer. Here was the epitome of the enemy's descent from victorious confidence to defeat and despair – dirty uniforms ripped to rags by shell fragments; steel helmets torn as if they had been the paper caps of a boisterous party; a woollen sock standing erect its foot and top stiff and dried with blood, a grotesque hole in the toe; a flashy book ironically open at a page from which frowned the heavy-browed face of Rudolph Hess; a photograph-case holding a stained picture of a stolid round-faced matron and two small boys; an Easter greeting card embellished with a daintily etched spray of snowdrops and beneath, like the trail of a slug, the signature “Seyss-Inquart”; a bundle of rain-soaked letters tied with an old shoe lace; an empty Luger holster caked with bright yellow mud. . .
As I stared at this macabre war museum, repellent yet fascinating, a surprised voice close beside me suddenly exploded into “Good Lord!” Without looking up I said, “Yes. It's quite a mess, isn't it?”
“Oh, I didn't mean that,” said the voice. “I meant your shoulder-flash, Red Cross and St. John.”
I turned to find an R.A.M.C. officer smiling at me.
“Why the surprise?” I asked.
“It was more pleasure than surprise,” he said. “If you knew all that those two little symbols on your flash have meant to me you'd understand and – but hold on a minute. You look about all in. Come on up to the mess. They've just brewed up. I'm the Quarter-Bloke, and you're our first guest.”
I made no objection. By aircraft and jeep, for four days, I had been chasing the spearhead of the Second Army. Tomorrow's daybreak and another ten hours on the road loomed too close.
“Fair enough, “ I said, “Lead on.”
The mess room, barely furnished with two trestle tables and a half-dozen chairs, was refreshingly clean and quiet. The C.O. uncoiled his lean Scottish length from a wicker chair, and I introduced myself by presenting the magic letter from a distinguished R.A.M.C. General which had been my [italics] laissez passer [/italics] through France, Belgium and Holland. It explained my mission and called for co-operation.
“Right,” said the C.O. “What can we do for you?”
“Could I have a corner somewhere for my bedroll for the night, a couple of meals and a car and driver at daybreak?”
“Nothing easier,” he replied. “Q here will lay 'em on for you, and nobody better pleased, eh, Q?” The Quarter-Bloke grinned, I relaxed. The tea was hot, sweet “compo” poured from an enormous enamelled iron pot into thick earthenware mugs. There was no bread, and the biscuits in substitute would have made my dentist tremble for the security of his recent handiwork. Jam, “marge” and cheese completed the fare. Medical officers hurried in, snatched a sup and a bite, and hurried out. Twice the room emptied in response to urgent calls and I was left alone.
The second time I was just on the point of falling asleep when the Quarter-Bloke returned and dropped with a relaxed grunt into the chair beside me. He put out a hand and touched my Red Cross and St. John shoulder-flash. “You know,” he said, 'if there's one place in the corridor where that would serve you as well as the Big Chief's letter, it's here.
You see, the C.O. and I were both prisoners of war for nearly three and a half years. Those two little symbols coming to us every week on food parcels are things that no prisoner of war will ever forget. They were the symbols of a service that brought us out alive from behind the wire.”
“It's good to hear you speak like that.” I said.
“Me!” he answered, “Wait till you hear the C.O. on the subject!”
Late that evening over a glass or two of cognac from a stone jug (into whose former ownership I did not enquire) I did hear the C.O. And, if the cognac contributed its warmth to the bed which had been made up for me in a quiet corner, the C.O.'s words sent me to rest with an even greater glow at the heart – of pride in the privilege of serving the organisation whose symbol my battle-blouse bore. (Contd. next page.)
[photograph]
This barn between Nijmegen and Arnhem was used as a field dressing station
[page break]
14 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
EXAMINATION RESULTS
The Successes on this Page are Reported by the Educational Books Section of the Red Cross
THE list of examination results for the period January to June, 1944, which has been prepared by the Educational Books Section provides fresh evidence of the enthusiasm of prisoners of war for this opportunity to acquire qualifications that will enable them to obtain good peacetime jobs. In the words of the official report, “the results represent a magnificent achievement of concentration and perseverance on the part of the candidates – of all the candidates not only the successful ones.”
Outstanding Honours
Many obtained high honours and distinctions in their examinations. Among these were Lt. F. T. G. F. C. Fletcher and Lt. C. H. W. Troughton, both in the same camp, who obtained First Classes and Certificates of Honour in the Bar Final Examination. Sgt. R. T. Sterling qualified for the Members' Certificate of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland with honours and was awarded prizes to the value of £8. And no less than twenty-four candidates in Oflag VIIB obtained distinction in various papers of the Institute of Industrial Administration, while three more in the same camp passed the Final Examination of the Law Society and were awarded distinction. Capt. G. T. Ward secured the highest number of marks and was awarded the Pickup Medal, which is given annually to the most successful candidate in the final examination of the Incorporated Sales Managers' Association. W/O. G. M. Wright, Lt. E. C. Lynch and Lt. Sir H. J. L. Leslie, Bt. all obtained prizes in the examinations of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries. These are only a selection from the many honours gained by prisoner of war candidates.
London Matriculation
In the first batch of results received from the University of London for prisoner of war candidates who took Matriculation in the camps in January of this year, 168 names appear, from 14 camps. Fifty-two have passed the whole examination, and 47 either Part A or Part B. Twelve passed in supplementary subjects, having previously matriculated; 15 have failed in both parts, and 49 in one part.
The best results in this batch are from Stalag Luft III (East), of the 28 candidates from this camp 10 passed the whole examination (including the Camp Education Officer, a Squadron Leader, who passed in the First Division), 7 passed one part, and 9 passed in supplementary subjects; only two failed in one part.
The entries for supplementary subjects indicate that matriculated students are adding further subjects to their certificates, sometimes for Intermediate purposes, or in some cases testing their progress in additional languages.
Results are still due from nine other camps, including Stalag Luft VI, which sent in a very large number of candidates. This camp obtained very good results at the last Matriculation examination.
Lists Still Available
The list of examination results for the period January to June, 1944, will be sent to next of kin or any others interested. Applications to:-
The Director, Educational Books Section, The New Bodleian, Oxford.
Where possible, 3d. in stamps should be enclosed to cover postage.
Some copies of the list for July – December, 1943, still remain, and can be had on application.
Three Men of the Spearhead
(Continued from previous page)
I left them at daybreak – two men who, by the miracle of the Red Cross organisation, had been kept fit enough in body and mind to be able to minister to the wounded of an army invading the enemy land where their long years of captivity had been spent.
Two days later I caught up with the Regimental Aid Post of a famous armoured unit just south of Arnhem, at which point my mission really began.
By late afternoon I reached a large private hospital in the Nijmegen area where a Field Dressing Station and a Casualty Clearing Station were in operation.
There were about a hundred casualties in the long bare ward in which I laid out my bedroll that night. All had been documented, examined, dressed and bandaged, docketed, fed and bedded down, and now, but for the incessant shelling, the sedatives they had been given would have brought sleep.
The ward, empty of furniture except for a few chairs, trestle tables and panniers in the orderlies' corner, where food, drugs and dressings were kept and issued, grew thick and heavy of atmosphere when the black-out screens were put up. Walls trembled and the windows shivered as the long-range shelling of the German heavies continued through the night. Few could have slept. Many must have been comforting themselves with the thought of being evacuated next day. The burden of pain silently borne hung heavy on the air.
As dawn came a fury of shell-fire ripped the dark mantle of night and flung its fragments in the face of the day. But the misty September sun mounted the sky, and for the first time the guns were stilled.
Black-out screens were taken down. Orderlies sped from stretcher to stretcher with mugs of tea. “Wonder what time they'll start moving us this morning?” said the man by my side.
“I'll find out when I go down to the mess for breakfast.” I answered.
The night-long shelling had seemed purposeful, and there was doubt in my mind. It was only too well confirmed when I went below. No casualties were evacuated that morning nor the next. Between us and Eindhoven the “corridor” had been cut in two places and heavy fighting to restore the situation was still going on.
It was the third morning before we ran the gauntlet with an ambulance convoy to an airfield near Eindhoven. All the afternoon aircraft shuttled between it and Brussels with casualties.
It was on that third morning that the paratrooper called me to his stretcher. I had noticed him several times before, lying very quiet reading a tattered book. His leg wounds were hidden by the blankets which he had thrown from above his waist to reveal a torso as magnificent as any in a Raphael sketch. Muscle rippled swiftly from wrist to shoulder and waist as he moved. The lower ribs opened and closed like great bellows to his deep steady breathing.
I bent over him and asked what he needed. He smiled and pointed to my shoulder-flash. “I thought it was,” he said Good old Red Cross and St. John. I just wanted to make sure.”
Two medical orderlies had just previously told me that they had been St. John members before the war, and I asked him if he was another.
“No,” he replied. “I was a prisoner of war for two and a half years and escaped. I could never have made it if those Red Cross parcels hadn't kept coming. There's not a man who has made a 'break' who didn't owe his freedom to 'em. You've just got to have strength and stamina to duck out of a Jerry prison camp and keep out and get home. Whoever made up those parcels knew what a man wanted to keep him up to scratch. You can tell 'em so from me.” He put out his hand and grinned, and I hope I did not show how I felt when he gripped. A few hours later I saw him into a Dakota bound for Britain. I've no doubt he told the smart young W.A.A.F medical orderly that [italics] he [/italics] liked his tea hot and sweet, but also [italics] strong! [/italics]
[page break]
November, 1944 The Prisoner of War 15
Servicemen's Gloves
EASILY KNITTED ON TWO NEEDLES IN 4-PLY WOOL
[photograph]
Reproduced by courtesy of Harrap Bros. (Sirdar Wools) Ltd.
[knitting pattern and instructions]
[page break]
[inserted] [symbols] M [/inserted]
16 The Prisoner of War November, 1944
[underlined] Please Note [/underlined]
CHRISTMAS LETTERS
Ban on Greetings Cards and Calendars
THE Postmaster-General announces that the Government Departments concerned with the welfare of British prisoners of war and internees in enemy hands have regretfully decided that the ban on the sending to them of Christmas and New Year greetings cards and calendars, which was instituted last year, must be renewed this year.
The reason is that experience shows that if greetings cards and calendars are sent congestion is caused in the enemy censorship, resulting in delay to ordinary letters over the Christmas period. The decision is, therefore, in the interests of the prisoners of war themselves, some of whom after last year's ban wrote appreciatively of the improvement in the letter service at Christmas time, as compared with previous years.
Relatives will appreciate for the same reason the importance of not sending additional letters in place of greetings cards.
Air Mail Service to Switzerland Restored
THE Postmaster-General has announced that the air mail service to Switzerland, by air to Lisbon, thence by surface route, has been restored.
The air postage rates are the same as those in force before the recent suspension, namely, 5d. for the first ounce and 3d. for each additional ounce for letters and 2 1/2d. for postcards.
Ilag Wurzach, Wurttemberg
THE Camp Senior of Ilag Wurzach, Wurttemberg, has written to the Chairman of the Red Cross giving an account of the camp. In July, when he wrote, he said that conditions were “reasonable and normal.” He goes on:
“Our kitchen arrangements are excellent, and a willing internee staff cook meals which will equal or surpass those in most camps, in addition to the private cooking of large quantities of Red Cross food for families.
“The hospital is now most efficient, and two South African doctors are resident in camp and are always available. The health of this camp is excellent.
“Recreation is sufficient. For five days per week we have a football field available two hours daily. Three walks are allowed weekly. The authorities have recently extended the camp to embrace a very fine wooded park.
“The internees are as content as it is possible to be under the circumstances of internment. . . . Thanks to the Red Cross we lack nothing.
Any Questions? [inserted] M [/inserted]
When sending in questions will next of kin kindly always give their name and address so that their letters may be answered by post if, for any reason, it is not possible to reply in this Journal
P.o.W.s Working
My son is one of the new prisoners recently captured in Normandy. What are the rules about prisoners of war working?
Prisoners under the rank of N.C.O. may be employed by the detaining power on work not directly connected with the war. N.C.O.s may volunteer to work, or be employed as supervisors of the work of other prisoners.
Clothing Supplies
My son, who was recently taken prisoner, tells me that he has lost all his kit. Is there likely to be any clothing in the camp with which he can be fitted out, as we are now advised not to send parcels?
Yes, most camps have a reserve of clothing from which a prisoner can be equipped; and the Camp Leader can ask for supplies of clothing to be sent to them from Geneva to meet their requirements.
Next-of-Kin Packing Centres
Are the next-of-kin packing centres remaining open until we can send next-of-kin parcels again?
Some centres may have closed temporarily, but they will no doubt re-open at once if the normal next-of-kin parcels service is resumed.
Stalag Luft IV
What does the word “Belaria” mean after Stalag Luft IV? Is it part of Sagan?
Belaria is the name of a place a few miles from Sagan, where a section of Stalag Luft III, known as “Stalag Luft III (Belaria),” is situated. When the new section was first opened it was sometimes called “Stalag Luft IV, Belaria,” but this is no longer correct.
Repatriation of Protected Personnel
Are all protected personnel eligible for repatriation?
Yes, but a certain number have to remain to look after the sick and wounded prisoners of war; and, in the case of chaplains, to organise their religious life.
[inserted] NUMBER, PLEASE!
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/inserted]
Sending Photographs
Am I permitted to send a snapshot to my brother, who is a P.o.W. in Stalag VIIIC.
Yes, snapshots or unmounted photographs of a personal nature may be sent as enclosures in letters to prisoners of war. You should write your name and address, and that of your brother, on the back.
Bringing Personal Luggage Home
Will my husband be allowed to bring all his personal belongings home when he is finally repatriated, or will his baggage be limited to a certain weight?
We regret that we have as yet no information on this point.
“Bath House” Staff
My son, in his letters, refers to the Bath House staff. What does he mean?
Some prison camps are provided with bath huts which contain the washing facilities and baths, and usually a boiler for heating water. Prisoners are employed as staff of these Bath Houses.
Blind P.o.W.s
To which camp have the blind prisoners of war, transferred from Italy to Germany, been sent?
Most of them appear to be in Stalag IXB at Bad Soden.
Sending Books
Can I still send a new novel to my son through the bookseller?
Please see the Postmaster-General's statement in the August journal.
American P.o.W.s
Are American prisoners of war sent to the same camps as the British, or are there any special camps in Germany for Americans?
There are special camps in Germany for American prisoners of war, but there are some camps in which there are American as well as British prisoners.
[inserted] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS Journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoner of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/inserted]
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by THE CORWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, SE1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 3, No. 31, November 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial news; the food they like; the brighter side; the letters they write home; official reports from the camps; scenes from camp shows; notes on Oflag Va; how they help (fundraising at home); three men of the spearhead; examination results; knitting pattern for servicemen's gloves; notes on Christmas letters; any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-11
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Sixteen page printed document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-05
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-11
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Łambinowice
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Roger Dunsford
animal
arts and crafts
childhood in wartime
entertainment
faith
prisoner of war
Red Cross
sanitation
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 4
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17115/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-06.2.pdf
e4c9170b45dc03ed4e57cacb98bbea7c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Prisoner of War
[symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES'S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1 [symbol]
Vol 3. NO. 29 Free to Next-of-Kin September, 1944
The Editor Writes –
It has always been evident that as the war reached its concluding stages the route for parcels into Germany via Lisbon, Marseille and Geneva might be subject to interruptions, and, as we informed our readers last month, traffic by the normal route has been suspended. In conjunction with the International Red Cross Committee and with the American and Canadian Red Cross organisations, however, close consideration has been given for some time to the possibility of finding alternative routes into Germany. As a result two Swedish ships the “Mangalore” and the “Travancore,” which crossed the Atlantic with food and comfort parcels for prisoners, have been diverted by the American Red Cross from Marseille to Gothenburg in South Sweden.
Reserves of Food
We know that there are reserve stocks in the prison camps and that supplies have been getting through from the reserves built up in Geneva. All the Red Cross organisations concerned are doing their utmost to restore the regular traffic of parcels, and it may well be that the course of the war will bring about a rapid improvement in the transport position. A statement will be found on page 2.
Moved from Poland
Relatives of men in camps in Eastern Europe are anxious, as I well know, for news of what is happening to them as the Russian advance continues. It is likely that the Germans will have taken all possible precautions for the safe internment of these men; but rumours about movements of prisoners, as one might expect, are difficult to confirm. All that we know definitely is that prisoners at Stalag XXID at Posen, Poland, and Stalag Luft VI at Heydekrug have been moved to other camps. Letters have come from them from Stalags 344, VIIIB, Stalag 357 (Thorn), and Stalag Luft IV (Tychow).
Air Mail Reminder
In reminding us that letters from this country to prisoners of war and internees in Germany can again be sent by air mail, the Post Office authorities – who were obliged for military reasons to suspend the service shortly before the invasion – point out that the air postage rates are also once again “as usual” – namely, 5d. for the first ounce and 3d. for each additional ounce (postcards 2 1/2d.). Special stamped air letter cards can be obtained for 3d. each from all principal post offices.
[photograph]
EN ROUTE FOR SWEDEN. – Loading Red Cross parcels at Philadelphia on to the Swedish ship “Travancore.”
Our Camp Helpers
I mentioned a month or two ago the remarkable way in which prisoners at Stalag IVC, not to be outdone by the efforts of their families at home, are managing to put aside their hard-won earnings in aid of the Fund. News of this practice at other camps has since reached me – and wonderful news it is. At Stalag XVIIIA, writes one man, they have set themselves the astonishing target of £10,000, about £160 of which has already been raised among the twenty-four members of an outlying work-party. Two work-camps of Stalag IVD have also fine achievements to report. One of them, sixty-seven strong, has produced £87 in two days, while at the other – so a prisoner tells his wife in Edward's Lane Estate, Arnold – he and his one hundred and fifty-nine companions have between them collected in Reichmarks the equivalent of £1,000, “for the Red Cross, God bless them.”
P.o.W. Airmen's Promotion
A welcome reassurance on the promotion prospects for R.A.F. ground personnel now in captivity was given recently by Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air. Replying in the House of Commons to a Member who was under the impression that Regular airmen of this category were being treated unfairly in comparison with non-Regulars, he pointed out that there are two separate systems of promotion – one for air crew and the other
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
for ground personnel, regardless of whether a man belonging to either of them has joined up for a career or merely for the duration of the war. A time basis governs the aircrew category, whose members are promoted in due course wherever they may be. But ground personnel depend for their rise on actual vacancies available for them in higher ranks, and it is therefore impossible to promote them to posts which, from a prison camp, they are in no position to fulfil. On the other hand, as soon as they come home, declared Sir Archibald, “they are granted the rank which they would have obtained but for the interruption of their effective service.”
After-Care
Speaking at Whitley, Surrey, about prisoners of war at a Bank Holiday fête, Sir John Jarvis, M.P., remarked that the war might be won before all the money subscribed to the Duke of Gloucester's Fund is spent. “That would be all to the good,” he said. “Indeed, I would like to see a substantial sum available, when those lads return, to help them in innumerable ways to find their rightful place in the England they love so well.” No decision can yet be taken as to the disposal of any surplus funds available at the end of the war, but it may be taken for granted that some part of them will be devoted to assisting ex-Servicemen, including ex-prisoners of war who have been incapacitated.
Better News from Moosburg
An indication that things may have improved at Stalag VIIA since the official visit paid it in April (reported in the Journal last month) is provided by a cheerful letter from the Officers' Section at Moosburg, which has recently come to my notice. The prisoners' removal in July to a larger compound, says the writer, “has doubled the living accommodation we had before, so we are now quite well off. We are starting a certain number of classes on different subjects, including art.” He adds, too, that Oflag VIIB, whose members had heard of their needs from men arriving from Moosburg, had sent them a most generous gift of tobacco and 50,000 cigarettes.
Exam. for South Africans
South Africans in captivity have distinguished themselves in a number of ways. To their talent for winning games and dancing Zulu dances must now be added another distinction, for in Stalag VIIIC recently seventeen of them underwent a self-imposed examination on book-keeping equivalent in standard to the National Junior Certificate as set in South Africa. Describing it, the camp education officer shows that conditions were as strict as those observed in any official examination: there were at least two invigilators in the room during the 2 1/2-hour session, and the candidates' papers were marked by qualified “strangers” to avoid the risk of favouritism.
An Indian Looks Back
From Cairo comes eloquent praise of the Red Cross services by an Indian re-patriate, Jemedar Moti Singh, who during his sixteen months as a prisoner in Italy, “Saw everything that the Red Cross did to help.” Many Indian soldiers know nothing of all this specialised assistance, he says, and goes on to confirm the good opinion of the Indian food parcel containing dhal (lentils) and atta (wholemeal flour), from which the men can prepare their native dishes. “Whenever Germans or Italians saw the things in the parcels,” he adds, “they were astonished and began to praise them; although they were enemies, they held the works of the Red Cross in high esteem.”
Tribute from New Zealand
I want to thank the lady in Tauranga, New Zealand, who wrote to tell me how much she looks forward to getting this journal. She and her husband find in it “so much of what we want to know – not only of our son's welfare, but of the colossal work the Red Cross has to do.” It's the personal, informal touch, she says, that makes such a difference. “I always feel happier when I have read the paper, and I know many others here who do the same.”
Clothes Conscious
The issue of a new outfit of battledress, shorts and boots to his work camp with the expectation of underclothes to follow has led a Stalag IVG prisoner to warn his wife in Bognor Regis not to bother about sending him clothes from home. These new additions to the wardrobe have evidently given him and his companion a great fillip to their morale, and they set out for the local cinema dressed up to the nines – even to the “collars and ties we made ourselves.”
Broadening Out
A comforting example of what captivity, despite all its disadvantages, can do for a man is provided from Stalag IVD by a prisoner of long standing. His wife in Diss tells me he now turns the scale at 12st. 2lb. as against the 10st. he weighed before his captivity; and it's not “idle fat” either, for he puts in a long day's work at a cement factory in addition to outdoor exercise at the weekend.
Northern Ireland Service
A Special Service of Intercession for Prisoners of War is to be held in St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, on Sunday, September 24, at 3.30 pm. Two reservation tickets for the service will be sent to each of the first six hundred next of kin who apply, giving their Red Cross Reference Numbers to: The Ulster Gift Fund, 2, Bedford Street, Belfast.
TO GERMANY – VIA SWEDEN
New Route to the Camps
REPORTS from Stockholm appearing in the Press have stated that British Red Cross parcels for prisoners of war in Germany and occupied countries are in future to pass through Sweden.
The use of this new route has resulted from efforts initiated by Red Cross and other authorities to open an alternative channel for supplies in view of the possibility that the course of the war would be likely to interrupt the Lisbon – Marseille – Switzerland traffic for considerable periods. Details of the onward carriage of supplies from Gothenberg [sic] have not yet been finally settled.
The two ships mentioned in the Press notices are fully loaded with American Red Cross supplies and a considerable number of Canadian food parcels for British Commonwealth prisoners.
The service via Sweden will be developed further as circumstances necessitate and conditions permit.
FOOD PARCELS RATIONED
THE War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John announce that, as a precautionary measure, and after consultation with H.M. Government, they have requested the I.R.C.C. to instruct camp leaders in Germany to reduce the rate of issue of food parcels to one for each man every two weeks. This decision has been taken in view of the interruption in transport to Geneva and in order to ensure that the best use is made of supplies already in the camps and at Geneva. There is no immediate danger of any serious shortage of food in the camps, and every effort is being made to re-establish effective communication by one route or another.
NEW MAP OF GERMAN CAMPS
THE Prisoners of War Department has published a new map, printed in colours, showing the principal camps for British and Dominions prisoners of war in Germany.
A limited number of copies are now obtainable on application to the Prisoners of War Department, Accounts Section, St. James's Palace, London, S.W.1. The price is: small size, 2d. (by post 3d.); large size, 1s. (by post 1s. 2d.). Remittances should be sent with the order.
There have been unavoidable delays in production and the map itself is correct according to information available up to June 30th, 1944. Any additional information known at the time of posting will, however, be supplied with the map.
[page break]
September, 1944 The Prisoner of War 3
DISPENSING BY AIR MAIL
Through the Work of the Invalid Comforts Section Up-to-date Medical Treatment Awaits Newly Wounded Prisoners
TO the families of all wounded prisoners of war in Germany, as well as of those taken captive in earlier days, it will have been encouraging to learn that the Invalid Comforts Section has been able to start sending supplies of penicillin to German prison camps. The first consignment, despatched by air in July, went to the hospitals attached to Stalags IXC, 344 and VIIA, to which wounded prisoners from the Normandy fronts were being sent.
Penicillin is most needed for treating new wounds, and the British medical officers in these hospitals, who were warned by cable from the International Red Cross to expect its delivery, have thus been able to administer this remarkable new treatment to the most serious cases at the earliest possible moment.
Small Quantities of Penicillin
At present, however, only “small quantities of penicillin are being sent . . . for the treatment of specified prisoners,” as Sir James Grigg, the Minister of War, has told the House of Commons. Ten “standard” packs of it have in fact gone, each containing one carton of the preparation in tablet form, and twelve bottles of distilled water.
It is difficult to assess the average number of men that can be treated by one pack, for it depends, of course, on the severity of the cases.
Thus a new item has been added to the list of urgent medical supplies which now that communications are uncertain, take precedence of everything else being sent to European prison camps by the War Organisation. The list is a comprehensive one, and in spite of present difficulties the Invalid Comforts Section manages to continue its dispensing and despatching by air mail of a wide variety of “wants.”
Still passing through the hands of the Section's packers are the vital anti-typhus serums on their way direct to prison camp hospitals, with the anaesthetics and the supplies of blood plasma, and there are reserves at Geneva which have been prepared by the Section for emergency use.
Airmen shot down in enemy territory who may be suffering from severe burns on hands and face stand a good chance of escape from permanent disfigurement, for there are prison hospitals at which British surgeons are equipped to perform the necessary skin-grafting operations according to the latest method.
The work of the Invalid Comforts Section has made this blessing possible. In collaboration with Mr. Archibald McIndoe, head of the R.A.F. plastic surgery centre in Sussex, sets were compiled of the highly specialised equipment and dressings, and these have been sent with detailed instructions direct to the hospitals concerned. Not only is the patients' future recovery thus cared for; everything possible is being done to relieve their present pain. Special silk-lined gloves, for instance, are supplied by the Section for the men's burned hands, which are acutely sensitive until the new skin grows. Even cigarette-holders find their place in the hospital stores.
[photograph]
The education and amusement of blind P.o.W.s are helped by these devices.
Helping the Blind
Among the casualties in the present intensive fighting there must, inevitably, be cases of men blinded. When first captured these men are sometimes placed by the Germans, for the moment, in some hospital for general wounded where it is difficult for the Invalid Comforts Services to do much for them beyond helping them to start learning Braille and beginning rehabilitation and occupational therapy.
As soon, however, as they reach the Stalag IXB hospital they are in the company of their fellow-afflicted under expert and systematic care. Here at Bad Soden the Blind Centre was established earlier this year under the eye specialist, Major Charters, and to it have come all the resources that Red Cross and St. John can muster in the closest possible collaboration with St. Dunstan's.
Every member of the Centre becomes automatically a provisional member of St. Dunstan's and benefits accordingly from the well-tried methods and apparatus evolved by that world-famous organisation. He finds at the Centre rowing machines to exercise his body and talking books to amuse his mind. Gradually he learns Braille writing, typing and reading, and can take his choice in the well-stocked library; he may start training for a regular occupation, such as telephone operator, masseur, cobbler, or carpenter, to help to fit him for a self-respecting trade or profession on his return to civil life. He finds, in other words, the power to overcome his blindness.
(Continued at foot of next page.)
[photograph]
Some of the drugs, medicines and surgical instruments which are carefully selected before being dispatched to the camps.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
Greetings at Lisbon
WELFARE OFFICER TELLS OF THE WELCOME TO REPATRIATES
THE repatriation of 900 British civilian prisoners of war from Germany was arranged in exchange for an equal number of Germans from South Africa. The arrangements were made by the Foreign Office, which asked the Red Cross to provide two Welfare Officers. I was fortunate enough to be one of those chosen, and we were flown to Lisbon.
The repatriates came in two parties, the first train arriving on July 23rd, and were warmly welcomed by the British Community, headed by His Excellency Sir Ronald and Lady Campbell. Many people went along the carriages distributing cigarettes, and there was excitement when some Merchant Navy men appeared carrying bottles of beer on their heads which they bought with their own money.
Stretcher cases were the first to be removed from the train, and special permission was given to the Red Cross by the International Police to take sick persons direct to the ship. The other people were then allowed out of the train and taken to the Customs House, where they were allocated their cabins on the Swedish ship, “Drottningholm,” given forms to send free telegrams to England, food, drink, and a roll of newspapers and magazines each. Everyone had to wait there until 5.30 while the Germans were transferred from ship to train.
The second party did not arrive for ten days, so that arrangements were made to occupy the first party while they waited. Bathing parties, luncheons, cinema shows, shopping parties were organised. The weather was lovely and there were no rules and regulations! Everyone was free to do as he or she liked. 5s. a day was paid to each person – not riches, but useful while sightseeing. Clothing was provided for everyone in urgent need; letters, free of postage, could be sent, and a library and soft drink bar were opened.
As there were several ill persons, a sick bay was opened in the charge of English nurses, and it was wonderful how the patients improved with careful nursing.
Second Party Welcomed
The second party arrived on Tuesday, August 1st, and were given an equally good welcome. Amongst this party were 156 Benghazi Jews, who were left in Lisbon to be repatriated direct to North Africa.
We then thought we should be sailing for England at once. The Germans, however, demanded that fourteen named persons should be left behind as hostages for fourteen Germans who were being repatriated through Turkey and who had not arrived in Istanbul. As three of the named persons were ill, negotiations were opened with the Germans, who agreed that if three other people volunteered to stay behind, the sick could sail. Volunteers were easily found, and it was a dramatic moment to see the fourteen people leaving the ship at 3 a.m. Directly they had gone the ship sailed for England.
The first day was rough, and many passengers were seasick, but after that the weather was kind, and everyone enjoyed dancing, games, and the good food which was provided at all meals.
I gave a talk on conditions in England since 1939, which proved of such great interest to the passengers that it was repeated.
Home Again
On arriving in England special trains were provided, and those who had nowhere to go were accommodated in hostels until they could make plans of their own.
Everyone on the ship was most appreciative of the work which was done for them, while in camp, by the Red Cross, and particularly stressed that without the Red Cross Food Parcels it would have been difficult to exist.
It was a great pleasure to have this wonderful opportunity of bringing back to England such a large party of her citizens. It was most encouraging to see, even in the short time we spent with them, the enormous change in the repatriates, both physically and mentally, due to being free again, and the thought that they would once more be able to help their country.
Dispensing by Air Mail (contd.)
For the immediate necessities, then, of the burned, the blinded and the injured prisoners of all kinds. Invalid Comforts are thoroughly prepared; but the great bulk of the Section's work is devoted to patients later, more last support. Special medicines that cannot be dispensed from the supplies already sent to his hospital are provided at the request of the medical officer. Artificial arms or legs can be built to individual measurements from the components which have been sent out by the Section.
Similarly there are dental surgeries where dentures can be made for patients needing them from the equipment sent out from London.
If a prisoner's sight needs attending to, he can ask the qualified officer to prescribe the right lenses. In the last three months Invalid Comforts have had 421 optical prescriptions made up for prisoners, in addition to the many spectacles despatched on behalf of next of kin.
Personal Service
No service could well be more personal than these. In the records room at headquarters there are detailed medical records of some 30,000 men at the present moment, in the progress of each one of whom Invalid Comforts take a direct personal interest.
The needs of many others are covered adequately from the standard supplies issued to patients at the discretion of the medical officers without recourse to individual application – the energen biscuits for diabetics, for instance, of which 5,300 tins were sent out last year; the instruments for tubercular cases at Elsterhorst Hospital; and the carefully chosen Invalid Diet Supplement parcels of jellies, fruit juices and malted foods
Occupational Therapy
Many bedridden prisoners, too, have had cause to be grateful to the occupational therapy service for saving them from boredom, and helping them on the road to recovery. Most of the raw material for this work comes from such generous bodies as the Women's Institutes, and finds its way back to Britain astonishingly transformed into rugs, patchwork and elaborate embroidery by fingers that may previously never have held a needle.
Help in maintaining the handicrafts side has lately been given by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, who are able to supply large quantities of three-ply wood as well as perspex, the glass-like plastic used in pilots' cockpits and an attractive medium for modelling.
Some 32,000 pieces of occupational therapy work went to the camps last year, and we can be reasonably certain that there are still ample reserves for the convalescent.
[photograph]
Hearing aids have been sent to some of the camps in Germany.
[page break]
September, 1944 The Prisoner of War 5
The Letters They Write Home
[photograph]
Varied costumes were worn in a revue produced recently at Stalag XVIIIA.
“We Shall Return . . .”
Stalag IVF. 10.6.44.
WE have heard the news for which we have waited for four long years.
When in the dark days of 1940 we stood with our backs to the wall, with only a small badly equipped Army and Air Force, things certainly looked black. Then Churchill said, “We shall return.” And he's done it.
It must be a great day for Mr. Churchill, and we might well say “Heil Churchill!” now.
What a day for the British Army too; it has proved it can do it when properly equipped. How we all wish we could have been in it. What a treat to advance instead of fighting hopeless rear-guard actions.
Well, it really can't be long now, and I may get home before this letter. Who knows?
Nothing can get us down now.
Model Yacht
Oflag 79. 11.5.44.
YACHT design is a fascinating game you know. I've become quite an authority on the subject during the last two years – but up to the last six weeks or so it was impossible to test my ideas.
As we had a perfectly good swimming bath at the old camp we decided that we would build a model and sail it.
I got out a set of lines – applied all the theories – metacentric shelf, immersed wedges, etc., balanced the sail plan according to all the rules. She was perfectly balanced on all points of sailing and went to windward like a witch. I was no end bucked.
Woodcutting Party
Oflag IXA/Z. 21.5.44.
I SAID I would tell you about the woodcutting party. There were five potential woodcutters and two artists. Breakfast was at 7.15a.m., and we left the camp at 8. It was a glorious sunny day, and the six kilometre walk in the early morning freshness was very enjoyable although it was mostly uphill! Our first task was to collect firewood so that our “elevenses” could be got ready. We sawed up several trees and man-handled the logs to a stack. Of course, this was not accomplished without the very necessary stops for snacks, meals, coffee, etc. – very “hunger-making” work!
We were right in the heart of the woods, miles from anywhere, and except for the occasional song of a chaffinch peace reigned throughout. What a treat it was to get away from the camp and the crowds. Lunch consisted of fried meat roll and bacon, fried bread, biscuits, cheese, bread, margarine, honey and tea.
[inserted]PICTURES AND LETTERS
TEN SHILLINGS will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate sheet of paper, showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten Shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James's Palace, London, S.W.1. The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
Variety Here
Stalag IVB. 17.5.44.
WE are still going strong with our wrestling classes and we hope to put on a show in the near future.
The other week we received some musical instruments from the Red Cross and our hut got a mandoline-banjo. [sic] You can guess the row the others put up with from me.
Our hut concert went down well – much better than we expected. We get some tip-top shows on in our theatre. At the moment there is a play, [italics] Dover Road, [/italics] running in the evenings, and a Dutch band in the afternoons. It takes about ten days for the whole camp to see a show, and the theatre is booked up weeks ahead.
“Civvy Street” – Almost
Stalag XIA. 7.5.44.
MY ways are more or less in keeping with “civvy street.” We work each day and spend the evenings either sitting around the fire yarning or sometimes, usually Saturdays, there is a “sing-song.” Sometimes on Sunday afternoons the German sentries take us to the village football ground.
Five Men in a Room
Stalag 344. 2.6.44.
THIS camp was rather overcrowded some while back, but it is not too bad now, five of us live in a room of our own with single beds, much better than the three-tier arrangement.
I am kept busy round the camp, quite happy tinkering about – carpentering, cooking, etc. They have not persuaded me to do any gardening yet; that never was much my line, but taking things all round I am doing pretty well as a P.o.W., so there is no need to worry about me.
I am getting quite brown as we have had some lovely sun this last week.
Walking in the Country
Stalag 344. 4.6.44.
TO-DAY was the turn of ten of us to go for a walk – not alone, of course. It was to me at least really wonderful to walk in the country again – a fresh breeze blowing, everything green, and the apple and lilac blossoms out. How much have I thought of our walks together.
Camp Cup Favourite
Stalag IVB. 17.5.44.
OUR team is favourite for the Camp Cup, which will be presented by the [italics] Observer [/italics] newspaper to winners of the knock-out. We won our first match last
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
[photograph]
COME AND BUY!
Smiling faces as the exchange market opens at Stalag 383.
week and we play again tomorrow. We also have bookies.
There are 32 teams in for the cup. Some of them are 50 and 100 to 1; but our team is 6 to 4. Our team has white jerseys with a blue V on them and white shorts with a blue stripe down the sides. I wear my own shorts and they are great. When we play there are usually about two to three thousand Army and Air Force spectators.
Their Boxing Ring
Stalag IVB. 17.5.44.
TO-DAY the lads have made a boxing ring out of odd bits of timber. You'd be surprised at the things that have been made out of tins, wood and paper.
Nearly all the soccer teams have managed to make jerseys out of vests, and made them the colours of the “civvy” team they represent with the aid of dye and paint.
They run dog and horse racing, using dice, and giving the runners numbers, then they move forwards on squares. Bets are in cigarettes and everybody gets excited.
New Camp
Stalag 357. 12.7.44.
THIS camp is quite new; they started building it last March. It is the largest one I've been to so far. There are over 3,000 men here, and I am with men who have been captured since the days of France; some have only been prisoners three or four months. It is very interesting hearing from these lads about the events that have happened in the last four years.
[photograph]
A barrel of wine arriving at the civilian internment camp, Saint Denis.
“Bird-Life”
Stalag IVB. 22.7.44.
DESPITE the heat, sport is continuing, and on May 31st the South Africans celebrated the formation of the Union of S.A. with a very fine sports day, opening with a march past. The British M.O. followed with a P.T. display and then races and high jump. In the afternoon the South Africans drew at soccer with Wales, and then beat the rest at rugby in a hard-fought game by 9 points to nil.
This match was preceded by a Zulu pageant. It was an amazing and humorous sight, most realistic, as all the performers were covered in black grease-paint and dressed as, per Zulu pattern. Naturally enough, the Germans were busy with cameras.
You probably know that we have a stadium, etc., and have horses as we had a race meeting on Whit-Monday with wooden horse and dice.
We are in the midst of some glorious weather, and being in the middle of some interesting country, we have seen quite a lot of “bird-life” during the fine period.
Spit and Polish
Stalag VIIIB. 5.6.44.
RECEIVED my parcel yesterday containing all I really need, also 1,500 cigarettes, all in one week. To-day has been a field day – washed and pressed my suit, spit and polished my boots, made myself quite decent again. All I need now is my hat badge.
You see they are mostly Australians and New Zealanders in this hut, so must keep up the standard of the Grenadier Guards. I have got one of each of them spitting and polishing their boots already.
. . . In Better Times
Stalag 398. 29.5.44.
EVERYTHING looks beautiful here. The pale green of the beech trees and the dark of the conifers on the mountains are a picture. There are endless flowers in the woods and the meadows – buttercups, daisies, crocuses, anemones, lily of the valley, and dozens which are new to me and others whose names I’ve forgotten. Wild strawberry and bilberry are in bloom everywhere, and amongst all the blue lakes, waterfalls and torrents. Yes, I must come here again in better times.
Peat Cutting
Stalag XXA (176). 19.7.44.
I AM still on the same farm, been here since March, 1942. Do most of the repair work here – building, painting, roofs, tractor driving and maintenance, besides wagon repairs etc.
Weather is glorious, bags of work, too. We are at present peat cutting, but around the twentieth of next month start harvesting again. Hope it is the last.
Mail takes a little longer now there is no air service, but as long as we get a letter now and again we don't mind much.
[photograph]
Prisoners of war who escaped from Italy in the hospital grounds at the Military Internment Camp, Turbenthal, Switzerland.
Musical Interlude
Marlag und Milag Nord (Marlag O). 12.6.44.
THE news has cheered us up and I begin to think again of home – the focal point of all my pre-war happiness. Did I ever tell you we made home-made
[page break]
September, 1944 The Prisoner of War 7
wine in Italy from grapes? It was excellent. Plenty of fruit and sunshine were the only redeeming features of that half-starved existence.
These days I am starting to study harmony and music arranging, so don't sell the piano! I'm “resting” a bit, theatrically, after the big cabaret-restaurant show, which shook the camp! Now pit music for the melodrama [italics] Murder in the Red Barn, [/italics] then a Shakespeare quintet for [italics] Merchant of Venice [/italics] on Sunday, then a big orchestra for [italics] Pirates of Penzance. [/italics]
Even a Red Indian
Stalag IVB. 12.4.44.
AT night we have concerts and lectures, and I must say the lectures are good. I have heard speaking: a professional boxer, undertaker, artist, a movie-tone cameraman and men from all of our colonies – even a big-game hunter from Africa. There are twenty different nationalities in our camp. We even had a Red Indian here.
Building Work
Stalag IVD. 22.5.44.
THE work we are doing here is not so bad; just at present we are helping to put a roof on a building, and we work 48 hours a week. There is a sports ground to the works and we are allowed to play football three times a week; last week we had the account of the game printed in the paper, and also had our photographs taken.
Taking it all round, we don't have too bad a time.
[photograph]
P.O.W.s at Stalag IVD choose a picturesque setting for their photograph.
Austria - Not England
Stalag 398. 11.6.44.
I HAVE had some beautiful walks lately and I have never seen so many flowers growing wild and in such profusion. I took particular notice of them yesterday and in an area of approximately 3 square yards counted the following species: carnations, lupins, moon daisies, scabious, red campions,and heaps of smaller varieties such as clover, buttercups, vetches, etc. If you can imagine field upon field of such beauty, with forest-clad hills in the near distance, and the huge, majestic, silent Danube flowing at your feet, then you have a very faint idea of the true natural beauty in which I am living at the moment. But this is Austria, not England! I would willingly exchange it for any slum in London, because there I should be truly free.
The Invasion
Oflag VIIB. 20.6.44.
EVERYONE is excited about the invasion. The news of it we get from the papers makes us feel more in a complete backwater, or perhaps “Dead Sea” would be a better term, than ever, and though it makes us more hopeful, it also disturbs us more!
The flute practice has gone steadily on, with no great improvement, but a good deal of enjoyment. I was playing in the cellar this afternoon, and a sweep appeared to do the flues, so I proceeded to tootle away in a cloud of soot with no very adverse effects! I've been to one recital of Bach's harpsichord pieces – most delightful. Otherwise the flute and some lectures.
A very interesting series of lectures has started on the story of various British industries between 1919 and 1939.
We have had a lot of rain recently which has interfered with the games, and I have only been able to manage one game of badminton and a tennis double.
[photograph]
ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE
A well-earned rest after strenuous work at Stalag XVIIIA.
Tea in Style
Stalag XVIIIA. 2.5.44.
FIVE weeks have passed since I last received mail from you. I'm not unduly worried as we have expected this for some time.
The weather is glorious; we had our tea in style outside with Sid and his band playing for us. To-day I worked till mid-day, then went sunbathing with my mates just alongside a running stream close to camp.
Camp Clubs
Stalag IVB. 2.6.44.
THEY have started clubs here and I am in the Notts and Derby Club. We have a meeting every week and ask about home news.
Being full-rank N.C.O.s we don't have to work, and we spend our time playing football and other games. Yes, we are keeping ourselves fit for when we get back. One of my parcels was packed in New Mills.
Baker's Birthday
Stalag XVIIIA Undated.
THIS is how I spent my birthday. I procured the necessary drinks; got off work early to do some baking; and made over 100 doughnuts and a filling of butter creams. For dinner we had poultry soup, baked potatoes, peas and poultry and tomato sauce. For tea fruit and custard and doughnuts.
[photograph]
Artistic handicrafts made by civilian internees at Ilag Biberach/Riss, Wurt.
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
Official Reports from the Camps
[photograph]
Stalag Luft I
This is run as an officers' camp entirely for Air Force personnel.
[inserted] In every case where conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/inserted]
STALAG LUFT III
There was little change in the camp since it was visited in February, 1944. There are still six separate compounds. The middle and south compounds contain American prisoners of war. The west compound is still not ready for occupation. The East, North and Belaria compounds are entirely British.
The total strength of the camp is 5,229; of these 2,500 are British officers, 198 British N.C.O.s, 185 British other ranks, 1,900 American officers, 299 American N.C.O.s, and 57 American other ranks.
Very little improvement has taken place in the interior arrangements of the camp. In the East compound 37 officers are compelled to sleep on the floor. The division of the large sleeping rooms in the Central compound into smaller ones has not yet taken place owing to a shortage of wood and labour. Conditions in the North compound are fairly satisfactory except for leaking roofs, which the German authorities have promised to repair in the near future.
Washing and bathing facilities are satisfactory throughout the camps with the exception of the South compound where there are still no bathing facilities; men in this compound have to go to the West compound for baths and showers.
There has been considerable improvement in the patients in the two hospitals (one in the East compound and the other in the North compound). Many have received specialist treatment in the last few months. The drug position is still rather unsatisfactory. The beds in the sick quarters attached to the Centre compound were stated to be unsuitable for patients. The prisoners are to be allowed to make string supports and to restuff [sic] the mattresses with Red Cross packing materials.
Recreational and sports facilities in all camps are excellent. The sports ground in the East compound is not as extensive as in the other compounds.
The general feeling in this camp shows a considerable nervous tension following the recent mass attempts at escape and the deaths of many of the officers concerned.
The Balaria compound is situated five kilometres from the main camp. The bathing and washing and sports facilities here are unsatisfactory.
Another visit to Stalag Luft III will be arranged as soon as possible.
(Visited April, 1944.)
DULAG LUFT, WETZLAR KLOSTERWALD
This has been transferred from Frankfurt to a slightly elevated position north of Frankfurt. It was formerly a German Army camp and it is at present under reconstruction. It will be ready for occupation in three weeks, but in the meantime airmen arriving in this camp are accommodated in 18 tents in a large compound on the Eastern side of the camp area. Three of the tents are reserved for the permanent camp staff, seven for officers, seven for other ranks, and one as a sick quarters. The proper camp when completed should be adequate.
The tents allow accommodation for 318 men, and the new camp will hold 540 prisoners. On the day of the visit there were 10 British officers, 28 British other ranks, 37 American officers, and 46 American other ranks.
The men who form the permanent staff sleep on iron single beds with straw sack and three blankets. Officers and other ranks in transit sleep on the ground on sacks filled with wood shavings, 20 men in each tent.
A recreation room and dining room adjoins the cookhouse; it contains sufficient tables and forms.
When entering the camp the prisoners have a hot shower in the German guards' washroom. Daily washing is with cold water.
Excellent medical attention is given by a German doctor.
There were no serious complaints about the camp. As it is a transit camp the men seldom stay for longer than eight days. (Visited May, 1944.)
STALAG LUFT I
BARTH
This camp, which used to house N.C.O.s, is now entirely run as an Oflag (Officers' Camp) for Air Force personnel. Since it was last visited the strength has increased from 797, including 318 officers, to 3,464. All prisoners are British or American and they are accommodated in the same compounds.
The camp now consists of a North compound holding 1,242 prisoners, which has a large barrack still under construction, a South-west compound holding 1,100 prisoners, and a new compound holding 1,084 prisoners. All compounds open into each other during the daytime.
[photograph]
Cricket team at Civilian Internment Camp, St. Denis. Temporary lack of common rooms make indoor entertainments difficult here.
[page break]
September, 1944 The prisoner of War 9
[photograph]
Dulag Luft
A walk through the woods which surround this camp north of Frankfurt.
The capacity of the camp on the day of the visit was 3,000, the actual number of prisoners of war in the camp was 3,464 (597 British and 2,867 American), which resulted in bad overcrowding in all barracks. The North compound is, however, to be enlarged and in an emergency situation tents could be erected to accommodate a total of 5,000 men.
Whitewashing is badly needed in the South compound. A number of new barracks are not weatherproof, the roofs are leaking and are continuously repaired. Lighting and ventilation are inadequate throughout the camp.
Bedding is sufficient and beds are triple-tiered.
The food ration is felt to be insufficient and of poor quality. Only one hot meal a day is served. There is a lack of fruit and vegetables in the diet. The supply of Red Cross food is abundant.
Medical or dental treatment is given by two British medical officers under the supervision of a German doctor. The sick quarters are far too small for the increasing number of prisoners of war. The commandant promised, that it would be enlarged within five weeks. The senior British medical officer stated that although the camp was overcrowded, the general state of health was good, probably owing to the fact that the air from the nearby sea is so healthy.
The clothing position is satisfactory.
Religious activities are well organised. Educational activities have been discontinued owing to the lack of room.
The sports field in the compounds is large enough for any kind of outdoor games. The canteen supply is so small as to be considered practically nil.
Most of the deficiencies in this camp are the result of overcrowding. (Visited April, 1944.)
[photograph]
STALAG LUFT I. Five prisoners enjoy refreshments – a luxury at this camp where canteen supplies are very small.
STALAG VIIIA, GORLITZ
The situation of Stalag VIIIA is in the open country a few miles from Gorlitz. The camp consists of large, well-built brick barracks which are already rather old.
There are 1,056 British prisoners of war in the main camp and 2,082 British prisoners of war in the 41 work detachments dependent on the Stalag.
Interior arrangements in this camp are satisfactory.
The water supply for bathing and washing has been most unsatisfactory and was only turned on for half an hour daily. The pipes are, however, under repair and should by now supply all the necessary water.
On the day of the visit there were 20 patients in the sick room, 80 in the convalescent barracks, and 19 in the lazaret. No serious cases were reported. Medical attention is adequate. Dental treatment is fairly good, but there is a shortage of material for making artificial dentures.
A Church of England chaplain holds regular services in the camp; so far he has been unable to visit the work detachments.
Recreation and exercise are reported to be satisfactory.
No complaints were made regarding the letter mail, but several prisoners complained about the non-arrival of private parcels from home. (Visited April, 1944.)
STALAG VIIIC KUNAU
Stalag VIIIC is situated just outside the small town of Kunau near large pine woods, in a healthy district.
The total number of British prisoners of war in the main camp is 543 and 1,128 are in 19 work detachments.
All the prisoners in the main camp are accommodated in three brick one-storey barracks of the usual type, plus outhouses. Lighting has been improved considerably. Washing and toilet facilities are adequate.
The camp hospital and sick quarters contained 45 patients who were under the care of a Naval doctor and two British medical orderlies. None of the cases was serious. The drug position has improved and there is now a considerable supply of necessary medicines. Dental treatment is satisfactory.
Clothing and footwear is in good condition.
Indoor recreation and entertainments are well organised, but lately opportunities for playing football outside the compound has been greatly reduced owing to a lack of guards.
Regular church services are held in the camp theatre by a Church of Scotland chaplain. He has so far been unable to visit the work detachments.
The only complaint about the mail concerned to delay in the censoring of letters in the Stalag. Many letters which have been forwarded from Italy are still waiting to be sorted. (Visited April, 1944.)
(1) LUFTWAFFEN HOSPITAL, 4/ [indecipherable] (WISMAR), visited April, 1944. (2) HOSPITAL AT REGENSBURG, visited March, 1944. (3) KRIEGEFANGENEN HOSPITAL, STALAG IIA, NEUBRAN DENBURG, visited April, 1944.
These three large hospitals hold prisoner of war patients of all nationalities. At the time of the visits there were only two or three British in each.
All three hospitals are modern, clean, well equipped and well run.
Food is sufficient, special diets being
[page break]
10 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
given where necessary. Regular Red Cross food parcels are received.
Books and games are sent from the nearest Stalag.
HOSPITAL AT BAD SODEN
SALMUENSTER
The hospital is situated on a hillside facing south in the small spa of Soden. The building is satisfactory as it was built for a sanatorium.
Since November, 1943, it has become the centre for ophthalmic treatment of British and American prisoners of war.
There are two British medical officers, one of them an eye specialist, working under a German physician. Six British medical orderlies look after the patients.
Forty-three of the 103 patients are British, the rest are Poles, French, Serbs, Italians and Russians.
A Braille school has been established in a special room of the hospital. The two teachers have everything that is necessary for their work.
A Church of England chaplain from Oflag IXA/Z visits the patients each month.
The food question is good. Three diets are available for the prisoners, also Red Cross food parcels are distributed.
The general impression of the hospital is excellent. (Visited April, 1944.)
CIVILIAN INTERNMENT CAMPS
St. Denis
(Front Stalag 122)
Since the date of the last report on this civilian internment camp (see issue for April, 1944. page 6) the accommodation has been overcrowded owing to the arrival of 350 British subjects from the South of France at about the end of February. The common rooms, with the exception of the school and theatre, have been turned into sleeping quarters. It is hoped, however, that it will soon be possible to transfer some internees to a new branch camp.
The bathing and washing facilities are stated to be still adequate. Food and cooking are very satisfactory, the internees have a special kitchen with a large stove at their disposal on every floor of the building. Medical attention is satisfactory and the state of health is still good. The camp canteen is well stocked, and profits from sales are used for the welfare of the internees.
The momentary lack of common rooms makes it difficult to organise as many entertainments as usual, but twice a month there is a cinema show. The cinema equipment was bought out of the profits from the canteen fund. Weekly trips by motor coach outside Paris have been continued, an arrangement which gives the internees great satisfaction.
The incoming mail from England is said to be normal and regular, taking on an average about three weeks to arrive.
The delegate of the Protecting Power is still satisfied that conditions in this camp are, in general, satisfactory and treatment is fair.
Last visited by the Protecting Power on the 9th March, 1944.
Nag Dongelberg (Belgium)
Since the date of the last report on this civilian internment camp (see issue for April, 1944. page 6) there have been no great changes. There are at present 56 British internees at Dongelberg.
Conditions at the camp continue to be very satisfactory. The internees have been receiving the same food rations as the German civilian population since the beginning of March. Last Christmas a sheep was presented to the internees as a gift and recently two pigs which they had been allowed to keep were killed. There is a stock of Red Cross parcels.
The position as regards clothing is satisfactory. Early in March a supply arrived as a gift from the Red Cross, including some much-needed shoe leather.
The camp is now under the direction of the German Red Cross delegate, Frau Brueckann.
The German authorities recently published an order forbidding any kind of leave until further notice. As compensation for this restriction internees are taken for a walk to the small neighbouring town of Jodoigne every month.
No complaints were made by the internees to the delegate of the Protecting Power when the camp, which is stated to be one of the best, was last visited on 4th of April, 1944.
[photograph]
Vittel
Pause for a cooling drink during sports day for children.
Biberach
Since the date of the last visit to this camp made by the Protecting Power on 28th January visits have been made by the International Red Cross Committee's delegates on 28th March and by the Protecting Power on 2nd June.
There are still about 1,170 internees at Biberach. The accommodation in huts is in a good condition, having been kept in repair. During the winter heating was adequate. Food rations of potatoes and meat were reported to have been decreased, but the fish ration was increased.
The situation as regards clothes is good, although there is still a shortage of shoe repairing material. Health and general medical and dental treatment are satisfactory. Some losses of individual parcels were noticed in May.
The camp library constantly receives new books. Numerous indoor and outdoor games are provided. There is a good school which is adequately accommodated and has a staff of eight teachers.
Material conditions at this camp are not unsatisfactory, especially in the spring and summer seasons.
Last visited by the Protecting Power on 2nd June, 1944.
Vittel (France)
Since the date of the last report on this civilian camp (see issue for April, 1944, page 6) there have been no great changes. At the time of the last visit there were 1,800 British internees, and two more large hotel may be taken over as the camp is now full.
The general state of health is good, although there are a certain number of nervous cases among the older women, due to the length of time they have been interned.
The clothing situation is becoming a little difficult, especially as regards women's clothes. The food position is satisfactory and the vegetable garden has been extended.
Letters from England take about one month to reach the camp.
The camp was last visited by the delegate of the Protecting Power on the 14th and 15th of March, 1944, when no complaints were made by the internees, and by the International Red Cross delegate on the 23rd June.
CAMP LIST
Information has been received that prisoners at Stalag XXID at Posen, Poland, and Stalag Luft VI at Heydekrug, have been moved to other camps. Letters have come from them from Stalags 344, VIIIB, Stalg 357, at Thorn, and Stalag Luft IV, at Tychow.
The camp previously called Stalag Luft IV, at Belaria (map square F5) now forms part of Stalag Luft III. The name Stalag Luft IV has been given to the camp at Tychow (map square G3) mentioned above.
[page break]
September, 1944 The Prisoner of War 11
Groups from the [underlined] Camps [/underlined]
[photograph]
STALAG XVIIIA
[photograph]
STALAG IVD
[photograph]
STALAG 383
[photograph]
STALAG XXIA
[photograph]
MARLAG UND MILAG NORD
[photograph]
ILAG VII
[photograph]
STALAG IXC
[photograph]
B.A.B. 21
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
The Brighter Side
[sketch]
A popular camp [indecipherable word] !
LIFE AT OFLAG VIIB shown in a drawing by one of the officer prisoners there.
UNDER a hot sun and a cloudless sky the men of Stalag 344 were rewarded on Whit-Monday for all the industrious preparations they had made for the day's programme. Nothing quite so ambitious had ever been attempted before, and their many letters home about it (“it's something I shall remember for many years to come,” is a typical comment) leave no doubt of its unqualified success. The morning started with a carnival procession round the main roads of the camp, headed by the military band and consisting of elaborate tableaux enacted by men in various costumes made from an even greater variety of material – paper, cardboard, towels, tin – anything that could be fashioned to their purpose. Thus arrayed on hand-drawn carts came a dramatised [italics] Tale of Two Cities, Antony and Cleopatra, [/italics] and the Pearly King himself . . .
The prizes, we hear, went to the South Africans for their realistic group of dancing Zulu warriors, and to the R.A.F.'s impressive entry of a model Lancaster bomber, followed by complete bomber crews representing America and every country in the Commonwealth.
Fun of the Fair
While the sporting events proceeded in the afternoon brisk business was being done in the stalls and side-shows of a fair in another part of the ground – with skittles, darts, “coconut” shies and, of course, the tattooed lady. “It meant a tremendous amount of work, but it was worth it,” writes one of the stall-keepers, who points out that the fair's total takings of 61,000 cigarettes and 4,000 P.o.W. marks have been given respectively to the camp's Comforts Fund for hospital patients and new prisoners and to the Welfare Fund for medical and musical needs.
Two Birthdays
With the Whitsun hilarities scarcely over, one man in Stalag 344 had to set about preparing for another celebration – his birthday. A great cake was the outcome, iced with whipped-up butter and milk powder, and made perhaps of ground biscuit and raisins. Those at any rate were the ingredients favoured by a young flight lieutenant in another camp for his birthday – his third in captivity and a quiet one, he says, although it luckily coincided with an excellent production of [italics] Philadelphia Story [/italics] in the camp theatre by an all-Canadian cast.
Green Thoughts
“Whatever sport, subject or other pursuit you care to mention I am convinced,” an inmate of Oflag VIIIF writes home to Scotland, “that you could find a first-class exponent of it in this camp.” But after supper nowadays, though free for theatre, music, reading, chess or a leisurely stroll round the camp, “I cannot help thinking that the peaceful summer evenings are ideal for golf” – and for that pursuit, of course, there would be little use in finding an expert on the premises. The nine-hole course laid out at Stalag IVB is a prison camp feature as rare as it is popular, though most players there admit that the wooden golf balls “take some getting used to.”
Alias Barmaid
Playing the middle-aged barmaid in a public house “is not exactly in my line,” confesses a Royal Artillery lieutenant in Oflag VA, now busy on the stage. “I was a bit nervous at first, but I'm used to it now – you should see me pulling the handle behind the bar. It takes me half an hour to get made up, and then I look like a cross between Nellie Wallace and the Widow Twankey.” During the day he compensates for these nightly performances by playing strenuous outdoor games.
Red-letter Field Days
While rugger affairs preoccupied Oflag VA at the time of the camp's International match, when Britain beat New Zealand by 11-8 (“the wettest June in history,” comments somebody, “made the conditions ideal”), the talk at Stalag IVB centred on soccer. League football there was getting ready for the cup competition, and with thirty-two teams in for it, each representing a barracks of about 170 men – many of them peace-time professionals – the enthusiasm ran as high as the standard of play. The eventual winners were entertained afterwards to a mammoth tea party and a concert held most deservedly in their honour.
Birds in Hand
Pets, too, are popular at Stalag IVB. In addition to some puppies, whose antics seem to be causing a lot of amusement, a few wild birds have now settled down here to a pampered domestic life. “We have nine of them,” writes a bombardier who forgets to mention their sort or size. “They have been kept by us since they were five days old and have become extraordinarily tame. They are fed by hand; can be picked up and scrubbed with a toothbrush; will perch on your arm or shoulder whenever they feel like it; and after flying off for an hour or so will always return. But,” he adds pessimistically, “they'll probably finish by trying to play with the cat.”
[cartoon] Birthday Greetings from Stalag Luft I. FIVE huh?
This birthday card was sent home by an R.A.F. sergeant to celebrate his small son's fifth birthday.
[inserted] The paragraphs on these pages are based on letters from prisoners of war. Most of them refer to activities in the big base camps and it should not be assumed that they are typical of conditions in all camps or in outlying working detachments where facilities for sport and amusement are much more restricted. [/inserted]
[page break]
September, 1944 The Prisoner of War 13
“SEND US BOOKS . . . .!”
How This Call Has Been Answered by the Indoor Recreations Section, Now on the Eve of its Fourth Anniversary
[photograph]
Games of all kinds are packed here.
[photograph]
The Section keeps in close touch with prisoners' needs by letters to relatives and camp leaders.
Lee Miller by courtesy of “Vogue.”
FROM the beginning it was apparent that libraries containing books of every category, indoor games, music, plays and materials for dramatic performances were a paramount necessity for the welfare of prisoners, once the vital needs of food and clothing had been provided.
It was decided that the main work of the Indoor Recreations Section of the Prisoners of War Department at St. James's Palace, should be to supply these needs for the use of the camps as a whole, rather than to individual prisoners – which service developed later. Consequently all parcels in the early months were addressed to Camp Leaders to enable them to start building up libraries, and to develop recreational facilities.
Books of All Kinds
Already the work of the Educational Books Section had been in existence for some months, but letters from prisoners containing such words as “Books are food and drink to me” made it clear that educational books must be supplemented by a carefully selected supply of fiction ranging from the classics to the latest detective and Wild Western novels, travel, biography, art, etc.
Requests began to pour in from camp leaders for books dealing with English country life, for plays to perform in the camps and for theatrical make-up and artists materials. Through the long and fluctuating fortunes of the war, these requests have steadily increased. It is difficult to recapture the atmosphere of the early days of the Section's foundation in September, 1940, and to believe that so much could have grown out of a beginning beset with so many obstacles.
First Parcels Go Out
At the end of 1940 when a permit was obtained, the Indoor Recreations Section was able to supplement parcels of books ordered by them but despatched from booksellers. All these consignments bore Red Cross labels, and were addressed to the Camp Leaders. Each parcel contained on an average 10 books, selected with the greatest care, so as to include reading matter of the widest possible variety. It will easily be imagined with what impatience the return of the acknowledgement cards included in every parcel was awaited.
Music Begins
The next adventure for the Section was to purchase and send musical instruments. In the early months of 1941, ten complete orchestras consisting of fourteen instruments, selected by the experts of the Services Musical Instrument Fund were despatched to the larger camps in Germany.
Gifts of second-hand music began to pour in to the Indoor Recreations Section as the result of next of kin and friends receiving constant requests from prisoners for music of all kinds – especially dance orchestration, light orchestral arrangements, and vocal scores and libretti of operettas and musical comedies. In addition the Section began to purchase music on a large scale. A special staff of workers was gathered together to deal with this very important expansion.
The service to individual prisoners of forwarding instruments either belonging to the prisoner himself, or procured on behalf of the next of kin, had been begun early in 1941.
Reserve at Geneva
Book parcels addressed to the Camp Leaders direct were taking a long time to reach their destination. To create an additional source of supply, arrangements were made with the Intellectual Relief Section of the I.R.C.C. to store a reserve of books. These could be distributed immediately to any new camp to form a basis for the Library, which would then be supplemented by books sent direct from this country.
Tribute should be paid to the wonderful work of the I.R.C.C. who immediately consented to take charge of this suggested reserve, and who have since that date looked after its storage and distribution with the greatest care and attention.
Out thanks are also due to the World's Alliance of the Y.M.C.A., who now took charge of the distribution of the indoor games and music addressed to Camp Leaders for the benefit of the camp as a whole – The I.R.C.C. retaining the distribution of any instruments addressed to individual prisoners of war.
By the autumn of 1941 the Section at least knew that most of the camps then in existence in Germany possessed the foundations of very good libraries.
During 1942 and 1943 the chief work of the Indoor Recreations Section was to supply camps in Italy. This was not achieved without difficulty. In fact, it was only just before the transfer of British prisoners to Germany in the summer of 1942 that adequate supplies of books, indoor games, and musical instruments were reaching Italy.
Difficulties in London
During this time supplies in this country were becoming more restricted. Book production was cut to a minimum, after millions of volumes had been destroyed by fire in the 1941 air raids. The manufacture of musical instruments and indoor games had also been much reduced. Private individuals could no longer send out these articles through permit holders, and it fell to the Indoor Recreations Section to make special arrangements for supplies to be made available for prisoners of war.
An allocation of games was obtained from N.A.A.F.I. and the shortage of musical instruments was gradually overcome by means of special appeals for second-hand musical instruments and by a system of regular quotas from manufacturers. A generous gift of musical instruments made by the Junior Branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society reached Geneva at the most timely moment – November, 1943 – when the new camps in Germany for men transferred from Italy were in urgent need of musical equipment.
At this moment, when the normal
(Continued overleaf.)
[page break]
14 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
How They Help
In addition to those mentioned below, we wish to thank the many kind readers whose help to the Funds this month we cannot find room to record here individually.
WORKERS in a factory at Aycliffe, Co. Durham, have distinguished themselves this month by their magnificent response to a Red Cross Week. In addition to providing 3,000 pints of their blood for the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, they more than doubled the Week's money target by contributing to the Fund a total of £6,100.
The fine weather of August Bank Holiday helped organisers of many garden fêtes throughout the country to raise bumper contributions for the Fund as well as give holiday-makers an enjoyable afternoon. In the grounds of Dunster Castle, Somerset, for instance, about £1,200 was taken, an amount equal to approximately £1 14s. per head of Dunster village's population. Among many ingenious prize competitions at Whitley Manor, Surrey, was one for “the man with the worst footwear.” Well over 3,000 people visited this fête, at which speeches were made by Gen. Sir Walter Kirke, Sir John Jarvis, M.P. for Guildford, Col. Tristram Harper, county director of Surrey Red Cross and St. John, and Mrs. Horton, the local chairman. The Fund will benefit by over £650.
Home Guards took command of the many games and side-shows at the sale organised by Mrs. A.J. Mann for the village of Avoch, Ross-shire, a few days earlier. The dance that followed in the evening had the triple advantage of good music, good food and good local transport, and the day closed with the Fund £800 to the good.
[photograph]
Highlight of the successful sale in Kingsdown, Kent, was a model destroyer which sold for £18 5s. and raised the day's total of £45. The model (illustrated above) was constructed by the sister of Mrs. Arnold, one of the industrious members of the St. Michael's Branch Mothers' Union, who organised the event.
There are about 460 people in the Devon villages of Exbourne and Jacobstowe, and in the course of their recent Victory Gardens Week of games, sales and concerts, they provided the Fund with a few shillings over £460. A similar week at Montacute, Somerset, brought in a very welcome £120.
Whist drives continue to be a favourite medium of helping the Fund. The £14 proceeds of one held by Mr. J. C. Glendinning brings to £165 6s. 6d. the total sum collected by him in Bampton, Cumberland. Mrs. Dixon and two friends have raised £8 10s. at Earby-via-Colne, Lancashire; while in Hertfordshire the people of Much Hadham have supported Mrs. Petts' effort to the extent of £5 17s.
By producing a “Gang Show” for public entertainment, the seven enterprising members of the 1st Horley (Surrey) Boy Scouts' Bulldog Patrol have been able to present the Fund with £10. At Northleach, two brothers, Geoffrey and Raymond Powell, have achieved the very creditable sum of £13 10s. from a dance they ran together; and a small concert at Clifton, Bedfordshire, has brought the Fund 8s. from Jean Sunderland and her three young fellow-organisers.
We are glad to acknowledge, too, the generosity of four Bedfordshire repatriates who have sent us donations amounting to £40 in appreciation of past services.
SEND US BOOKS . . .!
(Continued from previous page)
supplies of recreational facilities have had to be temporarily suspended, another consignment of musical instruments, presented by the Junior Branch of the Canadian Red Cross, is expected at any moment to reach Geneva. News has also come that a third large consignment of instruments, in this instance the kind gift of the British Community Council in the Argentine, has already arrived at Geneva and is being distributed.
Impressive Figures
Up to date almost 100 orchestras of various types have been distributed to prisoner of war camps, and in addition to this about 14,000 musical instruments have been sent to camps and to individual prisoners of war.
The number of books despatched direct to camps since the inception of the Indoor Recreations Section is to-day 153,547, while 71,000 have been sent to the reserve at Geneva, making a total of 224,547 books. The number of music and games parcels sent from this country amounts to 21,655. Large supplies of music and artists' materials are also held in reserve at Geneva.
Meanwhile the service to next of kin which has led to 16,616 letters being written will be continued.
EXAM. RESULTS
List Now Ready
A LIST of examination results for the period January to June, 1944, has been prepared by the Educational Books Section and will be sent to next of kin or any others interested. Applications should be made to: The Director, Educational Books Section, The New Bodleian, Oxford.
Where possible, 3d. in stamps should be enclosed to cover postage.
Some copies of the list for July – December, 1943, still remain, and can be had on application.
News of Examinations
Legal history has been made by Capt. J. C. Dennistoun-Sword, Gordon Highlanders, who has completed his Bar Final Examinations whilst a prisoner of war, and was called to the Bar in his absence, his wife acting as proxy. Mrs. Dennistoun-Sword took her husband's place at the calling ceremony, was presented to the Treasurer, and lunched with the newly called barristers.
Capt. Dennistoun-Sword completed Part I of the Bar Final in 1942, and took Part II in 1943, obtaining a Second Class on each occasion. The necessary books for his studies were sent out through the Educational Books Section, the New Bodleian, Oxford, through which all arrangements for the Examination of the Council of Legal Education to be held in this camp were made.
SEAMEN PRISONERS
Better Allowances for Large Families
AN increase is announced in the minimum allowance paid to the families of merchant seamen in the hands of the enemy.
The new minimum, which takes effect from June 1st this year, is in accordance with the rates now established for the dependants of dead or missing seamen. It will ensure that exceptionally large families will now be adequately provided for – a provision that was not always proved possible under the arrangements formerly in operation.
Under the Government's revised plans, in the cases in which this new minimum payment is made – the arrangement for payment of contributions to the Merchant Navy Officers' Pension Fund, or a private Pension Scheme, of which the seaman is a member, and of pocket money at the prison camp as well as the reservation of a small balance for payment to the seaman on his return home, will be continued, but without any charge to the seaman or his dependants.
[page break]
September, 1944 The Prisoner of War 15
Sleeveless Pullover
FOR COLDER DAYS
[photograph]
By Courtesy of Copleys
Worked in a ribbed stitch with 4-ply wool
[knitting pattern and instructions]
(Continued overleaf)
[page break]
16 The Prisoner of War September, 1944
PARCELS
DELAY IN DELIVERY
STEPS have been taken to explain to all British Camp Leaders that individually addressed parcels (both next of kin and permit), handed to the Post Office up to the beginning of March, 1944, should reach the camp normally; but that owing to a variety of circumstances there is likely to be a very considerable delay in the delivery of parcels handed in after that date.
Recreations and Sports Equipment
In view of the transport difficulties referred to by the Postmaster-General, it is no longer possible for this department to forward musical instruments, music, indoor games, artists' materials, theatrical make-up, exercise books etc., to individual prisoners of war.
Articles already sent in for forwarding will be returned to the senders if desired. Correspondence with regard to the above should be addressed to the Indoor Recreations Section, Prisoners of War Department, St. James's Palace, S.W.1.
The same conditions apply to equipment for outdoor sports, correspondence about which should be addressed to the department, and marked “For the attention of Mr. A. F. Cox.”
Transit Camps
Red Cross food parcels will, as far as possible, be sent by the International Red Cross Committee to any camps in which there are British prisoners of war.
PENGUIN BOOKS
The Penguin Book Co. regrets that is has had to cancel its service of new Penguin books to prisoners of war. The despatch of further parcels has, therefore, ceased, and any unexpired subscriptions will be returned to next of kin through booksellers.
SLEEVELESS PULLOVER
(Continued from previous page)
[knitting pattern and instructions]
[inserted] Please be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/inserted]
Any Questions?
When sending in questions would next of kin kindly always give their name and address so that their letters may be answered by post if, for any reason, it is not possible to reply in this Journal.
Labels and Coupons
As we are not now allowed to send next-of-kin parcels, what shall I do with my label and coupons?
The Postmaster-General has recommended that no further next-of-kin parcels should be handed in for the present, but their despatch has not at any time been prohibited. Instructions about labels and coupons were given on page 16 of the August journal.
Camps in Eastern Germany
There are rumours about camps in Eastern Germany being moved. If this is so, how soon shall I be informed of my husband's new address? He is a prisoner in Stalag XXB.
As soon as information is received about the transfer of any prisoner of war the next of kin is informed; but this news is frequently received in the first instance by the next of kin from the prisoner himself.
Soap for Parcel
Should the soap which I bought to send to my son, who is a prisoner in Poland, just before the parcel ban, now be returned to my next-of-kin centre?
The despatch of next-of-kin parcels has not at any time been prohibited. We would recommend you to keep the soap and all other articles which you may have ready for your parcel in case the Post Office should again be able to forward parcels to prisoners.
Taken Prisoner in Normandy
I have been notified that my son was taken prisoner in Normandy. How soon shall I receive an address where I can write to him?
It is impossible to say how soon his camp address will be known, but you will be told by the Red Cross how to address your letters to him until you receive his permanent camp address.
Musical Instruments?
It has been stated that a limited number of parcels, mainly music, books and games, is still being sent to the camps. Will my son, who is a prisoner in Stalag 383, receive the musical instrument for which he asked recently?
We have no knowledge of the statement to which you refer. If the musical instrument for which your son has asked was despatched before the recommendation made by the Postmaster-General that no further parcels should for the present be posted to prisoners, your son will no doubt eventually receive it, though its delivery may be delayed.
Examination Papers
Are examination papers still being sent to the camps in Germany?
Yes. The Chairman of the Prisoners of War Department referred to these in his message to next of kin in the August journal.
Clothing Coupons
When my house was bombed recently clothing coupons issued to me by my next-of-kin centre were destroyed. To whom should this be reported?
You should write to the Packing Centre at 14, Finsbury Circus, London, E.C.2, giving a full explanation of the circumstances.
Change of Camp Name
Why was Oflag VIIIF changed to Oflag 79?
The numbering of camps is entirely a matter for the German authorities. The change in this case was made after the prisoners had been moved from Maerisch-Trueban to Waggun in quite a different part of Germany.
New Camps
Will my husband, taken prisoner in Normandy, be sent to an entirely new camp or will he be accommodated in one of the camps which already exist?
So far the prisoners taken in Normandy appear to be going to already established camps; but it is impossible to say whether they will continue to do so.
Air-raid Shelters
Are all camps equipped with air-raid shelters?
The majority of camps in Germany are equipped with air-raid shelters. Should, however, the representative of the Protecting Power when visiting any of the camps discover that adequate air-raid shelters were not available, they would immediately bring this to the notice of the German Government.
Camp Location
Can you tell be the location of Stalag IVA?
Stalag IVA is at Hohenstein, south-east of Dresden. (Red Cross map, reference F6.)
[inserted] THIS Journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoner of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/inserted]
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, SE1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 3, No. 29, September 1944
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-09
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial matters, dispensing by air mail; greetings at Lisbon; the letters they write home; official reports from the camps; groups from the camps; the brighter side; 'send us books...'; how they help (fundraising at home); examination results; knitting pattern for sleeveless pullover; parcels and any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-06
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Sixteen printed pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-09
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Barth
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Roger Dunsford
arts and crafts
Dulag Luft
entertainment
prisoner of war
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17138/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-11.2.pdf
4d638284b1d64cc5576a0c0f791bc730
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 2, No. 24, April 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Includes editorial matter; a message to relatives from the Archbishop of York (C F Garbett); official reports from the camps; the letters they write home; groups from the camps; do parcels really get there? how they help (fundraising at home); mail for Italy; the brighter side; knitting pattern for soft slippers; examination results; staff wanted; parcel issues, income tax relief; any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Sixteen page printed document
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-11
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-04
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Lithuania
Poland
Lithuania--Šilutė
Poland--Żagań
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription. Allocated
entertainment
prisoner of war
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17140/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-13.1.pdf
e40c8148ef56e42551b8d7ac3084d93b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE Prisoner of War
[Red Cross and St John Logo’s]
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.I
VOL. 2. No.18 Free to Next of Kin October, 1943
The Editor Writes –
THE turn of events in Italy must, I fear, have caused anxiety in many homes. Following hard upon the good news of the Armistice which provided for the liberation of their men in Italian hands, they learnt of the German advance which bought with an uncertainty as to their position. At the moment of writing I have no information beyond what was given by Mr. Churchill and Sir James Grigg to Parliament. This may be summed up as follows :-
Italians Will Help Them
Before the fall of Mussolini about 2,400 prisoners of wat were transferred from Italian to German camps, and though their letters express indignation at their transfer they do not complain of their treatment.
It is possible that the Germans are transferring prisoners to Germany from areas in which they are now in control. The Italians, however, gave orders for the release of all Allied prisoners in their hands, and Mr. Churchill has no doubt that “they will be succoured by the Italian people among whom they are dispersing.”
A comparatively small number of prisoners have been released from Southern Italy (where we are in control) and others have escaped from Northern Italy into Switzerland.
Why I am Optimistic
With this information we must for the time being be contented, but Mr. Churchill has given his assurance that “in all these matters we are acting with the greatest vigilance and earnestness and everything in human power will be done.” My own feeling is optimistic. If the advance of our armies proceeds as we hope and believe it will, I have such confidence in the resourcefulness of our men and the readiness of Italian civilians to help them that I believe they will filter through to our lines in considerable numbers. That is my personal hope and belief.
Anzac Way
A P.O.W. at Stalag 383 writes home about the wide range of sports for the 4,000 men at this camp. “We have a swimming pool, football, rugby, hockey and cricket pitch.” He also mentions that their huts are laid out in streets “with appropriate names such as ‘Springbok Avenue’ and ‘Anzac Way.’”
[photograph]
UNLOADING Red Cross parcels at B.A.B. 21.
Stalag Gardeners
The Editor of [italics] The Countryman [/italics] has shown us an interesting letter from Stalag XVIII-A describing a “mixed plantation” in the camp as it was in mid-June. There were lettuce, cucumber plants, “a yard of beet,” radishes, kohlrabi, tomatoes and a spinach bed “divided from the salads by a row of dwarf peas.” The letter concludes : “Although somewhat cramped for room the herbaceous border will, we hope, make quite a good show in late summer with wallflowers, scabious, stocks and violas. The holding is under the anxious care of five townsmen and one countryman and we have no ‘experimental stations’ to call up for advice, but our only unsolved problem is space.”
Ingenious Make-up
From a sergeant at Stalag-Luft I comes a letter describing a recent revue produced in this camp. One of its highlights was “a marvellous pianist, an American one who has played in concerts in London.” The costumes for the show came from Hamburg, and make up “from a box of crayons and vase-line mixed together.”
His Two Reasons
“I don’t mind how long the war lasts so long as England comes out on top. My two reasons for this are John and Mary and all other children.” Thus typically writes a P.O.W. at Stalag VIIB to his wife in Devonshire. His letter ends
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
with this charming compliment to his wife: “I’ve made a bag to put your letter in and it hangs on my bed.”
Arthur and Archie
Two brothers, Arthur and Archie, were taken prisoner together in June, 1942, and have been together ever since. Recently, they were moved from P.G.75 to P.G.70. Arthur has spent much of his time studying German, Italian and shorthand, while his brother has been making a name for himself in the camp concerts.
“Please give something out of the bank to the Red Cross for me.” writes Archie to his mother, who sends us cheque for £2 12s.
Prison Bar
There’s a certain P.O.W. in Stalag XVIII-A who writes home very cheerfully. And no wonder – for besides giving dancing lessons and taking part in the innumerable musical activities of the camp, he has made himself a barman behind his own bar. “We have 18 barrels of beer per week for 66 of us,” he says. A popular fellow no doubt !
Breath-taking
A repatriated prisoner has written to tell us what he thinks of our services. Soon after his capture, it seems , while he and his comrades were kept waiting in Benghazi, there were gloomy forebodings about the fate that lay in store for them ; but “the glorious realisation of what you actually did, after we got to Italy, was enough to take our breath away.” He has a tribute to pay, too, to our Organisation in the Middle East, which met him on his journey home. “Their reception of us at Smyrna and Alexandra and Cairo was great, and will always be remembered with profound gratitude.”
Field Days
Farm work can be pleasant under almost any conditions, as a lot of our men have found out in the course of their captivity. One of them who has been helping to get in the harvest in Italy admits to feeling “more contented than I have ever been since becoming a P.O.W.” His is a small camp, which divides its 50 members among different farms. “On our farm,” he adds, as a touch of local colour, “some girl rice-pickers have arrived and it is a treat to hear them singing in the fields where they work.” Though quite accustomed to his own work now, he naturally “felt a little stiff at first, as we do eight hours a day for six days a week.”
A Driver of Oxen
In Germany, too, farming has made many converts among P.O.W.s. “Work is better, food is better,“ says a man who has been “farmed out” from Stalag XVIII-A. “It’s nice and peaceful out here. The only noise is the cocks crowing, the cows mooing, the pigs squealing. Instead of horses we use oxen for draft purposes. I bet you’d laugh if you could see me driving a pair of oxen.”
Tending the Russians
A member of the Friends Ambulance Unit, now a prisoner in Stalag V-B, is in sole charge of the nursing of severe Russian cases at the camp hospital and finds the responsibility rather a strain – especially, he says, as it means “nursing people of whose speech one can understand nothing, none of the comforting little phrases being any use at all. In
[inserted]“HOW CAN I THANK YOU ?”
The Red Cross receive many thanksgiving letters, but few more moving than this one from a repatriated South African corporal in Cairo:-
“How can I thank you? It is a problem that I cannot solve, but instead let me say :
“When I was hungry – you fed me.
“When my pals were sick – you sent medical supplies.
“When we wondered about our folks at home – you brought letters.
“When we wanted something to do inside a dreary cage – you supplied books, games, musical instrument and educational facilities.
“When conditions were bad – you sent representatives round to see they were improved.
“You kept our spirits high, and you kept us alive, and then you brought me back to my own people.
“How can I thank you? Even now you go on piling on a debt that I cannot possibly repay. I cannot thank you. Perhaps God will one day. I pray He will.” [/inserted]
fact, one has to act helpful all the time.” He deserves our sympathy and admiration in such exacting work, although he finds that at least “it makes the time fly past, and I learn a few more words of Russian every day.”
Living and Learning
A captain in Campo P.G.21 compares his camp with “a small crowded University, with its numerous societies and clubs. There are no cars, no yachts and no rods, yet we have motor and yacht clubs and angling society! We talk and think about, and even impersonate, practically everything in the world outside.” He remarks that one of the chief advantages of a big camp lies in just this rich variety of life. “A great deal goes on. People are writing to tell you the truth here about their jobs and so forth, much more than they normally would. I am sure it is a good school of general knowledge, and certainly broadens one’s mentality.”
“The Red Angel”
Sitting in the crowded recreation room of his German prison camp and dreaming quietly of the English countryside, Lt. Col. Guy Adams wrote his first novel and sent it home to be published. So well has “The Red Angel” been received by critics and public alike that it completely sold out and has now been reprinted. “I feel I should like to celebrate this,” says Mrs. Adams in a letter to me, with which she generously sends £5 to the Fund “in gratitude for all the Red Cross is doing for my husband and other prisoners.”
“Would Make Pops Jealous”
Leslie Blud, of Birmingham, 26, describes himself as “a real old farm yokel” and says the garden at his farm would make Pops jealous. They grow “everything except hops,” including carrots as large as turnips and cabbages as large as oak trees –“believe it if you like.”
Relief in Books
A trooper in Stalag IIID gives his view of the prisoner’s mental life in a recent letter. “The compensation for this monotony is that one tends to lose count of time and thus the weeks and months go more quickly by.” He speaks, too, of the great relief he finds in books, and of his eagerness to read “How Green Was My Valley.” This novel was so much in demand that he had to wait his turn.
Toc H at Stalag Luft 6
A sergeant pilot at Stalag Luft 6 sends the “bigs news” that his new camp has a Toc H group which collects surplus cigarette to distribute to “needy new arrivals or lads who get no parcels.” He ends with the news that at a recent fancy dress parade his friend, Taffy, won the beauty contest as Miss Luft 6, 1943. The prize was “1,000 fags.”
Kindly be Patient
The printer’s lot is not any [sic] easy one nowadays. There are more and more readers to whom this journal is being sent, and our printers say that it may sometimes be impossible to get the issue posted to everyone by the first of each month. So please don’t think you have been forgotten if your copy doesn’t always reach you punctually in future. The delay will, at worst, be a matter of not more than a few days.
All the information concerning Italian camps contained on this and other pages refers, of course, to the period before the Armistice.
[page break]
October, 1943 The Prisoner of War 3
ART IN CAMP
[italics] Here a member of Stalag 383 describes the Arts and Crafts Exhibition held at the camp this summer, while a member of Campo P.G.59 describes a three-day Art show [/italics]
At Stalag 383.
IN the near future Londoners may see an exhibition of prisoner-of-war arts and crafts at one of the city’s leading stores. That is, if the recent overtures made by the International Red Cross to the German authorities are successful. It is believed they will be.
The ”Arts and Crafts” group at Stalag 383 are very keen on this idea, which prompted their second exhibition of talent produced in camp. This display was better than that held in April, both in quality and quantity. In the three days of the exhibition over 4,000 of the camp inhabitants passed through the gallery, many more than once.
It was also honoured by a visit from M. Erik Berg, of the World Alliance of Y.M.C.A.s. He was greatly impressed, and as well as congratulating each exhibitor took many photographs for his organisation and the Red Cross.
Looking Ahead
Again the exhibition was divides into three classes : Arts, Crafts, and Tapestry. In the Arts section were large displays in both portraiture and posters. Some of the portraits were in oils, but owing to the scarcity of this material most people were content to work with pencil or charcoal.
The poster display was made up of various subjects and was very outstanding. Many men here are turning to advertising with an eye to employment in this field after the war. Landscape water-colour artists were restricted by lack of subjects, but there were quite a few exhibits.
Cartoon and caricature suffered a loss in entries, but it was pleasing to note the best “black and white” men of the first exhibition remained. Woodcuts
[photograph]
A view of Stalag 383. Its members hope that their exhibition may be on view in London shortly.
were almost entirely lacking, there being only one exhibitor with two fine pieces of work.
In the crafts, model-makers showed trains, planes, boats and inlaid household ornament. Two ingenious exhibits were a church in miniature and a working model of a mill-loom.
Needle and Thread
The third section was proof that needle and thread are not entirely the prerogative of woman. Many regimental crests of the British Army, pyjama cases and other types of men’s travel necessities were on view, together with colourful tapestries of the English and German countryside.
At Campo P.G.59.
THROUH not the first of the Italian P.O.W. camps to hold an art exhibition, we may perhaps be one of the first to have the event reported in the [italics] Prisoner of War [/italics] and thus made public in Britain. That, in so far as it reflects a little of our way of life here in Italy, will be a great source of gratification to us.
At first, of course, there were all sorts of difficulties in the way of organising the show: securing proper drawing materials, for instance; in face of the ban on their supply from home, and the censorship regulations; finding suitable accommodation; making any definite arrangements with the camp personnel, two thirds of whom had only just arrived.
Such obstacles, which might have turned back a less resolute man than our Camp Leader (the sole executive organiser) trebled the work of production. But they were all eventually overcome and on May 15th, 1943, the exhibition became a triumphant [italics] fait accompli. [/italics]
Three-day Show
It ran for three days. No fewer than 159 pictures were hung, consisting of oil paintings, water colours, crayon and pencil drawings, pen-and-ink sketches, and
[poster]
Poster for Anzac Day designed by a sergeant at Stalag 383.
ranging in subject from landscapes to caricatures. The pleasant landscapes of Britain and London street scenes complete with the London “Bobby,” were in particular a refreshing reminder to us of the fact that “There will always be an England.”
Various Prizes
Various and substantial prizes were awarded for the three best entries in each of the ten subject groups. The winners were chosen by general vote, and the Colonel Commandant himself made a most generous contribution of 500 lira in support of the prize list. Indeed, the keen interest shown by all the Italian Officers and camp authorities in our venture was a great encouragement. Thanks to their help, to the skill and enthusiasm of our artists and to the untiring energy of our Camp Leader, we are grateful to be able to record that our first Art Exhibition has proved an immense and most stimulating success.
SEPTEMBER PENGUINS
THE following ten books were chosen as the September selection for prisoners in camps in Germany and Italy:
PENGUINS: – [italics] Death of My Aunt [/italics], C. H. B. Kitchen; [italics] The Gun [/italics], C. S. Forester; [italics] Ju Ju and Justice in Nigeria [/italics], Frank Hives and Gascoigne Lumley; [italics] The Silk Stocking Murders [/italics], Anthony Berkeley; [italics] Friends and Relations [/italics], Elizabeth Bowen; [italics] Country Life [/italics], H. E. Bates; [italics] Modern Irish Short Stories [/italics], edited by Alan Steele and Joan Hancock; [italics] A Man’s Man [/italics], Ian Hay.
SPECIAL: [italics] Design [/italics], Anthony Bertram.
PELICAN: [italics] The Personality of Animals [/italics], H. Munro Fox.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
OFFICAL REPORT FROM THE CAMPS
[inserted][italics] IN every case where the conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German or Italian authorities. Where there is any doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted, it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/italics][/inserted]
Germany
STALAG VIIIB
Hospital at Cosel. – On the day of the visit there were 75 British patients, four British Medical Officers, including a British surgeon, and 61 British Medical Orderlies. The hospital is considered excellent, but there is a definite shortage of drugs. Food rations are the same as those received in German Hospitals.
The camp compound has been extended and a great deal of the ground has been turned into a garden, kept by prisoners of war, who have made vegetable and flower gardens and paths leading to the hospital barracks. (Visited June.)
Bau und Arbeitsbatallion 20, Heydebreck. – 1,189 prisoners include 127 naval men. Food is described as satisfactory, though for a time the potatoes were not good. A considerable number of minor working accidents have been reported, but medical attention is satisfactory. Prisoners are sent to Blechhammer for dental treatment by British dentists and to Neustadt for eye treatment.
Clothing is satisfactory and working overalls have been distributed among the men. Recreational facilities are good.
[photograph]
Recreational facilities are good at B.A.B.20. Here is their band.
The receipt of mail has been bad of late.
(Visited June.)
Bau und Arbeitsbatallion 21, Heydebreck. – Of the 1,170 men in this camp, 316 are naval prisoners of war. The new organisation of the camp, since the amalgamation of 21-48, is described as fairly satisfactory. As at B.A.B.20, there are many minor working accidents.
There were no complaints about washing, bathing and toilet facilities, nor about the food. A new dental station is to be opened shortly where the dental and medical officers will work together. Working clothes are in bad condition and very few working overalls have been issued. A new chapel has been built. (Visited June.)
STALAG IIID
Work Camp 329, outside Berlin. – Camp 329 was newly opened in May and contains prisoners of war from Camps 517 and 520. The strength is given as 552. They are working on railway construction. The camp is situated in the middle of a large pine forest, and is as yet not quite completed.
The prisoners are accommodated in four large wooden huts furnished with two-tier bunks, straw mattresses and two blankets each. The rooms are light and airy; other huts are used for kitchens, washhouse, store rooms and an infirmary. At present there are no facilities for private cooking.
Clothing is fairly satisfactory, but no work clothes have been issued. There are repair shops in the camp. So far there is no canteen. Cold showers are always available.
Medical attention is given by a British doctor and dental attention us given at a neighbouring detachment. There is a large sports ground where the prisoners are able to play football and other games; they have formed orchestras, etc., and have a library. Compensation is given for Sunday work. Religious services are held each Sunday. There are air-raid shelters in the camp, to which the prisoners are obliged to go during an alert. (Visited May.)
Hospital No. 119 at Neukolln. – The hospital is installed in a school building and has air-raid shelters in the cellars. Accommodation is satisfactory.
Sanitary installations are inadequate and the supply of hot water is insufficient. Although the building is regularly disinfected, bugs appear on all the floors. Medical and dental attention is satisfactory, thought it takes a considerable time to procure dentures.
The British patients are visited fortnightly by a chaplain. Food is prepared by German civilians and special diets are available with the help of Red Cross parcels. (Visited June.)
Italy
CAMPO P.G.12 P.M. 3200,
VINCIGLIATE, near FLORENCE
This camp for British Generals continues to be satisfactory. A few minor complaints were brought forward and settled on the spot. No British chaplain has yet visited the camp. (Visited June.)
CAMPO P.G.47 P.M.3200. MODENA
There are over 1,000 officers here, and this camp is slightly overcrowded. Extra beds have been placed in the dormitories, and space is generally restricted. Electric light has been improved. Kitchen boilers were being repaired, and water pressure made sufficient to prevent further burst. Cold showers can be had at any time, and warm showers twice weekly.
Medical service is described as quite satisfactory. Dental treatment is given by two surgeons, but materials are lacking. An oculist is called in when necessary. The impression gained by the visiting delegates was that the camp has improved since the previous visit. (Visited June.)
CAMPO P.G.49 P.M.3200,
REGGIO NELL, EMILIA
540 officers and other ranks are detained in a large new orphanage, a four-storied stone-built house, standing on a plain, surrounded by fields and vineyards. The building is modern with up-to-date installations. The officers’ quarters are on the first and second floors. The interior arrangements are described as comfortable. Other ranks sleep in long dormitories and have their own mess room and common room. The building is spacious with marble staircases, tiled floors.
Mail delays have been experienced owing to transfers from other camps.
Kitchens are up to date and well equipped. The wood ration seems hardly sufficient. There are canteens for both officers and other ranks. Clothing conditions are, on the whole, satisfactory.
Sanitary installations appear to be satisfactory, with ample water supply.
Three British M.O.s assist an
[page break]
October 1943 The Prisoner of War 5
Italian surgeon with medical attention; materials are needed for dental treatment. There is ample space for indoor games; a large playground is to be levelled for use as a football field, and there is a library of 3,000 books (Visited May.)
CAMPO P.G.59 P.M.3300,
SERVIGLIANO (PICENO)
The number of prisoners of war at Camp 59 has been considerably reduced, as many men have been transferred to work camps, and of a total of 1,328 prisoners or war 313 are English and 913 American. There have been no changes in accommodation. Water supply is ample, and hot baths are available every 10 days. The canteen is quite well stocked. Clothing is fairly good. There has been some difficulty in obtaining an ambulance for the transfer of sick prisoners of war to hospital, though the situation is better than it was.
Recreational facilities appear to be quite well organised. Religious services are held regularly. (Visited June.)
CAMP P.G.54 P.M.3300,
FARAIN SABINA
At the date of the visit there were about 3,500 prisoners of war at this camp. Two agricultural labour detachments have been organised. Two of the sections of the camp were occupied, the third one being still unfinished.
The majority of the prisoners of war
[photograph]
Three P.O.W.s at Campo P.G.73.
are still accommodated in tents. Workers in the camp receive supplementary rations. There is a canteen in each section. Clothing conditions have improved considerably since the previous visit. The water supply is still inadequate, and consequently sanitary installations, although improved are almost useless.
The infirmary is still installed in tents, but serious cases are sent to military hospitals at Rome and Perugia. There is no improvement in the dental attention. The preparation of a sports ground outside the camp was under consideration, and there is now a Church of England chaplain in the camp. (Visited May.)
CAMPO P.G.73 P.M.3200, CARPI
Of the total of 4,457 prisoners of war at this camp, 250 men are in the two work camps and 286 were in hospital. The patients were distributed in Hospital 201 and 203 and at Carpi and Piacenza. Adjoining this camp is a new camp of equal size, which was empty at the time of visit.
The interior arrangements of the camp have not altered. Vegetables and fruit are plentiful, and the canteen is well organised. Consignments of clothing had recently been received.
In the hospital two British medical officers and 20 orderlies assist the Italian doctor with medical attention, which is described as satisfactory. Conditions at the hospital are said to have improved. There is now a Church of England chaplain in the camp. (Visited June.)
CAMPO P.G.201 P.M.3200, BERGAMO
Bergamo Hospital is no longer overcrowded. The medical personnel are well accommodated. Food is satisfactory, and commodities are brought in regularly from the canteen, which is outside the camp. Hospital clothing is issued, and everyone is well equipped.
Two new wash basins have been added for the use of medical personnel. There are three British medical officers besides the Italian staff, but there is no British dentist. About half the patients are suffering from wounds. There is an Anglican chaplain and an Italian priest attached to the camp. (Visited June.)
CAMPO P.G.202 P.M.3200, LUCCA
As a result of recent repatriation, only
[photograph]
A group at Campo P.G.54, a report of which appears on this page.
one-third of this hospital is now occupied. The new wing of the building has been completed. Sanitary installations are described as satisfactory, and there is sufficient hot water for the use of the patients. There are 11 medical officers and a dentist, besides the Italian staff.
A civilian dentist visits the hospital twice a week. X-ray and electrical treatment has recently been made available. The canteen is well stocked with fruit and vegetables, and special diets can be supplied. There is no room in which to hold Church of England services, though there is a Roman Catholic chapel. (Visited June.)
CAMPO P.G.203 P.M.3200, BOLOGNA
The number of patients at this hospital has been greatly reduced. Accommodation is satisfactory. Mail and parcels service appears to be satisfactory. Hospital clothing is issued to all patients. The dental cabinet has not yet been installed, but it promised.
There is no space available for sport, but regular walks have been arranged.
[italics] Note. [/italics] – Information has been received that patients from P.G.206 have been transferred to 203. (Visited June.)
P.O.W.s MOVED FROM ITALY TO GERMANY
Stalag IVB, which is at Muhlberg, appears to be mainly a transit camp, and many prisoners of war who have been sent there from Italy are now reported as having arrived at Stalag VIIIB.
Any parcels already sent to Stalag IVB should be forwarded by the camp authorities.
Next of kin and acting next of kin of these P.O.W.s should remember that it is important that the prisoner of war number should be given on all letters and parcels sent to men now in Germany.
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
Groups from the Camps
[photograph]
CAMPO PG52
[photograph]
ILAG VIII H
[photograph]
STALAG VIII B
[photograph]
STALAG XXB
[photograph]
STALAG XXID’9
[photograph]
STALAG IX C
[photograph]
STALAG XVIII B
[photograph]
STALAG VII A
[page break]
October, 1943 The Prisoner of War 7
[photograph]
Hockey on the Island – at Stalag XXIA.
The Letters They Write Home
From Italy to Germany
Stalag IVB. 28.7.43.
I HAVE left Italy and am now at Stalag IVB in Germany. The reason for this move? Well, your guess is a good as mine and probably as corrects.
What a difference in our two existences. In Italy, the land of easy come, easy go, and Latin indifference, we found life very much as we made it. They just pinned you up and left you to your own devices.
Now we are in Germany, the land of efficiency and love of discipline. Within 48 hours of entering the country we were “de-bugged,” registered, medically examined, X-rayed and inoculated: some organisation!
The food is better, there is more space, conditions are cleaner and, believe it or not, a swimming pool. Now the great thing is for you not to worry. If I know you won’t, then I’ll be all right.
I am not worrying; maybe I won’t be home as soon as you expected, but I wouldn’t have missed this for worlds.
Travelling here I have seen the most wonderful scenery in my life, its beauty touched something inside me and life seemed worth all its bumps. I am happier here than I have ever been as a prisoner.
Don’t think we don’t get any news here; we probably get even more than you do, and we can form our own conclusions.
Comrades in Adversity
Oflag VIIB. 20.7.43.
I HAVE no doubt you wonder how I pass the time. There are many little things that have to be done and which pass the day, such as washing dishes, making hot drinks, drawing parcels or tin store, going to the library, shorthand after lunch every day, and in the evening three times a week as well; visiting friends in other blocks and, of course, reading and playing games and sunbathing in the summer.
Then we spend a lot of time discussing everything and anything, from ships to sealing wax. I have accumulated a mass of general knowledge on all sorts or subjects. Other people’s jobs are often discussed. Everyone seems to know more about that particular job that the man actually concerned.
You may think I am just wasting my time from what I do. There are some who work much harder than I, but I can assure you I do more than a great many. I think I am keeping as fit as I can, both mentally and physically.
Try not to worry about me. This life is never any worse than you are able to imagine it, and I expect often a great deal better. There is a great deal in the comradeship of people suffering the same adversity. If you keep as cheerful and smiling as I do, which I am sure you do, we shall all be doing fine.
Post-war Plans
Stalag XXB. 1.8.43.
I AM still on the farm and am quite an experienced farm hand. I have papered another three rooms out recently.
Is Dad at work in his own line, and what do you intend doing after the war? Where shall we live? I don’t think I could like right inside the city again, although I should like to be near a town. Please let me know.
P.O.W. Surveyor
Stalag XXB (380). 1.8.43
SUMMER at last seems to have come to stay and we are now experiencing a warm spell.
I have been acting in a partly professional capacity as surveyor for a land drainage job. I’ve been supplied with “Dumpy” level and staff, and it was given me valuable experience in surveying and levelling. There is yet several months’ work to be done.
Later this afternoon I am due over the lake to convey our weekly washing to the laundry. We all take our rota in such fatigues as these, irrespective of rank.
Nearer Home
Stalag IVB. 28.7.43.
I AM nearer home than I have been for years. I still have not been told I am a P.O.W. of the Germans now, but still they did capture me, so here we are, at least some of us, in Germany.
We brought a few Red Cross parcels with us but are hoping to soon have a supply here as there are no parcels here at the present moment. I must tell you I enjoyed the trip here from Italy.
Life Agrees With Me
Campo P.G.118/VIII. 19.7.43.
WE have actually started fruit picking this week and we have been very busy collecting pears and apples. It’s really great fun, too, as we have to use the local counterpart for a ladder; they are just long poles with sticks through them for rungs. However, after a few spills are slips we managed to conquer them and are becoming quite expert.
We go to the farm at seven in the morning and finish at the same time at night and, with exception of a two-hour break mid-day, we are kept well on the go.
[photograph]
Parcels staff at Stalag XVIIIA.
I must say that this life certainly does agree with me and I feel almost disgustingly healthy.
The people we work for are very good, too; they’ve got a lovely great St. Bernard dog which has become great friends with us, and altogether life “down on the farm” seem all that it is cracked up to be.
But of course,
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
[photograph]
Members of Stalag VIIA/277.
there is always the one big hope in our minds; there’s no place like home and may that hope soon be realised.
Milking the Cow
Stalag XXA (127). 18-7-43.
I AM getting on fine with the farm work. The farmer said “Have a try at milking a cow.” Well, down I got to it, and now I am quite an expert at it. I said to the farmer. “I only want a frock and my hair curled and then I would be a proper dairymaid.”
P.O.W. Farm Workers
Stalag XXA (173). 25-7-43.
I HAVE left the Fort again and am back on another farm, camper number (173); it is in the same area, not far away. We get good food here and plenty of greens. The Red Cross is still keeping us well supplied.
We have had plenty of rain here of late, but now comes the sun; we are on the cornfield all day, and although it is tedious work I enjoy it; my shirt is off all day and I am quite brown. My hair is going white here with the sun. I think I have put on weight since being here and feel better.
The girls on the farm tie the corn and we stack it in small heaps; they are very big fields here. We will be stacking barley next week.
The Russian prisoners are here on farms around as well – they drive the oxen. We have been bean-picking, carrot-picking and beetroot-pulling during the past few weeks.
A New Camp
Stalag Luft VI. Undated.
WE arrived safely at our new camp on Wednesday, June 16th, after a 30-hour journey. It was wonderful to gaze at changing scenery after having seen none for so long. We saw thousands of blue lupins growing wild right across East Prussia.
The new camp is bigger and not so shut in. We are the first here and are in long barracks.
They are the most comfortable quarters we have had yet. There are no facilities for cooking, so everything is lashed up in the cookhouse, and we all feed down the centre of our rooms at the same time. Nothing is organised yet, of course.
I am working already rigging up a post office. The sports field, theatre, etc, will have to be done before October as we get a very long winter up here.
We Get Potatoes
Stalag IVB. 5.8.43.
AS you will see from my new address I am now in Germany, and we are treated very well. The food is more substantial than in Italy. I have not yet received any Red Cross parcels or cigarettes, but our move will have delayed them more than ever.
I am allowed to write six times a month, including letter and postcards. Well, there is one thing about this country – It is very much like England. The countryside is beautiful and the people are very much like us only their language differs. Prison life is not sweet any time, but we are treated as men here and get potatoes – a food I have not since I was taken prisoner in June, 1942. We get plenty of fresh vegetables so I have no worries.
[photograph]
Working party trio at Stalag IVC/380.
A New Craze
Stalag 383. 4.7.43.
WE had a swimming pool made for us some time ago, but just now the water is a bit too dirty, so everybody has got a new craze on; they’re making little toy sailing boats and sailing them on the water. Sometimes an old boot with an old shirt tied to it will come out of the blue, causing a great laugh.
They Look After the Graves
Stalag VIIIB. 4.7.43.
I BELONG to a party of 10 N.C.O.s who look after the graves of the boys who have died here, planting and tending to the flowers, and I must say the cemetery looks really lovely now.
Life What You Make It
Stalag XXID 13. 4.7.43.
I KNOW everybody expects big things to happen in the near future, but it does not do to swallow all you read or hear in wartime.
As for myself, I’m well and out to work six days a week. It’s nearly all pick and shovel work, so I shall be a good “navvy” one day; but it’s not too hard a work and the most we do is six hours a day, very often less.
To-day is our day of rest and everybody in the room is either reading, writing home, or arguing over something or other. Some of the lads are walking around the camp grounds, and outside some of the rooms the lads are having a singsong accompanied by various instruments.
Soon it will be tea-time when we get into what’s left of our Red Cross parcels. So you see life is what we make it in a prisoners’ camp; most of us are fairly cheerful and “chins still up.” So don’t think we are in cells with chain and iron balls locked on our ankles, and most of our guards are just as human as we are and want to back in their homes. Like us, they have had enough of it.
A Win for Australia
Marlag und Milag. 25.7.43.
CRICKET going along famously and the pitch is
[inserted] PICTURES AND LETTERS
POSTAL orders 10s will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters printed. We should be very much obliged if readers would send is COPIES of their prisoners’ letters, instead of the original ones, and on a separate sheet of paper.
Photographs, preferably of prisoners at work of recreation. will also be welcomed. Payments of 10s. will be made for every photograph reproduced across two columns, and 6s. for every photograph across one column. The name of the subject, the position of any known P.O.W. in photograph, and also the name and address of sender must be written in block letters on the back. All letters and photographs will be returned as soon as possible.
Address : RED CROSS EDITOR, PRISONER OF WAR DEPT., ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON S.W.1.
The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation.
[photograph]
“Our concert party” At Stalag XXIA.
[page break]
October, 1943 The Prisoner of War 9
good. The first Test was played about a week ago and resulted in a win for Australia. They batted first and knocked up 114. England started well but collapsed and finished up forty runs behind.
We have so far played four county matches, lost two and won two.
Athletics are going strong; we have four clubs; Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and Harvard; and if you feel inclined you can join a club and after much training they have a meeting. Last night we had the relays and long and high jumps. Yale, with Oxford and Cambridge were runners up.
From a Civilian Internee
Biberach. 3.7.43.
IT may be of interest to know how one spends the day. 7 a.m. fetch porridge for the ladies; 7.30, clean stove and room; 9-9.30, breakfast, sweep corridor 100ft. long, empty ashes, then dole out rations as they come along (marg., potatoes, sugar, salt, curds, etc.); this takes until 11 a.m.
I am then free till noon, when I dole out soup for twenty men – this is our only ration meal. In the afternoon, issue bread ration and do light fatigues, such as carrying Red Cross parcels, water for ladies’ washing and tea. At 5 p.m. go over to Flo for a Red Cross high rea (a real meal).
There are periodical jobs such as emptying mattresses and refilling and having a spring clean of barracks. The ladies have a roll call in the morning and the men a roll at night. We are locked in barracks from 10 p.m. till 6 a.m.
The over-sixties do not do any heavy fatigues. such as digging. Flo goes for a long walk about every ten days, parties of about 200, a guard in front and at rear.
Plenty of Chaff
Stalag VIIIB E235. 11.7.43.
IT is Sunday afternoon, most of the chaps are sleeping, a few are darning socks, etc.
There are 51 of us in this camp, none of them are local ; in fact, they are nearly all from the South. We are still on the same job; we have been on it over five months now – the longest bar one that I have been on one job. Last year I was over nine months in a sawmill, working in the woodyard.
I have had a good variety of jobs in the last three years, from digging drains to pulling sugar-beet, loading coal at a paper mill, and, of course, in winter, the inevitable snow-clearing. The jobs we work on are not very hard, but, of course we have to do a bit. We always work in gangs, and there is always plenty of chaff. We get two breaks in the day, around 9 to 10 o’clock for breakfast or [italics] fruhstuck [/italics], 12 to 1 for dinner or [italics] mit-tag [/italics], and then anywhere from 4 to 5 comes the welcome words [italics] feier-abend [italics], pronounced by us as “fire-arm.”
[photograph]
Replay race at Stalag Luft 3.
Amateur Tinkers
Campo P.G.53. 2.8.43.
EXPECT the weather is glorious now; it is tropically hot here and I am very sun-tanned and fit. Our platoon team (Lancashire) lost by 24 runs to Yorkshire this week – we only scored 61 runs. I have made a good job of a tea-urn out of tins, etc. Looks quite “posh” polished up. We are all more or less amateur tinkers now. Some chaps have even made attaché cases.
Takes His Boss to Town
Stalag XXB 631. 1.8.43.
I HAVE been very busy cutting corn day and night. I have four horses and the binder, and I am the only
[photograph]
A cheerful group at Stalag 383.
Englishman allowed to work or go with any machinery.
We are having lovely weather here and am “as brown as a berry.” My boss (a woman of 28) is very good to us and we get along fine together. I often take her to town in the coach with two horses.
Oxford Dinner
Campo P.G.21. 22.6.43.
LAST Sunday we had an Oxford dinner – some fifty odd members of the university attended, and it was an extremely successful evening.
Our hosts have now produced a cinema – first performance in the open air tonight. I am still very busy with the dance band and orchestra. Recently we played the whole of Beethoven’s Second Symphony.
Rabbit-Keeping – A New Craze
Stalag VIIIB E3. 20.7.43.
I WORK ten hours a day for five days of the week, and finish at 1 o’clock on Saturdays. My work consist of moving iron, sand, etc., and, in plain words, what I am told to do.
Saturday afternoons and Sundays we do our washing and give our billet a good tidy up.
We have a craze here – rabbit-keeping. I have been given two, and I might tell you it passes many hours away looking after them.
Our biggest job is getting wood for our fire.
Reads Between the Lines
Campo P.G.78 29.7.43.
IT is getting pretty hot down here now and I am getting as brown as a native. I played a game of cricket yesterday ; I did not make any runs, but caught three of the other side out.
In the Red Cross special invalids’ parcels they sent me were some vitamin B yeast tablets; they taste just like beer – they are good!
Did I tell you I get the paper every day? I can read Italian quite well now, especially between the lines.
[page break]
10 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
EXAMINATION RESULTS
CORPORTATION OF CERTIFIED SECRETARIES. Corporal E. G. Weller; Passed Final, Part I.
EAST MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL UNION.
Lieut. H. H. Ledger; Passed German III, 1st class; passed Spanish I and II, 1st class; passed Spanish III, 2nd class.
Lieut. C.J.R. Yeo; Passed Spanish I and II, 1st class; passed Spanish III 2nd class.
SMAE INSTITUTE.
L/Cpl. J.E. Warren; Passed Diploma Examination (very high standard).
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Pte. A.W. Jeyes; Passed Senior General, Class III, Sgt. A. Francis-Clare, passed Senior General, Class I.
RESULTS OF THE INSTITUTE OF BOOK-KEPPER EXAMINATIONS.
June, 1943.
Associate Stage. Successful Candidates.
BOOK-KEEPING; Sapper G.W. Griffith.
Elementary Stage.
L/Cpl. F. Schofield.
March, 1943.
Associate Stage. Successful Candidates.
BOOK-KEEPING.
Sgt. J.O. Badcock with distinction; Cpl. G. Butterworth; C.Q.M.S. R.A. Keys
BUSINESS METHODS AND ORGANISATION.
Pte. H.D.G. Cunnold; Sgt. J.O. Badcock; Cpl, G, Butterworth; C.Q.M.S. R.A. Keys; L/Bdr. T. Smith
COMMERCIAL ARITHMETIC.
Sgt. J.O. Badcock; Cpl. G. Butterworth; C.Q.M.S. R.A. Keys.
ECONOMICS
Pte. H.D.G. Cunnold.
INSTITUTE OF BANKERS.
Associate Examination.
J.E.H. Barnfield, Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed, English Composition, Part II passed.
W.G.A. Hill; Banking, Part II, passed.
Lt. A.H. Blackbourn; *Accountancy, Part II, passed;
Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed.
Lt. R.G. Brown; Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed; Eng. Composition, Part II, passed.
Lt. D.M.C. Burrough; *Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed (Distinction).
Lt. R.L. Charlesworth; Economics, Part I, passed. Lt. J.W.Y. Cullen; Economics, Part I, passed.
Capt. B.A. Dowling; Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed.
Lt. I.F. Dunkley; Book-keeping, Part I, passed; Economics, Part I, passed.
Lt. P. Elliott; Economics, Part I, passed; Banking, Part I, passed; English Composition, Part II, passed.
Lt. G.I. Fisher; Accountancy, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed; Banking, Part II, passed.
Capt. P.S. Ingham; [symbol] Booking-keeping, Part I, passed; Economics, Part I, passed.
Lt. F.H.H. Jackson; *Accountancy, Part II, passed.
Capt. G.H. Killey; Book-keeping, Part I, passed;
English Composition, Part I, passed; Banking, Part I, passed.
Lt. N.T. Lawson; Economics, Part II, passed.
Lt. P.M.C. Onions; Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed; English Composition, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed.
Lt. C.G. Osmond; [symbol] Book-keeping, Part I, passed; Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed; Banking, Part II, passed.
Lt. S.D. Rae; [symbol] Accountancy, Part II, passed; Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed (Distinction); Banking, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed.
Lt. T.W. Retter; Accountancy, Part II, passed; Banking, Part II, passed (Distinction).
Lt. B.L.S. Rich; Book-keeping, Part I, passed. Economics, Part II, passed; Banking, Part II, passed.
Lt. J.A. Rodger; Book-keeping, Part I, passed; Economics, Part II, passed; Banking, Part II, passed.
Lt. J.W. Shearer; Foreign Exchange, Part II, passed; English Composition, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed.
Pte. H. Thorpe; English Composition, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed; Banking Part II, passed.
Lt. P.L. Verity; *Accountancy, Part II, passed; Foreign Exchange. Part II, passed; English Composition, Part II, passed; Economics, Part II, passed.
*Completes Part II.
[symbol] Completes Part I.
Lt. F.S. Wenborn; Book-keeping, Part I, passed,
Banking, Part I, passed.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS.
BOOK-KEEPING, STAGE I.
Gnr. J.F. Archer; pass with credit.
J.D. Bibby; pass with credit.
E.G. Christian; pass with credit.
Pte. H. Findlay; pass.
A. Hogg; pass with credit.
S.M. McGifford; pass with credit.
J.J. Mooney; pass with credit.
Sgt. G.W.P. Reid; pass with credit.
L/Cpl. C.W. Rooke; pass.
J. Sharp; pass.
Sgt. D.F. Springett; pass with credit.
C.G. Vowles; pass.
BOOK-KEEPING, STAGE II.
Pte. C.E. Allison; pass, 1st class.
Capt. A.T. Bardwell; passed 1st class.
J.D. Bibby; pass, 1st class.
C.A.R.M. Bolton; pass, 2nd class.
R. Bone; Pass, 2nd class.
Major J.I. Breeds; passed 1st class.
Major W. Christopherson; passed 1st class.
Major H. Coghill; passed 1st class.
Major W.W.N. Davies; passed 1st class.
Capt. S.A. Day; passed 1st class.
Brig. H.C. Eden; passed 1st class.
Capt. K. Keens; pass, 1st class.
J.G.I. McKeman; pass, 2nd class.
A. H. MacKinnon; pass 2nd class.
Major N. MacKinnon; passed 1st class.
Pte. S.W. Mills; passed 1st class.
Capt. R.K. Montgomery; passed 1st class.
Major A.R.E. Parsons; passed 1st class.
Major C.A. Peel; passed 1st class.
Major R.W. Porcas; passed 1st class.
Major J.R.L. Roberts; passed 1st class.
Pte. L.H. Rowland; passed 1st class.
C. Salt; pass, 2nd class.
S/Sgt. J.G. Sheekey; pass 1st class.
W.J. Strawbridge; pass, 2nd class.
W.J. Thompson; pass, 2nd class.
Major J.F. Wallace; passed 1st class.
Pte. J. Ward; passed 1st class.
GERMAN, STAGE I.
P. Anderson; pass.
D.F. Brunger; pass.
J. Byford; pass, with credit.
J. Galvin; pass.
Pte. N.T. Hinks; pass with credit.
Pte. E.H. Hobby; pass.
I.K. Lawson; pass with credit.
W.H. Pond; pass with credit.
G.W. Poole; pass.
GERMAN, STAGE II.
J. Byford; pass, 2nd class.
Pte. S.K.P. Brick; pass, 2nd class.
W/O H.W.J. Cawood; pass 1st class.
S.C. Davis; pass, 2nd class.
N.T. Hinks; pass 2nd class.
I.K. Lawson; pass, 1st class.
J.C. Limerick; pass, 2nd class.
D.C. Lock; pass, 2nd class.
W.H. Pond; pass, 2nd class.
Spr. G.W. Poole; pass, 2nd class.
E.T. Russell; pass, 1st class.
J.A. Wise; pass, 1st class.
FRENCH, STAGE I.
Pte. V.M. Egan; pass with credit.
Pte. L.F. Horton; pass with credit.
Sgt. A.G. Jones; pass with credit.
W. Standage; pass.
R.S. Taylor; pass.
H. Terry; pass with credit.
G.C.S. Turner; pass with credit.
FRENCH, STAGE II.
Pte. V.M. Egan; pass, 1st class.
W. Golledge; pass, 2nd class.
Pte. L.F. Horton; pass 2nd class.
Sgt. A.G. Jones; pass, 2nd class.
L/Cpl. H.E.L. Rose; pass, 1st class.
S/Sgt. J.G. Sheekey; pass, 1st class.
H. Terry; pass, 2nd class.
Sgt. G.C.S. Turner; pass 2nd class.
SPANISH, STAGE I.
H.L. Astbury; pass.
J.A.R. Coulthard; pass with credit.
E.H. Hobby; pass.
A.T.R. Kemp; pass.
Sgt. I. Ramsay; pass with credit.
ENGLISH, STAGE I.
G. Clare; pass.
Continued at foot of next column
PARCELS FOR P.O.W.s IN ITALY
THE Postmaster-General has announced that in view of the armistice with Italy no more next of kin or permit parcels should be sent to prisoners of war in Italy.
Parcels not yet dispatched from the Parking Centres at Finsbury Circus and Glasgow will be returned to the senders.
We are not able to make any statement as to the possibility of the return of parcels already on their way to Italy.
Coupons already issued for a prisoner in Italy should be carefully kept until further notice. If, however, the next of kin have returned them to the Red Cross, a new issue will be made later on should it be found to be necessary.
If information is received that the prisoner from whom the coupons were issued has been moved to Germany, they may be used for a parcel to be sent to that country, even though the coupon book is stamped “Italy.”
If any of the coupons have already been used for the purchase of clothing, the garments should be kept until further information about the prisoner is available.
No fresh issues of labels and coupons will be made at present for prisoners believed to be in Italy.
– and letters
Until further notice letters and postcards can continue to be posted to prisoners and internees in Italy addressed to the last know camp address for transmission by surface mail, but no guarantee can be given that it will be possible to effect delivery. Correspondence cannot be forwarded by air mail.
CAMP LIST
The following additions should be made:
Italy: P.G.19. P.M.3200; P.G.207, PM. 3200 (hospital). Casacelenda, Province di Campobasso (new civilian internment camp for women).
The following should be deleted: P.G.35. P.M.3400; P.G. 51, P.M. 3450; P.G.206, P.M.3400 (camp closed); Corropoli (civilian internment camp).
The location of P.G. 47 is MODENA, and not PIACENZE as previously stated. The location of P.G.136 is BOLOGNA.
The following should be added: France: Embrum – Hautes Alps (civilian internment camp).
W. Linder: pass.
H. Widdows: pass.
ENGLISH, STAGE II.
N. Cossins: pass, 2nd class.
Pte. L.F. Horton; pass, 2nd class.
Sgt I. Ramsay; pass, 2nd class.
H. Widdows; pass, 2nd class.
COMMERCIAL LAW, STAGE II.
Sgt. D.J. McCarthy; pass, 1st class.
R.J.E. Hawkins; pass, 2nd class.
Sgt. I. Ramsey; pass, 1st class.
ARTITHMETIC, STAGE II.
S.M. McDonald; pass, 1st class.
[page break]
October, 1943 The Prisoner of War 11
WHAT GERMANS PUT IN THEIR RED CROSS PARCELS
AXIS prisoners of war in Great Britain receive rations strictly according to the 1929 Geneva Convention, which means that they are fed on the same scale as the British troops who guard them. There is, therefore, little need to point out that German and Italian prisoners have not the same vital need of Red Cross food parcels as our men in Germany and Italy.
Nevertheless, the Red Cross is still the chief link with home for prisoners in our hands, and both the German and Italian Red Cross Societies send various supplies to this country for their own nationals, although on a far smaller scale than those provided by the War Organisation for our prisoners in enemy hands.
Direct to Lisbon
The consignments usually come direct to Lisbon and thence to this country, but on a few occasions a very small amount has come on the return trips of the British Red Cross “shuttle” service of ships between Lisbon and Marseilles.
When the parcels reach Great Britain, whether from Germany or Italy, they go either direct to the camps or in some cases to the International Red Cross Committee’s delegation in London, who have special storage accommodation for these parcels so that supplies can be sent to any camp which may have a sudden influx of new prisoners.
A detailed system of checking and acknowledgements is carried out by the International Red Cross in London and in Geneva, rather similar to the system in force for British Red Cross shipments to our own men in Germany and Italy. In each case Geneva acts as the clearing house and forms a “neutral” bridge by which both supplies and information can pass between prisoners of war and the national Red Cross Society which cares for them
German Parcels
The relatives of German prisoners of war in Great Britain are able, through the German Red Cross, to send them, at the cost of one mark each, small parcels known as “Typenpakete” (standard parcels). The “Typenpaketen” weigh from 1 1/2 to 2Ib. each, and only a very small number (about 1,700 per month) are sent to German prisoners here, as compared with the big consignments of next of kin and “permit” parcels from this country to our men in Germany. They are of three kinds, containing cigarettes or tobacco, or soap and other cleaning materials, or sweets and biscuits. These packages, which are individually addressed, are sent off by the German Red Cross from their head
[inserted] WE have received enquiries from time to time from next of kin about how the Axis powers help their prisoners of war through their own Red Cross organisation as compared with the service that the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation are able to do for British P.O.W.s. The following article gives some amount of the contents of the parcels which reach P.O.W. camps in this country from Germany and Italy. It was written before the Armistice with Italy was signed and refers to the conditions obtaining at the time it was written. [/inserted]
quarters at the former Ufa film “city” at Babelsberg, near Potsdam, and they go by air to Lisbon and then by post direct to the camps. Censorship is carried out in the camps themselves.
In addition to these individual parcels collective consignments are sent by the German Red Cross in the form of parcels, each about 10 Ib. in weight, well packed in waterproof brown paper fastened with gummed paper.
The food sent in the collective consignments includes rye bread wrapped in Cellophane, tins of apricots and other fruit, powered and condensed milk, typical German sausages of various kinds, some with fish filling, tinned meat and soup. Jam made of some kind of berries comes in solid slabs of the consistency of a table jelly.
In addition to foodstuffs there are collective parcels of soap; this is very hard and heavy, with a pungent and peculiar scent; there is also some kind of face cream in glass jars with the same distinctive scent as the soap.
Uniforms Sent from Germany
“Other Rank” prisoners of war in this country are issued with British battledress ornamented with the large coloured patches that are noticeable on Italian prisoners working on the land. The prisoners may, however, if they choose, wear their own uniforms, and most German prisoners of war prefer to do this. Large bales of uniforms sent over through the German Red Cross come to the International Red Cross stores for sorting and issue. Boots are not sent, but the quality of the uniforms is high, and a good proportion of either wool or a good imitation is used in the cloth.
Serious Book Preferred
German prisoners are supplied with books largely through the World Alliance of the Y.M.C.A., but many volumes, particularly textbooks of various kinds, are sent from Germany. Almost all the books are serious study books on science, mathematics, law and languages, etc., and little provision is made for recreational reading.
Recreational gear such as musical instruments and sports equipment occasionally comes from Germany. For the most part, however, the Germans rely on gifts from the Y.M.C.A.
Parcels from Italy
Until quite recently very little was sent to Italian prisoners in this country by the Italian Red Cross, although the next of kin of a small proportion of the men sent occasional parcels.
Within the last few weeks, however, a few food parcels have arrived from the Italian Red Cross after being re-directed from South Africa by the International Red Cross at Geneva. These parcels appear to be standardised but individually addressed. Each is of about the same weight as a British Red Cross food parcel and contains two tins of preserved meat (about 8 oz. each,) two packets of potato flour semolina (about 4 oz. each), a slab of solid jam (about 1 Ib.), and a tin of condensed milk, two tablets of poor quality soap, and a hundred Macedonian cigarettes. There is also a packet of stomach powders.
What Italian Next of Kin Send
Next of kin parcels from Italy vary greatly in size, and they are obviously packed by the senders. All are stitched up in some kind of fabric. The contents are often rather pathetic – home-made cakes and biscuits, so stale after their journey that they are as hard as stone; little twists of sewing cotton, half-used tablets of soap, and a curious-looking sweet something like a popcorn.
Packets of ten cigarettes of Macedonian tobacco labelled “2.20 lire” are often sent.
In the ordinary way these Italian next of kin parcels go direct to the camps, but when the package is damaged or the
(Continued overleaf)
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
HOW THEY HELP THE FUNDS
VERNA DENNIS and Lorna Rudd are twelve years old and eleven years old respectively. Verna has a brother and Lorna an uncle, both P.O.W.s in Italy – and what, thought the girls, could they do about it? We know their answer to that question now, and we are very glad and grateful to know it, for they held a sale in Bishop Auckland, where they live, and have raised fifteen guineas. On behalf of your brother and uncle and all their comrades – thank you, Verna and Lorna, very much indeed.
A Jumble Sale
Other enterprising young people have been: Valerie Wright. Of Rickmansworth, who arranged a jumble sale and raised £4 1s.; Patricia Aitken and Elizabeth Lovett (aged 12 and 11), who gave concerts to their friends and raised £1 10s.; Jane Mitchell (aged 12), of Blackheath. Birmingham, who has also collected £1 10s from the proceeds of a concert; Thelma Bowen (aged 13) and her friends at East Southsea, who in the same way raised £1 6s 6d.; Bryan Bird-eye (aged 12), of Kelvedon, who has earned 14s. for the Fund by painting fireplace decorations; the pupils of St. Margaret’s Kindergarten Sunday School, also of East Southsea, who contributed 4s.; and three little girls of Sutton-at-Home, Dartford – Olive Gunner, and Jean and Ivy Capon – who gave a party and raised 3s. The children of Perth whose fathers are P.O.W.s met at a happy tea-time gathering and presented £5 to the Fund.
Mr. F. G. Cornish, who raised £25 for the Fund with his poem “Calais,” has written another poem entitled “A Prayer.” Copies can be obtained from Mr Cornish at 30, Dacre Road, Upton Manor, E.13. for 5 1/2d. post free – all proceeds to the Fund.
By house-to-house collecting in her own immediate neighbourhood, Mrs. Collins, of Longford. Coventry has raised £58 16s 8d. during the last sixteen months. By selling garden produce Mrs. Startin, of Brimpton, Reading, has realised (for the second time) 3 guineas. By saving halfpennies or threepenny bits Miss White and Mrs. Laidler, of Morpeth, have collected £1 10s.; Mrs. Selby and her family, of Stratford, and Mrs. Bull, of Fratton, 10s. each.
Model Airplanes
By making model airplanes and selling them, Mr Deering, of Staplehurst, Kent, £8 17s. 6d.; and Mrs. Sweet. £5. By running whist-drives, dances, etc., Mrs. Thomas, of Fleetwood. Lancs (“in thanksgiving for a postcard from my husband, now a prisoner in Japanese hands”), £15 10s.; the Women’s Co-operative Guild of Topsham, Exeter, £10 8s. By selling a parcel contributed by the staff of South Brent Co-operative Society, Devon. £6 10s.
Other Helpers
We are grateful, too, to report that Mrs. Walker, of Mirfield, Yorkshire, has given £5; Miss Winifred Ford of Bramhall, Cheshire. 1 guinea; Mr. Islwyn James, of Morriston, Swansea, half a guinea ; Mrs Hogg, of Loanhead, Midlothian, Mrs. Barbour, of Tingley, Wakefield, Mrs. Nichols, of West Bilney, King’s Lynn. Mr. George Allsworth, of Harrow, and Miss Joan Hughes, of Taly-bont. Bangor (“to help towards a parcel for Daddy”), all 10s.; and Mrs. Thorneycroft, of Birmingham, 5s.
The Haslemere and Shottermill N.F.S. have nobly sent us £8 for the second time in two months.
“Could you let me have a collecting box and posters? “asks Mr. Yardy, of Streatham, on behalf of his Rover Scouts. “Two of the troop are prisoners in Italy and we want to help.”
The magnificent sum of £90 has been the result of a Sale of Work and Concert held in aid of the Red Cross by the little village of North Weald. £73 of this is due to the work of a few woman who made dolls and other toys in their spare moments.
WHAT GERMANS PUT IN THEIR PARCELS
address is not clear they are looked after by the staff of the International Red Cross delegation until the addressee has been located.
Special Books for Farmers
Most Italian prisoners in this country are peasants in uniform, whose normal life centres entirely on the land. This fact is, of course, well recognised by the Italian Red Cross, and it is shown very interestingly by the type of books sent from Italy to the camps.
A few Italian translations of popular American novels are included, and certain school textbooks, but the outstanding item is a set of seventy-three illustrated booklets, well printed in colour and produced by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. They deal with every conceivable type of job likely to be performed by an Italian farmer or gardener, and a complete set is sent to every camp.
Several volumes, seen at random, dealt with maize-growing, lavender culture, mushrooms, silage, bees, tomatoes, chicken-sexing, and animal parasites. The books are written in simple language, aided by many diagrams.
Gifts to Both Sides
Parcels from Germany and Italy make up the main part of incoming supplies for enemy prisoners over here, but a certain amount also arrives from other sources.
South American Red Cross Societies send consignments, for instance, for Italian prisoners, while the Hungarian Red Cross Society sent here not only a large case of tapioca for German and Italian prisoners, but an identical case to Geneva for British prisoners in Germany and Italy.
Work of the International Red Cross
All the organisation work involved in this distribution is carried out by the International Red Cross in Geneva and through their delegations in the belligerent countries.
In Great Britain the delegation also takes an important part in welfare work for these enemy soldiers who are finished with the war. The delegates, together with representatives of the War Office, the Y.M.C.S., and the Society of Friends, form a special welfare committee that meets regularly.
Recently it purchased a printing press that has been installed in an Italian prison camp convalescent hospital so that permanently disabled prisoners can produce much-needed educational books for their fellow prisoners. The committee has also provided seeds and instigated a camp gardening competition.
Reciprocal Humanity
The work of the International Red Cross Committee’s delegation in Great Britain has its counterpart in the unending watch over the interests of our men kept by the International Red Cross delegates in Germany and Italy.
This bright streak of humanity in the midst of the gloom of war has sometimes another and even more impressive power for good. There have been occasions when some concessions, made at the suggestion of the Red Cross delegate by the Government of one country to ease the lot of the prisoners in its hands, has had a direct effect on the welfare of prisoners held by the opposing nation.
For Wounded and Sick
For example, wounded and sick prisoners in this country were allowed to receive occupational therapy materials from the International Red Cross, and this was followed by permission from the German authorities for similar materials to be sent to camp hospitals by the British Red Cross. Similarly, when the delegate in his camp report was able to describe the good conditions of the civilian internee camps in the Isle of Man, the Germans reciprocated by moving British women from the notoriously bad camp at Besancon to more comfortable accommodation at Vittel.
[page break]
October, 1943 The Prisoner of War 13
NEWS FROM THE FAR EAST
Official Reports on Camps in Japan
CAMPS IN OSAKA AND FUKUOKA GROUPS
VISITS were paid to prisoner of war camps in Japan in April, 1943. The following features are common to all the camps.
Buildings are usually of wood or a combination of wood and plaster. The food is described as quite satisfactory, considering the present conditions in Japan (where strict rationing appears to be in force), but nevertheless, insufficient in quantity. It consists mainly of rice, barley, vegetables and bread, with meat and fish from time to time. Butter fats, eggs and jam cannot be obtained. There is an issue of six cigarettes a day. Canteens have been organised, but are short of stocks; such goods as are available are sold at cost price.
There is certain shortage of clothing and underwear; it appears that the amount issued has been insufficient.
Bathing and hygienic arrangements are very satisfactory. The prisoners of war use large baths of the Japanese type.
Medical care is well organised. There are infirmaries for light cases, and graver cases can be sent to hospital. There are weekly medical inspections. Dental treatment is given by civilians.
All other rank prisoners who are fit work for an average of nine hours a day. There are three rest days in each month. The work does not conflict with the provisions of the 1929 Convention. The working pay varies according to each prisoner’s capacity, between 10 and 35 sen per day. Officers are paid at the same rate as Japanese officers of equivalent rank. But only a limited amount of the pay may be retained by prisoners of war; the rest is credited to their bank accounts.
The length of the working day (which was the subject of complaints) leaves little opportunity for the use of the sports grounds which have been provided. The prisoners have some books and gramophones, and the Y.M.C.A. is obtaining more books for them.
No severe disciplinary punishments have been imposed, and no judicial prosecutions have been instituted. Two roll-calls are held daily.
Some Red Cross relief has been received in all the camps.
Brief reports on visits to individual camps convey the following information:
OSAKA GROUP
Osaka Docks (Principal Camp) – Strength was 850 Americans, British and other races. The British are from Hong Kong. The site is not very pleasant and does not get enough sun.
Sakurajima. – The strength is 197, all British from Hong Kong, including 27 civilians formerly employed in the naval dockyard. The site of the camp is a suburb of Osaka, is sunny and healthy, but the men are overcrowded.
Amagasaki. – The strength is 192, all British from Hong Kong. They are overcrowded. The site is a pleasant and healthy one, in a suburb of Osaka, near the sea.
Harima. – The strength is 399; there are only five British prisoners; the remainder are Dutch. It is situated on a promontory overlooking the inland sea in a healthy and pleasant position.
Kawasaki Park. – Three camps in Japan bear the name of Kawasaki. Two of these are in the Tokyo group. They are American camps, and reports on them have not been received in this country. Kawasaki Park is in the Osaka Group and is mainly a Dutch camp, with some Australians and five British out of a total strength of 382. The prisoners are accommodated in roomy new wooden huts on a hill in a park near Kobe.
Kobe (business quarter). – Contains 371 British and 46 Americans from Hong Kong and the Philippines. Situated near a sports ground, the brick buildings are said to be comfortable.
FUKUOKA GROUP
Omine. – It appears that the large figure given as the strength of this camp in a previous report may have been erroneous.
The strength at the April visit was only 189, of whom eight were officers. They are all British from Java. They are all British from Java. They are comfortably housed in two-storeyed wooden buildings on a sunny and healthy hillside. The rooms are electrically heated. Here the food is considered to be sufficient; fresh fruit is included in the rations. The canteens are better stocked than in other camps.
The camp included a Dutch doctor, a priest and three medical orderlies. A prayer is said daily and a sermon is preached once a week.
[photograph]
Changi Camp, Singapore
Ube. – 153 British from Java are comfortably housed in one-storeyed huts. The officers, of whom there are 16, conduct short services. Food is said to be just sufficient.
Higashimisome. – 165 British from Java are in spacious wooden huts in pleasant district on the coast of the inland sea. A chaplain conducts daily prayers and preaches a weekly sermon. There have been two cinema shows.
Ohama. – 151 British from Java. The site is on the shores of the inland sea, and is sunny and healthy. The food is just sufficient and includes fresh fruit. There are four medical orderlies in the camp.
Motoyama. – 160 British from Java. Conditions are similar to Ohama. Electric heating is installed.
Mukojima. – Contains 179 British from Java. There is a Dutch doctor and a priest, who conducts a daily service and preaches on Sundays.
TYPING SERVICE
IN view of the new ruling made by the Japanese whereby letters in ordinary handwriting are no longer acceptable, attention is once again drawn to the facilities that we are able to offer for the typing of letters, without charge, by professional typists. Those wishing to avail themselves of the scheme are asked to follow these instructions:
1. Write your letter on an ordinary sheet of notepaper.
2. Write, on a separate sheet of paper, FULL particulars of the name and address of the prisoner and of your own name and address.
3. Place both in an envelope, together with a plain sheet of notepaper and an envelope. (This plain paper and envelope will be used for the typing of the letter to the prisoner.) Put nothing else in the envelope.
4. Put the letters “T.S.” in the top left-hand corner of the outside envelope, which must also bear a 2 1/2d. Stamp. Seal it and address it to:
FAR EAST SECTION.
9. PARK PLACE. S.W.1.
Next of kin may, if they prefer, hand their letters to their local Red Cross Office. No acknowledgments will be sent.
No responsibility can be accepted either by the Red Cross and St. John or by the staff of volunteers in any matter relating to this service. Every step has been taken to ensure careful handling and the correct despatch of letters, and all letters will be treated in the strictest confidence.
When typed, letters will not be returned to the writers, but will be despatched to the Far East.
[page break]
14 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
RELIEF TO FAR EAST P.O.W.s
NEGOTIATIONS for exchanges of a limited number of civilians are at present proceeding between the Japanese Government on the one hand, and on the other the Governments of the British Empire and the United States of America.
It is hope that in the near future an exchange of Japanese from the American Continent with a number of civilians returning to that Continent will take place at Marmagoa, in Portuguese India.
If negotiations between the Government of the United Kingdom and the other Dominions on the one hand and Japan on the other can be brought to a successful conclusion, a further exchange may take place at the same port later.
With the approval of the Governments concerned, national Allied Red Cross Societies, as on the occasion of the previous exchange in the autumn of last year, are availing themselves of the opportunity to send relief supplies for all prisoners of war and interned civilians in Japanese hands to whom access is possible by these means.
Supplies on Exchange Ships
The Japanese exchange ships will convey supplies for British and Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians in the Far East, and the Allied exchange ships will convey any supplies for Japanese prisoners of war and interned civilians in Allied hands, thus giving effect to the Red Cross principle of reciprocity.
While the space available for relief supplies on the Japanese exchange ships cannot be definitely stated until their arrival at the exchange port, the War Organisation, in consultation with the Australian, South African, and Indian Red Cross Societies, has arranged for the transport to Marmagoa of supplies of essential medicines and vital foods.
A Regular Service
Exchange ships, of course will never be able to provide adequately even for the minimum needs of the prisoners, though where the need is so great, as in the case of prisoners in the Far East, no means of help is without great value. The ideal at which the War Organisation has been constantly aiming is a regular service such as has been established for prisoners in Europe. While efforts to secure a regular service continue, every alternative means of supply that can be put into practice has been developed.
Local Purchases by Delegates
The International Red Cross Committee, through its authorised delegates in Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong, has given all assistance in its power by local purchase to meet the essential needs of prisoners of war and civilian internees in these places.
Though the Japanese have refused to recognise the delegates of the International Red Cross Committee elsewhere, a local representative in Singapore has been able to do a good deal by way of local purchase in that neighbourhood, and the International Red Cross Committee is seeking, not without some success, to bring relief by the same means in other areas.
The War Organisation has been asked to co-ordinate this form of relief and in association with the Empire Red Cross Societies, has accepted the liability for considerable sums of money which have been expended locally in this way through the International Red Cross Committee. Liabilities met and already contracted for to the end of 1943 amount to approximately £175,000. If difficulties not yet fully surmounted can be overcome, expenditure on such local purchases will be increased.
Co-operation with Other Red Cross Societies
In all these efforts to establish channels for the shipment of supplies on a continuing basis to prisoners of war in the Far East, the War Organisation keep close touch with the American Red Cross, which correspondingly takes advantage of American and Canadian-Japanese exchanges to send medicines and other relief supplies to American prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Far East.
The co-operation of the Canadian Red Cross, as one of the great Empire Red Cross Societies, with the War Organisation has, of course, been constant throughout.
In forming a correct appreciation of the nature of the whole problem it is important always to bear in mind amongst other thing, two significant facts-
(i) that the majority of our prisoners are in places south-west of the Hong Kong-Manila line;
(ii) that the distance from Japan to this area is 3,000 miles;
While finally all plans for the relief of prisoners are dependent on recognition by the Japanese Government of its responsibility for the delivery of supplies.
ROUTE OF LETTERS
THE following information has been supplied by the Post Office:-
“As the normal postal services to and from Japan and Japanese-occupied territories are, of course, suspended, it was necessary to arrange for a neutral postal administration to reforward correspondence to and from prisoners of war in the Far East.
“The Russian Post Office undertook to do this, and since July last year such correspondence has been despatched from this country in mails are addressed to U.S.S.R.; these mails are at present routed via Persia.
“An assurance has been given by the Soviet Postal Authorities that correspondence received for prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-occupied territories is reforwarded to Japan without delay. It must , however, be realised that owing to the great distances and transport difficulties involved letters invariably take some months to reach Japan.
“Most of the correspondence so far received in this country from prisoners of war in the Far East has come through Russia to Switzerland and Portugal, and in order to reduce the time of transmission as much as possible the G.P.O. has arranged for it to be bought here by air from Lisbon.”
TRANSFERS OF P.O.W.s
MANY relatives have been perturbed recently regarding reported large scale transference of prisoners from Malaya and Borneo to Japan. They are earnestly asked to disregard such reports unless officially announced.
Next of kin can rest assured that immediately any such transfers occur and the names of the prisoners moved are advised by the Japanese, they will be personally informed of all details.
A MEETING IN LONDON
A MEETING of next of kin resident in London, of prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Far East will be held at the Central Hall, Westminster, S.W.1. on October 9th at 3 p.m. The Countess of Limerick, deputy chairman of the Executive Committee of the Joint War Organisation will be in the chair. All tickets have now been issued and no further applications can be made.
THE NEW MAIL REGULATIONS
THE Postmaster-General learns that the Japanese authorities require that letters and postcards to prisoners of war and civilian internees in Japan and Japanese-occupied territories shall in future be limited to 25 words and shall be either typewritten or written clearly in block-lettering.
Letters and postcards from now on which do not comply may not be delivered by the Japanese authorities, who claim that the restrictions are necessary to simplify the work of their censorship so that the correspondence can be speeded up.
The Postmaster-General stresses the necessity for correctly and fully addressing all correspondence for prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Far East in accordance with the directions given in the Post Office leaflet P.2327 B., which still holds good in all respects except in regard to the new Japanese requirements referred to above.
Copies of this leaflet can be obtained free of charge at all the principal post offices.
[page break]
October , 1943 The Prisoner of War 15
LETTERS FROM JAPAN
Names Sent Home
Tokyo Prisoners’ Camp 10.3.43.
I HOPE that you have had news of my being safe before you receive this as we have been told that our names have been sent home. Do not worry over me.
Given Warm Clothes
Shinagawa Camp, Tokyo. 12.3.43.
AM doing well. Winter quite cold, but was given warm clothes. Get daily papers in English. Received Red Cross parcel Christmas Day.
Working for Pay
Camp H/Chosen, Korea. 27.1.43.
IT is a bit cold here after being in the tropics for eight years; still, I suppose I shall get used to it. We are doing a bit of work here and get paid for it, which allows us to buy cigarettes and apples. The Japanese allowed us to hold Christmas and a concert, which was all right.
Never Made to be a Farmer
Shanghai Prisoners Camp. 1.1.43.
AT present we are very busy turning up the ground to make a vegetable garden, but please do not think I shall want to do that kind of work when I get home, because I really have found out that I was never made to be a farmer.
Good Laughs
Jinsen Camp, Chosen. 27.1.43.
WE are being well treated. The weather is very cold, especially after Singapore. We have been issued with warm clothing. We go out to work every day except Sundays, and are paid a small wage. We are issued with cigarettes every month, for which we are very thankful. When we are in at night our conversation is usually about home. We have some good laughs about what we shall do when we get back.
A Severe Winter
Hakodale. 1.3.43.
I’M pleased to say that I’m quite well, having come through a severe winter without being sick. My thoughts are always with you and I pray we will be reunited soon.
In Excellent Sprits
Changi Camp. 21.6.42.
. . . TIME passes quickly. I’m busy learning Chinese and how to play the piano-accordian and sing in Van Hien’s concert choir. . . . We are in excellent spirits, but am not seeking employment as Dhobi, house servant, or button sewer after this.
[photo]
Reproduced by courtesy of “Vogue”
Thick Socks
For his next parcel. They are made in 3-ply.
[knitting instructions]
MAP CORRECTIONS
Please note the following corrections on the map included in last month’s issue.
Campo P.G.103: P.M. number given as 3100 should be P.M. 3200.
Campo P.G.115: P.M. number given as 3200 should be P.M. 3300.
Campo P.G. 120; P.M number given as 3300 should be P.M. 3200.
[page break]
16 The Prisoner of War October, 1943
MORE CHOCOLATE FOR P.O.W.’s.
THE Ministry of Food has sanctioned the increase of 1/2 Ib. in the amount of chocolate which may be purchased from the Red Cross Next of Kin Packing Centres at Finsbury Circus and Glasgow for inclusion in next-of-kin parcels sent to prisoners of war and civilian internees.
The maximum amount which may now be bought from the Red Cross is, therefore, 2 Ib.
It should be noted that this does not affect the arrangement whereby the Red Cross will add 1/2 Ib. of chocolate as a gift to every parcel if weight allows; nor to the amount which the next of kin may, themselves, include.
The price of the chocolate remains the same as before, i.e., 9d. per 1/2 Ib.
Next of kin are reminded that allowance should be made for the full weight of chocolate and soap to be added at the packing centres.
[missing words] to [missing words] to the [missing words] , 14, Fins- [missing words] with a note of ex- [missing words] later they wish to send another parcel a fresh issue will be made to them on receipt of an application in writing.
The reason for this request is that it is difficult to account to the Board of Trade for all the coupons issued each quarter if some of them are retained by next of kin for a longer time.
GREETING CARDS
It has been announced by the Censorship that no Christmas Cards, New Year Cards or calendars may be sent this year to prisoners of war and civilian internees in German and Italian hands.
The reason is that their despatch last year caused great congestion in the camp censorships, with the result that the delivery of ordinary letters to prisoners was very much delayed. This caused disappointment and anxiety, and it was suggested by a number of camp captains that cards and calendars should not be sent this year.
NUMBER, PLEASE!
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence.
Any Questions?
Mosquito Nets for Far East P.O.W.s
[italics] Do the Japanese provide mosquito nets for our men in the Malayan climate? If not, cannot the Red Cross get the Swiss authorities to do something about it? Having lived out there many years, I tremble to think what will happen to our men if they do not sleep under mosquito nets of in mosquito-proof houses. [/italics]
We are informed that in Formosa the Japanese are providing mosquito nets where necessary; this information being furnished by a delegate of the International Red Cross who has inspected the camp. These delegates have been refused permission to visit the camps in Malaya, but the Japanese authorities have stated that nets are provided where necessary for the welfare of prisoners.
Card Prohibited
[italics] May I send a pack of cards in my clothing parcel? [/italics]
No. Please see the list of prohibited articles issue every quarter with the next-of-kin parcel label.
Football Boots
[italics] May I send football boots in my parcel? [/italics]
Yes. These may be sent in next-of-kin parcels.
No Puzzles for P.O.W.s
[italics] May I send a book of cross-word puzzles to Germany? [/italics]
Cross-word puzzles may not be sent to prisoners of war.
Sleeping Bag Allowed
[italics] May I send a sleeping bag in my parcel to my husband, a P.O.W. in Germany? [/italics]
An ordinary blanket sleeping bag – not the padded variety – may be sent in next-of-kin parcels. This is clearly stated in the instruction leaflet.
For Artist P.O.W.
[italics] My son is an artist; may I send him water-colour paints, brushes and a block of painting paper? [/italics]
Water-colour paints in pans, not in tubes, and brushes may be sent in next-of-kin parcels. Sketching blocks or drawing books may be sent through permit holders. If any difficulty is experienced in having these despatched, you should write to the Indoor Recreations Section of the Prisoners of War Dept. giving full details.
Nut Chocolate
[italics] May I send nut chocolate (very hard)? [/italics]
No form of chocolate other than that made in solid slabs without filling of any kind may be sent in next-of-kin parcels. This is made clear in all the instruction leaflets. Nut chocolate particularly is most unsuitable as the nuts develop maggots very quickly.
He Wants Cooking Recipes
[italics] My husband wants some cooking recipes. May I send them in a letter? May I order a cookery book from the stationers? [/italics]
There should be no objection to the despatch of a cookery book by a permit holder, but the permit holder should be able to give information on this point. We do not think there would be any objection to the copying of a recipe in a letter, but the only way in which to find out would be to try it and see if the letter gets through.
Maps Prohibited
[italics] My husband would like a map of Europe. May I send him the one issued by the “Daily Telegraph” through the stationers? [/italics]
No prisoner of war would be allowed to receive a map of Europe.
Far Eastern Mail
[italics] A postcard received from my husband merely says he is alive, unwounded and well, although there is space for more. Do the Japanese limit the number of words they may write? Also why are the letters undated? [/italics]
Postcards that have been received are, in many cases, printed with various sentence to be utilised by the prisoners. In some camps such printed postcards are not available, and typed copies are made for the use of P.O.W.s. Such cards are in the nature of capture cards. We can assume that, in future, the prisoners will be allowed to write fuller details. Already we have received considerable correspondence from a number of camps in which the prisoners have written up to 150 or 200 words. We do not know why some of the cards are undated; in most cases dates are shown.
FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoners of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested.
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W.1, by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 2; No. 18; October 1943
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial matters; art in camp; official reports from the camps; group photographs from the camps; the letters they write home; [two pages missing]; how they help the funds (fundraising at home); what Germans put in their parcels; news from the far east; relief to far east POWs; letters from Japan; knitting pattern for thick socks (page torn); more chocolate for POWs; any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-10
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Fourteen page printed document (two pages missing from original sixteen)
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-13
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-10
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Łambinowice
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
Georgie Donaldson
entertainment
prisoner of war
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17142/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-15.2.pdf
5310745f2da5091311f936ec6564b4c5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE Prisoner of War
[Red Cross and St John Logo’s]
THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON. S.W.I
Vol. 2. No. 16 Free to Next of Kin August, 1943
The Editor Writes –
“WHAT will he be like when he gets back?” The family of every prisoner of war is always, naturally enough, wondering about the answer to that question. Will he still have the same interests? Will the same little things amuse or irritate him? Well, we [italics] shall [/italics] find him changed – that I think is certain; but changed in rather the same way, perhaps, as we at home ought to be, after the bombing and rationing in not taking peace and plenty quite so much for granted as we did before.
What Life Really Is
A prisoner in Stalag XVIIIA gives us a clue when, writing of the time before his Red Cross parcels began to arrive, “In those days,” he says, “ I often used to think of the things I have refused at home. Believe it or not, but this life has really shown me what life really is. Do you remember the old saying, ‘You don’t know you’re born yet’? Well, I didn’t before I was taken prisoner.” It’s an opinion held also by a Sergeant in Campo P.G. 65, who tells his wife that she will “find my sense of value has changed considerably when I come home. In fact, I think I will be much more tolerant and not quite so critical. . . .”
The Journal Overseas
Next of kin are a far-flung family, and [italics] The Prisoner of War [/italics] goes out to them in many parts of the world. Sending it, we are thankful to know how sure nowadays are the chances of its safe receipt. For instance, I have just had a letter from a lady in the British West Indies who has received every issue of the magazine to date (May) with only one exception. “I think it is a wonderful tribute,” she says, “ to the men of the Merchant Navy and their exceedingly efficient guard – our Navy – that they reach me in far-off Dominica.”
The Proof of the Parcel
Talking of long journeys reminds me of the story of a standard food parcel that was returned to this county recently. As one of a consignment of parcels sent out weekly from the North Row Packing Centre on behalf of Allied Red Cross Societies, this had originally been addressed to an Allied prisoner in Germany who could not, however, be traced. After months of travelling it was sent back by the Germans to England, via Geneva. It
[photograph]
Returning to the farm – a member of Stalag XXB.
had been away a little over a year.
Reports on the condition of its contents read very reassuringly.
All Fit to Eat
The British Food Manufacturers’ Research Association, after examining the margarine, cheese, bacon, tins of meat, condensed milk, as well as carrots and oatmeal, pronounced all the products as fit for consumption. The only article affected in any way was the cheese, which with a slightly bitter flavour“ would be objected to by some people and not by others.” The tins of damson jam and marmalade, analysed by a different laboratory, were found also to be in excellent condition.
Delegate’s Travels
Dr. Hans de Salis has been travelling continuously, too, during the last six months, but to much more useful purpose. As the International Red Cross delegate to Italy, he has visited sixty prisoner-of-war and civilian internment camps. In the course of a special 12,600-mile tour by road and rail he held 220 interviews with Italian authorities, wrote them 350 official notes, and sent 700 letters to his own committee in Geneva.
All this, of course, was in addition to his usual large correspondence with British and American camps leaders, prisoners and internees.
Daylight Saving
“Camp time,” writes a P.O.W. (Sub-Lieut., R.N.V.R.) from Stalag Luft III, “is one hour ahead of German time, and since this is purely our own arrangement it means that we are ahead
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War August, 1943
of everything; it gives us fewer hours of artificial light and also we can have breakfast in bed every morning before the first check parade.” He goes on to describe how the prisoners take it in turn to get up and bring the breakfast to the others lying in bed – “ quite like an hotel.”
From the Argentine
Two brothers from the Argentine joined the R.A.F. Both crashed and were taken prisoner, one in December, 1941, and the other in April, 1942. They met in Stalag Luft III and have shared a room ever since. In a letter thanking me for the Journal, their father tells me of the difficulties of communication between himself in the Argentine and his two boys. All his letters have to go via England, and no personal parcels can be sent from the Argentine. Fortunately, the brothers have relations in England, who look after the parcel problem. On the other hand, the prisoners are able to communicate direct with their parents by air, via Lisbon.
Washing Day Sympathy
There are quite a number of men-prisoners in Germany and Italy-who now understand something of that woman’s bugbear “ Washing Day.” A P.O.W. in Stalag XXB has written home to his wife explaining what an experienced “washerwoman” he has become, but says he never realised before what a “heart-breaking and back-breaking job” the wash could be. He is also fast learning the art of mending.
“Real Life Savers”
News from fresh arrivals cheers prisoners in Italian prison camps. They feel that the end is coming nearer and their letters home bear this out. Writing to his parents, a lance-corporal in Campo P.G.65 says that P.O.W.s are “on top-toes awaiting the knock-out blow.” He speaks in glowing terms of the Red Cross, which is, in his opinion, “entitled to all conceivable praise, real life-savers in the very essence of the word.”
P.O.W.’s Patron Saint
Our notice in the June Journal of the services arranged by the Rev. R. H. S. Gobbett, rector of St. Leonard’s Church, Wallingford, bought him a number letters from next of kin asking that their prisoners should be remembered by name in the intercession at the altar. So great was the response that the rector has sent a printed letter in reply, adding the following dates for prayers for the P.O.W.:
August II: Wednesday, 9.30 a.m.; August 31: Tuesday; 7.15 a.m.; September 11: Saturday, 8 a.m.
In a Factory Canteen
A P.O.W. who is a member of a working party attached to Stalag XVIIIA gives an interesting comment on messing arrangements. These prisoners work in a paper factory and share the canteen with German civilians. It is a few minutes’ walk from the factory and is a modern building. German civilians sit one side of the room and the prisoners the other. Both “dish up” from the same place. The P.O.W. says that the food is cleaner and better than provided in his previous working party.
Marlag und Milag
A hut captain in Marlag und Milag has sent home a revealing account of his daily routine. “Up at half-past six, then muster and count at seven (also at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.), after that a spot of breakfast, clean out the room and shine things up a bit. Potter about the garden.” Next, he undertakes his own special duties, distributing the mail, circulating parcel lists, sending boots for repairs – any number of odd jobs, all important to the life of the camp. Lunch – soup – is at noon, after which P.O.W.s “bung a medicine ball around,” or take a nap, according to their tastes. This hut captain is making a practice cricket pitch which is “a darned sight harder than making a crazy pavement in a backyard.”
Italians Were Pro-British
A P.O.W. who has been repatriated from Italy, where he was in Campo P.G.85, has given some account of conditions in the camp. He says “the Italians were very pro-British and treated us well.” He gives the time that letters take to reach P.O.W.s from England – rather a wide margin – three weeks to two months and personal parcels “even longer.” Red Cross parcels keep prisoners supplied with food, cigarettes and clothing. His letter ends on a very encouraging note: “All the boys know they won’t be P.O.W.s much longer.”
[photograph]
Some of the gardeners at Stalag XXIA.
Responsible Citizens
A P.O.W. in Campo P.G.70 writes home about the lectures he is giving to fellow P.O.W.s and the interesting debates and discussions they arouse. History is this lecturer’s main interest and the influence English history has on our political life. He says that P.O,W.s are “beginning to see meaning in the history of their own neighbourhood as well as having an idea of how and why we are governed.”
One of his students was so thrilled that he expressed a fear that the war would end before the course was finished !
Real Walks
A lieutenant in Campo P.G.49 says that there is an improvement there in the way of exercise. “Walks have started,” he writes, “and promised to be excellent – real walks instead of the gentle ambles we have had in the past. This morning, for instance, we started out at 8.30 and got back about 11.30, using a good swinging stride.” This P.O.W. says that “there is a barber’s shop” and “quite a good but expensive laundry service,” for which local nuns are responsible.
Mrs. Churchill’s Fund
Mrs. Churchill’s Red Cross “Aid to Russia” Flag Day will take place in the London area on Tuesday, August 24th, and in the countries on any day found suitable. The help of next of kin as sellers will greatly appreciated, and those able to spare a few hours should get in touch with their local Red Cross and St. John office, or, if residents in the County of London, should apply to 43. Belgrave Square. S.W.I (Tel.: Sloane 9151).
One Letter a Week
I have been asked by several wives and mothers of prisoners whether there is a regulation restricting prisoners from receiving more than one letter a week from their relatives. The answer is that there is no such regulation, but the authorities are very anxious in the interests of all prisoners that relatives should ration themselves in regard to letters. It is obvious that as every letter has to be read by censors in the prison camps, the more letters that arrive the greater delay there will be in their reaching the prisoners. And if every wife and mother were to write one or more letters every week the congestions would be very serious.
The ideal arrangement, therefore, would be for the wife and mother of a prisoner to agree between themselves to write in different weeks. This is just plain common sense.
[page break]
August, 1943 The Prisoner of War 3
[drawings]
MUSIC round the CAMPS
[italics] How the Red Cross Helps to Supply the Musical Needs of Our Men [/italics]
TO most of us entertainment means music in some form or another, whether we like to dance to it, sing to it, or just sit quietly and listen to it. In prison camps, especially, music is one of the greatest forms of relaxation.
It is the work of the Indoor Recreations Department, which also sends out books and games, to supply the musical needs of our men. The department keeps all the camps regularly supplied with packages of music of all kinds, as well as large numbers of portable musical instruments.
Mixed bags of music in bulk to suit all tastes are sent periodically to all the camp leaders. A typical package contains, for example, albums of tenor and baritone songs, operettas, vocal and piano pieces, an operatic album, popular song and dance numbers, arrangements for small orchestras of musical compositions by well-known composers, a popular classical work for full orchestra, and scores for small orchestras.
Those Mouth Organs
Many individual requests are received, and these are complied with as far as possible. A great number of men are learning to play and instrument and to take an absorbed interest in music for the first time. There are many applications for easily learned instructions, such as the ukulele, and there is an astonishing demand for mouth organs! Unfortunately, the latter were almost exclusively manufactured in Germany, which makes these last requests rather difficult to fulfil. But not long ago a ship captured from the Germans was found to be carrying a cargo of mouth organs, which the Red Cross were able to buy very cheaply and send back to Germany to our men in the camps!
Other very popular instruments are the piano accordion, the saxophone and clarinet, and the guitar. Scottish prisoners frequently ask for bagpipes. Instruments are purchased whenever possible, but saxophones and piano accordions are now very rare and difficult to find, as they, too, were very largely made in Germany. The Red Cross are delighted to receive donations of second-hand instruments to send out to prisoners.
Reconditioning
Thanks to the great help given by the Services Musical Instrument Fund, whose experts examine and recondition all second-hand instruments for prisoners of war, as well as crating and packing them, it has been possible to build up whole orchestras to send out, besides granting many individual requests.
The Red Cross has never sent gramophones to the Prisoner of War Camps in connection with their bulk supplies of musical instrument because of the comparative fragility of these instruments and the difficulty of repairs in the camps, and have concentrated on the more durable musical instruments, but do their best to fulfil any special requests, and forward instruments supplied by next of kin.
Violins are, of course, in great demand and many of the men are learning to play this instrument. When a learner sends a request for any particular instrument a tutor and a book of exercises and beginner’s pieces are sent out at the same time. Strings, reeds, etc., are also sent.
[photograph]
Stalag IVA’s dance band. The piano was bought by the prisoners.
Most of the musical scores and songs sent out are new, because the enemy will not accept second-hand music. However, in Germany second-hand music is accepted if it is entirely unmarked.
The appreciation of the P.O.W. is certain. Good use is made of the material, and enthusiastic letters reach home. A prisoner, writing from Italy and describing a recent concert, says : “It was so good that one forgot it was a P.O.W. camp.” The programme included “Invitation to the Waltz,” Beethoven’s “Pastorale,” and Mozart’s songs and “Tannhauser.” Another prisoner writes with appreciation and artistic understanding of “The Moonlight Sonata.” In one German Stalag three performances of the “Messiah” were given.
One prisoner in an Italian Camp speaks proudly of the camp’s production of “The Sleeping Beauty,” in which there were “some grand tunes composed in the camp and played by the theatre orchestra.”
British Composers
Works by British composers are especially popular. There are frequent requests for Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas and for musical comedies such as “The Dancing Years,” “The Desert Song,” and “Rose Marie.”
But every musical taste is catered for, from jazz to Beethoven, Purcell to Vaughan Williams, and it is interesting to note that the men are becoming increasingly interested in classical music and in serious modern work. One German camp has put in a request for works by Elgar and Sibelius as well as for Holst’s “Planets.”
Experience has proved that the encouragement of the performance of music not only enables the many pre-war professional musicians now prisoners to keep in touch with their profession, but provides a valuable mental stimulus and is the basis of much of the social life in the prisoners’ small world.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War August, 1943
OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE CAMPS
[inserted][italics] IN every case where the conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German or Italian authorities. Where there is any doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted, it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/italics][inserted]
Germany
DULAG LUFT (OBERURSEL)
Three officers and nineteen other ranks remain as permanent staff of this R.A.F. transit camp, which is pleasantly situated on the border of a forest. Accommodation is still considered excellent. Air-raid trench shelters have been provided. Ten British prisoners of war have formed a voluntary work party and live in a small building outside the camp; they have considerable freedom. (Visited April.)
Reserve Lazaret Hohe Mark was also visited and reported to be quite satisfactory.
STALAG IVA
Reserve Lazaret Elsterhorst. – Elsterhorst has now become the centre for all T.B. cases in Germany. The entire staff and patients at Konigswartha were transferred here during March. There are nine British medical officers, 53 orderlies, and 252 British patients. Each man has three blankets, and heating was described as sufficient. Special diets are cooked on the stoves in the barracks, and a certain amount of milk is available daily.
The Senior British Officers declared this Lazaret to be a great improvement on Konigswartha, and that the air is dry and more suitable for the patients. Clothing is in bad condition generally. A British chaplain lives at the Lazaret and visits the other Lazarets in the area and the British work camps.
[photograph]
Stalag XXID
Members of a working party.
Reserve Lazaret Schmorkau. – This Lazaret is intended for medical and surgical cases; there is a small section for mental patients. It is installed in single-stored stone buildings, in part of a large private estate. The buildings are grouped round a large courtyard.
There are 25 British patients, one British Medical Officer, and one orderly. There were no real complaints, except that the issue of coal had been hardly sufficient during the winter. Sanitary installations were satisfactory. The stove in the Lazaret is to be at the disposal of the British prisoners of war for two hours every day for private cooking.
There are excellent French, Serb, and Russian doctors in the Lazaret. The Church of England Chaplain from Elsterhorst visits the Lazaret monthly. (Visited April.)
STALAG VIIA
Reserve Lazaret Freising. – There are fewer patients in Freising now that patients from Oflag VIIB are sent to a Lazaret at Neuberg. There were no complaints from Freising. It was hoped to arrange periodical visits from the British Medical Officer at Stalag VIIA from time to time. (Visited February.)
MARLAG AND MILAG NORD (WESTERTIMKE)
Marlag is the Royal Naval Camp, and all the Merchant Navy are interned in Milag.
Marlag is divided into an officers’ and other ranks’ camp.
Marlag Officers’ Camp. – There are 139 officers and 15 orderlies in this camp; accommodation is described as good. An extra shower-room is at the disposal of the whole camp, and it is now possible for each man to have one hot bath per week. Ventilation of the Latrine barrack has been improved, and the pits are now emptied regularly.
The officers have a common mess. Food parcels are combined with the German rations, a system which was said to cause general satisfaction. A sufficient number of blankets are now issued to any sick in the infirmary.
The canteen supply is described as fairly good. Recreation is well organised, and a new theatre and stage has been built. Delivery of mail has not been good during the last few months.
Marlag Other Ranks’ Camp. – This camp contains 460 ranks and ratings. A few improvements have been made. A whole barrack is now devoted to work-shops and study rooms. There is no overcrowding, and sanitary installations have been improved in the same way as in the officers’ camp. Recreation is well organised, and the men now have a good playing field. Complaints concerning mail occur from most camps in Germany at the moment.
Twenty-five prisoners of war are detained in the small camp which used to contain the “repatriable prisoners of war.” These prisoners are chained from 8 a.m-9 p.m. They have two rooms and are treated exactly as other prisoners; they receive their parcel regularly and had no complaints.
Milag – Merchant Navy Camp. – Several more barracks have been completed or repaired. A large barrack has been set aside for parcels storage. There are over 3,200 internees here, including 922 officers. Accommodation is good, but bugs appear from time to time in some of the barracks in spite of frequent fumigation. Medical and dental attention is well organised over the whole of this camp. A large new sports ground has been arranged. (All visited May.)
OFLAG IVC COLDITZ
There appears to be very little change in this camp. Lighting is still inadequate and is worse in the orderlies’ quarters than it is in the officers’ quarters. It seems that improvement is improbable, as the power station of the town is not large enough.
The same situation applies to the inadequate water supply, consequently sanitary arrangements are still at fault. There is great difficulty in procuring suppliers of crockery and cutlery. A study room has been put at the disposal of the prisoners of war. Discipline is extremely severe at this camp (Visited April.)
OFLAG VIIB EICHSTATT
The camp is situated at the foot of a hill and overlooks a valley with a chain of wooded mountains on the far side. Accommodation remains very much overcrowded. A new barrack has been completed and is in use for those officers undergoing disciplinary punishment. It was reported that the barracks are being
[page break]
August, 1943 The Prisoner of War 5
[photograph]
Red Cross parcels arriving at Stalag XXA.
cleaned one by one – a slow process.
There are 1,696 officers and 258 orderlies in the camp. All available rooms are in use as dormitories, and the only room left available for study is the canteen; this is reserved for officers who hope to sit for examinations. More electricity has been installed, though there are still two barracks lit by carbide lamps.
Eight bed boards are now allowed to each bed. No change has been made in the heating system. Pegs and shelves have been fixed in some barracks, but no extra showers. Officer are allowed three hot showers a month. There have been no changes in the toilet arrangements. There are now nine medical officers in camp; three dental surgeons work in the dental station, for which equipment has now been supplied. A number of eating utensils (plates and mugs) have been distributed. (Visited April.)
STALAG 383 HOHENFELS
There are now over 4,000 prisoners of war at this camp. It is to be enlarged, by the erection of new barracks, on what is now the sports field; this will be moved some distance away. More seating accommodation has been provided, though there is not yet enough.
Electric lighting has been improved, but repairs on huts have not been done, owing to lack of material. A second kitchen is now in use. Rubbish bins are emptied regularly. Medical attention, in the charge of three British Medical Officers, is satisfactory, but the dental surgery is still badly in need of material. A new laundry has been built and is to be out into immediate use. There are now three chaplains in the camp.
[photograph]
Oflag IVC, where a study has been put at the disposal of p.o.w.s
Italy
CAMPO P.G.5 P.M.3100
SERRAVALLE
There are 171 officers and 60 other ranks at this camp. There have been no interior changes. A small sports ground has been found in the neighbourhood of the fortress where games can be played, and groups of officer are taken on escorted walks each day.
The receipt of mail has been rather worse lately. Red Cross parcels are delivered to the kitchen, combined with the rations and served to everybody – this seems to be satisfactory arrangement. The water supply was now decribed [sic] as adequate and hot showers are available weekly.
The impression gained by the visiting delegate was that there was a distinct improvement in the general conditions of this camp. (Visited April.)
CAMPO P.G.65 P.M. 3450 GRAVINA
There were at the time of visit nearly 9,000 prisoners of war in this camp; four sections were occupied, two more were being completed. The camp is built on flat table-land at a fairly high altitude. The buildings are of stone and the whole camp is described as looking rather like a village. It is, however, disappointing on closer inspection. The ground on which the camp is built is stony and uneven, and it has been necessary to build roads through the camp to enable the prisoners of war to walk about – particularly after rain.
Each section is entirely separate and under its own administration; the rooms are described as large and airy. Electric light is hardly sufficient – there was no heating of any kind during the winter either for the prisoners of war or their Italian guards.
The men use two-tier wooden beds and have a palliasse, pillow, two blankets each. The straw is only changed occasionally and then inadequately, certainly not sufficiently, even to assist in eradicating the vermin from which the men are reported to suffer great inconvenience.
A shortage of beds in the already overcrowded dormitories causes the necessity for many men to sleep in their thin palliasses on the floor. Many of the beds which are in use badly in need of repair.
Water supply is sufficient in the sections on low ground and entirely insufficient elsewhere, water being only available for about one hour per day. Two large reservoirs are being built. The lack of water naturally affects the sanitary installations.
Each section has its own fairly well equipped, though small, kitchen, and meals are taken in relays. Wood for kitchen fires is not always available. The four infirmaries are in the charge of six British medical officers and five Italian doctors. There is one British dentist and one Italian dentist, but only equipment for one.
The Infirmaries are not very well equipped – they lack running water and hot water and heating.
There are no recreation room. A football field is being arranged, but the nature of the ground makes this difficult.
The postal section is run by British prisoners of war; mail is very slow. There are four chaplains in the camp, and services are held regularly. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.38 P.M. 3200 POPPI
It is hoped to make this camp into a Senior Officers’ camp. Accommodation consists of a large country villa situated on a hill with beautiful surrounding country.
There were at the time of visit 68 officers and 26 other ranks. The chief complaint at this camp was bad lighting. A new electric pump is to be installed. Clothing conditions are not good. Roman Catholic prisoners of war are allowed to attend Mass at neighbouring village church. (Visited February.)
CAMPO P.G.52 P.M. 3100 CHIAVARI
Chiavari remains one of the best of Italian camps. Three new agricultural
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War August, 1943
work camps have been formed from South Africans at this camp. 170 men are attached to Camp 113, 90 to Camp Broni, which will be administered by Camp No. 5. and 50 to Camp Riverolo.
There have been no interior changes at Chiavari – except the addition of a new barrack. There were no complaints, except that dental treatment is unsatisfactory. There is too much work for the civilian dentist who visits the camp twice each week. It is hoped that the chaplain will be authorised to visit the work camps. (Visited April.)
[photograph]
New barracks are being built to accommodate another 2,000 prisoners of war at Sulmona.
CAMPO P.G.73 P.M. 3200 CARPI
(A few miles North of Rodena)
Of the 5,106 prisoners of war at this camp, 638 are dispersed in various hospitals (P.G.201, Parma, Piacenza and Carpi). It was reported that all except English prisoners of war were to be transferred from this camp. Until this occurs the camp will remain very overcrowded; a second camp of the same size is to be erected near by.
At the time of visit all the rooms were in use as dormitories, and no recreation rooms were available. Roads and open spaces in the camp has been improved, but gravel sinks into the ground, and in winter the roads are very damp. Heating was turned on during the winter. The men have two blankets each.
Workshops are being prepared for repairs to clothing and boots. There are two canteens in the camp.
The hospital at Carpi is in the care of four British doctors and one Italian and is described as excellent. It is well equipped and is heated and has running hot and cold water.
An Italian dentist is available.
Religious services are held in the open air. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.75 P.M. 3450 BARI
Bari is still a transit camp, where prisoners of war normally remain only 15-20 days, although a few have remained for several months. 139 British prisoners of war form the permanent staff.
At the time of the visit, over 2,000 prisoners of war had just left for permanent camps and there were only 184 in camp altogether. Wooden barracks have been replaced by clean stone buildings.
The prisoners of war have two-tiered wooden beds, straw mattresses, and two blankets each. The officers have camp beds. Accommodation appears to be satisfactory and bathing and washing facilities are satisfactory unless the camp is filled to capacity. Three British doctors are in charge of the infirmary.
Clothing conditions were reported to be satisfactory; a consignment had recently been received. Spaces for recreation is described as the largest open-air space seen in any camp. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.82 P.M. 3200 LATERINA ARREZZO
Of the 2,457 prisoners of war at this camp, 313 have been sent out to agricultural work camps. Only one section of Campo 82 is occupied at present. The other section is as yet incomplete. About 50 prisoners of war are assisting with the construction.
The camp is built of new stone huts; washing and bathing and toilet facilities were still unfinished. Three-tier wooden bunks are used, and each man has four blankets. About 260 men are sleeping on the stone floors; wooden boards are to be placed under their mattresses until beds arrive.
[photograph]
Two members of Campo P.G.52, a report of which is given on page 5.
Canals have been dug to draw off the water and to improve the conditions of the open spaces in the camp, but the ground is chalky and still remains very wet after rain. Mail and parcels arrive satisfactorily, although the mail is irregular.
Prisoners are able to cook the food from their Red Cross parcels. The tobacco issue has not always been regular. Clothing has arrived and conditions are satisfactory. Camp authorities have been asked to ensure sufficient water supply for the summer months.
Religious services are held by two chaplains. Four rooms have been made available for prisoners of war in the Italian hospital at Arrezo. At the time of the visit there were 23 British patients, who report that they are satisfied with their treatment. One of the Italian doctors practised for many years in England. (Visited February.)
CAMPO P.G.78 P.M. 3300 SULMONA
Very few improvements have been made at this camp since the last visit. New barracks are being built next to the camp, to accommodate another 2,000 prisoners of war. The roads through the camp have been greatly improved. At the time of visiting there were over 3,000 p.o.w.s in the camp – mostly English.
Sufficient numbers of bunks have now been provided and none of the men is now sleeping on the floor, but the camp is so crowded that there is no room for furniture either in the officers’ quarters or in the men’s quarters. Even a large part of the library and one recreation room are in use as dormitories.
Electric light is extremely bad all over the camp, and turned off at 10 p.m.
Hot showers are taken regularly, but the men consider their washing facilities insufficient.
New cooking utensils have been issued.
The infirmary is described as making a very good impression. Two British doctors assist the Italian doctor and control the medical parcels. Dental attention is still unsatisfactory.
Clothing conditions are described as very satisfactory; the men do their own laundry but are seldom able to procure enough wood to heat water.
Parcels are reported to be arrived very well lately, but mail is very slow.
A Methodist chaplain holds regular religious services and is able to speak with all the prisoners of war.
A Roman Catholic priest who speaks fluent English takes charge of Roman Catholic prisoners of war.
Ten senior officers are interned at the Villa Orsini. There were no serious complaints except the irregularity of their mail. (Visited April.)
[page break]
August, 1943 The Prisoner of War 7
The Letters They Write Home
P.O.W.’s Dream of Heaven
Campo P.G.52. 1.6.43.
AS you see by the address, I have been moved to another camp. I think it must be the best one in Italy. The Commandant is a trump, scrupulously fair, and nothing too much trouble for our welfare.
The food is 300 per cent. better; we have a football pitch, baseball, four smashing orchestras, concerts, good canteen, no rackets, regular parcel issue. Swimming is starting shortly; water is on all day and hot baths every week or ten days.
In other words, the camp is a P.O.W.’s dream of heaven. It is situated in a lovely valley, surrounded by well-wooded hills. We had a ten-mile walk to get here and a couple of lorries to carry our kit.
It was thoroughly enjoyable, ambling along a road winding through a valley with the mountains on either side. Little villages perched on the top of them, clinging to their sides like eagles’ eyries. It must be one of the most beautiful parts of Italy.
I should like to tour with you and the Imps and Pickles when this crazy war is over. Your old man is certainly in luck. I shall be as fit as forty fiddles after a few weeks in this camp.
On the Farm
Stalag XXB. Undated.
I AM now a crack horse rider and am working four horses, and riding all day, and can honestly say that I enjoy every minute of it. I can also do nearly all that is necessary on a farm. I can take a foal from its mother and a calf from the cow. I can manage the milking, too, so when I get home I will be able to do almost anything to earn a living.
An Ideal Ascot Day
Campo P.G.70. 5.6.43.
WE have just had our Ascot race meeting; it lasted for two days, and the Ascot Gold Cup was the main race of the first day and the Derby on the second day. It was a real race meeting, including a racy atmosphere. The weather was lovely and sunny and an ideal Ascot day.
We had a tote either for cigs or cash, a big sweepstake was run on the lines of the Irish sweep, winner 500 cigs, runners 100 each.
On the course itself we had lots of bookies with stands, laying the odds for different races. The band was out in the grounds playing selections at various intervals.
On the fair ground adjoining the course were all the usual entertainments.
On top of all this there was a refreshment stall selling biscuits, tea, coffee, lemonade, cocoa, and all kinds of food and drink. All the stall holders and race stewards were dressed up grand.
Plans for Autumn
Stalag XXA. 25.5.43.
MY production of “Anthony and Anna” has been a huge success. Too hot to carry on with any further full-length entertainments, but I shall plan another for the late autumn, unless by that time a miracle has happened to put an end to captivity!
Very little news, everything is normal, and I’m ever cheerful, and even happy in a strange sort of way! Take every care of yourself, you are my anchor as you know between home and captivity, and there are lovely times for both of us ahead, of this I am certain.
Thankful for Languages and Drawing
Oflag IVC. 9.6.43.
TIME seems to be going fast in spite of each day being exactly like last – perhaps because of that. Someone who had been a prisoner in the last war and was taken again this one, said as we got near our first camp, “Well now we get down to the life. Topics of conversation will be the war, parcels and letters and escape!” He wasn’t far wrong, but as two out of three of these topics are barred to you, one is left with rather an aching void!
I’m thankful for languages and drawing, as you do feel you are getting somewhere with them and won’t look back on the time as wasted.
Apart from those with such hobbies there’s no doubt that the happiest are those in the entertainment business, as they have scope for creating something really useful.
[photograph]
A view of Oflag IX A/Z by one of its members.
Your Long-Lost Dad
Marlag und Milag. 4-6-43.
THIS is your long-lost Dad on the air again – fit and well and full of beans. Taking all together, I cannot grumble.
I have had a busy day to-day – a big wash-day, working in my garden, went for a good hot bath and have just come in from a long walk around the wire with a Liverpool chap from our ship, and could just do with your wonderful bed to go to; these boards do get hard. Lots of talk here about repatriation, but nothing doing, unfortunately.
Sun-bathing at Stalag VIIIB
Stalag VIIIB. 16.5.43.
I AM stretched out, sun-bathing, in the compound, which is colourful with flowers and discreetly placed vegetables. The band, three guitars, mandoline [sic] and clarinet, are practising for the next concert, and the cat is expecting kittens. What more could I ask? . . .
Out of Barracks
Oflag IX A/Z. 22.5.43.
PLEASE forgive long silence. Been very busy. On 15th I went on working party to demolish a hut on top of nearby hill. Have been helping to re-erect it and was lucky enough to go on several occasions to local sawmill to cut timber. I cannot adequately describe the psychological effect after three years in barracks. It was like coming out of a dark, damp cavern into sunlight . . . and to find that we could still use our hands . . .
This week, by the kindness of the camp authorities, we commenced parole walks for all to a bathing place in the river, 1 1/2 miles from camp. Eighty go each day. My group went Friday. River is fast-flowing, but deep enough at that spot to dive into, and it shoals down. It’s five years since I swam in a river – the Granta at Cambridge in
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War August 1943
[underlined] These Pages Will Give You a Picture of Life in Camp [/underlined]
[picture]
Dentists’ room and staff at Stalag VIII B.
‘38. Had no swim suit, so used underwear, and this I found round my ankles after diving in. Thought I’d got tied up with weeds! Got ‘em off and flung ‘em to the bank and managed with my birthday suit.
Their Camp Magazine
Campo P.G.70. 7.6.43.
DON’T give up hope because I never came home with those repatriated; they were Navy chaps. I hope to be home this year.
All the printers here have been asked to give their names in, so I did; we are going to start a camp magazine, so perhaps I can help: I think some of the copies will be able to be sent home.
Plenty of Work
Campo P.G.53. 13.6.43.
I AM glad to say I am now feeling very fit; in fact, you couldn’t do anything else in this camp as it is as good as anyone could hope for. I have plenty of work to do here, which keeps me going all day, as I am looking after the general welfare of my sector, which at the moment numbers about 2,000; but, of course, I have the help of four other chaps as well. I hope that mail won’t be too long coming through again.
Yorkshire Lads
Campo P.G.78. 7.6.43.
THE weather here is very warm. To-day had my first game at cricket: I captained a team and we won. Up “the Yorkshire Lads”!
Two Years as a P.O.W.
Stalag XVIIIA. 15.5.43.
YOU have no idea how very glad we are to receive parcels from home. We caper about with boyish joy when know there is a parcel for us.
To an outside it would appear that we were mad, no doubt. It is not so much the contents that give us joy, but that wonderful feeling that a fellow is not forgotten. Of course, contents do count.
We are troubled with rats in our barrack. They come out at night, run over our beds and kick up an awful din running over the floorboards. We have caught several in a home-made trap.
My health generally is very good, especially since I have been working on the land. We are market-gardening.
I have now completed over two years in the hands of the enemy. It’s a long time and seems so, and I sincerely hope that more than half my sentence has been served. I suppose one of these days we shall wake up and discover that this war is over.
Our Favourite Month
Campo P.G.52. 3.6.43.
SO now we come to June, our own favourite month. Do you remember the past glorious times? Yet, strangely enough, this time last year I was going through some hectic days that culminated in my capture on the 21st.
Those black days, both before and after, are now only a memory with me, and I am very little the worse for those ghastly experiences!
To-day I am feeling well and O.K. after this morning at 7 o’clock attending a P.T. class got up by ourselves and at 8 o’clock going out of camp on a walk under guard. .
This is the second I’ve been on, and the countryside is now magnificent, as our own would be at this time; so you can imagine how I enjoyed it, in addition to keeping fit for when I resume my normal life!
[photograph]
Tea-time at Stalag Luft 3.
We Carried a Wreath
Campo P.G.59. 23.5.43.
DURING the week a chap was killed from a nearby working camp while at work on the railway. He was run over by a rail truck, and died soon afterwards.
He came from London and was married, so on Thursday ten of us were picked to go to the funeral at the cemetery, five miles away. We carried a wreath and marched to attention the whole distance, which seemed to cause quite a lot of interest.
The padre came from Stalag and conducted the service, at which 30 of us were present. The volley, fired by twelve guards, was deafening and reminded me of Greece again.
[photograph]
Three members of Stalag VIIA 2780.
Never a Dull Moment
Campo P.G.70 7.6.43.
FIRST of all, I want to point out that I have left the old camp and am now at Campo 70.
I must say that this is a really fine camp; it is about five times as large as the other places, and the billets are new concrete buildings, with beds and mattresses and English blankets.
As for entertainment, there is never a dull moment, a full-size band, a theatrical group and vaudeville group. We have a large concrete hall where shows are put on, also there is a full-size library with thousands of books. As for sport, we have football, cricket and various other games.
[inserted] PICTURES AND LETTERS
POSTAL order for 10s will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters printed. We should be very much obliged if readers would send us COPIES of their prisoners’ letters, instead of the original ones, and on a separate sheet of paper.
Photographs, preferably of prisoners at work or recreation, will also be welcomed. Payments of 10s will be made for every photograph reproduced across two columns, and 5s for every photograph across one column. The name of the subject, the position of any known P.O.W. in photograph, and also the name and address of sender must be written in block letters on the back. All letters and photographs will be returned as soon as possible.
Address: RED CROSS EDITOR, PRISONERS OF WAR DEPT., ST JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1.
The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
French Doctor’s Visit
Stalag XXA. 31.5.43.
DURING the week we had a short visit from one of the right sort of Frenchmen – a doctor on his way back to Oflag from an Arbeits-Kommando. He spoke fluent English, so we were able to converse fully and hear his views on many of the knotty problems between his country and ours.
[photograph]
Scene from a show at Stalag XXID/9.
Should Be a Good Camp
Campo P.G. 112. 2.6.43.
I EXPECT you are wondering what sort of camp we are at and what work we are doing. First, when everything gets settled down this should be a good camp.
There are only seventy-five of us here and our sleeping arrangements are good and washing facilities, etc., are all right. When we get our Red Cross parcels coming through we shall be O.K. Of course, our mail will be somewhat delayed, but that will come along.
Our work is general labour, with pick, spade and wheelbarrow. It does certainly pass the time away, and it cannot be any too soon for the time to come when I shall be with you again.
Well Stocked by Red Cross
Campo P.G.53 3.6.43.
ANOTHER debt to the Red Cross. Just had two weeks in the infirmary Had a bit of a fever. Quite well now, so don’t worry. I found the hospital well stocked by the Red Cross. Food parcels still coming every week. Keeping head above water and chins up. . . .
Gardening Job
Campo P.G..65. 7.6.43.
LAST week I got a gardening job outside the camp and have been out working every day except Sunday. At present I am busy helping to construct a stone wall round the garden, so I am getting into trim for when I come home. At night I read books, study or play games in the recreation room. My pal Jack expects to go farming in a few days with a pal of his from his own town. I am well fixed up for clothes now.
Very Comfortable Indeed
Campo PG.66. 4.6.43.
TO-DAY we moved into the new compound and are now very comfortable indeed. At the moment we are two in a room about 14ft. by 14ft. with tiled floors and plastered walls, six rooms to a hut and three lavatories, three wash basin, etc., at the end. .
Bags of room in the compound to play games and walk about and a nice sizable mess room with a separate ante-room the same size. They are very proud of it here, and justly so.
Oh, Ma, I Miss Your Apple Pie
Stalag VIIIB E.51 5.5.43.
WE did not have a holiday for Easter but had a day off May 1st and had a pretty good time. You should have seen the cake I made; a very fierce oven gave it a lovely colour, but for all that it was eaten and enjoyed by all.
I have been busy since I came home from work sawing up wood. We had some new records not long ago and we have just been listening to them; one seemed to get us all – “Oh, Ma, I Miss Your Apple Pie.”
Too Hot for Warm Clothes
Campo P.G.21. 4.5.43.
MAIL has been very bad for ages, but a few of your letters have turned up. Both your parcels have arrived, and I feel very well clothed now, though it is much too hot for warm clothes! Don’t send any more parcels as I require nothing now.
I am getting on well with German, though I missed a whole “term” by being in hospital for the eye operation. I focus beautifully now with both eyes and am perfectly normal again. It really is wonderful, and I can never thank the Italian surgeon enough.
We have lots of books in the camp now and I find plenty to read. Most of the best books published since the war are here.
I play a great deal of bridge, and we have lots of good players. I run various competitions and play in lots of others.
[photograph]
Parcels arrive at Liebenau.
Time Doesn’t Drag
Campo P.G.54. 2.6.43.
WRITING time once more. A few days ago I had two parcels. First, the music parcel from the Red Cross. Some great stuff, too, which will be very useful. Secondly, first clothing parcel. Everything excellent and just what I required. Will be very glad of my pipe.
Have plenty of useful things to do. My main interest is teaching theory of music, in the course of which, thanks to the library here, I am learning a tremendous amount myself.
I have given up conducting the choir and am now more happy as accompanist, even if it’s only on the accordion. We have just had a hymn book from the Red Cross, so now I play for the Padre’s services. So believe me, time doesn’t drag.
[photograph]
Members of the British Medical Staff at Campo P.G. 201.
P.O.W.’s Day at a Stalag
Stalag XXB/430. 12.6.43.
IT is now Whitsuntide and we have Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday off from work. Here’s how I pass my time. I get up each morning about 6 o’clock; when I am orderly I get up about 4.30 to make breakfast for the other boys.
We start work at seven. My first job is to get a horse from the stable to bring water from the village pump to the kitchen. I do this every day, including Sundays, then I go into the fields working with the other farm-workers. In the summer it is quite warm work with the sun blazing on you and we are all getting quite brown. We work till twelve, then we return for dinner, which is always soup. Dinner-time lasts until 1.30. then we work on until 7.30. We then return, wash and brush up and have tea, which consists of potatoes and milk soup. We have then one hour before we are locked up for the night.
The only things we can do then is to read, play cards, write or study. I spent most of my time learning German and I am getting on quite well with it. Then we have supper, which consists of food from Red Cross parcels. After that bed, and all sleep by 11 p.m.
This is one day in the life of a P.O.W.; not very exciting but not too bad. We can still carry on with a smile till the great day comes when we can return home again.
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War August, 1943
HOW THEY HELP THE FUNDS
FOR the first time in its history the hamlet of Frieston Green, near Grantham, held an open-air whist drive and jumble sale the other day, organised by the mother and sisters of Gnr. Stanley in aid of his fellow prisoners of war. There are only about a hundred inhabitants – “we have no church, chapel, shop or inn,” says Mrs. Stanley, “not even a post office” – so that £10 was considered a reasonable target. But the people evidently weren’t going to be just reasonable ; they intended to make this the occasion to show what they really felt. The result is that Mrs Stanley has been able to send to the Fund a cheque for £163 5s. “from the little village where Gnr. Stanley was born.” A truly wonderful effort.
Mr. Bryn Davies, secretary of the Blaenclydach and District Prisoners of War Fund, has sent a contribution of £41 0s. 7d. The money was collected at a football match on Easter Tuesday, and is a splendid donation.
Mrs. Whitworth, whose husband is a P.O.W. in Germany, sent £5 which she made by selling flowers, vegetables and fruit from her garden. She says her husband spent hours gardening before the war and “planted all the bulbs, flower plants and fruit bushes, etc., which have yielded the donation.”
The staff of Nicholls’ Stores, Kensington, have sent a third donation to the Funds – £2 10s – the proceed of the sale of a pair of gloves made and given by a customer. Mrs. Woodman, of Rushden, Northants, sent £10, raised by selling belts, bookmarks, etc.
“Mess and Thanks Box”
Mrs. A. Chamberlain, of Cheltenham, has a splendid scheme for raising money. She keeps a “Mess and Thanks Box.” Whenever she receives a letter from her son, who is a P.O.W., she puts in 6d., and 3d. for every card received from him. Also, whenever a member of the family, or a visitor, makes a dirty mark on the tablecloth, a fine of 1d. or more is charged – according to the size of the stain. She has sent the Funds £1 – her second contribution.
The little daughter of Mrs. Foster, of Martin Hussingtree, Worcester, was given a new party frock which was too small for her, so Mrs. Foster sold it for £1 15s and sent the proceeds to the Funds. The small girl’s only uncle is a P.O.W. in Poland.
Mrs. A. Willis, of Ickenham, whose husband’s letter won a prize in the Journal, send us back a postal order for 10s., asking us to keep it for the Funds. Mrs. Rose Wilson, of 46, Telford Road, W.10, has sent a contribution of £5 to the Funds. This fine sum was collected by herself and her family during the last six months, in threepenny bits.
Little Roy Swann, of Patchway, Bristol, sends us a postal order for 10s. This was also collected in 3d. bits. Roy’s father has been a prisoner three years and has asked Mrs. Swann to do all she can to help the Funds.
Five Girl Guides
Five Girl Guides, of Bishop Auckland, thirteen-year-old Doris Barron and Marjorie Alton, twelve-year-old Marjorie Caile, and Joyce Pattison and June Bradley, both aged eleven, sent us £8 10s. as a result of a jumble sale and concert. Doris Barron writes : “Our Girl Guides are very much interested in your Prisoners of War Fund.”
Mrs. D. Pryor, or Enfield, raised the sum of £5 by the sale of cucumbers and tomatoes given her by a neighbour. Mrs L. Watts, of Seaford, collected £2 10s by the sale of two Pearly Coster dolls, ‘Arry and ‘Arriet.
Mrs. N. Reed, of Tawnmarsh, Rotherham, sends a donation at the request of her brother, who is a P.O.W. in Germany. Referring to Red Cross parcels, she says that her brother “always emphasises the difference which these extras make to the life of a prisoner of war in brightening up an otherwise dull diet.”
Mrs. Sykes, of Grimsby, is untiring in her efforts to help the Funds. Last March she collected £3 5s. Now she is aiming at a target of £20. Already she has collected nearly half of this sum.
[photograph]
RED CROSS food parcels – A scene in a pantomime at Stalag IXC.
Sold Her Baby Doll
Congratulations to 16-year-old Eileen Duggleby, of Malton, Yorks, who raised £20 5s. by the sale of her baby doll. Eileen who has been an invalid for the past three years, has two brothers who are prisoners of war in Italy.
Mrs. Walsh, of Frinton-on-Sea, has a four-year-old daughter, Jasmine, who has collected 10s. in ship halfpennies and is well on the way to her next 10s.
From Mrs. K.M. Holden, of Wokingham, Berks, comes a contribution of £20 which she raised by holding a dance at Hurst village hall. She writes that “the ‘Prisoner of War’ Journal has brought many happy evenings to me after a day’s work at the factory.”
This is how the rural parish of Great Mollington, Cheshire, helped to increase our Funds by the magnificent sum of £271 2s. On June 26th, they held a fête in Mrs. Nicholson’s garden. Everybody helped; there were no expenses. All the prizes, refreshments, goods for sale, etc., were given “free and gladly.” The fête included a number of side-shows such as clock golf, darts, a treasure hunt, a fortune teller.
Owing to limitation of space, will the following accept this brief acknowledgement?
Mrs. J. Macgregor, of Cupar, Fife, 10s.; V. K. Boulding, of Ipswich, £1; Mrs Margaret Chandler, of Norwich, 10s,; Mrs Cecily Parry Evans, of Birkenhead, 10s.; Mrs. B. Hughes, of Lambeth, S.E.1, 7s. 6d.; Mrs. A. Andrews, of Bolton, 10s.; Mrs. M. Jarmain, of Tarrant Monckton, Dorset. £1; Mrs. E. Kedge, of IIford, Essex, 2s.; Ann P. Meadley, of Hartlepool, £1 2s. 6d.; Mrs. H. E. Mills, of Devizes £5; Mrs Dorothy M. Blakey, of Thursk, Yorks, £1; Miss M. Foster of South Shields, Durham, 10s.; Master George Williams, of Victoria Park, E.9, 13s. 6d.; Mr. Threlfall, of Forndown, Dorset, 10s.; Mr. A. Grey, of Grimsby, £1.
Camp List
THE following additions should be made:-
Italy: P.G.55. P.M. 3200; P.G.53 is at Sforza-Costa, nr. Macerata: P.G.62 is at Grumillino, Bergamo.
Germany: Heilag XXI, a new camp S.E. of Schubin, probably now known as Oflag 64/Z, for prisoners formerly at Stalag XXIA, who are eligible for repatriation); Oflag XXIB and Stalag 319, now closed.
British Officer P.o.W.s in Italy
THE Financial Secretary of the War Office announced in the House of Commons on June 29th that the increased daily charge to officers who are P.O.W.s in Italy of 8.60 lira has now been withdrawn by the Italian Government with effect back to July 1, 1942.
[page break]
August, 1943 The Prisoner of War 13
[photograph]
A happy group at Stalag XXA/3. The costumes of the “girls” were made by a sergeant from Red Cross parcel wrappings.
FUN AND GAMES
‘Appy’ Ampstead in Italy – Football at Oflag IVC – Stalag Luft 3’s Own Theatre
Strenuous Football
MEMBERS of Oflag IVC are now allowed beyond the courtyard once a month for a game of football. A P.O.W. writes that “everyone thoroughly enjoys himself,” but says that the ground was “hard baked. . . worn to bare gravel in front of the goals.” He adds that “only one man got knocked out and that was with a boot.” He himself was “not so cooked as I expected “ after half an hour each way.
Jack Payne’s Offer
A P.O.W. in Marlag und Milage Nord who has earned the reputation of “keeping the camp in songs and plays” has something to look forward to when the war is over. His mother writes that she has had a letter from Jack Payne offering an audition to the P.O.W. when he is home again. A real piece of luck!
Blithe Spirit
Campo P.G.65 recently produced Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit.” It was a great success. A P.O.W. writes that the dresses for the “female” parts were made by “master tailors.” This correspondent also says that he thinks his own section have “the best band in the camp.” A new alto-clarinet player has just turned up, he says, who has hitherto been “hiding his light under a bushel.”
‘Appy ’Ampstead
Campo P.G.21 held a “’Appy ’Ampstead” Fair, complete with sideshows, costermongers and pearlies. A P.O.W. writes that “there were such things as marionette show, built completely in the camp, boxing booth, series of horse-races, goal-scoring against a goal-keeper . . . treasure hunts, Aunt Sally, etc.”
Exhibits from Tins
Campo P.G.52 held an Arts and Crafts exhibition in June. Many of the exhibits, so a P.O.W tells us, were made from tins from Red Cross parcels.
Writing Orchestrations
A P.O.W. in Stalag Luft 3 is writing some orchestrations for a small orchestra. He says “It is wizard to hear one’s own work played!” The camp seems to be very busy with lectures and rehearsals.
[photograph]
Fancy dress ball at Vittal.
Theatricals at Stalag XXB
Stalag XXB has been put on a play called “Monkey Business.” A P.O.W. writes that they “had over 200 visitors from various Kommandos. We put it on again to-morrow,” he adds, “and expect another 200.”
Table Tennis
A P.O.W. in Campo P.G.65 writes that P.O.W.s have been doing “quite a bit boxing.” There is also a gym, and, in the Games Room, a tennis table made from the box wood in which New Zealand parcels are encased. It is a very good table, says this P.O.W., but has invariably a very long waiting list.
Gramophone Club
Campo P.G.78 have a gramophone club which gives concerts of classical music. One of the club members has presented a large library of Bing Crosby records, which are much appreciated. These gramophone concerts are often held in the open in the evenings.
A P.O.W. writing home describes what a pleasant relaxation they provide, and also mentions the camp’s two excellent dance bands and their dramatic society’s production of “George and Margaret.”
Building their Theatre
A P.O.W. in Stalag Luft 3. writing home in April, says that prisoners are building their own theatre, and have an ambitious programme in preparation, which includes Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” “The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse,” and a revue. This camp also has gramophone concerts once a week.
Rubber at Stalag 383
Stalag 383 have had some fine international Rugby matches lately.
England v. New Zealand resulted in a win for the latter by 16 points to 3. Wales v. Australia drew 9 points each.”
This camp has also had some “fine boxing matches recently.”
Photo-Frame from Tins
“Chief of my occupations is tin-smithing,” writes a member of Campo P.G.54. “I have made a tin suitcase and a smashing gold and silver frame from tins from Red Cross parcels.”
July Selection of Penguin Books
PENGUIN BOOKS have informed us that the following ten books were chosen as the July selection for prisoners in camps in Germany and Italy:-
Why Shoot a Butler, Georgette Heyer; Scottish Short Stories, Edited by Theodora and H.F. Hendry; A Book of Talbot. Violet Clifton; Persuasion, Jane Austen; The Mutiny of the “Elsinore,” Jack London; Max Carrados, Ernest Bramah; Sporting Adventure. J. Wentworth Day; A Man’s Man, Ian Hay.
PELICANS
Social Life in the Insect World, J.H. Fabre; The Centuries Poetry 4: Hood to Hardy, Complied by Denys Kilham Roberts.
[photograph]
P.O.W.s of B.A.B.20. look at photographs of plays and players.
[page break]
14 The Prisoner of War August, 1943
NEWS FROM THE FAR EAST
Your Letters Typed Free
NEXT of kin of men in the Far East realise the advisability of having their letters typed; but many of them, finding it impossible to have this done, have in the past had to write their letters or to print them in block capitals.
Now, thanks to a splendid offer received from a famous organisation in London, we are able to announce the following scheme. Many hundreds of volunteers – all of them professional typists – have been recruited by that organisation to undertake the task of typing the letters on behalf of the next of kin. They are working anonymously and without recompense, and we feel sure that this kind service will be welcomed. Those wishing to avail themselves of it are asked to follow these instructions: -
1. Write your letter on an ordinary sheet of notepaper. Both sides may be used, but only one sheet is allowed.
2. Write, on a separate slip of paper, FULL particulars of the name and address of the prisoner and of your own name and address.
3. Place both in an envelope, together with a plain sheet of notepaper and an envelope. (This plain paper and envelope will be used for the typing of the letter to the prisoner.)
Nothing else should be put into the envelope, as the letters will be forwarded immediately for typing and posting to the prisoner.
4. Put the letters “T.S.” in the top left-hand corner of the outside envelope, which must also bear a 2 1/2d. stamp. Seal it and address it to :
RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN, FAR EAST SECTION, PRISONERS OF WAR DEPT., 9. PARK PLACE. S.W.1.
Next of kin may, if they prefer, hand in their letters to their local Red Cross Office., which will forward them to the above address. No acknowledgements will be sent.
No responsibility can be accepted, either by the Red Cross and St. John or by the staff of volunteers, in any matter relating to this service, and letters will be accepted only on this understanding. Every step has been taken to ensure careful handling and the correct despatch of letters, and next of kin are also assured that all letters will be treated in the strictest confidence.
When typed, letters will not be returned to the writers.
PLEASE NOTE
Next of kin who have already typing facilities at their disposal are earnestly asked to continue with them. The whole purchase of the present scheme is to help those who are still in the need of it.
Missing in the Far East
IN a reply to a question in the House of Commons, Mr. Arthur Henderson, Financial Secretary to the War Office, stated that allowances and allotments to wives and dependants of those reported missing in the Far East will be continued for the following periods if the officer or man continues to be missing for so long:
Malaya and Burma, if missing before November 1st, 1942 – Up to 95 weeks from the date the relatives were notified or to January 31st. 1944, whichever is the earlier.
Netherlands East Indies, who were posted missing from February 1st, 1943 – Up to 43 weeks from the date the relatives were notified or to January 31st, 1944. whichever is the earlier.
Burma, if missing on or after November 1st, 1942, and before June 1st, 1943 – Up to 52 weeks from the date the relatives were notified.
Mr. Arthur Henderson said that no re-payments in respect of the difference between normal allowances and pensions would be asked from next of kin who are at present receiving allowances in respect of men reported missing should these men be subsequently reported killed.
The cases of men reported missing in the countries quoted and new cases arising will be reviewed before the end of the year.
[image]
What the Japanese characters mean on this card sent from a British P.o.W. in the Far East. Left Panel – Prisoner of War Mail, Tokyo Prisoner of War Camp; Censored-Ichimura (Seal of Censor). Right Panel – Prisoner of War Mail.
Letters
Captured at Java
Hakodate Camp. 29.2.43.
FIT and well although very thin; was captured at Java. Being fed on rice and soup three times a day; long for home cooking.
Sleep on a Verandah
Camp. “S.” Hong Kong. 4.9.42.
CONTINUE very fit. Have all necessities of life here and also quite a few amenities: concerts, a band, games, canteen. No compulsory work except camp routine: but I like to garden every morning. In the afternoon I read, work at science, or play chess to keep the mind exercised. . . . I sleep on a verandah in sight of the stars and sunrise over the hills. Good omens!
A Good Christmas
Zentsuji. 13.1.43.
. . . HERE comes my third letter. They have now been reduced to 150 words, so I must be brief.
Life goes on as usual, and am keeping very well. The weather is cold, and we’ve had snow, but we somehow manage to keep warm. All things considered, we had a good Christmas, very much filled with thoughts of you. . . . I am back to weight.
Conditions Improved Lately
Korea. 21.11.42.
PUT on five pounds in the three months I have been here. Not as cold as Catterick. Climate, Swiss. Conditions improved lately. All officers together and treated as officers. Living in big, well-warmed rooms. Hope to be able to write every two months, but don’t count on regular arrivals. Time passes surprisingly quickly.
New Year Holiday
Shanghai P.O.W. Camp. 1.1.43.
WE have been granted permission to write home. We had lovely Christmas dinner, besides a large amount of tinned goods that were sent in to us.
For New Year we have been granted three days off from work.
Our rooms now have been fitted with stoves, so we are much better off than when we were first captured. The weather seems to be in our favour, and the few hours’ work each day in the open air is keeping us all in fine health.
(Continued at foot of col. 1, page 15.)
[page break]
August, 1943 The Prisoner of War 15
PARCEL POINTS
PLEASE wrap chocolate carefully in plain paper when including in your next of kin parcel. If not wrapped it is liable to cause damage to clothes.
P.o.W.’s Rank
Rank should be included in the address on next of kin parcels, but the censorship do not allow the addition of “Paratroop” or “Commando” if the P.O.W. belongs to either of these Services; neither should these words be included in the marking of clothes.
Brilliantine
Owing to the difficulty of obtaining brilliantine in tins the Red Cross recently allowed the contents of pots to be transferred to tins for despatch in next of kin parcels. This has proved to be impractical because the cream leaks out, even when the tin carefully sealed with adhesive tape, and the other contents of the parcels are liable to be damaged. Therefore, brilliantine and other creams can no longer be accepted if packed in this matter. They can still be accepted if they are in tin containers as packed by manufacturer.
Pipes
Pipes may be sent to prisoners of war through permit holders in the same way as tobacco and cigarettes. They may also be included in N/K parcels.
Football Boots
Football boots may not be sent to prisoners of war in Italy.
MAIL FROM P.O.W.S IN FAR EAST
IN view of the number of enquires on the subject of mail from prisoners and internees in Japanese hands, the Post Office announces that some 7,000 letters and postcards have been received in the last few weeks from camps in Japan, Korea, Formosa, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The Japanese authorities announced recently that mail had been despatched from all camps except three at which the necessary arrangements had not then been completed. It is therefore probable that more letters are on the way, but it cannot be stated when they are likely to arrive.
The location of the three camps from which mail has not yet been despatched is not at present known.
A Further 20,000 Postcards
A further 20,000 postcards and letter from prisoners of war in Japanese hands have recently reached this country and have been delivered.
About nine-tenths of the items bore Japanese character indicating that they came from Malaya; the remainder came from camps in Japan and Thailand.
The correspondence reached this country from Japan via Switzerland and Portugal, and special arrangements were made by the Post Office for it to be brought here from Lisbon by air.
WAISTCOAT
FOR WARMTH
[photograph]
This well-fitting waistcoat requires 7 oz of 3-ply wool.
Reproduced by courtesy of “Vogue”
MATERIALS. – 7 oz. of any standard 3-ply wool, one pair of needles size 8, and five buttons.
MEASUREMENTS. – Chest: 40 inches. Length : 22 inches.
TENSION. – 15 st. and 16 rows to 2 in. measured over st. 1.
STITCHES. – (1) Main part of waistcoat is worked in a spot st. in following way: 1st row (right side of work). – K2. * K. into back of 2nd st. on left-hand needle, pull it over 1st st. and drop it off needle. K. 1st st., K4 in ordinary way. Rep. from * to end. 2nd row. – P. every st. 3rd row. – K.5. * K. into back of 2nd st. on left-hand needle. pull it over 1st and drop it off needle. K. 1st st., K.4. Rep. from * to end. 4th row. – P. every st. These rows are repeated throughout. When shaping, care must be taken that 2 st. which were crossed in an odd numbered row are the 2 middle st. of 4 ordinarily knitted st in following odd-numbered row. (2) Welt and borders are worked in K.1. P.1 rib.
RIGHT FRONT. – Cast on 70 and K. back into back of st. Work in st. 2 for 2 in., then change to st. 1 with exception of 12 st. at beg. of odd-numbered and of even-numbered rows which are still worked in st. 2 for centre-front border which is kept straight up to beg. of neck shaping. Inc. 1 st. at side edge after 1 in. and every in. afterwards until there are 80 st., then work with further shaping until work measures 13 1/2 in. from beg. Shape armhole and neck simultaneously. Cast off at beg. of next and following rows which beg. at side edge. 4 st. once, 3 twice, 2 twice and 1 eleven times and at same time dec. 1 st. inside border at beg. of 1st row after beg. of armhole shaping and every 3rd row afterwards until there are 35 st. left. Work without further shaping until arm-hole measures 8 in. from beg., then cast off at beg. of rows at armhole edge 11 st once and 12 twice.
LEFT FRONT. – Follow instructions for right front. but for “even-numbered” read “odd-numbered” and vice versa so that shaping is reversed. Also, 5 buttonholes must be made in front border, the first when work measures 1 in. from beg., the others with 2 3/4 in. between each. To make a buttonhole, in a row which begins at centre-front, work 4, cast off 4. work to end. In following row, cast on 4 st. above those cast off in preceding row. When top of armhole is reached, do not cast off as in right front but work in following way: cast off at beg. of following rows which beg. at armhole edge, 11 st. once and 12 once, then work on remaining 12 (border) st. for another 6 in. Cast off.
BACK. – Cast on 126 and K. back into back of st. Work in st. 2 for 2 in. then change to st. 1. Inc. 1 st. at each end of row after 1 in. and every in. afterwards until there are 146 st., then work without further shaping until back measure same as front to beg. of armholes. Shape armholes. Cast off at beg. of next and following rows. 4 st. twice. 3 st. four times, 2 four times and 1 continuously until there are 96 st. left, then work without further shaping until back measures 7 in. from beg. of armholes. In following row, work 40, cast off 16, work to end. Finish each side separately. *Cast off at beg. of next and following rows which beg. at neck edge, 8 st. once, 4 once and 3 once, then cast off 11 st at beg. of next row at armhole edge and 2 st. at beg. of following row at neck edge. Cast off. Join wool to neck edge of remaining st. and work from * to end.
ARMHOLE BORDERS. – Before beginning borders, sew side and sleeve seams. Cast on 12 st. and work in st. 2 a strip long enough to border armhole. Cast off.
TO MAKE UP. – Sew extra border at top of left front round back of neck to join border at top of right front and sew borders to armholes. Press and sew on buttons.
[page break]
16 The Prisoner of War August, 1943
SPECIAL NOTE
WE have now heard from the G.P.O. that, contrary to their first information, about 100-150 next of kin parcels may have been damaged on June 17th.
These parcels would all have been on their way to Finsbury Circus; no parcels which had already been through the Packing Centre were involves.
Some which were only partially damaged have been returned to the senders; but others may have been so badly damaged that they could not be identified.
It is suggested therefore, that next of kin who posted a parcel to Finsbury Circus on one of the three or four days prior to June 17th, and who have neither had it returned by the Post Office nor have received from the Packing Centre an acknowledgment postcard, or a new issue of label and coupons (which would equally be evidence that the parcel had been received at Finsbury Circus and despatched), should write to the Manager of the Packing Centre (14, Finsbury Circus, E.C.2) to ask whether the parcel was received there.
Please write “Damaged Parcels Enquiry” in block letters on the top left-hand corner of the envelope.
It is particularly requested that only those next of kin who really have reason to think that their parcels may have been damaged should write to enquire about them.
R.A.F. P.O.W.s IN GERMANY
LETTERS to prisoners of the R.A.F. and Fleet Air Arm in Germany should all be addressed to Stalag Luft III, with the address of the camp where the prisoner is actually interned in brackets after it. The reason for this is that a central censorship has been set up at Stalag Luft III from which all letters are redirected.
The above does not apply to parcels, which should be addressed direct to the camp where the prisoner is known to be.
RED CROSS PARCELS
OWING to misprint in the July issue it was stated that only [italics] one [/italics] million food parcels were sent to the prison camps in Germany and Italy during the year. The number of food parcels sent from all sources during the twelve months ending June 30th were as follows: -
United Kingdom .. 6,033,296
Canada .. .. .. 3,100,704
New Zealand .. 286,880
Argentine & Brazil 549,300
TOTAL .. .. 9,970,180
Any Questions ?
Campo P.G.82
[italics] Can you tell me the location of Campo P.G.82? [/italics]
This camp is at Arezzo – some way S.S.E. of Florence.
No Repatriated P.O.W.s from Germany
[italics] I have been so much interested in news of the repatriated prisoners from Italy. Have any prisoners been repatriated from Germany yet? [/italics]
No prisoners of war from the Services have been repatriated from Germany up to the present.
His School Magazine
[italics] My husband’s old school is publishing in its magazine news of Old Boys who are serving in the Forces and of those who are prisoners. May I send him a copy of this magazine? It is, of course, printed. My husband is a P.O.W. in Italy. [/italics]
Newspapers and periodicals may not be sent to prisoners of war in enemy countries.
All Medicines Prohibited
[italics] Can I include a small bottle of aspirin in my next-of-kin parcel to my son who is a prisoner in Germany? [/italics]
If you will refer to the leaflet sent out with the next of kin parcel label every quarter, you will see that all medicines are prohibited in these parcels.
His Daughter’s Essays
[italics] May I send my ten-year-old daughter’s essay and story to my husband, a P.O.W. in Italy; both are hand-written? [/italics]
If you daughter writes these out in a letter to her father, not using more than two side of an ordinary sheet of notepaper, they may be passed by the censorship, but we cannot answer for this.
Special Camps for Escapees
[italics] Are there special camps in Germany and Italy for prisoners who have tried to escape? [/italics]
Officer prisoners of war who have tried to escape appear to be sent to certain camps which can, no doubt, be more securely guarded, but we do not know of such special camps for other ranks.
Prisoners’ Work
[italics] I understand that prisoners in some German camps who are not physically fit do light work. Would this be a full day’s work or only for certain hours? [/italics]
The number of hours worked by such prisoners would no doubt depend upon their physical condition.
No Stationery Allowed
[italics] Can I send my son, who is a prisoner in Italy, a leather blotter, pen nibs and blank paper? [/italics]
No form of stationery may be sent to prisoners of war.
Care in Hospital
[italics] Do German nurses look after our prisoners who are wounded or sick, or are they always looked after by German or British P.O.W. hospital orderlies? [/italics]
In certain hospitals German nurses care for the British prisoners of war.
Largest P.O.W. Camp
[italics] Which is the largest P.OW. camp in Germany? [/italics]
Stalag VIIIB contains the largest number of British prisoners of war in Germany.
Their Food Parcels
[italics] Do all P.O.W.s receive the same food Parcels? [/italics]
The contents of the parcels packed by the British and Dominions Red Cross Societies vary somewhat, although all conform to the general plan. They are pooled and distributed equally among British and Dominions prisoners of all ranks.
A 10lb. Parcel Every Week
[italics] Prisoners in some camps appear to receive parcels more frequently than those in others. What is the reason? [/italics]
As far as conditions or transport in the enemy countries allow, British and Dominions prisoners of war receive a 10lb. parcel of food or its equivalent in bulk supplies every week.
Campo P.G.53
[italics] Can you give me the location of Campo P.G.53?
P.G.53 is at Sforza-Costa near Macerate, about 20 miles S.W. of Ancona.
[inserted] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoners of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested.
NUMBER, PLEASE !
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us.
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W.1, by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 2, No. 16, August 1943
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-08
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial matters; music round the camps; official reports from the camps; (two pages missing); letters; how they help funds (fund raising at home); fun and games; news from the far east; parcel points; knitting pattern for 'waistcoat for warmth'; notes on parcels; any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Fourteen page printed document (two pages missing of original sixteen)
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-15
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-08
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Łambinowice
Germany--Hohenfels (Bavaria)
Italy
Italy--Sulmona
Germany
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
childhood in wartime
entertainment
prisoner of war
sanitation
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17143/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-16.2.pdf
a72393e452a54a2666f6a9c2c4de7c7a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE Prisoner of War
[red cross image] THE OFFICAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTEMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.I [St. John image]
VOL. 2. No. 15 Free to Next of Kin July, 1943
The Editor Writes –
WHEN our prisoners of war get home again they will be eager for information about things which have happened during their absence. Except for scraps of information received in letters, they will have had little news of events in the outside world.
I have often wondered whether any steps could be taken now to help to fill this gap in their lives when they return. And now comes an excellent suggestion from Mrs. V. M. Jones, of Truro, the wife of a prisoner and the mother of two babies.
Her News Scrapbook
She says that every evening she collects all the local papers she can find and cuts out the pictures of the everyday news of the war “so that on my husband return he can look through these and see how it all went”. She adds that it helps her when is missing him most, which I can well believe. Twice a week she writes to him and every day she adds to her scrapbook. I feel sure that her idea will strongly appeal to many wives and mothers of prisoners-of-war, but I would suggest that anybody starting such a scrapbook should not confine her collection to photographs or to news about the fighting fronts. They will be especially interested in what is happening at home.
Has England Changed ?
I have been reading some very interesting letters from a prisoner of war in Stalag IIID, Works Camp 520, for whom parcels are being sent by a lady who lives in Coventry. It turned out that he belonged to the Coventry squadron of his Yeomanry Regiment and knows Coventry very well. “ Poor brave Coventry,” he writes, “how glad I’d be to be there again. It seems a lifetime since I left three years ago, but at the same time a bare five minutes. Did you hear Paul Robeson when he sang at the Hippodrome one Sunday night?” And again: “Receiving mail is the chief excitement of this life. . . . Do not feel too sorry for us, We do not do at all badly. It takes quite a lot to bother us, provided we know that all’s well at home. . . . How much has England changed since ’39, I wonder? It is so easy to imagine things just as they were, that there will probably be a big surprise for all of us in the changes.”
Unimaged Blessings
Corporal W. E. Sprake has spontaneously addressed an eloquent postcard to the British Red Cross Society to express “something of the appreciation which we Gefangeners really feel about the truly wonderful work your Society is doing and done for us and our people at home.” He talks of their existence being converted into “even a pleasurable life”, thanks not only to the food supplies but to the many other articles generously supplied. “Little did we think”, he concludes, “in our early days at Corinth that such blessing as we now have could ever be.”
“I’ll Never Pass a Box By”
A similar tribute comes to hand in a letter to Mrs. Katherine Flack of Aberdare, from her husband in another Stalag: “They are grand people, these Red Cross, and I’ll never pass a box by when I get home – no, sir, God knows how we would have got on without them.” Such letters as these, and we get many, are highly prized by all of us in Red Cross and St. John who are taking part in the work for prisoners-of-war. I quote from one or two of them occasionally, more especially to show those who make our work possible, the public who supply the funds, how greatly their generosity is appreciated.
Easter Day in Stalag 383
From a letter of a sergeant in Stalag 383 (formerly Oflag IIIC) to his wife at Stalbridge (Dorset), I get an account of
[photograph]
Air Force prisoners – an informal group at Stalag Luft 3.
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
Easter Sunday in the camp. It started with an open air Dawn Service at 5.0 in memory of the Anzacs who fell in the last war. 5.30 Communion. After breakfast, big parade and march past by contingents of Australians, New Zealanders. English, Scottish (with bagpipes), Irish, Welsh, Canadian, Manx and Cypriots. Veterans of the last war took the salute. A very impressive sight. Later, sports and races. Also “a good feed from our Red Cross boxes.” It was his birthday and he winds up: “I’m in my thirties now – or middle age.”
Laughing Doctor
Not every baby is destined to find friends in an enemy hospital. Here is a letter from a proud father now in P.G. 73. “John seems to be growing into a super infant,” he writes. “His picture taken with large size in hats has caused many a laugh. The Italian doctor was definitely tickled.” The writer adds that this doctor was a “most likeable chap, absolutely great at his job,” and had done fine work for the British wounded.
Old Etonians
Though the Old Etonian Association has a list of their members known to be prisoners of war, it is in many cases without the camp addresses of individual prisoners, so that no communication from the O.E.A. has been sent to them. I have been asked to request next of kin of O.E.s, if they have not already done so, to send prison camp addresses to the Hon. Sec., O.E. Association, Eton College.
Send Him Tartan
No Scot is content without his tartan, and though the kilt for service is a thing of the past, the tartan backing of regimental cap badges is held precious. P.o.W.s find, however, that these backings are wearing out, and I have been asked to suggest to next of kin of Scottish prisoners the inclusion in their parcel every six months of a square of the appropriate regimental tartan 3in. by 3in., to be used either as a cap badge or a backing for the badge, if the prisoner still has the proper badge. In the case of the Black Watch a Red Hackle should be sent in leau of the tartan square.
Met on the Rugger Field
When Stalag IIID, Works Camp 528, arranged to play a rugger match against Camp 428. Teddy, a gunner from Gateshead, writing home, said he hoped he would be playing against Douglas, an old school friend. In his next letter he reported that Douglas turned up all right and looked very well indeed. It was the first time they had met in Germany, though they were taken prisoner in Greece about the same time. They have a new gramophone with sentimental records by Vera Lynn, Bing Crosby, etc. Teddy’s brother and Douglas’s brother in Gateshead collect together for the Penny-a-Week Fund.
Rugger, Medicine and Music
“Your joy will leap up and join with mine now I’ve received my smashing parcel.” Thus typically writes a 19-year-old lad, a sick-berth attendant in the Navy, to Mrs. Bland, of Chandlers Ford (Hants), his mother. “I am gloriously fit and strong and play a good game of rugger, and am being massaged by Sam Kunstler – a former heavyweight champion of Hungary.” He adds the hope that he will do much medical study, and he is going to be taught the violin by “the finest musician in camp.”
Inseparable Brothers
Mrs. A. E. Hawkes, of Esher, writes to tell us about two sons. J. K., an architect, and J. C., a surveyor,
[drawing]
This programme was drawn for “Derby Day,” recently performed at Sulmona.
both lieutenants, who joined up eighteen months before war broke out, gained commissions at the same time, went out East together, subsequently served in Crete and were there taken prisoner. These two brothers have shared the same hut in three different camps in Germany, and last year both were successful in the Town Planning Institute examination. J. C. has become an expect cook and serves up the contents of ten men’s Red Cross parcels every week. J. K. says that the Christmas dinner he provided was a “cracker-jack.”
On the Banks of Arno
Relatives of inmates of Campo P.G.82 will be interested in these particulars given to a next of kin by a repatriated prisoner. The camp is in a very healthy district called Laterina, and is about 30 miles S.E. of Florence. The River Arno flows past the camp. The camp was new when the prisoners first arrived there, and for some time they lived in tents, but they are now in brick bungalows. Wooden bunks holding nine men (three tiers of three), straw-filled mattresses and blankets were provided by the Italians. He gives the welcome news that Red Cross parcels are arriving regularly and post is also coming in. A number of men in camp have regular evening prayers.
Making Time Fly
An R.A.F. sergeant from Clacton-on-Sea writes from Stalag VIIIB of the excellent study facilities at the camp. In the “Main School” there are classes in agricultural knowledge, advertising, veterinary work and hotel management and catering and many other subjects. The sergeant had just been asked to take over a class of 60 to 80 men in Elementary Automobile Engineering. “Preparing lectures and attending them keeps me busy and seems to make time fly,” he says, and he comments on the excellence of the library, which includes many technical books and works of reference.
“Waiting Day”
At a camp in Italy there is a new day in the prisoners’ calendar. A P.o.W. tells us that the day before the issue of Red Cross parcels to the inmates of Campo P.G.73 is known universally in that small world as “Waiting Day.” Recently they had a pleasant surprise in the shape of a Red Cross sports kit parcel.
From the Far East
Next of kin of prisoners in the Far East have the sympathy of all of us. Theirs has been an anxious time of waiting and news is still scarce and hard to come by. I am glad to think that the broadcast from Java printed in our May issue was able to relieve in some small measure this weight of anxiety. “ I was overjoyed to see the broadcast on ‘Life in a Japanese Prison Camp,’” writes Mrs. Anne Ross, of Giffnock, Glasgow. She has learned that her husband is in the Java camp, so that every word of the article was of vital interest to her. Mrs. J. H. Anderson, of Glasgow, thinks that her news from Prisoner of War Camp “A”, Hong Kong, will interest others. Two letters from her husband, written on June 8th and August 16th last year, reached her on June 5th, 1943. They do not contain very much information but they do tell her that he was fit and well and had not been injured. THE EDITOR.
[page break]
July, 1943 The Prisoner of War 3
Reading in Camp
Consult Your Prisoner’s Taste and Give Him the Best of His Type of Book
“BOOKS are food and drink to me,” so wrote a prisoner three years ago in a letter addressed to the Educational Books Section of the Red Cross.
His cry – voicing the longings of many other man – was heard, and the Indoor Recreations Section came into being.
There followed the steady building-up of camp libraries, the aim being to cover the whole range of literature and to cater for widely varying tastes: biographies, essays, travel books, novels, serious and humorous, volumes on art, architecture and music – all are being collected and sent out to those eagerly scanned shelves.
Banned Books
But the work is not easy. Difficulties in selection are great, for the embargos of censorship, both our own and that of the enemy authorities, have to be taken into consideration.
For instance, books by Jewish authors are banned by the enemy, so are Secret Services stories and Scouting tales, which are reputed to give prisoners ideas as to means of escape. Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells are not looked upon with favour by them, and they also bar J. B. Priestley.
The camp libraries, of course, vary greatly in size. Some may be compared, both in the number of volumes and in the diversity of subject, to public libraries at home. These are looked after by camp librarians of real skill.
Nearly every next of kin has received requests for particular books from prisoners. These latter, sent out direct by permit-holders have helped the original Red Cross effort and served to start many a man on a new subject or the work of a writer hitherto unknown to him.
Hugo – A Favourite
[picture]
Dickens will never be without his enthusiasts.
Tastes differ, but some books will always be in demand. Dicken will never be without his enthusiasts, and Walter Scott, sometimes voted heavy at home, has his admirers in camp. Victor Hugo is a favourite.
“I, have been reading ‘Les Miserables,’” writes a prisoner of war in Germany. “It is a thrilling story.” Another P.O.W., a gunner, tells his brother how much he enjoyed Hugh Walpole’s “Rogue Herries.” A grand story and beautifully written.”
The Romantic Story
There will always be a strong appeal in the story with the romantic background, especially with an historical setting, and the wars of other days have their interest. “Gone with the Wind” is pre-eminent with its story of war and shadowed peace.
In camp, as outside it, there is, of course, the reader who prefers biography to the novel, real-life to fiction. “I have just read ‘The Arches of the Years,’ by H. Sutherland,” writes a prisoner in Stalag XXIA, praising the author’s description of his experiences as a doctor.
When first a man is taken prisoner, unless he has already acquired a taste for reading, he will generally be content with the lighter type of book. But as the months of captivity wear on he demands more serious literature.
Evidence of this comes from nearly every prisoner of war camp and from the International Red Cross Committee at Geneva, where there is a reserve of books to enable supplies to reach the newly established camps with the least possible delay.
[picture]
As the months of captivity wear on he demands more serious literature
A prisoner is Campo P.G. 75 writes home describing his interest in history and biography. He has just finished two books which he had found excellent. These were André Maurois’s biography of Disraeli and “The King’s Grace,” by John Buchan. “ You should try them.” He advises his mother.
Such readers are breaking new ground, thinking more deeply. But it is the book that makes a man think and wonder and think again that the prisoner is beginning to crave; that is why the marvels of science interpreted by Sir James Jeans have caught the imagination and interest of prisoners.
English Life
The author who mirrors the English countryside and English life can take his reader out of his alien surroundings. The writer whose pen is vivid enough to conjure up strange lands or other times – best of all, perhaps, to provide among the characters he creates a new company of friends – will always be welcomed, and this should be borne in mind in making up any book parcel.
Consult your prisoner’s taste, of course, but give him the best of his type of book, for, remember, it will be read by many – read and re-read – which is the ultimate test of the great novel, the classic biography.
[photograph]
The library of Stalag XXA.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
OFFICAL REPORTS FROM THE CAMPS
[inserted] IN every case where the conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German or Italian authorities. Where there is any doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted, it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [inserted]
Germany
STALAG IVA
Reserve Lazaret Gnaschwitz. – This Lazaret has only been in use temporarily, and patients were to be transferred during May to Reserve Lazaret Konigswartha and Reserve Lazaret Schmorkau. Three barracks are used as wards and the officers are in a stone building. The personnel is entirely French and Belgian, and there were no complaints. A stock of four weeks’ supply of Red Cross parcels was reported. (Visited April.)
STALAG XXA
Military Prison at Graudenz. – Since the middle of December, 1942, almost all prisoners of war who are undergoing penal sentences serve their sentence at this prison at Graudenz. It is composed of large stone buildings and was erected as a prison many years ago.
Most of the prisoners of war (at the time of visiting there were 155 British) are quartered on one floor of the building in cells : usually 6, 8 or even 20 are together. They have two-tier iron beds.
They receive the same rations as the German prisoners at Graudenz, and are allowed one Red Cross parcel per month per British prisoner of war, which is sent from the Stalag. These parcels are sent to the kitchens and used to supplement the rations.
Prisoners are allowed to write one letter every three weeks. Reading and smoking is forbidden, but on account of good behaviour some British prisoners of war are allowed to smoke twice a week. These cigarettes are also sent them from the Stalag. (Visited March.)
STALAG XXID
Reserve Lazaret Schildberg. – The Lazaret consists of four buildings in different parts of the town. The principal part is called the “Seminar,” then there are the “Krankenhaus,” “Richterhaus” and the Isolation Section.
The Seminar is a large four-storey building, situated in the middle of a small garden. It contains all the medical installations (operating theatres and dental surgery, etc.). The isolation section is composed of a two-storey building and also a wooden hut.
In all the sections, lighting, heating and ventilation are described as adequate. Installations of showers and baths in each section assures a hot bath each week for each patient. The number of latrines is said to be insufficient, particularly in the isolation ward, which has no water system.
Each bed has bed-linen (changed monthly), two blankets, and some have extra woollen bed covers. There is no overcrowding. Each section has its own kitchen and a few special diets are available.
Both doctors and medical orderlies wear overalls while working. The dental surgery is said to be well installed, but work is hampered by lack of material. Religious services are held each week and patients are allowed to walk in the small spaces surrounding the buildings. (Visited February.)
STALAG LUFT III (SAGAN)
This R.A.F. camp is now divided into three sections : (1) Oflag or officers’ camp. (2) Malag (N.C.O.s and other ranks), (3) Vorlag, which appears to be a kind of clearing station, where the delousing and special bath huts are found, and where each prisoner of war may have one hot bath a week. There are nearly 3,000 P.O.W.s in this camp.
Sanitary conditions are being improved in all sections of camp. A new washhut is being built in the Oflag and two in the Malag. Additional boilers have been installed in the kitchens, but there is a great lack of all cooking and eating utensils.
Medical attention is under the control of a German doctor, assisted by two British medical officers. There is a shortage of clothing and footwear.
There are now Church of England, Roman Catholic and Nonconformist chaplains in the camp. Services are held every Sunday. (Visited March.)
B.A.B. 20
Bau und Arbeits Bataillon 20 (Heydebreck),. – B.A.B. 20 and 40 have been amalgamated since the beginning of March, and are now known as B.A.B.20.
There are 1,200 men, of whom 129 are Naval prisoners of war. The camp is described as good from every point of view. Some worn blankets have been exchanged for better ones, and working clothes have been provided for those prisoners of war who especially dirty jobs. New eating bowls have been received in the camp.
Two British medical officers and eight medical orderlies are in charge of the medical treatment. Air-raid shelters have been completed for the prisoners of war. (Visited March.)
B.A.B. 21
Bau und Arbeits Bataillon 21 (Heydebreck). – At the time of the visit B.A.B.s 21 and 48 were being amalgamated. There were 1,198 British prisoners or war, including about 300 Naval men. It seemed impossible to give a very clear report on the camp until the amalgamation had been completed. There was said to be a good stock of parcels, and clothing conditions were generally good. Two British medical officers will be in charge of the medical attention. (Visited March.)
STALAG VIIIB
Reserve Lazaret Cosel. – The Lazaret is situated in a beautiful, wooded district. It is composed of three stone buildings, reported to be in a good state of repair – wooden beds, bed-linen, and two German blankets are issued. Lighting, ventilation and heating are described as adequate, and there is no overcrowding. Sanitary installations are, on the contrary, said to be “quite inadequate,” though hot baths are available every day.
One small building is reserved for washplaces, and also contains the shower
[photograph)
Stalag VIIIB
Members of working camp E1. The camp is reported to have made the “best impression.”
[page break]
July, 1943 The Prisoner of War 5
apparatus and bathroom. Only one shower is in working order – latrines, in two wooden huts, are inadequate in number.
There were no complaints about the medical treatment. The British doctors, of whom there are three, control the supply of drugs; dental treatment is given by the dental surgeon of labour detachment 3, who visits the hospital weekly. The chaplain from B.A.B. 20 also visits the hospital from time to time. (Visited March.)
[photograph]
Members of Stalag VIIIB at work in a timber camp.
STALAG VIIIB AND WORK CAMPS
Stalag VIIIB (Lamsdorf). – 20,952 prisoners of war are in the whole camp area. 14,101 are in the 307 British Labour Detachments attached to the camp, and nearly 1,000 Jews are 10 Jewish camps.
In the main camp there are nearly 7,000 British prisoners of war including over 900 R.A.F. The number of prisoners of war who are still handcuffed has been considerably reduced. These men now take part in all the camp activities, and their rooms are no longer overcrowded.
The question of blankets is still acute. The “unfit” prisoners now have three each, others have one each for the summer and are to have two for the winter.
The number of water taps in the barracks has been reduced, with the result that the prisoners find difficulty in getting their clothing washed. It is hoped that two new wash barracks will be erected. The water supply was now said to be adequate and each man has a hot bath every 10 days.
Private cooking is not allowed in the barracks, and the contents of parcels are used in the kitchen for all the prisoners of war. There is still a great lack of eating utensils.
The infirmary and dental station are described as working well, though there is said to be a shortage of drugs and dental material and insufficient cooking facilities for diets.
The general clothing conditions were said to have improved, and about 50 per cent. of the men in work camps are now provided with two suits. The old ones are constantly washed, repaired and re-issued.
There are four chaplains in the camp and services are held regularly.
Walks are to be organised for those “grands blesses” who are able to take them.
Mail is described as coming in regularly. All R.A.F. mail is censored at Stalag Luft III. The visiting delegate reported that in spite of the inadequacies mentioned he received the impression that conditions in the camp had improved since the previous visit.
[photograph]
A tug-of-war at Stalag XXID.
Work Camps E484 and 486. – These two detachments are accommodated in the same camp. Their work is loading and unloading grain and coal. They work 8-9 hours a day and are free on Sundays. They live in a wooden barrack in the courtyard of an old fort. Accommodation is satisfactory. Each man has two uniforms, though they are described as old, and boots are said to be in a bad condition. Medical and dental treatment is given by civilians, but does not appear to be very satisfactory.
Work Camps E72, 411 and 209 are coal mines.
At 72 and 411 conditions are the same. Work is done in 9-hour shifts and one Sunday out of two is free. The men live in three large wooden huts on the mine premises, which are described as well built and in good condition. Accommodation appears to be quite satisfactory.
Hot baths are taken every day at the mine. Each man has only one uniform, but overalls and boots are provided by the firm. There is no recreation room and the men have very few games.
The camp has its own infirmary and a local German army medical officer visits the camp twice a week. There has been some difficulty over facilities for laundry, but it has been decided that the firm will have the laundry washed for the prisoners.
At Camp 209 the men live in two large barracks in a compound about ten minutes’ walk from the mine. The camp was described as good, with no serious complaints, and the prisoners’ morale is excellent.
Seventy British prisoners of war at Camp 114 work in a stone quarry. Accommodation is fairly satisfactory. In one large room the stove was said to be inadequate, many of the blankets are thin. The mid-day meal is taken at the factory. Medical and dental attention are given by a good civilian doctor and a good dentist.
The camp has not yet been visited by a chaplain.
Camps E256 and 446 are small camps where the men have various occupations. Some work as carpenters, some in a saw mill, and some in a jam factory. The prisoners are accommodated on the first floor of an outhouse of the carpenter’s shop (a stone building). Washing facilities are difficult, as there has been a shortage of water, due to lack of rain and snow over quite a long period. A weekly bath is taken at the firm.
Clothing conditions are described as bad, each man having only one uniform. Football is allowed and walks are sometimes organised. The prisoners are allowed to attend sick parades at the local military hospital, where an English speaking medical officer is in attendance.
Work Camp E490 is a small camp where the prisoners of war do railway work. The detachment is described as making a definitely good impression, the only complaint being small inconveniences caused by lack of guards – such as the prisoners of war being locked in their room at night and their outer clothing taken from them till morning.
Camp E62 was last visited in November, when it was not well reported. Since
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
[photograph]
The dispensary at Stalag XXIA.
then the number of prisoners of war has been reduced from 51 to 23, and the two bad rooms on the first floor have been evacuated – otherwise there seems to be no improvement.
The water supply is still bad and the building is still infested with rats and mice. The prisoners have only had one Sunday free out of five. Representations have been made to have the prisoners removed from the camp.
Work Camps E538, 535, 543 and 75 are all coal mining camps. They total nearly 1,000 prisoners of war.
At 538 the prisoners usually work three Sundays out of four. Accommodation is satisfactory, through electric light bulbs are said to be weak. Stronger ones have been ordered. Facilities for private cooking are not very satisfactory, as only the kitchen stove is available , and only at certain hours. A field outside the compound will be put at the disposal of the men for football. A British medical officer is in charge of the infirmary. The camp has not yet been visited by a chaplain.
Rubber boots have not so far been provided for the men whose work in the mine takes them into water.
Camp 535 is described as a good camp. Accommodation is in an old school. A bath is taken every day at the mine.
Camp 543 is fairly satisfactory. Many of the showers at the pit are reported to be damaged and out of use, and there are no latrines.
Each man has one uniform – working trousers are provided. A small barrack is to be built as a laundry. Orders were given for a sports field to be found where the men can play football. A British medical officer and one medical orderly are in charge of the infirmary.
Camp 75 is situated in a village. The ventilation of the camp is to be improved. A large civilian canteen is to be put at the disposal of the prisoners of war on their free Sunday for use as a recreation room, and two small rooms are to be converted in one of the barracks. This camp is described as a fairly good detachment. Working conditions are much the same at all these camps.
At Camp 1 134 prisoners of war do general labouring work. Some of them work about one Sunday out of three. Others are free at week-ends. Accommodation is good, and the whole camp was described as making the “best impression.”
Camps E80 and 529 were visited, but were to be dissolved at the end of April.
Camps E456, 561 and 479 contain Jewish and Palestinian prisoners of war. There were no complaints about present conditions at 456, where the prisoners of war are working on river banks. Camp 561 is a coal mining camp and is said to be a good camp from the material point of view.
At Camp 479 the men work on the railway and it was again reported to be a fairly good camp. (All visited March.)
Note: R.A.F. officers from Oflag XXIB have been transferred to Stalag Luft III.
Work camps of Stalag XXIA are now under the administration of Stalag XXID, and the “Repatriable” prisoners of war from Stalag XXIA are at a camp known as Heilag XXI.
Italy
CAMP P.G.21 P.M.3300, CHIETI
1,328 prisoners of war are detained in this camp. This can be considered as grossly overcrowded. Since the previous visit, stoves have been installed and are reported to have functioned quite well.
There are now two British doctors in camp, otherwise there has been no change. Living accommodation is certainly not fit for British officers. The only furniture in the whole camp is a few tables. Almost all the officers have to use two-tier wooden beds, and there are no cupboards or lockers in which to keep personal belongings.
The water supply is still absolutely insufficient, water being turned on only for about 30 minutes daily, although there is ample water in the wells at this time of the year.
Messing in the camp is described at the time of this visit as “disgraceful,” cooking utensils being non-existent. Food is bought to the dining-room in big cooking kettles. Light in many of the barracks is so weak that it is impossible to read after dark.
Other ranks have no recreation room whatsoever. It was said that the Camp Commander was aware of these deficiencies and did all that he could to improve matters, but that he was unable to do very much. Medical treatment by the two British doctors and the Italian doctor is said to be satisfactory.
Clothing conditions can now be considered good. A great number of next of kin parcels have recently arrived. In view of the really bad conditions at this camp, the visiting delegate proposed that it should be closed unless improvements could be in a very short while. (Visited April.)
CAMPO P.G.53 P.M.3300, SFORZA COSTA
There are over 7,000 prisoners here, about 6,000 of them are English, and the camp is filled to capacity. All the prisoners of war use three-tier bunks. Ventilation is inadequate and lighting in the dormitories is too weak to enable the men to read.
As in most camps in Italy, there was a complaint that outgoing mail was held up, though incoming mail is fairly regular. The wood ration is smaller than at most camps. The water supply is insufficient, some of the taps are unusable, and the showers do not work.
The infirmary is rather small for the number of patients, a great many of whom are suffering from skin troubles. There is a fairly large sports ground, but no recreation room or place in which lectures could be organised and run successfully.
An English-speaking Italian Roman Catholic priest holds religious services in the camp. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.57 P.M.3200, GRUPPIGNANO
There are nearly 4,500 prisoners of war in this camp. Since the previous visit work parties have been formed and sent to Camps 107, 120 and 148. These men have been replaced in camp by other prisoners or war.
As in almost all camps in Italy, sheets have been withdrawn from other ranks prisoners of war and are only issued to sick prisoners of war or those who are to be repatriated.
Red Cross parcels are issued at the rate of one per week. The canteen has been reorganised in new premises and is run by the prisoners.
Clothing conditions have much improved. Sanitary installations are to be improved. A new drainage system is to be built for the latrines.
A new wing has been added to the camp infirmary and the medical attention has much improved. A dental surgery is installed in the new wing and is run by a British dentist. A Catholic chapel is being built. (Visited March).
CAMPO P.G.59 P.M.3000, SERVIGLIANO
The strength of this camp remains in the neighbourhood of 2,000 prisoners of war. The new hut for non-commissioned officers is not yet in occupation, although it is ready for use. The ground of the
[page break]
July, 1943 The Prisoner of War 7
[photograph]
Campo P.G.70
A cheerful group taken at Monturano. This camp has an excellent library and its members are said to be quite satisfied with their treatment.
camp is still muddy, although work is continually in hand to improve it. The mail service at this camp works well. Red Cross and private parcels arrive regularly. Water supply is now sufficient, and the prisoners are able to have showers.
Country walks are organised and on the whole this camp can be said to have improved considerably during the last year. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.70 P.M.3300, MONTURANO
All the huts in the camp are now occupied and there are nearly 7,000 prisoners of war. The central building is used as a chapel, school and recreation room. Accommodation is adequate, though the water supply is described as insufficient. The new tank has not been completed. The shower installation is still under canvas, but is to be transferred to a stone building. A drying place for clothing has not yet been provided, and the repairs in the kitchen are of a temporary nature. Eating utensils are scarce, but new ones are on order.
There is a good library in the camp and study courses are well organised. A neighbouring civil hospital was also visited, where there are some 20 patients from the camp. They are said to be quite satisfied with their treatment. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.102 P.M.3300, AQUILA
Camp 102 is described as being in a magnificent and very healthy district, and consists of a collection of stone-built houses which form a small group. The sleeping quarters are in one wing, two-tier bunks are used, each man has straw-filled palliasse and shelf for his private belonging. The other wing is used as a recreation room.
The men work on building jobs 7 1/2 hours a day; Sundays are free. At the time of the visit there were 311 prisoners of war.
Accommodation is very good, but at present there is absolutely no water supply and all water has to be carried to the camp in buckets from about a mile away, consequently washing and bathing facilities are quite inadequate. The men are able to have one hot shower per month at a camp nearby. There are well-constructed modern toilets, quite unusable for lack of water.
An Italian doctor is in charge of the infirmary. Dental service is given by a civilian, and the prisoners or war are allowed to visit an oculist.
Clothing conditions are not very good, as the men have only their uniforms in which to work. The canteen is quite well stocked, the profits are used to buy wood for private cooking. A Church of England chaplain visits the camp regularly. (Visited April.)
CAMPO P.G.107 P.M.3200
Camp 107 is a work camp containing 1,000 men. Two new huts which have been under construction are now completed, so that the dinning-room will no longer be used as a dormitory; and a third hut has been fitted out for tailors, bootmakers and use as storeroom for parcels. Mails and parcels are received regularly.
Clothing conditions are now satisfactory. The washrooms are still roofless. Shower baths are now complete, but there is not enough wood to heat the water. Three British medical orderlies take care of the sick.
A chapel has been built for the Roman Catholics, and it is hoped that a Church of England chaplain will be allowed to visit the camp from time to time. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.120 P.M.3300
A new work camp containing only New Zealand and South African personnel. (Visited March.)
CAMPO P.G.148 P.M.3200
Another new work camp, containing only New Zealand personnel. (Visited February.)
[photograph]
Prize distribution on Sports Day at Stalag Luft 3. This camp is now divided into three sections.
Owing to a misprint in the June issue the Military Hospital, Bergamo, P.G.201, P.M.3200, was printed as P.G.102.
CAMPO P.G.154
Every Effort Being Made to Obtain News
MANY enquires have reached the Prisoners of War Department regarding men who were reported to be in Campo P.G.154, but we regret that it has so far been impossible to obtain any definite news.
Replying to questions on the subject in the House of Commons, Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., Financial Secretary to the War Office, said that it was an Italian camp for British prisoners of war situated in Benghazi, and that the occupants were removed by the Italian authorities before the arrival of the Eighth Army. With regard to the subsequent movement of some of these prisoners, from whom it was stated that nothing had been heard since last October, Mr. Henderson added : “I am afraid that an explanation may be found in the fact that a ship on which a number of these prisoners of war were being transported was sunk.”
Every possible effort is being made by His Majesty’s Government and the International Red Cross Committee to obtain news of these men, and as soon as any information is received the relatives may rest assured that they will be notified by the War Office.
STALAG IN BIRMINGHAM
FROM July 17th to 31st, Exhibition Centre, New Street, Birmingham, will accommodate a vivid replica of part of a German prison camp. Here the Birmingham Mail will present a Prisoner of War Exhibition, organised by the Exhibitions Section of Red Cross and St. John.
Admission will be 6d. to the general public, but next of kin within reasonable reach of Birmingham will receive a special complimentary invitation from Sir Bertram Ford, Chairman of the Birmingham Joint County Committee of Red Cross and St. John.
The exhibition is in no sense a touring show and has been specially designed for this occasion.
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
The Letters They Write Home
[photograph]
Summer weather – a happy snap at Stalag XXA.
British Cemetery
Stalag XXA (3). 14.4.43.
ANOTHER letter I was mighty pleased to read was from the Red Cross in which relatives of P.o.W.s whished to thank my working party for keeping the graves in the British Cemetery so nice. There are five of us, all N.C.O.s, who take rather a pride in keeping another bit of England beautiful.
Happy Days
Campo P.G.63. 17.4.43.
WHAT a day yesterday! We were issued with Red Cross food parcels early in the morning and Arthur, my pal, and I picked a beauty. Then I came in from cooking porridge and three people in three minutes told me my name had been announced for a clothing parcel. I drew that at 1.30, and Arthur has a cup of tea ready for us.
The clothing is just right for the time of year. I now have two complete sets of everything, and for shirts I have two Italian issue and they are just right for summer. So this morning, up at reveille, with full set of clean clothes and up to magazine at eight to draw my parcel. A glorious sunny day, too!
Sailors’ Camp
Marlag und Milag Nord. 7.5.43.
WE are situated right in the middle of a very pretty farming district, pine woods completely encircle us (in the distance). Half the fields are cultivated, wheat, potatoes, cabbages, etc., the remainder is lovely grazing pasture.
Between our village and the next runs a stream, where paddle the local ducks; we can follow its course from our window by the willow tree.
We rise at 6.30 a.m., wash, parade at 6.45: parade finished, we get breakfast ready in our room about 7.20 a.m. I then proceed to inspect the garden or visit the kitchen.
From 8.30 to 10.30 my assistant and I work extremely assiduously in the parcel officer collecting and sorting the tins we require from our Red Cross parcels. We then knock off for tea and biscuits, 11 to 11.30, conference with the chef ; lunch at 12.10, followed by tea, bread and cheese. Parade again at 12.45.
Most afternoons I join our outside gardening party at 1.15 p.m., returning at 4 p.m., bath, and then at 4.30 we have a two-course tea (or dinner) ; 5.45, final parade. Evenings we always have football matches, shows, pictures and entertainment.
[photograph]
Sports Day at Stalag VIIIB/E. 27, showing trophies presented to winning teams.
An Airing
Campo P.G. 49. 1.5.43.
I WAS given an airing yesterday along with some 120 others; it was our third in the month and we walked about four miles. In one month I shall have been a prisoner a year; it is a strange life; we are well off for food, but badly off for space at moment, but we shall be getting a field, which will give us somewhere to exercise. Showers are available every day. We have a bar where some stuff called Vino (which I won’t describe) is sold and Vermouth for the well-to-do. We have a good library, lots of voluntary classes. There is a lot once can do.
That Premonition
Stalag VIIIB. 25.4.43.
NOW in the eleventh month of captivity – how time flies! One amusing point I haven’t mentioned yet. Within twenty-four hours of leaving the Piccadilly that Thursday morning I was in enemy hands! Some premonition forced me home that night.
Nowadays my pipe and I are inseparable companions. Before I forget, two Penguin collections of short stories have arrived. This afternoon watched England v Scotland international football match between teams from our party and neighbouring camp of 500. Supporters flaunted appropriate colours. Scottish contingent headed by two pipers. Quite good attendance from local population.
Celebrated my birthday by shovelling fifteen tons of coal. Maybe Fate’s idea of a joke, but hardly mine!
[photograph]
A happy trio at Campo P.G. 59.
Like Leave
Stalag III (528). 9.5.43.
I HAVE just been away at the camp down the road for the week-end with the band and a few artistes. It was just like being on leave, the lads supplied everything, and to-day we had a Rugby and handball match, while the week-end ended with a grand concert.
Home for Christmas?
Stalag IVC. 25.4.43.
THE Red Cross is the finest organisation the world has ever known. Our position is such that we can appreciate them to the full. One of my pals has just said that we shall be home for Christmas. I wonder? It’s nearly two years now – two years of ups and downs, but they are mostly ups now.
Blind Actors
Oflag IX A-Z 14.4.43.
LAST week-end was quite entertaining. The Blind School put on a variety show which was unbelievable good. These boys moved about the stage and acted as well as anybody else who has previously appeared on the stage; in fact, the standard was, if anything, higher. I wish you could have seen them; they are a grand crowd of chaps.
Since moving over to this new part of the camp I have not been able to read to them in the evenings and I have missed their company a lot. It ever I am feeling a trifle down the Braille room is the best place in the hospital ; the whole crowd are always bubbling with life and fun.
[page break]
July, 1943 The Prisoner of War 9
Lilac Time
Oflag IXA-H. 19.5.43.
I CAN see the sun setting over the pine forest across the fields. The lilac is in full flower and the scent drifts in. The swallows are swooping, the tulips are bursting into flower, and soft music drifts up from the dinning-room below.
High Morale
Stalag XXB (324). 9.5.43.
THE other week I had my third article entitled “Speed Kings All” in our P.o.W. newspaper, The Camp. It was well received. Last Monday we made a route march to the local town, 25 km. there and back, to obtain a more thorough ablution. At 10.30 a.m. on the 21st inst. I will have completed three years as P.o.W. No doubt it is a very long time to be in such confinement, but on the whole time has not dragged unduly and there has been maintained a surprisingly high standard or morale.
Pally with a Yank
Campo P.G.65. 24.4.43.
HOW do folks, excuse the slang but I am pally with a Yankee in camp and he is getting me a bit Americanised. I am A.1. The weather here is lovely and warm now, and I am wearing shorts already. We are getting Red Cross parcels regularly and clothing has arrived. Remember me to all in Blighty.
[photograph]
Oflag IXA/H – A P.o.W. describes the beautiful setting of this camp among the pine trees.
Dinner at the Greyhound
Campo P.G. 65. 3.5.43.
I HAVE arranged for all Croydon boys to meet me at 7 p.m. Sunday evening. I have a proposal to make to them. To have a dinner at the Greyhound Restaurant, Croydon, on our return. With our loved ones at home we should be able to muster a large number. There will be a number of widows and children that with our efforts will not be forgotten; a penny a week or so, half a dozen retired members with time to spare and an organisation for a good Christian act would come out of the evil of this war, and our confinement here will not have been wasted.
Busy Studying
Campo P.G.21, 6.4.43.
“I AM as happy as ever, doing a certain amount of serious history apart from my other lecturers, not to mention the band and orchestra. I am at the moment president of the debating society as well. There are now so many books in the camp that I can’t read them all fast enough.”
Padre’s Grand Day
Stalag III D-528. 26.4.43.
I HAD a grand day out to-day, a ten-mile walk and three camps visited. As Sunday is the only day the men don’t work we use every hour of it for games and entertainment, but we always fit in our services, and as the Red Cross parcels are issued on Saturday evening it is usually a pretty good sort of day. We have a grand lots of lads in this camp. Just had a batch of seeds for the garden.
[photograph]
Carnival Procession: after the races at Stalag XXID.
His Garden
Stalag IIID (520). 27.4.43.
I MUST tell you a little about our gardens: each room has a little plot of land and the Red Cross has supplied seeds for us. We have planted lettuce, radishes, onions, cucumbers and lots of others. They are just coming through so perhaps this summer we shall have a few tit-bits extra.
No Bother
Campo P.G.66. 6.4.43.
“THE weather is hot and we are taking full advantage of it. You may have the idea that prisoners are roughly treated. Well – forget it! The Italians never bother us, and the only ones we see are the guards. Our amusements consist of card playing, draughts and dominoes. Also we get up concerts amongst the boys. This week we ran a boxing contest.”
[photograph]
A prisoner at Stalag VIIIB with two jolly pups.
Quite Fit
Stalag VIIIB. 12.4.43.
SATURDAY night and Sunday morning we has an English medical officer (N.Z.) to examine us, and he said that we are fittest men he had seen anywhere for a long time. Our good living has helped us through this ordeal, and the Red Cross – thank heavens there is such a society.
Space to Move About
Stalag Luft. III. 18.4.43.
THERE are three camps here, old, new and sergeants’. I expect that you want me to tell you all about the camp. The most outstanding feature is the complete lack of any vegetation on our thirty-acre plot. Originally all this was thick pine forest, and now all that remains is bare sand and many cut down stumps. The barracks are well spaced and there’s plenty of room to move about ; the rugger field is on the small side. Our rooms are similar to those we had at VIB. Fortunately, we are eight instead of sixteen per room.
Second Camp Birhtday [sic]
Campo P.G. 35. 24.4.43.
I WILL now give you a brief narrative of my second birthday in a prison camp. 7.15 a.m.. I have a cold shower, then light my home-made stove and brew a cup of tea, shave, then cook my breakfast of fired bread, sausages and bacon (saved up for the occasion).
9.15. roll-call: 10 a.m., rehearse with
[page break]
10 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
[photograph]
WRITING HOME – FROM Stalag VIIA.
string orchestra until 12; 12 to 1 o’clock, engaged on my accountant’s job; lunch; job till 3.30 p.m., then cup of tea and job again till 7.30 p.m. dinner; 8 to 9.30, with dance orchestra; then sit out listening to gramophone till midnight.
Easter Eggs
Campo P.G.53. 25.4.43.
EASTER SUNDAY morning and the weather is perfect – fresh and fragrant in the field with the sun beating all records, which has been high of late. Have got my Easter eggs, too, out of Good Friday’s parcel. Small tin of egg flakes – soaked overnight – make paste, pour into hot fat and cook. Just the same as scrambled egg or omelette.
Something to Suit All
Stalag 383. 16.4.43.
LIFE here is not so monotonous as in some camps, as there is something to suit all tastes. The only trouble is that there are so many different things to go to that it is often difficult to make a choice.
His Birthday Presents
Campo P.G. 66. 1.5.43.
I AM actually writing this on my 37th birthday, and it has been lovely as regards weather for the occasion; also I had a present this morning. Two of my pals gave me a packet of their cigarettes, wrapped up in paper and tied up with a piece of coloured cellophane. It was out of their own ration, and I thought it exceptionally decent and thoughtful of them.
Figs from the Canteen
Campo P.G. 49. 3.4.43.
ANOTHER move. It is a new building just finished and it is very nice. We have a nice room on the front of the building. First impressions are that it will be even better than our last place, which we thought excellent. To-day our canteen opened, and I bought some figs – delicious.
Working Party
Stalag XXB 216. 4.4.43.
THIS Sunday morning it is lovely, warm and sunny, but as we are now working from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., with 1 1/2 hours for dinner, we do not get much time for reading in the week.
The football match I wrote to you about a fortnight ago against English chaps on a farm about three miles away resulted in a win for us by 5 to 1. We
[inserted] PICTURES AND LETTERS
POSTAL orders for 10s, will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters printed. We should be very much obliged if readers would send up COPIES of their prisoners’ letters, instead of the original ones, and on a separate sheet of paper.
Photographs, preferably of prisoners at work or recreation, will also be welcomed. Payments of 10s will be made for every photograph reproduced across two columns, and 5s for every photograph across one column. The name of the subject and also the name and address of sender must be written in block letters on the back. All letters and photographs will be returned as soon as possible.
Address: Red Cross Editor, Prisoners of War Dept., St James Palace, London, S.W.1.
The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
are to play a return match as soon as it can be arranged. We did not go to their farm to play as I said, but met them half-way and played on the village green football ground. Except for the two guards knocking around, there was nothing else to suggest we were prisoners. We are getting the Red Cross food parcels and cigarettes regularly once a week again now, I am glad to say.
Chop-Sticks
Campo P.G. 35. 14.4.43.
I AM an expert cook and most economical. My first two weeks as a prisoner I ate with home-made chop-sticks. I read a good deal and mend and wash my clothes. Altogether, I am most domesticated.
As Excited as Children
Stalag XXB (421). 10.4.43.
WE had a move last week – a long train journey. The first time on a train for nearly three years; everybody as excited as children. This is a better camp than the other, much smaller, only 140 men.
We work in a wood factory and, at the moment anyway, everything is most interesting. There are some wondering machines here; chunks of rough wood go in at one end and come out something useful at the other. We are treated exactly the same as the other factory workers there, the Germans and Poles, even to “clothing on and off.”
Italy is Very Nice
Campo P.G. 53. 20.4.43.
I SHALL be very pleased when I hear from you. It is the only this I look forward to other than coming home once again. I ask God’s care over us till we meet, and what a day that will be! Italy is very nice what I have seen of it, and what is more they do not treat us too badly for P.o.W.s.
News Forecast
Campo P.G. 66. 19.4.43.
WE have a weekly service on a Sunday afternoon by an English padre who is also a P.o.W. He was taken at Tobruk. I have not heard any definite news since I was captured, but I reckon it will be all over in Africa by Easter.
Americans Arrive
Oflag VIIB. 20.4.43.
YESTERDAY we had about twenty new arrivals – Americans. I believe they have only been captured for three weeks, so am expecting to hear some pretty goods stories within the next few days.
Any new boy arriving nowadays could never appreciate the true significance of being a P.o.W. He arrives, spends his first month or so going out for meals and is, in fact, living on the fat of the land (as far as possible in this life), gets issued with clothing, and people load him up with cigarettes and tobacco. He probably thinks he is being hard done by, but I wonder how he would feel if he had to live and sleep in the same clothes for six months and wait the same period to smoke his first cigarette, and if there were no books. “Times have changed.”
Camp Holiday
Stalag IIID 520. 26.4.43.
TO-DAY is Easter Sunday, the weather has been so good I spent Good Friday sunbathing in only a pair of short underpants. The camp holiday from Thursday until Tuesday, and we are having heaps of sport and entertainments. In my letter I ended with German, translated it reads, “I have always told you it won’t be long now.”
[page break]
July, 1943 The prisoners of War 11
FUN AND GAMES
A review of Sporting and Musical Events in the Camps
STALAG 383 had an Empire Games Week during May, in which ten different countries were represented, and their Anzac Day March Past on April 25th must have been very impressive. Veterans of the last war took the salute.
A P.O.W. writing on April 18th tells us about the English team’s success on the football field. At Rugger England beat Australia; in the Soccer match, England v. Scotland, again England was victorious.
Great Thriller
Theatrical enterprise is flourishing at Campo P.G.78. “We have a full-length play and musical comedy now on in two halls, ‘Rope’ and ‘Derby Day,’” writes a member of this camp, which possesses an accordion band, a mandolin band, a salon and a dance orchestra.
The Winning “Gent”
Whist and darts are occupying the leisure of P.O.W.s in Stalag VIIIB. A prisoner writes of a whist drive that went with a swing in which as “Winning Gent” he won sixty cigarettes as first prize. He was also an entrant for the darts tournament.
Basket Ball League
The captain of a basket ball team at Campo P.G.65 writes home to report progress. The camp has a “league” and his team is a “crack” one – only a few from the top.
All-in
Campo P.G.59 had the bright idea of a Rugger match between old and new prisoners. A P.O.W. writes that the old ones won after a great tussle. “I nearly died laughing at some of the antics of the boys. It was more like a wrestling bout than Rugger.”
[photograph]
The only time the Italians permitted a photograph to be taken of a concert at Sulmona was for “Derby Day,” A.P. Herbert’s operetta. Above is the cast whose hats were made from Red Cross boxes.
Some Talent
Composers and libretto writers are strong at Stalag XXID. “To-day I have been writing a musical comedy,” writes one prisoner. “ So you can guess I am very busy besides working.”
Art Exhibition No. 2
Stalag 383 are to hold a second Art Exhibition according to news received from a P.O.W. at the beginning of May. The same letter stated that gardens were “springing up all over the place,” and that the German authorities had provided seeds – “lettuce, radish and all sorts of flowers.”
Easter Doings
Stalag XXB (84) had great doings at Easter. On Easter Sunday they had a boxing match with another camp, and in the evening there was a performance of Edgar Wallace’s “The Ringer,” also music. On Easter Monday the camp team won a football match and had a fancy dress dance. Altogether a “full week-end,” to quote a P.O.W.
Amusing Yanks
“The baseball and Yanks are quite amusing,” writes a prisoner in Campo P.G.21, “one of our Other Ranks teams pretty regularly beats a Yank Officer team.” This baseball activity, he writes was bought about by “the influx of Americans.” Baseball and basket ball are the two sports that this camp manages to play fairly steadily.
Fancy Dress
Stalag IIID had four days’ holiday at Easter – Friday to Tuesday – and to quote a P.O.W., “made whoopee.” There was a fancy dress dance on Saturday evening. “One lad,” writes the prisoner, “arrived representing the Red Cross Society. His dress was comprised of labels from the various tins sent in our parcels.” This costume was a prize winner.
[photograph]
John Bull and Mrs. Grundy at Liebenau.
Italian Music
Cricket and baseball are the main sports in Campo P.G.57. P.O.W.s hear some good Italian music as the camp has excellent loud speakers.
Up to Date
Swing music is all the craze in Stalag XXB. “A chap in the camp received six records of band music – Harry Roy . . . and others,” writes a P.O.W. “My! Its great swing music makes you start tapping your toes and swaying. So you see we keep up with times.”
Stage Butler
News comes from Stalag XVIIIA of a successful production of “Lucky Break.” The P.O.W. who played the stage butler says the performance was a “wow.” This same prisoner is a performer on the ukulele, and had just won the real “George Formby” type of instrument in a raffle.
JUNE SELECTION OF PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS have informed us that the following ten books were chosen as the June selection for prisoners in camps in Germany and Italy : -
The Unfinished Clue, Georgette Heyer; The Surgeon’s Log, J. Johnstone Abraham; Tarka, the Otter, Henry Williamson; Love In Our Time, Norman Collins; A Book of English Essays, W. E. Williams; The Dying Alderman, Henry Wade; Sea Escapes and Adventures, Taffrail; Rookery-Nook, Ben Travers; Steamboatmen, Cutcliffe Hyne; Here Lies, Dorothy Parker.
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
OUR GENEROUS HELPERS
THE youngsters have recently been particularly active in helping our Funds. In a letter to Major-General Sir Richard Howard-Vyse, K.C.M.G., D.S.O., Chairman of the Prisoners of War Dept., the Hon. Secretary of the Birmingham P.O.W.R.A., tells us that £1 10s of the cheque she encloses was collected by Master Harper, aged six in halfpennies.
The little son of Mrs. Fox, of Knowle, Bristol, has saved up 3s. in farthings. A nine-year-old “Cub” – B. H. Rees, of Cardiff, who tells us he edits a paper for circulation among his friends – sent 5s. The grand sum of £7 10s. was raised by Master Beckett, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, by the sale of some toys.
Their Peepshow
An eight-year-old, Rita Lee, of High Wycombe, with her brother, aged six, raised £2 by means of a peepshow. Little Barbara Trowbridge, of Belvedere, Kent, with two small friends, Barbara Morris and Koreen Carter, has sent us the proceeds of a toy jumble sale; a children’s gala at Chorley, Lancs, raised £1, and some boys and girls in Twickenham, under the leadership of young Geoffrey Gilbert, acted a play and handed a collecting box with 10s. in it, as proceeds, to a grown-up friend, who has written to tell us all about it. Joan Hughes of Talybont, sent 10s. Guernsey schoolchildren, now at school in Wirral, Cheshire, have collected £3.
R.A.F. Help
From an R.A.F. station comes a contribution of £3; from a worker at Biggleswade the sum of 31s., raised by the sale of an ornamental jug. Mrs. Copper, of Walshall Wood raised £7 from the sale of a toy engine made by her cripple boy ; her other son is a P.O.W. in Italy.
Mrs. B. Lamb, whose husband is also in an Italian camp, is an active organiser of whist drives and dances and has made two contributions – £9 5s. 6d, and £5 15s. Mrs. C. Grant. of Newcastle-on-Tyne, raised £3 by making and selling flowers. E. Bullock, of Gt. Walsingham, raised £11 by organising two dances.
Two Kathleens
Two Kathleens – Kathleen Rose and Kathleen MacLeod – of Bishop Auckland, sent the splendid sum of £20, raised by a jumble sale; they are school-girls of thirteen and twelve years old. The Brownie Pack of Cullercoats, Northumberland, were able to contribute £2 7s. 6d. – the result of a collection on Parents’ Open Night.
But older readers are not to be beaten! Next of kin in Aston, Birmingham, raised £12 by a dance; another £12 was sent by Mrs. Mustoe, who organised a whist drive at Northleach, Cheltenham.
Punch and Judy
A generous entertainer of Littlehampton, whose Punch and Judy shows have delighted many children, sent us £5 8s. 4d.
A lemon – a rarity which we have already much cause to thank – was sold by Mrs. A. Tomkins, of Beckenham, for £3 16s., and Miss Cowan, of Windlesham, Surrey, obtained £1 10s by the sale of two double-yolked eggs.
His Birthday
Mrs. Pauline Grant Green, of Cosham, Portsmouth, sent us £5 on the birthday of her prisoner son. She thought a contribution to the Red Cross parcels fund the best birthday present possible. The Journal, too, has had a birthday gift to celebrate the first year of its life – £2 2s. from Mrs. Violet IIiffe, whose son is a prisoner in Germany, and Mrs. G. Hughes, of Bridlington, Miss V. Sharp, of Widnes, Mrs. Jean Allison, of Glasgow, and Mrs Startin, of Brimpton, Reading, have all sent contributions in appreciation of our paper.
[photograph]
Help them to make the best of their lives in captivity. Here is a happy snap of an evening at Stalag VIIA.
P.O.W.’s Request
L/Cpl Mead, a P.O.W. in Italy, wrote to his sister thus: “Will you please ask Mum to take £1 from my saving and send it to the Red Cross? It’s thanks to them that things out here are so much easier and happier than they might be.”
Mrs. E. C. Williams, of Stroud, has done well with her collecting box; up to date she has collected £39 7s 3 1/2d.
The splendid sum of £80 12s. was raised by Mrs. Raymond Gough at a “Bring and Buy” sale at Weatheroak Stanmore Common.
Bun Halfpennies
Mrs. Cartledge, of Fishponds, Bristol, has been collecting “Bun” halfpennies and has raised £1, Mrs, Barbara P. Levick, of Sheffield, and Mrs. M. E. Heather, of Ham Street, near Ashford, are both increasing their subscriptions to the Penny-a-Week Fund to help the Journal. Mr. R. Davies, of Liverpool, tells us he has now collected £229.
It is encouraging to note that at a Shropshire Ordnance Depot weekly contributions to the Penny-a-Week Fund average £15 to £23. From the Buckinghamshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society comes £5 for the funds, and there is five guineas from Mrs, Croft, of Tarleton. A reader in Dilwyn, Hereford, sends £2 at the request of her prisoner son.
Dart Thrower
Mrs. Harrison, of Etafford Park, has a friend who is a dart champion and has raised £4 9s. 9d. by exhibition throwing at the Stafford Arms. Mrs. Nan Galloway, of London, W.9, who contributes 2s 6d, monthly to our funds, sent us some amusing verses by her sailor husband, a P.O.W. in Germany.
Owing to limitation of space, will the following accept this brief acknowledgment? –
Mrs. G. Richards, of Abercarn, Monmouth, 10s.; Mrs Ayriss, of Liverpool, 5s.; Mrs Birkett, of Halifax, 30s.; Mrs. Edmondson, of Newcastle, £4 15s.; F. J. Nicholls, King’s Lynn, 3s.
CAMP JOURNALS
P.O.W. camps are rich in journalistic talent. Most of then have a journal, sometimes printed in camp presses, sometimes handwritten. One of the most ambitions is “Stalag HOT POT,” described on its cover as “Stalag XXID’s Own Magazine.” The printing and general make-up are excellent.
Contents consist of an Editorial general news, “Spotlight on Entertainment”, short articles, verse and a feature called “A Sportsman’s Notebook.”
Stalag IXC’s journal is called “Scoop,” and makes a special feature of football news. Campo P.G.53 has a daily newspaper, written entirely by hand, and consisting of six pages, which are pinned on the camp notice boards.
[page break]
July, 1943 The Prisoner of War 13
Groups from the Camps
[photograph]
STALAGLUFT 3
[photograph]
STALAG IVC
[photograph]
OFLAG IIIC
[photograph]
CAMPO PG78
[photograph]
STALAG XVIIIB
[photograph]
STALAG VIIA
[photograph]
STALAG IXC
[photograph]
STALAG XXIA
[page break]
14 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
NEWS FROM THE FAR EAST
Here is a List of Camps
THE exact location of the camps in the Southern Area is not yet known. The camps are known simply by the name of the country in which they are situated. Camps concerned are:
BORNEO CAMP, MALAYA CAMPS,
JAVA CAMPS, THAI CAMP,
TAIWAN CAMP.
Thai is the name for Siam, and Taiwan is the Japanese name for Formosa. It is important that the two should not be confused.
The official notification of capture sent to some next of kin states that the prisoners are in Malai or Malaia Camps. In addressing letters, next of kin should use the English spelling, namely, Malaya Camps.
CAMPS WHOSE LOCATION IS KNOWN
MUKDEN. – Situated in Manchuria.
KEIJO, CHOSEN. – Keijo is the Japanese name for Seoul, the capital of Korea. Chosen being the Japanese spelling of the name of the country.
JINSEN, CHOSEN. – Jinsen is a few miles from Keijo, and is the port of that town. Both Jinsen and Mukden are divisional camps of Keijo.
HAKODATE. – Situated on the south coast of the island of Hokkaido, Northern Japan.
TOKIO. – There are five camps in this region, namely : Camp Park Central Yokohama. Yokohama – Kanagawa, Shinagawa, Kawasaki, Hiraoka. All belong to what is termed the Tokio groups of camps.
OSAKA.-There are nine camps in this group, but the address for all of them is Prisoner of War camp, Osaka. British prisoners are located in the following : Osaka, Sakurajima (situated in Osaka). Amagasaki (between Osaka and Kobe). Kobe (in the business section of Kobe).
ZENTSUJI. – Situated in the north-east of the island of Shikoku, Japan.
FUKUOKA. – Situated on the north-east coast of the island of Kyushu Japan. Fukuoka is merely the administrative headquarters of the group: it is not a camp, and there do not seem to be any prisoners there.
There are seven divisional camps, all of which house British prisoners. There camps are in the western part of the main island of Japan (Honshu), but letters should in all cases be addressed to the principal camp.
The names of the divisional camps are : Ube (shown as Ubeshinkawa on some maps). Omine, Ohama, Moto-yama. Higashimisome, Mukojima, Innoshima. The last two are islands in the Inland Sea.
SHANGHAI – This camp is situated a few miles outside Shanghai. The address for letters is: Shanghai Prisoners of War Camp, Field Post Office Box 106, Shanghai. Relatives who have been given additional details, e.g., “Barracks 3,” should insert these particulars before “Shanghai Prisoners of War Camp.”
HONG KONG. – The two camps which contain British, Canadian and Hong Kong Volunteer prisoners of war are Argyle Street (mostly officers and their orderlies) and Shamshuipo, a former military barracks containing mostly other ranks with a few officers. Both are on the mainland, on the outskirts of Kowloon.
Sick prisoners of war are sent to Bowen Road Military Hospital on the island. There are two British doctors and some medical orderlies here.
PLEASE NOTE
Relatives of men who are missing in the Far East but who have not yet been notified as prisoners of war should continue to address letters as described in the Post Office leaflet P.2327B.
CIVILIAN INTERNMENT CAMPS
HONG KONG. – Stanley Camp is situated on the south-east of the island of Hong Kong.
SINGAPORE. – Changi Camp is on the east coast of the island of Singapore, about 18 miles from Singapore itself.
MANILA. – Santo Tomas Camp is situated on the outskirts of Manila. The internees are housed in the main building of the Santo Tomas University.
BANGKOK. – The internees live in a wing of the University of Moral and Political Science ; this university is on the left bank of the river just outside Bangkok.
Stanley Civilian Internment Camp, Hong Kong
THE International Red Cross Delegate in Hong Kong visited Stanley Camp on May 13th, 1943. He reports the opening of the bathing beach with large attendances. He further reports that the composition of rations has recently improved. The authorities are giving sympathetic consideration to this problem and there is, therefore, no immediate cause for anxiety.
NO PARCELS
Next of kin are reminded that it is impossible for them to comply with the request of prisoners for parcels, etc., owing to the refusal of the Japanese to grant facilities of this sort.
POSTBAG
ABOUT 1,500 cards sent by prisoners of war in Japanese hands reached this country during May. These have been received from prisoners in the following camps: Mukden (Manchuria), Jinsen (Korea), Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe (Japan) and Taiwan (Formosa).
Prisoners in Mukden and Jinsen have been allowed to give some information regarding conditions in the camps.
From the other camps the information is very brief, consisting of a typewritten card informing the next of kin that the prisoner’s health is excellent, good or poor, that he is either working or not working (as the case may be), and ending with a request to look after the welfare if certain near relatives.
These cards have in most cases taken about six months in transit, and it is anticipated that mail from the camps in Japanese-occupied territories, such as Malaya, Java, etc., will take a considerably longer time to reach this county. Here are a few typical letters for the camps.
Climate Like England
Jinsen Camp, Chosen. 21.11.42.
I AM sure you will be overjoyed by hearing from me after all these months. I am quite safe and well in the circumstances. The climate here is very cold, more like England, but I cannot get used to it. I hope you and the family are keeping safe and well.
Working for Pay
Osaka, Kobe. Undated.
I AM interned in the Osaka P.O.W. camp, Kobe-sub camp. My health is usual. I am working for pay.
Studying Shakespeare
Keijo, Chosen. 27.1.43.
RECEIVED no letters from home yet. Am very well her, though weather cold. Food, cigarettes are adequate. Almost normal weight. Spend my time studying medicine, Shakespeare, drawing portraits, rehearsing for concerts. We had one on Christmas Day. Unnecessary to send comforts. Textbooks would be welcome . . .
Safe and Well
Shinagawa, Tokyo. 22.12.42
I AM well and safe in Japan. My health is excellent.
Five Months P.O.W.
Camp No. 4146, Hong Kong. Undated.
DURING the past five months I have been a P.O.W. The Japanese authorities have treated me very well and I am in the best of health, and there is no cause to worry.
[page break]
July, 1945 The Prisoner of War 15
Here’s the Answer to Your
PARCEL PROBLEM
THE next of kin parcel presents a problem to some readers, but the Red Cross have issued very detailed instructions in their leaflets P1/A and P1/B. Read these and keep them by you. We are picking out for special emphasis some points that next of kin overlook as the questions they ask us reveal.
The following are some of the queries answered by the leaflet.
Can I send my husband, a P.o.W. in a German camp, a fountain pen?
No. Fountains pens are forbidden. Send pencils.
My husband is in an Italian camp, what kind of boots can I send him?
For Italy, only Army type are permitted.
Can I enclose a short note in my husband’s parcel?
No letter to a P.o.W. must be enclosed in a parcel. A postcard is provided for the P.o.W.’s acknowledgement. Fill in the top half of this as directed, and enclose it in your parcel. The P.o.W. will fill in the bottom half and so acknowledge it to the Red Cross.
What kind of dressing-gown is best to send?
No special material is laid down, but patterned fabrics are recommended.
My husband is splendid shoemaker. Can I send him materials for heeling and toe-ing?
You may send leather soles, also nails and metal studs but no rubber soles or heels.
Real [sic] the leaflets very carefully and look out in the Journal for alterations and additions that may be made from time to time.
NEXT OF KIN PARCELS
WE are glad to announce that the recent delay in the despatch of next of kin parcels announced in the May issue of the “Prisoner of War Journal” has now been reduced to approximately 8 days, excluding the time spent in the post before the parcel reaches Finsbury Circus Next of Kin Packing Centre. The average number of parcels now despatched each day is 1,500.
In order to despatch the necessary number of parcels, the work has to be maintained at great pressure. Next of kin can help by taking care to avoid mistakes when sending their parcels and by keeping carefully to the instructions sent to them with the labels so that their parcels can go through without delay.
COSY SLIPPERS
They Will be Welcomed by Every P.O.W.
[picture]
THESE useful slippers can be made from either soft carpet or felt. Linoleum, carpet or leather can be used for the soles.
YOU need two pieces of felt or soft carpet 12 in. x 9 in., two pieces of flannel or other woollen material for lining 12 in. X 9 in., and 5 1/2 yds. cotton braid 3/4 in. wide for binding. Also enough thin linoleum, carpet or leather for two soles, and felt or thick woollen material for interlining. The ready-made wool-lined soles do very well: they are obtainable at most stores.
Make a paper pattern from the diagram (each square represents an inch). Cut out the two soles from linoleum plus material for interlining and lining. Then cut out material and lining for upper part of slipper.
Oversew together the sole’s lining and interlining to the sole. Then bind right round the braid. Cut off a bare 1/4 in. all round lining for upper and then over-sew to felt all round. Now bind right round with braid very securely. To sew upper to sole, stabstitch together through and through the edges of braid bindings together with strong thread, being careful to ease the fullness of upper to the sole around point of toe.
[two sketches]
Make a paper pattern from these diagrams. Each square represents an inch.
[page break]
16 The Prisoner of War July, 1943
P.O.W. EXAMS.
RECENT RESULTS
PRISONERS OF WAR of all ranks who entered for examinations in German camps have scored a number of successes in recent examinations. The Institute of Book-keepers announce four passes in the “Associate” stage five in the Elementary and three in the Preparatory – these candidates being all privates and non-commissioned officers. There were only two failures, and one of these was for the advanced Fellows’ examination.
The Institute of Bankers announce nine passes from one camp, three of these with distinction. All candidates were sergeants. A P.o.W. in another camp, who sat for the same examination, passed in three out of the four subjects taken.
In the Preliminary Examination of the General Nursing Council, eleven out of twelve candidates passed. Six of theses successful candidates were privates, two were sergeants, two corporals and one a lance/corporal.
In an officers’ camp, four candidates passed the Intermediate Examination of the Incorporated Sales Manager Association and four the Final. The examiners wished particularly to congratulate one candidate on the high standards of his answers.
In the same camp an orderly lance/corporal passed the Final (Section I) of the Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants, and two officers passed the Preliminary Examination in Malay in the School of Oriental and African Studies list, while a private passed Pitman’s Institute examination in Elementary Spanish.
In the examinations of the General Council of Solicitors in Scotland, four P.o.W. candidates have passed Part I and two Part II.
COUNTY REPRESENTATIVES
Please note the following changes : -
Buckingham : The Lady Burnham (formerly the Hon. Mrs Lawson), Hall Barn. Beaconsfield, Bucks.
Caernarvon : Miss Eveline Vaughan Davies, “Tan Lan,” Segontium Road South Caernarvon.
Carmarthen : Mrs. Brigstocke, County Organiser, B.R.C.S., Duffryn, Carmarthen.
Essex : Mrs Hanbury, Essex Joint County Committee, P.O.W. Dept., Hylands, Chelmsford.
NUMBER, PLEASE !
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us.
Any Questions?
Civilian Leggings
May I include a pair of leggings in my next-of-kin parcel to my son, a P.O.W. in a German camp?
Yes, if they are part of his uniform, but not if they are of a civilian type.
Camp Address
Is Stalag XXIA (Gymo) in Poland? I am told it is, but have to address my letters to my prisoner son to Germany.
The address for Stalag XXIA, as for all other camps in Poland, is Germany.
Labour Battalions
Will you kindly tell me where KR-GEF BAU, ARB-BATL 48 Blechhamer 10/S Kanallager, UBER HEYDEBRECK 2 is; and is it necessary to put the full address as I find it difficult to get the whole on the letter card?
The labour battalions, for which the above is the postal address, are mobile, so the address does not necessarily show their exact location, which is in the Wehrkreis VIII The address should be copied exactly as it is given by the prisoner.
Gramophone Records
May gramophone records be sent to a P.O.W. in Italy?
Yes, records may be sent to prisoners in Italy and Germany, through Messrs H.M.V., 363, Oxford Street, London. Records cannot be forwarded through the Red Cross.
Unmounted Photographs
Is there any way in which photographs can be forwarded to an Italian camp?
Unmounted photographs of a personal nature may be enclosed in letters for prisoners of war in Germany and Italy.
Undelivered Parcels
What would happen to a P.O.W.s next-of-kin parcel if he were set free before its arrival. Would it be passed on to another prisoner?
This would probably depend upon the arrangements made in the camp, or by the prisoners themselves before their release. A number of prisoners repatriated from Italy have authorised others remaining behind to claim any parcels which arrived after their departure.
Number of Parcels
How many food parcels does the Red Cross send to Germany and Italy during a year?
Including contributions from the Dominions, India and the British Communities in Argentina and Brazil, about a million at the present time.
His Diary
Will my husband, a P.O.W. in Germany, be allowed to bring home his diary which he is keeping up to date?
We are not in a position to give any information on this point.
His Glasses
Can I send my husband’s glasses in my next-of-kin parcel?
We suggest that you should write to the Invalid Comforts Section of the Prisoners of War Department about sending your husband’s glasses to him.
Camp Teachers
How are the teachers chosen in the camp study classes? My son is a school-master, but does not mention he is teaching.
The appointment of the teachers in a camp probably depends upon the subjects which the prisoners wish to study and the number of qualified teachers available.
Camp Reports
Who inspects the camps and compiles the reports published in the Journal?
The reports published in the Journal are derived from the representatives of the Protecting Power (Switzerland), who visit the camps. Delegates of the International Red Cross Committee also inspect the camps periodically.
Stalag VIIIB
How far is Stalag VIIIB (Lamsdorf) from Berlin? What does “Kommando” work by our prisoners of war mean?
Lamsdorf is about 200 miles from Berlin, Kommando means working party or labour detachment.
Chocolate and Soap
When we send a next of kin parcel and put money in for extra chocolate and soap should the latter be listed on the forms as articles sent by us?
No. Write on a separate piece of paper the amount of chocolate and/ or soap that you want put in at the packing centre.
FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS journal is sent free of charge to those registered with Prisoners of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested.
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W.1, by THE CORNWALL PRESS, LTD. Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.R.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 2, No. 15, July 1943
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-07
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial matters; reading in camp; official reports from the camps (two pages missing); the letters they write home; fun and games, our generous helpers (fund raising at home); group photographs from the camps; news from the far east; parcel problems; pattern for cosy slippers; prisoner exam results; any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Fourteen page printed document (two pages missing from original sixteen)
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-16
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-07
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Łambinowice
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Georgie Donaldson
anti-Semitism
entertainment
faith
prisoner of war
sanitation
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17144/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-17.2.pdf
048f2f6458014d1fe38cc7ae7cba7fff
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Whitehead, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The Prisoner of War
The official journal of the prisoner of war department of the red cross and st. John war organisation, St. James palace, London, S.W.1
Vol. 2. No. 13. Free to Next of Kin May, 1943.
The Editor Writes -
In view of the allegations which have been made in Parliament and elsewhere about conditions in Italian camps, and especially in Campo P.G.5. I am glad to be able to print some reassuring first-hand statements about prison camp life in Italy. The first is from Commander L.M. Brown, R.N., D.S.C., repatriated direct from P.G.5.
Prison Life in Italy
“The Italians,” he says “are always in my experience, kindly and well-disposed, but they are terrified of escapes. Their good intentions are not, however, always carried out in practise. When attempts are made to escape, it is the prison authorities rather than the prisoners who are most severely punished. That is why they limit the exercise space and remove many hobbies which would otherwise keep the prisoners amused. My only complaint is that they do not provide anything by way of recreational facilities – particularly at P.G.5. where everybody who had been punished was sent. Other complaints about this camp are mainly exaggerations.” (See also page 13.)
A Signal from the C.-in-C.
By way of postscript to Commander Brown I may refer to a signal from the Commander-in-Chief Levant to the Admiralty saying that the recently repatriated naval prisoners of war from Italy “unanimously express their sincere gratitude” for the food and comforts parcels sent out by the British Red Cross and distributed through the International Red Cross Committee.
From the Model Camp
Writing to his father in Hull from “the model camp of Italy” a denizen of Campo P.G.52 testifies: “Everything is done for our comfort and convenience. The Camp Commander is a perfect gentleman. We get a Red Cross parcel between two of us twice a week.” A gunner in Campo P.G.54 reports that his camp is situated in quite a pleasant spot not far from Rome, green countryside all around and a range of mountains in the distance. “Our enclosure,” he says, “does not allow much room for exercise but we are allowed out for walks at frequent intervals.”
Fine New Huts
And here is yet further good news from an Italian camp – P.G.73 – contained in a letter to a Reigate reader from her husband. “We are now housed in our new huts,” he writes,
[Picture]
Red Cross parcels arriving at Stalag 383, formerly known as Oflag III C – drawn by an inmate!
“Which are really fine places and 100 per cent. improvement on the tents, really modern and, above all, considerably warmer. There seems nothing to worry about on this side, so please keep smiling.” His wife says that her letters to Italy are getting through much more quickly than replies from there. From P.G.82 comes a message that next-of-kin parcels and cigarette parcels are arriving daily. Red Cross parcels every week. Main items wanted are “books, cigs, chocs, socks and hankies.”
Happy Returns!
This is our Birthday Number. It is a year ago since we appeared for the first time and I am happy to say that we have made friends all over the world. My birthday wish to our readers can only be “Speedy happy returns of your menfolk!” And I should like to quote from two letters that have reached me. One – from Redcar – says: “Keep on editing, editor. You’re doing a grand job and we know it. So do the chaps behind the wire. So keep up the good work till they’re home again.” The other: “I imagine every single copy of your magazine is more widely circulated and shared than any other paper.”
Photostat Journalism
Special arrangements, unique in the history of journalism, have now been made for the publication of [italic] The Prisoner of War [/italic] in Canada within a few days of its appearance in this country. One of the first copies printed in London is sent off by air mail to Ottawa, where some 15,000 copies are reproduced by Photostat with certain modifications and additions conveying suitable information for Canadian readers. I have just seen
[Page break]
2 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
a grateful letter from a lady living in Edmonton, Alberta, expressing appreciation of an article we published about Otlag IVC where her son has been prisoner for nearly two years.
Adventures in Kriegieland
A flying officer thus sets down his fantastic first impressions of Stalag Luft 111:
“An ardent individual clothed in a pair of pyjama trousers and an old scout’s hat, perched on a tree stump in the midday heat, a little way from the wire, diligently executing the chromatic scale on a saxophone. I was amazed at the indifference of the sentry in the box a few yards off and of the ‘Kriegies’ [sic] (prisoners of war), marching round the perimeter track, busily, quickly, in little knots of two or three, as if they had somewhere to go, a train to catch perhaps – or an important meeting to attend.
“Then there were the dozen or so yachtsmen, skilfully navigating homemade sailing boats round the fire squad’s 12 feet square reservoir. Some wore old socks on their heads, cut down R.A.F. trousers served as shorts, pyjama jackets, shawls and other quaint swathings [sic] abounded....
“I’m sure that only the season prevented the March Hare turning up at tea-time. Kriegieland — A land stranger much than fiction.”
Up-to-date Lantern Lectures
Red Cross lantern slides are now obtainable on loan, free of charge by schools, clubs and associations. These are in two sets, (1) “Red Cross and St Johns – Past and Present,” and (2) “Work of Red Cross and St. John for Prisoners of War.” Written lectures are issued with each collection and posters and leaflets can be obtained on request. Apply three weeks in advance of your date fixture to: Lantern Slides, Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, 24, Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1.
Examination Success
Since the inception of the scheme for holding examinations in prisoners of war camps, there have been more than 2,000 applications from candidates. Another 2,000 are working for exams, and about 400 have already sat for them in 13 different camps. In the results published up to date, 212 out of 262 passed, some with distinction. Subjects studied range from Banking and Economics to Gasfitting [sic] and there are now more than seventy examining bodies, including universities, professional societies and technical institutions.
Some prisoners are particularly interested in modern languages, and not all confine themselves to the European. Some want certificates in Malay, Swahili and Chinese!
Settling In
When prisoners are moved from one camp to another they are apt to feel a little uprooted. Other parents and friends may have read words like these: “I cannot say too much at present. Like everything else that is new, it seems a bit strange. We are still busy settling in.” But the letter continues cheerfully: “We are all living in a large house, just one big happy family.” And the surroundings strike a familiar note. This P.O.W. in Campo P.G.122 has seen scenery like this before. It is “very similar to the Great West Road round about Osterley.”
A gift from Italy
News has only just reached me of a most remarkable Christmas present. It appears that every man in Campo P.G.82 wrote home to his next of kin with instructions to send to the Red Cross a Christmas contribution on his behalf – “as a token of appreciation of the great work that Red Cross is doing for us.” A major in this camp who writes to inform us of this touching spontaneous tribute says that the total achieved was £1,344 sterling.
Am I downhearted? No
“Twenty-three to-day and my fourth birthday away from Blighty,” writes her brother in a Stalag to Elsie Morris, in Bolton. “Am I downhearted? No, far from it, for during these three years I’ve learnt more than in all the previous ones put together. I realise the real value of things. I get a kick out of doing something I detest, knowing that in doing so I am climbing one rung nearer the top of the ladder and not slipping the entire length to the mud beneath.”
Pain from Over-eating
A Westbury-on-Trym [sic] reader is anxious that I should print an extract from a letter from his brother Jim in Stalag XXB, because it will ease the minds of some who have relatives there. “I am really and truthfully O.K.” writes Jim.
[Picture]
Bathing at Stalag XVIII A.
“At present I have a pain in my stomach through over-eating! Seems funny to you, perhaps, but it’s God’s truth. The Red Cross food I’ve knocked back to-day would last a camel a week.”
So Very Tasty
Some prisoners show considerable ingenuity in the way they use the contents of the Red Cross parcels. Here is a “lovely breakfast” recipe from a Lincolnshire man in Campo P.G.70. “I mixed the Yorkshire pudding powder with grated cheese, and sliced some dates, and had it cooked in the cookhouse.” Rather a queer concoction, but its inventor says it was marvellous. He also says that he is in the pink of condition and has had “quite a lot of mail” from home.
Thanks from overseas.
Malta, Palestine, Trinidad and Southern India — readers in all those countries are represented in my mailbag this month. “In our village (Tel-mond, Palestine) are many families of P/W,” writes Mrs. Glezer, “and all of them are glad to read the journal for which I send the greatest of thanks.” Mrs. Ortensia Stafrace writes to St. James’s Palace from Valetta: “I wish to renew my thanks to you and your staff for what you are doing for me and many others and for keeping me in touch with my dear husband ... and I assure you I will remain obliged to you till death.”
“It Brings Them Nearer”
“In the last issue there is a bit about Ian’s new camp. It seems to bring our boys nearer to us.” Ian is the flying officer son of Mrs Bourne, who writes from Trinidad to express her appreciation of [italic] The Prisoner of War [/italic]. Mrs Barker, writing from Bangalore, is no less enthusiastic, and says that she is justly proud of her husband who, is [sic] spite of his 30 years’ service, seems to bear the ordeal of an exile’s life very well. He had been Camp Sergeant Major at Campo P.G.65 until he was transferred to another camp.
Red Cross Sunday
Sunday, May 2nd, will be celebrated in churches throughout the country as Red Cross and St. John Sunday. Special prayers recommended for the occasion include the prayer for Prisoners of War which was specially written by the Dean of York (Dr. Milner White) and published in our January issue.
The Editor Regrets
To those who have asked whether they can be put in touch with other next of kin I must regretfully announce that it is impossible for this journal to undertake that responsibility. Introductions must be made direct by your men in the camps.
THE EDITOR.
[Page break]
May, 1943, The Prisoner of War, 3.
[Picture]
“...still something to lean on.”
ALL in the DAY’S WORK
Many and Varied are the Jobs Done by Members of Working Parties
[Picture]
“....caught bricks, carried bricks and cursed bricks.”
Prisoners who are members of working parties often write home to say that they are putting on weight. “It’s not fat either, but good hard muscle,” writes one of the men at a German Stalag.
They are the happiest prisoners, for usually work carries with it certain extra privileges and extra rations, and the men get a small rate of pay.
Most of the labour is out-of-doors, which explains the good health which prisoners proudly report to their people at home.
Under International Law it was agreed that P.O.W.s who are physically fit can be employed on work not directly connected with the operations of war. Officers cannot be compelled to work, but may volunteer to do so.
Types of work
The types of labour vary and include plumbing, bricklaying, quarrying and factory work. A few prisoners work in coal and salt mines, some do clerical work, and a considerable number work on the land, and are billeted with the farmer or in one of his cottages. Some, however, live in a special camp near the farm.
The following description of “home conditions” in a farm cottage comes from Germany. The writer has christened his billet “Chez Nous.”
“We have two rooms, one large, one small. The small one we use as a washroom. The larger one is our bedroom, dining-room, ballroom – to suit the occasion.
“The bedsteads are two-tier bunks. The beds are palliasses [sic] filled with straw. WE have two fires – that is, one fireplace which we use for heating water and preparing our little Red Cross dishes, and an oven for heating purposes.
“We have a cupboard with shelves where we keep our belongings, on top of which is a small bookcase, which I made out of Red Cross boxes. Then we have a table and chairs, of course. Various photographs are hung around the room, and, naturally, I consider my collection on the wall above my bed to be the finest on show.”
Prisoners working on farms often get a certain amount of liberty. One of them, describing his working day, says: “’Aufstehen’ is at 5 o’clock. I wash and clean my teeth, and then six of us start our daily walk to the farm. I leave Mervyn and his mate about half a kilometre along the road, then another half-kilometre and we leave the other two ‘gefangeners.’ That leaves Dick Holt and myself to find our way along a canal bank for another kilometre to our farm. Then till 7.30 I help get green fodder for the horses, after which I get the horse and van ready and take the milk to the milk lorry. I come back, have ‘Fruhstuck’ and do a bit of threshing until dinner-time.
Threshing Until Vesper
“In the afternoon I do more threshing until ‘Vesper’ at 4 o’clock, after which we do various odd jobs till 7 o’clock, have a wash, then supper, and a walk back to the billet.”
However they are employed, the men seem to be glad to have the work to do.
One of them writes: “The work I do varies quite often, and at the moment I am working in a machine and blacksmith’s shop. Can you imagine me wielding a hammer on an anvil?”
Another comments: “We have a variety of jobs, such as digging, road-building and work connected with the building trade.”
And from another comes the following:
“This week quite a large gang went out on a working-party – plumbers, bricklayers, carpenters, labourers, and there is hope of plenty of work soon. I should like to get out as it entails extra rations.”
A prisoner who works in a quarry insists, rather surprisingly, that his work is easy. “The best job is running the stones to the station so as to unload it – about twenty minutes’ work and an hour and a half riding about on the lorry. We manage to see a bit of the town this way.”
Here is the wide experience with bricks gained by a prisoner who in other days was a bank clerk, recounted to his sister: ‘I have been putting up blocks of flats. As to my methods – Heath Robinson hasn’t a look in! I’ve handled bricks, stacked bricks, thrown bricks, caught bricks, carried bricks and cursed bricks. In fact, what I haven’t done to a brick has never been done.”
Relegated to a Shovel
Another joker remarks that he has been “sacked from the constructional job and relegated to a shovel . . . still something to lean on!”
A P.O.W. in Stalag VIIIB is quite sure that a regular job is a good means of keeping well. He writes: “I am now with my third working party and feeling very pleased and contented with life in general. We return from work by three in the afternoon with a healthy glow and feeling as fit as we have ever felt.” This prisoner mentions that there are sixty in his present camp and that they are “a grand crowd of fellows.”
In one camp the pay is quoted as “70 pfennig, that is, about 9d. a day. But we can’t spend it on much, so some of us will be millionaires when the war’s over!”
No chance of that, perhaps! Rather let us say that when the war is over, these men will come home in better health and spirits than would have been possible if they had been confined to their camps without any occupation.
[Picture]
Members of a working party attached to Stalag VIII B/E 373. In the background is the cottage in which they live.
[Page break}
4 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
[Underlined] The Far East [/Underlined] [Underlined] A Broadcast from Java [/Underlined]
LIFE IN A JAPANESE PRISON CAMP
[italic] Lieutenant J. Lambert, a young Artillery officer, is a prisoner of war in Java, and on March 6th he was allowed by the Japanese authorities to broadcast on the Batavian Service to Australia. Lieutenant Lambert, who was formerly a journalist in Preston and Nottingham, gave an interesting account of the daily life in the Javanese prison camp, and we reprint some extracts from his account. It should be borne in mind that the script of the broadcast was censored by the Japanese authorities.
LIEUTENANT LAMBERT had been a prisoner for two days short of one year when he spoke. After being captured the men were assembled at a railway head and then, leaving the terminus, they marched at night loaded with all the gear they could carry to the camp itself.
For a week afterwards there was furious activity, “scrubbing, hammering, digging, grading, counting, sorting out mixed units, until the place was roughly organised. It was soon obvious that there was going to be a job of work for everybody in the task of preserving a reasonably healthy and cheerful community in a prison camp within six degrees of the Equator.
“The necessary organisation included just as much administrative work as though we had been living a normal garrison life, plus the establishment of hygiene and sanitation squads, anti-malaria service, engineers’ workshop, central cookhouse, kitchen garden squad, facilities for religious worship, entertainments and, above all, our own medical service.
“Living accommodation in general consists of sound buildings, plentifully ventilated. There is at all times plenty of freedom to move about in the open, within the boundary wife of the camp area. The traditional genius of the British soldier for making himself comfortable was never more obvious than it is here. We brought in a good many tools with us and any sort of available wood soon become primitive furniture.
“Officers have exactly the same type of quarters as the men. Meals are based on the steamed rice which is the staple diet of the Eastern Asiatic races. It is accompanied by soup or stew, made of plentiful green vegetables with a certain amount of meat and there is enough flour for a bread ration once a day. To supplement these rations we have our own shop, buying, under Japanese supervision from local sources, and one can get eggs, fruit, sugar, peanuts, onions, potatoes, cigarettes and native tobacco.
“The Japanese employ large numbers of men on work outside the camps, and for each day’s work the men are paid. In
[Picture]
A group of prisoners at Zentsuji camp, Shikoku Island, Japan.
addition, camp maintenance staffs are paid. A fit man can earn a small but regular income, and we have started contributory schemes of unemployment insurance and sickness benefit.
“It must be remembered, too, that most of us came here completely unacclimatised [sic], but, luckily, we had medical officers with long experience of the tropics. They certainly needed all their experience and all their energies from time to time, especially in the early months. But hospital accommodation and the supply of medical materials has greatly improved during the year. After a year of this life the men have learned a great deal about taking care of themselves in this climate, and the situation has shown steady improvement recently.
“There is any amount of recreation. Soccer and Rugby, limited to fifteen or twenty minutes each way, are played regularly, and inter-unit league games produce ‘needle’ matches with roaring crowds on the touchline. Basketball, deck-tennis and badminton supply milder forms of exercise. Chess and bridge have become absolute favourites among the indoor pastimes. Contract bridge has certainly not been reckoned among the ordinary soldier’s favourite card games as a rule, but it certainly has become one in the prison camps at Java.
“The standard of stage and concert-party entertainment is really amazing. In my own camp we have seen three colourful Shakespearean productions. We have a first-class dance band, and at the moment we are revelling in a series of shows of the light musical comedy type. We even possess a startling pair of synthetic female beauties. Two R.A.F. boys transform themselves into a dazzling blonde and a skittish redhead. At a range of five yards you’d never dream that the blonde’s crowning glory consists of the combed-out fibres of a bleached sandbag, cunningly waved and set.”
Lieutenant Lambert concludes:
“For the time being at least, and maybe until the end, we are out of the fight. We have had a year of captivity and we fully realise that we may have another year or more to face. But my own feeling is that the message to you all from prisoners of war in the Far East is this: “We can take it. Please don’t let any anxiety for us distract you from the job in hand.”
Official Reports on Camps
SIR JAMES GRIGG, secretary of State for War, stated in the House of Commons last month that the Delegate of the International Red Cross Committee in Tokio [sic] had recently visited six camps in the Osaka group and seven in the Fukuoka group. The following reports have been received from Geneva:-
OSAKA GROUP OF CAMPS
Nine camps in the neighbourhood of Osaka and Kobe are administered as one group. The principle camp is in Osaka and another is in Kobe, and two others, Amagasaki and Sakurajima are near these two adjoining cities. These four camps contain British prisoners of war from Hong Kong. The camps are described as clean and tidy.
At Kobe a four-storey brick warehouse is used to accommodate the prisoners. The buildings in the other camps have wooden frames and plastered walls. They are heated during the coldest weather with braziers. The men have five blankets each and sleep in two-tiered bunks. Each officer has a cubicle. There appear to be no recreation rooms.
The toilet arrangements are adequate. As is the custom in Japan, all the men bathe together in a large warm bath.
The rations are said to be satisfactory in quality, and to be superior to those issued to Japanese troops. The Camp Leaders are satisfied with the food.
The camps had all received a share of the Red Cross relief supplies sent on
(Continued on Page 14)
[Page Break]
May, 1943 The Prisoner of War 5
[photograph]
STALAG IX A/H
[photograph]
K.G.F. B.A.B.21
[photograph]
STALAGLUFT I
[photograph]
STALAG XVIIID 2981
[photograph]
STALAG IIID’404
Groups from the Camps
[photograph]
STALAG VIII B
[photograph]
STALAG XXA’5
[photograph]
CAMPO P.G.41
[Page Break]
6 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
Fun And Games
[Picture]
This model of friendly old “Big Ben” was made by a member of Stalag XXA.
Arts and Crafts at Stalag XXA
At a recent Exhibition of Arts and Crafts held at Stalag XXA one of the exhibits was the striking portrait of His Majesty King George VI. The exhibition included other clever portraits, copies of old masters and studies of animals and still life. In the modelling section friendly old “Big Ben” –reproduced on this page – was outstanding. One exhibitor, using materials to hand, arranged regimental medals against a backcloth to form the Union Jack and express the indomitable British spirit of the artists and craftsmen.
Dream Boat at Stalag XXB
“Dear Mum and Dad,” wrote a private from Stalag XXB, “we had a jolly good Christmas here; plenty of grub, thanks to the Red Cross. We also had a play called ‘Crazy Gefangeners,’ and did we enjoy it!
“ One item was a boat we had made pulled on pulleys in the dark with the light on the boat while the band played ‘When my dream boat comes home,’ ‘All ashore,’ ‘We are sailing on the crest of a wave,’ and ‘Red Sails in the Sunset.’”
“London Pride”
The camp commandant and other German officers attended a recent concert at an Oflag. It was a “roaring success,” with the Canadian Art Crighton and his Boys (Including Little Oscar on the Sousaphone) playing all the latest tunes. A New Zealander, Lee Humphries, sang hill-billies in a Canadian Rockie scene, Bruce Organ gave comedy numbers, and a grand pantomime, “Dick Whittington,” formed the finale.
In One stirring scene a cockney figure stood silhouetted against a background of the Embankment and the House of Parliament at night as he sang “London Pride.”
“Night Club” at P.G.21
Officers in the Italian camp P.G.21 (Chieti) have rigged up a large room as a “Little Theatre” where plays and variety shows are held regularly. The camp has a dance orchestra, described by a prisoner as “easily up to professional standards.” Recently the “Little Theatre” was turned into a London night club and cabaret, and a “customer” who dined at the “21 Supper and Grill” described it as “unreal and unbelievable.”
How Many Buttons?
A novel competition formed an added attraction to the ambitious revue. “London Calling,” recently produced at Stalag XXA by “The Cockneys” Concert Party. Included in the programme was a short notice inviting playgoers to guess the number of buttons on the jacket of the Pearly King — a
[Picture]
THE P.O.W’s RETURN
“Excuse me – but does Mrs. Jones live about here?”
“Yes. Er – as a matter of fact, I’m her daughter.”
“Dear me. Very pleased to meet you. I’m your father.”
(From a member of Oflag IX A/H)
member of the cast. Answers were to be written on the removable slip provided and dropped in a special box at the exit when the play was over. Meanwhile a piece of paper showing the true figure was being kept in a sealed envelope to be opened on the third night of the performance.
Valuable prizes, the audience was told, awaited those competitors whose estimates came nearest to the correct number.
Two Stalag Shows
“Tulip Time” is the charming name for a musical fairy tale presented at Stalag XXIA. One of the men at this camp recently sent the artistic printed programme, and a most professional programme it is, too. Songs, lyrics and music were all written by the prisoners themselves.
Another excellent programme has been received from Stalag XXA. This was for a revue called “Come in, Ma,” presented by the “Fort Concert Party.”
Books are Reaching Italy
Good news is reaching the Red Cross Indoor Recreations Section about the arrival of books in Italian camps. So far definite acknowledgments of books have been received from ten officers’ camps, sixteen men’s camps, and from six hospitals, as follows: Officers’ camp: P.G. Nos. 5, 12, 17, 21, 29, 35, 38, 41, and 47. Men’s camps: P.G. Nos. 51, 52, 54, 57, 59, 65, 66, 73, 75, 77, 78, 82, 85, 91, 95 and 129. Hospitals: P.G. Nos. 201 and 202. Military Hospitals: Pari, Parma, Morigi di Piacenza and Caserta.
Next of kin and friends of prisoners of war are asked to continue sending book parcels through permit-holding retailers to individual prisoners, as these books, when read are usually passed on to the Camp Librarian for the general benefit of prisoners.
APRIL SELECTION OF “PENGUIN BOOKS”
Penguin Books have informed us that the following ten books have been chosen as the April selection for prisoners in camps in Germany and Italy:
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons; William Cook; Antique Dealer, Richard Keverne; Cut Throat, Christopher Bush: The Old Road from Spain, Constance Holme; Selected Modern Short Stories, Vol 1, Ed. By Alan Steele; Farewell Victoria, T.H. White; A life of Shakespeare, Hesketh Pearson; South Latitude, F.D. Ommanney; The Growth of Science, A.P. Rossiter; European Painting and Sculpture, Eric Newton.
[Page break]
May, 1943 The Prisoner of War 7
The Letters They Write Home
A world in Miniature
Campo P.G.78. 17.2.43.
“THERE is nothing that would indicate that we have been prisoners for two years. We have settled down to it as if it were our normal life and accept things as they are. We are not in the slightest degree crushed, cranky or depressed. It is a world in miniature with normal gossip and joking, with nothing more exciting than heated arguments occasionally about the constitution of the bands, concert party, etc., just as in ‘Civyy’ [sic] Street.”
The Simple Philosophy
Stalag XXID. 23.2.43.
“SATURDAY afternoons and all day Sunday we have to ourselves. The rest of the week we are working from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon. Lights go out at ten. The Red Cross have sent us all kinds of things – musical instruments, books, cards, games and drawing paper. I have taken up sketching. My special line is portraits – gave me a photograph of a man, woman or child and I will turn out a beautiful replica in pencil. It is curious how many of the chaps here have perfectly good photos of their relatives and young ladies and are not content until they have been reproduced in pencil. Conditions are a lot different now than in the early days. We have got our second wind back and settled down to the simple philosophy of ‘There’s a good time coming.’”
To His Daughter
Oflag IXA/H. Undated.
“AFTER the war won’t it be funny to hear the chink of silver money, to go for a walk without a guard, to sit on a chair that isn’t hard, to eat off a plate that isn’t iron, to have a comfortable bed to lie on, to go to a flick, to drive a car, with no one wondering where you are, to talk to people you really like, to sit in a bath or ride a bike, to wear clean clothes, to speak by ‘phone, to have a room of your very own, to send a letter away by post and get a reply In a week at most, to sit by a fire when it’s grey and ‘parky’, to wear a suit that isn’t khaki, to turn from a plate of good plum duff and say ‘No, thank you, I’ve had enough’!
“Won’t it be funny (won’t it be bliss!) to have you and Mum again after this?”
News of Blighty
Stalag IXC. 15.2.43.
“WE have here now some fellows who were recently captured in Africa who were able to give us very cheering news about ‘Blighty.’ As they were home as recently as last November, you can bet they had plenty to tell us. For the past few months I have been working in the mill, where all the salt from the mine has to be crushed to powder.”
Variety Turn
Stalag XXB. 14.2.43.
“I HAVE plenty to write about this week, for you see for the first time in our district we have had a concert, or rather a variety show. Organised by one of our lads, the show was put on in the village assembly hall and the lads taking part were from the surrounding farms, the cheese ‘joint’ and black-
[Picture]
Sports Day at Stalag VIIA – the bookmakers
[inserted] PICTURES AND LETTERS
POSTAL orders for 10s. will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters printed. We should be very much obliged if readers would send us COPIES of their prisoners’ letters instead of the original ones and on a separate sheet of paper.
Photographs, preferably of prisoners at work or recreation, will also be welcomed. Payments of 10s. will be made for every photograph reproduced across two columns, and 5s. for every photograph across one column. The name of the subject and also the name and address of sender must be written in block letters on the back. All letters and photographs will be returned as soon as possible.
Address: RED CROSS EDITOR, PRISONERS OF WAR DEPT., ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1.
The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generation friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
smith’s. Our modest band consisted of an ancient piano, guitar, piano accordion, drums and home-made bass, i.e., an old inner tube stretched over a soap box. Nevertheless, it did marvellously well. I composed a humorous monologue concerning a ladies v. gents cricket match, and I was besieged with requests for copies afterwards. In the last act I appeared as one of the Western Brothers in company with a West End garage proprietor. Together we recited my own composition, ‘It Was Agony.’ Our ‘toppers’ were made from our Red Cross parcel boxes and blacked over with tar. Exactly 160 of our lads enjoyed the show. Three German officers attended.”
Summer’s Coming.
Campo P.G.53. 6.3.43.
“LIFE isn’t too bad. . . . We brew up the tea from our Red Cross parcels several times a day so as not to waste a drop. What I look forward to most is chocolate and cigarettes. Am looking forward to your next of kin parcels. . . . Will you please send in your next parcel khaki shirts and shorts, as the weather in summer is just as hot as in the Middle East.”
Dear Old London.
Oflag VIIB. 9.3.43.
“WE spend hours talking about dear old London. It usually starts after supper with something like this: ‘Have you ever had oysters in one of those bars by the Helvetia – ?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ says someone else ‘and just round the corner, in Rupert Street, is Pinolis,’ and so it goes on.
A week or so ago three American Colonels arrived from Tunisia, so we do get a bit of late news from occasional people. Those things which three years ago one took for granted now seem to be the absolute essence of luxury, such as hot water running from a tap, or even gazing into a shop window. You know at times this seems almost worth it all, just for the unique experience it will be when it comes to an end and we return home.”
Looking Ahead.
Stalag Luft 3. 5.3.43.
“I AM wondering what it will feel like to be free again, just to be able to walk miles and miles out into the country and no barbed wire or guards to stop me. I want to stand on Rivock edge and look out over the valleys as far as the eye can see.
“We are entirely surrounded by woods and I haven’t seen anything except trees for ten months. It doesn’t matter though, my time isn’t entirely wasted and I know the gates
[Page Break]
8 The Prisoner of War May,1943
[Picture]
P.O.W. attached to Stalag XXB 258.
will soon be open, and I hope it will be this year as you and I seem to think.
“I have done a lot of thinking since I have been here, and I think I have got things more or less weighed up now as regards life and the way of it and I hope to get somewhere when I get back. I have been permanently impressed by the work of the International Red Cross,
[Picture]
Parcels Office at Stalag Luft 3.
particularly (in our case) the British Red Cross. I wonder if you at home fully realise how much we owe to them? It is more than we can ever hope to repay.”
Fair Shares
Stalag IXC. 5.2.43
“FOR our parcels we split up into ‘syndicates’ of two, three or four men. These groups share everything – food, cigarettes, money. I’m in a syndicate with B---- M----, an ex-Army cook who, of course, does the cooking. ‘Tommy,’ who acts as the ‘quarter-bloke, is a London Terrier, and a
[Picture]
Boxing bout at Stalag XX A/110.
gardener from Kent is general factotum. I’m scrounger-in-chief, and Chancellor of the Exchequer.”
Bridge Player
Campo P.G.65 24.2.43.
“I KEEP very fit and cheerful and play a lot of bridge. Have so far won four competitions and have taught nearly fifty fellows to play, including four sergeant-majors. To-day for the first time I went on an organised route march, under escort, of course, about three miles or so. It was a real treat to get out of camp.”
Kept Him Awake
Llag VII. 3.2.43.
“TO me in England. ‘Red Cross’ meant mainly ambulance and stretchers: in Jersey it was the message bureau. Here it means parcels! On issuing days you line up by rooms to collect dry goods and whatever tins you want. These are opened and examined for contraband. We had such a parcel yesterday. It raised spirits from zero to such a pitch that sleep was out of the question till 1 a.m.”
Handcuffing
Oflag VIIB. 20.1.43.
“I AM extremely well mentally and physically. I did not happen to get picked for the handcuffing, and even if I had been it is really not the sort of thing which need give rise to any alarm.
“I suppose it is difficult to imagine at home how we live here, but there is one thing that ought to be realised that things which would be intolerably irksome, if one were alone, lose a great deal of their sting when they are shared by two thousand extremely cheerful companions.”
Post-war Bureaux
[italic] From a Camp Leader, Stalag VIIIB. [/italic]
19.2.43.
“WE received a rude shock last week when I was notified that the Post-war Advice Bureau would cease to exist, that being the order of the German High Command. Unfortunately, there appears to be little hope that an appeal against the ruling will be upheld. What a disappointment, and just when the fruits were being borne!”
Exchange on Points
Oflag IX A/Z. 12.2.43.
“WE have an exchange market here which works on points instead of money. If any one has too much of one particular thing, into the market it goes and he is credited with so many points when it is sold. For instance, I wanted two suits of summer underwear, which I got, finest material. This cost me one tin brown polish. 80 points; four pair laces, 120 points; one pair socks, 50 points; one razor blade, 10 points.”
Brown as Berries
Campo P.G. 21. 6.3.43.
“AM enjoying the book [italic] Gone to Earth [/italic] very much and have only just finished [italic] The Sun Is My Undoing. [/italic] The weather is now doing its best to cheer us up, and sunbathing is all the rage. We shall all return as brown as berries ‘even though the belt has been tightened up considerably.”
Monuments to Patience
Oflag IIIC. 23.2.43.
“IF the weather with you is anything like ours, you will be wondering where the winter has gone. We have already started sunbathing, and shorts have begun to make their appearance.
“Recently we held our Arts and Crafts Exhibition, and some of the exhibits were really amazing, particularly when tools are limited to penknives and the material is all plywood. Most of these exhibits could be called ‘Monuments to Patience,’ that great but very necessary virtue acquired in P.O.W. camp.”
Dramatic Talent
Stalag XXA. 7.3.43.
“THERE were fifty men when I came here, now there are ninety. I have worked every day this last two weeks but to-day I have a break. The talent of our club put on a play called ‘The Monkey’s Paw,’ and it was a success and I enjoyed it.”
Stage Properties
Marlag und Milag Nord.
4.3.43.
“WE had three Americans in the cast of ‘On the Spot.’ We are very nice clothes for the shows and make female wigs from string off the Red Cross parcels. You would be surprised if you saw our efforts on the stage! Everything done as you would at home. We use real ‘make-up,’ dresses are made by the camp tailors, shoes are hand-made. The stage is properly equipped with lighting, spot-lights, dimmers.”
Maths Master
Campo P.G.70. 27.2.43.
“I AM starting a class in mathematics. Although I know quite a bit about maths, teaching men is a new experience. I have got over the spell of shortage of Red Cross parcels. They are giving us one a week again now. I am really glad that delay occurred as it makes me appreciate all the more what the Red Cross are doing for us. I shall never grudge helping them when I regain my freedom.”
[inserted] “IF I AM TAKEN PRISONER”
[italic] The letter quoted below was found in the kit-bag of an eighteen-year-old Commando. It was written to his mother the afternoon before he left on the Dieppe raid, in which he was wounded and taken prisoner. [/italic]
“My Own Dearest Mother,
“By now you will probably have heard what has happened to me. I hardly know just what to say to comfort you, but I am sure that you know that I do not want you to fret or worry over me. . . .
“I have only one regret I parting from you from as far back as the day I joined the Army, I wish I could have provided for you, or at least, helped to support you, better than I have done in the past. . . .
“. . . My love to all at home and away, and please tell them all that they were constantly in my mind, and I wish them all happiness and luck.
“Mother dear, I would just like to say that if I should be taken prisoner, please trust and believe in God that some day I will be home to work for you and comfort you. . . So don’t forget, darling, to try and smile and be brave. . . . God bless you.
“With everlasting love,
Your Son,
Ron.”
[Page break]
May, 1943 The Prisoner of War 9
His Half Day
Campo P.G.54. 5.3.43.
“WE’VE been having some lovely weather with clear blue skies and sunshine, and Sunday was just like a midsummer’s day back home. I had a cold shower, put my clean underwear on and sat reading in the sun all the afternoon. The ‘working man’ enjoys his half day now!”
Hot Showers
Oflag 55 (VD). 1.2.43.
“THE best thing in this camp (built as a Youth Hostel) is the lovely hot shower baths which we enjoy every Thursday. We do not work, except to do what is necessary for the maintenance of the camp, but I find plenty to do. I get up first, at 7 a.m., and get the fire going, and boil hot water and make tea for as many as have it, and prefer it to German tea.”
Jack-of-All-Trades
Stalag IIID. 14.2.43.
“I AM working on the railway with a pick. It is pretty heavy but we get extra rations for it, so the work will not do me any harm. At home I would be called a plate-layer. I will be a Jack-of-all-trades when I get back.”
The “Stooge” Day
Stalag Luft III.
Undated.
“DURING the long evening, broken by brew and biscuits at 9.30, there is a lot of talking, but it is O.K, for working until bedtime just after 10 p.m., lights out at 10.30 p.m. Odd jobs, especially washing, take a lot of time, and the weekly ‘stooge’ day is nothing but preparing meals and washing up. Of course, we do a little talking, too! Our long discussions, the give and take spirit, and the little work I manage to do are doing me a lot of good.”
Special Security Camp
Oflag IVC. 15.3.43.
“THIS is a weird and boring life. This is my seventh camp and is probably my last, as it is a special security camp for people who cause trouble or who have tried to escape. There are Dutch, Poles, Belgians and French here, too, and a wonderful, cheery spirit pervades.
“We do most of our own cooking, but everyone is relieved when my turn is passed! My best dish is a plain raw onion salad! Also discovered it’s remarkable how long a bed will go unmade before becoming a complete cat’s cradle. Our beds are built in tiers and can go up to three, top one is awkward to scale and painful for the bottom two!”
Expert Translation
Marlag und Milag Nord. 3.3.43.
“THE new theatre which we have built was opened the other day by having a film show. We have a 16 mm. projector and hire the films for it. The apparatus is excellent and we put over quite a good performance. I stand behind and yell out the translations.”
His Music
Stalag VIIIB. 14.2.43.
“WE have a lot of musical instruments, too, piano accordions, guitars, etc., but immediately I start to practice about seventeen of the lads descend on me till I promise to stop. I’ve ordered a saxophone, and the fact that I don’t know the first thing about one won’t make the least difference.”
Keeping our Chaps Amused
Campo P.G.73. 23.2.43.
“OUR day starts about 7.30 a.m. when a drink of black coffee is brought round. When the weather was very cold we did not get up till 9 or 10 a.m., but as the weather gets warmer we rise earlier. About 10.30 we are issued with a small loaf and about 2oz. of cheese and an orange every other day. Then Ted and I do drawings or crosswords and sometimes we make up questions and quizzes to ask the hut of an evening.
“A lot of our time is spent in arranging talks and debates, as Ted and I have more or less accepted the responsibility of keeping our chaps amused.”
Talking Italian
Campo P.G.70. 2.2.43.
“WE still continue to get the Red Cross parcels. I am now well set up for external clothing, but await your personal parcel. I am in the Civilian Hospital and doing well. It’s very good in here. The food is fine and we have fun trying to talk Italian. Doctors and nurses are kind and treat us well.”
Weekly Treat
Campo P.G.75. 24.2.43.
“THIS evening I started off with the usual issue of soup, but I only had the liquid and saved the vegetables, i.e., cabbage and onions, and had them with some salmon afterwards. I followed with meat roll and biscuits and finished with dried peaches as a sweet. Of course, a meal like this only comes once a week, but we are very grateful for them and to the [italic] marvellous, stupendous, colossal [/italic] British Red Cross Society.”
[Picture]
Four cheerful faces at Campo P.G.59
Home Comforts
Campo P.G.53. 26.2.43.
“We have sheets and pillow cases and I can tell you it is marvellous to be between sheets again; it reminds me so much of home. . . . There are many kinds of lectures and classes one can attend, and just now we are running an Arts and Crafts exhibition for
[Picture]
Sports day at Stalag Luft 3.
which money prizes are to be given. As for sport, there’s practically every facility for it. There are also P.T. classes, for which they are getting complete equipment such as hobby horses, mattresses, parallel bars and such like. Then, of course, there is a canteen in which we can buy sweets, chocolate, fig bars, onions, oranges, and all kinds of miscellaneous articles such as notebooks, pens, ink, pencil sharpeners.”
[Picture]
Xmas dinner at Stalag VII A/2771.
[Page Break]
10 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE CAMPS
[inserted] [italic] In every case where the conditions call for remedy, the Protection Power makes representations to the German or Italian authorities. Where there is any doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted, it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/italic] [/inserted]
Germany
STALAG IXC
Reserve Lazaret Wasungen. – A lazaret for British patients suffering from infectious diseases. The buildings are of brick, two storeys high, and were once an old factory: a small hut has been added as an isolation room. The three buildings are described as old and in urgent need of repair. The beds have sheets (changed every four-six weeks though more often when necessary) a paillasse filled with wood shavings, and two blankets. There is said to be a scarcity of furniture. Lighting and ventilation are satisfactory. There is central heating, but the issue of coal is scarcely sufficient. The British staff stated that treatment was good, and there was quite a good stock of Red Cross parcels. Dental treatment is given at Reserve Lazaret Obermassfeld (Visited January.)
Reserve Lazaret Stadtroda. – Stadtroda is also in a factory building. Renovations and repairs have been promised, but so far have not been carried out, though one ceiling has been temporarily repaired. The Lazaret is
[Picture]
A scene at Stalag Luft I, an R.A.F. camp which was reopened for British prisoners in October,1942.
less crowded than it was, though it is feared that this is only a temporary state. Bathing and washing facilities have improved somewhat. Taps have been repaired and the water supply increased. Prisoners are now able to have at least one bath every week. Surgical cases are treated at this lazaret. The British doctors have complete freedom in their work. Dental treatment is given by a French dentist. Mail arrives regularly but slowly. Food is prepared by German women. (Visited January.)
Reserve Lazaret Hildburghausen. – Consists of two buildings about 400 yards from each other. The medical section – Karolinenburg – in one, and the surgical section – Frauenhaus – in the other. The buildings were formerly used as a private mental home. Beds and bed linen, light, ventilation and heating are said to be satisfactory. A common-room has been established at the Frauenhaus. Toilet facilities have been improved at Karolinenburg. Food is prepared by German civilian personnel and is normally satisfactory, but diets are only obtained with difficulty. The lazaret is visited monthly by a C. of E. chaplain. Mail has been somewhat irregular during the last few months. (Visited January.)
STALAG VB
Reserve Lazaret Rottenmunster. – This lazaret was once a rest home and is in the centre of a large park near the edge of a river. It is a large stone building of four storeys. The British prisoners of war are on the ground floor. Single beds have mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets. Electric light, central heating and ventilation are described as entirely satisfactory. There was no complaint as regards food, and a milk diet is available. Clothing is good and parcels arrive regularly. Dental attention is given at a large German lazaret near by.[Sic] (Visited January.)
STALAG LUFT I (BARTHE)
An R.A.F. camp. All British prisoners of war were evacuated from here in April, 1942, but in October, 1942, the camp again opened for British R.A.F. personnel, when 222 prisoners were transferred from Stalag Luft III. At the time of the visit there were four officers and 470 N.C.O.s and men. Three compounds compose the camp, though at present only one is occupied. It is the intention of the authorities to organise the camp into one large compound; consequently, all facilities can at present be considered as of a temporary nature. Heating and lighting are said to be satisfactory, but ventilation is bad at night when the shutters are closed. Each prisoner of war has three blankets. A German doctor, who speaks fluent English, is in charge of the infirmary. He is assisted by a British Army doctor and four orderlies. Dental treatment is given by a German military dentist, who visits the camp twice a week. Urgent cases are treated by a civilian dentist at Barthe. The clothing situation is described as satisfactory. Each prisoner of war does his own laundry. A C. of E. chaplain is in charge of religious activities.
The camp has a very large library and an extensive educational programme, though, unfortunately, the present study room is noisy and the common room rather small. There is a good sports field. (Visited February.)
STALAG IVA AND WORK CAMPS (HOHENSTEIN)
The work camps of Stalag IVA are administered from Hohenstein. Red Cross parcels arrive at a small station near by [Sic] (Prossen), from where they are distributed. All the work camps are brown coal mines and the men work above ground.
Some improvements have been made at Grube Ostfeld. 97 men live in two barracks. There is also a kitchen shed, a special hut for sanitary installations and a wash-barrack. Four ventilation chimneys have been built into each barrack, so that air conditions are now reported to be satisfactory. A day room has also been built on to each barrack. Dirty blankets are to be replaced gradually by the employers. No overalls have been issued for work; the camp tailor was to prepare some that have arrived but needs repairs. The chaplain from Reserve Lazaret Konigswartha visits all the work camps and holds services about once in three weeks. The mail question over the whole area is not satisfactory, being both slow and irregular.
Conditions are much the same at Grube Brigitta, where there are about 103 men. A new shower room is to be
[Page break]
May, 1943 The Prisoner of War 11
built for the use of the men on their return from work. A considerable amount of coal dust is raised from the coal briquettes. Sick prisoners from all these camps are sent to Krankenrevier Schwarzkollin (minor cases) and Reserve Lazaret Konigswartha (severe cases).
Revier Schwarzkollin is in the charge of a Polish doctor P.O.W. Two-tiered beds are used, with three blankets each. An iron stove heats the ward, which was formerly an operating theatre. Toilet and washing facilities are described as adequate, but ventilation is bad. It is lit by electricity.
Grube Heye III. – New stoves have been put into the barracks and the former sick room is now used as a drying room. Three blankets each are issued. A breakdown in the mine’s electricity has resulted in poor lighting in the camp. Hot water is available in the wash room, but there are no showers. Dental treatment is given by a civilian dentist, who is described as “rough and overworked.” There are no canteens in these camps, but necessary articles are bought in the town.
In this camp some prisoners of war have to work on Sundays, though often not for the whole eight-hour day. The works engineer was consulted in this matter.
Grube Erika. – A new recreation room is being built for the 199 men in this camp. The only complaint from here was the fact that the mine is some distance from the camp. In future, part of the journey will be done by train.
Work Camp Radebeul was visited for the first time. Prisoners of war here are only fit for light work. They live in a modern concrete building in the middle of a factory area. They have central heating, and the large dormitory is well lit and airy, furnished with two-tier beds Sanitary and washing installations are described as satisfactory. Food is brought in from the neighbouring inn and the prisoners are able to cook the food from their parcels in their own small kitchen. The decision whether a man may visit the doctor rests with the German N.C.O. The results are not always satisfactory, and it has been recommended that the medical service in this camp should be reorganised. Up to the time of the visit the chaplain had not visited this camp. The football field has been turned into a vegetable garden. Walks will be organised to take the place of football. Some Sunday work is asked of the prisoners of war. (Visited January.)
[Picture]
Handing out Red Cross parcels at Marlag und Milag Nord.
STALAG IXC (MOLSDORF) and WORK CAMPS
One British P.O.W. is at the main camp in charge of Red Cross supplies. There appears to be some difficulty over the distribution of parcels and clothing. At the time of the visit no parcels had been distributed among the work camps since Christmas, although a consignment was to go out on the following day. The Camp Leader does not appear to have sufficient control over the clothing. A new camp commander had been appointed only a week before the visit. There are about 2,800 prisoners of war in this area, and 34 work camps, dependent on Stalag IXC.
At Camp Molsdorf there are 350 prisoners of war. Lighting and heating are described as satisfactory and each prisoner of war has two blankets. Latrines are now emptied regularly every week. A British medical officer is in charge of the infirmary, and dental treatment is given by a civilian dentist. The clothing situation is not very satisfactory; clothing is to be provided temporarily by the detaining power. Beer is available at the canteen every week. The C. of E. chaplain at this camp is to be allowed to visit the work camps. Mail is reported to be slow and irregular over the whole Stalag, though it is believed that this may be partly due to heavy German Christmas and New Year mails. The general atmosphere at this camp is said to have improved.
Work Camps 26 and 35B – The prisoners of war in these camps work in seed factories. Their work is light (nine hours a day) and Sundays are free. They are well housed and treated. Food is served from civilian canteens, but 35B is to have its own kitchen. Football is played on a field in the town. Each camp has a Medical Orderly in charge of any sick prisoners of war. They are allowed to visit a military doctor and a civilian dentist.
Work Camps 42B, 92 and 16 are smaller camps averaging twenty prisoners in each. They work on car repairs, loading metal and preparing timber for a sawmill. Accommodation at 42B is not altogether satisfactory. The prisoners of war live over the workshops and the smell of paint and acetone is not healthy. It is hoped that the men will be moved to other premises. At 92 there was a complaint of bed bugs, mice and sometimes rats. The bugs had returned after disinfection; other vermin were kept down by the use of traps. It was reported that a new wooden barrack is to be erected for the prisoners of war. There were no complaints from Camp 16. In all these camps football is played at week-ends. Clothing conditions are fairly satisfactory, and overalls are in future to be supplied by the employers.
Work Camps 106 and 137 are both salt factories. There were complaints that many of the prisoners had to work on three Sundays out of four without compensation. Articles for the canteens were very difficult to obtain. At 106 a second stove was to be installed for heating, and at 137 German women cook the food, but the prisoners of war have asked for their own kitchens.
It was reported that the work camps of Stalag IXC give a fairly good impression as a whole, the main difficulty being distribution of Red Cross food and clothing parcels from the main Stalag. – (Visited January.)
STALAG 383 (formerly OFLAG IIIC) (HOHENFELS, S.BAVARIA)
This is a large camp for non-working N.C.O.s. It is a former officers’ camp and is composed of large numbers of small wooden barracks as dormitories, and several larger ones for use as a theatre, recreation room and sports hall. There are good football and rugby fields and ample space for walks. The N.C.O.s have been gathered here from almost every camp in Germany. The first batch arrived in September, 1942. Many of the prisoners of war are hand-
[Page break]
12 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
cuffed. The handcuffs are made of iron circles linked together by chains about 50 cm long; the prisoners are able to use their hands quite freely to do almost anything.
Twelve to fourteen prisoners of war live in each hut and more seating accommodation is needed. The camp is lit by electricity, but larger bulbs are necessary to make the lighting adequate. Washing and toilet facilities are satisfactory.
A second kitchen will be available for the use of the prisoners of war soon and there were no complaints about food. The Camp Hospital consists of three barracks, and is run by four British medical officers under a German doctor. Dental treatment is given is given by a British dental officer. Dental material and instruments are on order. The hospital is described as adequate and well equipped. Laundry facilities have not yet been settled as a new wash barrack is being built. The prisoners of war exchange things among themselves, and the canteen acts as the “intermediary.” There is a C. of E. clergyman in the camp who holds the rank of corporal. The men would also like to have a Roman Catholic priest. The recreation room is very well equipped. (Visited January.)
MARLAG UND MILAG NORD (WESTERTIMKE)
Marlag-Milag are two entirely separate camps, each having their own administration.
Milag. – Over 3,000 officers and men of the Merchant Navy are interned here. The camp is on sandy ground, surrounded by pine trees. The buildings are well constructed and are divided into several rooms. Two-tier bungs with straw-filled paillasses are used, and each man has two blankets. Officers have one sheet a month issued to them. Ventilation and lighting are adequate though the light cannot be switched on until 6 p.m. Two new kitchens have been added in which are separate dining rooms for officers and men. The internees cook their own food. There are also three small kitchens where special dishes can be prepared, but there is a shortage of cooking utensils. Each man has one good suit.
A new delousing station has been installed for the whole camp, and the prisoners of war at Milag are able to use the shower baths three times a week, which results in each internee having one hot shower per month. Latrines have been modernised. The Camp Infirmary is to be enlarged to the status of a Lazaret with a capacity of 110 beds, and a British medical officer has been brought to the camp to take charge of it. The dental surgery is described as fairly well equipped. Some spectacles have been provided, though many of the men are still on the waiting list.
There are Roman Catholic and C. of E. Chaplains in the camp. Recreational and educational facilities are well organised, though the light in the study room is said to be inadequate. Theoretically these internees do not work, but over 400 of them work on camp maintenance and a few work on farms outside the camp.
Marlag is the Naval camp. It is subdivided into two separate sections, the officers’ camp and the men’s camp. It has been constructed recently of large well-built wooden huts. Ventilation and lighting are adequate and there is no overcrowding. Cast-iron stoves are in every room, but the ration of coal was reported as not enough to give sufficient warmth. Each man has three blankets and one good uniform. There are repair shops for clothing and shoes.
There is plenty of cold water, and hot showers are available once a fortnight. The infirmary and dental surgery are said to be well equipped, and there was a good stock of drugs. A C. of E. chaplain and a Roman Catholic priest are in the camp. There are theatrical groups and orchestras, as well as a good library. Mail at all the camps is reported as very slow and irregular. Parcels arrive by rail at a nearby station and are distributed from there to the three camps. – (Visited November.)
Italy
MILITARY HOSPITAL AL CELIO, ROME
One floor of the hospital has been set aside for British prisoners of war. They are from Campos 68 and 54. There are three rooms. One of these rooms is at the disposal of convalescent patients. Mail service depends on the camps to which the prisoners of war belong. This sometimes causes some delay. Letter forms and parcels are sent in from the camps for the prisoners’ use. Rations are the same as those given to Italian patients and the men are able to prepare food from parcels. There had been no issue of tobacco up to the date of visit. The patients are given hospital clothing.
The Italian doctor and one nurse both speak English and two British patients have remained at the hospital after recovery to act as medical orderlies. Patients are normally returned to camp as soon as they are able to walk about. Eye specialists and dental surgeons are available. Italian Roman Catholic and Protestant priests visit the hospital. The patients are unable to go out of doors as there is very little space and a lack of guards. (Visited January.)
MILITARY HOSPITAL 201 BERGAMO
There are nearly 400 British patients in the hospital and the personnel has been increased by 41 medical orderlies. One hall has been cleared for use as a recreation room and a row of beds has been removed from the dormitories and replaced by tables.
Better furniture has been added to the medical officers’ rooms, which are now less crowded. The orderlies live in a barrack in a hospital yard. Accommodation is said to be very satisfactory and they are to have their own kitchen. All the sick wards are centrally heated. Delays in mail are caused by letters having to be sent on from the camps to which the prisoners of war belong. Tobacco ration has been issued regularly lately. Some clothing is issued by the camp authorities. Hot showers can be had every week. So far, no dental treatment is available.
A C. of E. Chaplain and a Roman Catholic Priest who speaks fluent English hold religious services. Exercise is taken on the terraces and in the courtyard. (Visited January.)
MILITARY HOSPITAL 203, BOLOGNA
Campo 203 was originally planned for a National Military Hospital and has a capacity of about 650 patients. At the time of the visit there were 456 patients (some of them from Caserta Hospital) and 68 medical personnel. Reports on this hospital are exceedingly good. The rooms are, if anything, overheated and all the windows can be opened at night. Mail service was described as slow – particularly the outgoing mail and the distribution of parcels. The tobacco ration has not been regularly received of late, but back issues are to be granted when the next consignment arrives. Clothing is provided by the camp authorities when prisoners of war are discharged from hospital, though some of the uniforms were Italian. There is an Italian dentist, but as yet no surgery. Cold showers are always available. A radio set is being installed. (Visited January.)
CASERTA HOSPITAL
Since this visit information has been received that many patients have been transferred to Military Hospitals 203 and 206, but at the time of the visit there were still nearly 1,300 British patients. The hospital is a large building of four wings, grouped round a large central courtyard. Three two-story houses have been added, each with a verandah [sic] overlooking the gardens. Five more bungalows are in the park. There were 15 British medical officers and several Italian doctors in charge. It is reported that relations between them are unfortunately not very cordial. Caserta is called a “Clearing Hospital,” and many patients remain only a few weeks, though some remain several months. There are no dental facilities at Caserta. Patients are given hospital clothing on arrival, and their own clothing is returned to them when they leave. (Visited November.)
HOSPITAL AT MORIGI DI PIACENZA
There were about 200 prisoners of war in hospital at the time of visit. Three British doctors assist the Italian personnel. The patients are mostly wounded
[Page Break]
May, 1943 The Prisoner Of War 13
prisoners of war. Accommodation, toilet facilities, food and cooking are described as being in first-class order. Hospital clothing is issued to the patients, but some misunderstanding seems to have arisen over the distribution of clothing for discharged patients. It will come in future from the Central Hospital, Piacenza, on which this hospital depends. A C. of E. chaplain looks after the patients here and at Alberoni Hospital. Mail is said to be very slow. There is a recreation room, but, unfortunately, very few games. (Visited January.)
HOSPITAL AT ALBERONI, PIACENZA
This was the first visit to this hospital, which is staffed by an entirely Italian staff. The Hospital is part of an old palace, in very good condition, with good accommodation and sanitary installations. Three Italian nuns help to care for the British patients, of whom there are 64. Food is well cooked, and special diets are available. All the patients are suffering from wounds, which sometimes take a long time to heal. The British chaplain from Morigi Hospital visits the patients regularly. Mail is reported to be very slow. (Visited January.)
TERRITORIAL HOSPITAL AT MODENA
Patients at this hospital come from Campo 73. Five rooms are at their disposal, well furnished, well heated, and well lit by electricity. One doctor and one nurse of the Italian personnel speak English. Mail is regular but slow. Red Cross parcels are distributed regularly. Up to the time of visit no cigarettes had been issued. Dental treatment is given at another camp and patients are conveyed by ambulance for treatment. There is an eye specialist attached to the hospital. Patients who are able to walk are allowed the use of the hospital garden. (Visited January.)
CAMPO P.G.5 SERRAVALLE, GAVI
When the camp was visited there was snow on the ground, though the weather was fine. The walls of the old fortress are reported to have kept quite dry. Twelve kilos of wood are issued per stove per day and the rooms are described as sufficiently warm.
Parcels are distributed regularly and there were no complaints about food. This is an officers’ camp: at the time of the visit there were 165 officers and 54 other ranks. The men have had their cigarette ration regularly. A consignment of clothing was expected shortly. There are three medical officers, a British dental surgeon, and an oculist. As the fortress is built on a hill there
[picture]
Insid: [sic] the cook-house at Reserve Lazaret Rottenmunster.
is some difficulty in finding room for the sports ground. Orders have been given that one shall be made. Walks are arranged occasionally and it has been recommended that they should be organised more frequently. (Visited January.)
CAMPO P.G.17 REZZANELLO
One hundred and fifty-one officers and 42 other ranks are confined in this old castle. Some of these officers are from Campo 66, Capua, and some from Campo 75, Bari. Central heating has been installed and is reported as working satisfactorily. Officers and other ranks have their own messrooms. [sic] Hot showers are available every two weeks. Food is described as sufficient with Red Cross parcels. The Camp Infirmary is in the care of one Italian and five British doctors.
Clothing conditions were bad, particularly underclothes. Laundry is done outside
The Canteen is described as fairly well stocked. The profits are used for the benefit of other ranks. A C. of E. chaplain holds services every Sunday and the Catholic prisoners of war go to Mass in the village. There is sufficient space for exercise and games in the courtyard, and weekly walks are organised. There is a good library. Mail is very slow, though there appeared to be a slight improvement of late. Parcels had apparently not been sent on for the officers from Campo P.G.66. (Visited January.)
CAMPO P.G.21, CHIETI
Over 1,200 British prisoners of war live in one-storey stone buildings which were once army barracks. The camp is considered to be overcrowded, although 400 officers have been transferred to another camp. There are now a few tables and benches in each room. Heating stoves had arrived but were not yet installed. No vermin had been reported for some months. No hot water has been available since August and water is only turned on for 1 1/2 hours a day. It is reported that the camp will have to be moved unless the water supply can be altered. Food was stated to be sufficient with Red Cross parcels. Serious cases of illness are sent to an Army hospital; others are tended by the Italian medical officer and four British doctors. There is a British dentist, but there are at present no instruments. Treatment is given by an Italian dentist. Information was received that a few days after this visit a large consignment of clothing arrived at this camp. Incoming mail is described as regular, but outgoing mail is very slow (Visited January.)
CAMPO P.G.66, CAPUA
Capua is a very large camp used as a quarantine and transit camp and the strength varies from day to day. At the time of the visit there were 127 officers and 5,800 other ranks. It is situated on flat ground in a mild climate.
A new officers’ section is almost complete. It will consist of stone bungalows with washrooms, showers, dining-room and common room. At present the officers are housed in wooden huts. Six out of eight sections for other ranks are complete. The men in the remaining two sections are still under canvas, but they should all be in huts by now. Sanitary installations are well constructed and there is an ample supply of water. Electricity is now satisfactory.
Each section has its own kitchen and the P.O.W.s prepare their own food.
Three Italian doctors and six prisoner of war doctors work in the camp infirmary. There is an excellent delousing plant. There are two C. of. E. chaplains, a Roman Catholic chaplain and an Italian priest in the camp.
Kitchen gardens extend between the barracks, and also outside the camp. Pigs and rabbits are kept in the camp. A football ground and tennis court are being made. Some clothing has been distributed by the detaining Power, but stocks are needed, as prisoners of war arriving at the camp must be fitted out. There is a good stock of Red Cross parcels. (Visited November.)
CAMP LIST
The following additions should be made. – ITALY: P.G.10, P.M.3300; P.G.148, P.M.3200; P.G.204, P.M.3450 (Hospital Camp). Location of above are unknown. Ospedale Militare, Teramo. Montalbano, Firenze (Civilian Internment Camp).
GREETINGS CARDS
We have been asked by the G.P.O to remind relatives that greetings cards cannot be sent to prisoners of war.
[Page Break]
14 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
HOW THE NEXT OF KIN ARE HELPING
In Wolverhampton they have a Prisoners of War Families Club organised by Mr. and Mrs. Dumbell. Here next of kin meet to exchange information, seek advice, and discuss their problems. Last month the Chairman of the Prisoners of War Department of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation visited the club and addressed the members. Before he left he was presented with a cheque for £100 as a gift to the Duke of Gloucester’s fund.
“Since January, 1942, my husband has collected £300 towwards [sic] prisoners’ parcels,” writes Mrs. Clift, of Rugby. “This is just from workmates and friends.”
Her prisoner son will be glad to hear of this splendid gift. Many P.O.W.s are writing home to next of kin asking that donations should be sent. Private John Dunbar, tells his mother: “If you have any money of mine, give the Red Cross a nice donation out of it.” Mrs. Williams, of Barry, Glamorgan, has had a request from her prisoner son to send £5: Mrs. Andrew, of Camberley, whose son is in an Italian Campo, sent 10s. on his behalf, and Mrs. Gardner, of Brixton Hill, bearing her son in mind, sends 5s., “the price of a seat at a musical show.”
The next of kin of P.O.W., W. Holland has sent £1 by his special request: P.O.W. Edward John Truscott. £2. 2s.
Organises Dances
Meanwhile, the energies of next of kin are unabated. “A year ago I made up my mind to see what I could do.” Writes Mrs Squires, of Emner Green., Reading, whose son is a prisoner in Germany. “I am too old to do other war work, but I try to make people happy by organising dances and whist drives.” She sent £55 15s.
Making and selling is earning its usual welcome sums. Mrs. Bernthal, of Abing-
[Picture]
Study at Stalag XXA. Your help can provide these men with educational material.
don, and her daughter raised £3 10s, by the sale of a cake and of toilet preparations; patchwork quilts, the work of Holy Trinity Mothers’ Meeting, Ipswich, brought in £5. Mrs. Stone, of Weymouth, sold a banana brought home by a soldier friend for £1 12s. 3d. Another banana made 10s. when sold by Selwy Morgan, of Cefn Coed Merthyr Tydfd.
Children Help
Children, too, are entering enthusiastically into the work of raising funds. Nine-year-old Joan Hughes, of Talybont, near Bangor, has contributed 11s., and hopes to send another 5s. soon. Norman Bennett, who is ten, also sent 11s., made by the sale of dishcloths, his own handiwork. Little Doreen Ayley sent 10s., which she earned by making and selling golliwogs. Betty Frosch, an eleven-year-old, of Stoke Newington, made 8s, from the sale of a tulip which she grew.
Mrs. Challinor, of Northfield, Birmingham, collected £7. 5s. for flowers for the funeral of a much-loved neighbour, but the widow, Mrs Hughes, who has a prisoner son “out East,” knew what her husband’s wishes would have been and sent the money to our Fund.
From far Rhodesia came the sum of £2 from Mrs. Rickards, who recently sent £40 raised by a dance.
“I pass round your magazine to my friends and collect 1d. for reading it,” writes Mrs. Shand, of Camberwell. “I hope to be able to send you quite a sum by the end of the year.”
Twenty guineas come from Mr. A Burrows, of Northampton, as the result of a whist drive organised at the suggestion of his son, a P.O.W. in Germany.
The model of a Spitfire, presented to Mrs. Garrett, of Hedge End, Southampton, with other prizes, resulted in a contribution of £30 10s. Mrs. Margaret Hayley, a member of the British Red Cross Society , Wilts. Sold a pair of silk stockings for 30s., and added 5s. collected in threepenny bits. A collection of “odd coppers” made by Miss Joan Lillywhite, Kirkstall, Leeds, among her workmates earned £2.
From Mrs. D. Pryor, of Enfield, comes a cheque for £2 11s, 6d.; the sum included 2s sent with the blessing of an old man of ninety-one. Mrs. Clarke, whose husband is a prisoner in Italy, has started collecting at her works.
Mrs. Edna Wells, whose husband S.Q.M.S Frank Wells, of the 12th Royal Lancers, is in an Italian prison camp, had a young baby to look after, but she could not rest until she had shown appreciation of the Red Cross is some tangible form. So she organised a private raffle among her friends in Roath, Cardiff, and raised £3.
Tribute to Journal
As a thank-offering for The Prisoner of War, Mrs. Bompas, of Broughton, near Stockbridge, sent us 10s., and Mr Clarkson, of Motherwell, who says that the Journal is “a mine of information,” sent 5s.
There is no limit to the ingenuity and generosity of our readers, and I need hardly say that the Red Cross is deeply appreciative of all these tokens of good will and practical recognition of the value of the work that is being done.
OFFICIAL REPORTS
(Continued from page 4)
the diplomatic exchange ships: some of the prisoners had already received these supplies when in Hong Kong.
There is a P.O.W. doctor in each camp, and Japanese doctors also visit regularly. Any serious cases are taken to military hospitals. More medicines are needed.
The Japanese authorities have supplied the prisoners of war with some clothing. More clothing is required as the original garments are wearing out.
The men work in the docks and in factories. The officers, who are scattered among the different camps, are consulted about the work. The hours are reasonable and no complaint is made of work conditions. The workers receive a little pay. Sundays are free.
The canteens are not well stocked, but some sweets and tobacco can be bought. Each man also receives a ration of between 150 and 200 cigarettes monthly.
There are only a few books in the camps; the International Red Cross Committee delegate hopes to supply both books and games. The Japanese have confiscated playing-cards in order to prevent gambling. (Visited March.)
FUKUOKA GROUP OF CAMPS
This group of seven camps is administered from Fukuoka, in Kyushu, the most southerly island of Japan. The names of the camps are Ube, Omine, Ohama, Motoyama, Higashimisone, Mukojima and Innoshima. They contain British prisoners of war from Hong Kong and Java, and some naval prisoners of war. Two of the camps are on Islands in the Inland Sea.
Although fewer details are available about this group of camps, it appears that in many respects they resemble the Osaka group. The Japanese have supplied clothing. The food is based on that given to Japanese troops, modified for European tastes, and includes bread and cereals. The prisoners, when not working, study languages, including Japanese, and read books. Work averages eight hours a day. The canteen supplies are limited. The prisoners get five or six cigarettes a day. No mail has yet been received or sent. The International Red Cross Committee delegate has still got a reserve of relief supplies and will send some to these camps. The morale is said to be good. (Visited March)
Further notes on these camps will appear in our next issue.
[Page Break]
May, 1943 The Prisoner of War 15
MATERIALS: 11 oz. any double knitting wool. Two No. 7 and two No. 9 knitting needles.
ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS: Length, from top of shoulder, 24in. Width all round at under-arm, 36in.
Tension: 5 ½ st. to the inch in width, measured over the plain, smooth fabric.
RECIPE – THE FRONT: Using the No.9 needles, cast on 94 st.
1st row: K. 2, *P.1, K.1, repeat from * to end of row. Repeat this row twenty-three times. Using the No. 7 needles, proceed as follows: –
1st row: Knit Plain.
2nd Row: K.1, purl to last stitch, K.1. Repeat these two rows until work measures 15 1/2in. from the commencement, ending with the 2nd row. Proceed as follows: –
1st row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) five times, knit plain to the last 12 st., (K.1, P.1) five times, K.2.
2nd row: (K, 1, P.1) six times, purl to last 12 st., (P.1, K.1) six times. Repeat 1st and 2nd rows twice.
7th Row: Cast off 6 st., K.2, (P.1, K,1) twice, K.29. (K.1, P.1) five times, increase once in next st., K. 30, (K.1, P.1) five times, K.2.
8th row: Cast off 6 st., (K.1, P.1) three times. P.29 (P.1, K.1) six times. P.30 (P.1, K.1) three times.
9th row: K.2. (P.1, K.1) twice. K.2 tog, K.27. (K.1, P.1) six times, K.28, K.2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
10th row: (K.1, P.1) three times, P.28, (P.1, K.1) six times, P.29, (P.1, K.1) three times.
11th row: K.2 (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2 tog, K.26, (K. 1, P.1) six times, K. 27, K. 2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
12th tow: (K.1, P.1) three times, P.27, (P.1, K.1) six times, P.28, (P.1, K.1) three times.
13th row: K. 2, (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2 tog., K.25.(K. 1, P.1) twice, K.2, turn. Work on these 38 st. as follows: –
1st row: (K. 1, P. 1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times.
2nd tow: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2 tog., K.22, K.2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, K. 2.
3rd row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times.
4th row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2 tog., knit plain to the last 6 st., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
Repeat the 3rd and 4th rows twice, then the 3rd row once.
10th row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 8 st., K. 2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
Keeping a border of 6 st. in rib at each end of the needle, continue in plain, smooth fabric, decreasing once at the neck edge in every following 8th row until 28 st. remain. Work
[Picture]
11 oz. of any double knitting wool will make this useful garment
Sleeveless Pullover
4 rows without shaping. Proceed as follows: –
1st row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 7 st., turn.
2nd and 4th rows: Knit plain to the last 6 st., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
3rd row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 14 st., turn.
5th row: (K.1, P.1) three times, turn.
6th row: (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
7th row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) thee times.
8th tow: Cast off 22 st., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
Work 2in. in rib on the remaining 6 st. Cast off. Join in the wool at the neck edge and work on the remaining 40 st. as follows: –
1st row: K. 2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, knit plain to the last 8 st., K.2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
2nd row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times.
3rd row: K.2 (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2 tog., K.22, K.2 tog., (K. 1, P.1) twice, K.2.
4th row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times.
5th row: K.2 (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 8 st., K.2 tog., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
Repeat the 4th and 5th rows twice, then the 4th row once.
11th row: K. 2, (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2. tog. Knit plain to the last 6 st., (K.1, P.1.) twice, K.2.
Keeping a border of 6 st. in rib at each end of the needle, continue in plain, smooth fabric, decreasing once at the neck edge in every following 8th row until 28 st. remain.
Work 3 rows without shaping.
Shape for the shoulder as follows: –
1st row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 7 st., turn.
2nd and 4th rows: Purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times.
3rd row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 14 st., turn.
5th row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, turn.
6th row: (P.1, K.1) three times.
7th row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 6 st., (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
8th row: Cast off 22 st, (P.1, K.1) three times. Work 2in. in rib on the remaining 6 st. Cast off.
THE BACK: Using the No. 9 needles, cast on 94 st.
Work exactly as given for the Front, until the cast-off st. at the under-arm are reached. Proceed as follows: –
1st row: cast off 6 st., K.2. (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 12 st., (K.1, P.1) five times, K.2.
2nd row: Cast off 6 st., (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times.
3rd row: K.2, (P.1, K.1) twice, K.2 tog, knit plain to the last 8 st., K. 2 tog. (K.1, P.1) twice, K.2.
4th row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times. Repeat the 3rd and 4th rows six times.
17th row: K.2. (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 6 st., (K.1, P.1) twice. K.2.
18th row: (K.1, P.1) three times, purl to the last 6 st., (P.1, K.1) three times. Repeat the 17th and 18th rows seventeen times.
Shape for the shoulders as follows: –
1st row: K.2. (P.1, K.1) twice, knit plain to the last 7 st., turn.
2nd row: Purl to last 7 st., turn.
3rd row: Knit plain to the last 14 st., turn.
4th row: Purl to the last 14 st., turn.
5th row: Knit plain to the last 22 st., turn.
(Continued overleaf)
[Page Break]
[London Post Mark 24 May 1943]
16 The Prisoner of War May, 1943
NEXT OF KIN PARCELS DESPATCH
The Next of Kin Packing Centre has always endeavoured to despatch parcels within two or three days of their receipt. But the number of next of kin parcels being sent has increased since January by a third, and under present conditions it is very difficult to obtain additional staff to handle the very detailed work connected with their examination and despatch from Finsbury Circus.
It is, therefore, regretted that there is a temporary delay of about three weeks in the despatch of parcels, which, however, may be sent as usual by the next of kin. The parcels are being despatched in strict rotation and every effort is being made to reduce the delay. It is hoped that arrangements will shortly be completed to clear the congestion.
Next of kin who have enclosed postcards in their parcels for our acknowledgement of receipt are advised not to expect them back as soon as they would have done under normal circumstances, and are asked not to make enquires until a reasonable time has been allowed for the delay.
The delay in despatch will not affect the date of the next parcel, [Indecipherable word] which labels will be sent as usual directly the current parcel has been despatched.
Very Important
THE new P.1 Instructions Leaflet, issued with the labels for N/K parcels, is now split into two sheets.
P.1B, containing lists of articles that may and may not be sent in parcels, will be issued with every label.
P.1A, which contains general instructions, will be issued only once – with the first label for a newly registered prisoner.
[italic] Be sure, therefore, to keep P.1A in a safe place for future reference. [/italic]
Any alterations to the leaflets will be published from time to time on this page.
Sleeveless Pullover
(continued from previous page)
6th row: Purl to the last 22 st., turn. 7th row: Knit plain to last 6 st., (K. 1, P.1) twice, K.2. Cast off.
TO MAKE UP THE PULL-OVER: With a damp cloth and hot iron press carefully. Sew up the side and shoulder seams. Sew together the first two ridges of the neck opening. Join together the bands from the fronts and sew to back of neck.
[inserted] NUMBER, PLEASE!
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us [/inserted]
Any Questions?
Dyeing Difficulty
How can I get a permit for dyeing flannel trousers khaki to send in a P.O.W. parcel?
We do not think that you would be able to obtain such a permit.
News of his Brother
May I tell my son, a P.O.W. in Germany, the whereabouts of his brother, serving in the R.A.F.?
No information about the address of a unit of H.M. Forces, whether at home or abroad, may be sent to a prisoner of war; and no mention must be made of the movements of any members of the Forces.
Blue for the Army?
I have some navy blue wool to make a pullover for my son, a P.O.W. in Germany. May soldiers wear navy blue or must their pullovers be khaki?
It would be much safer to send your son a khaki pullover, as one could not be certain that he would be allowed to have a dark blue one. The regulations sometimes vary from camp to camp.
Marlag und Milag
Is Marlag und Milag a convalescent camp?
Marlag und Milag is not a convalescent camp, but is the camp in which the majority of Naval and Merchant Marine prisoners of war are interned, in the “Marlag” and “Milag” respectively. Each section has its own infirmary.
Comfortable Slippers
Can I send my husband, a P.O.W. in Italy, ordinary leather slippers?
Yes.
Metal Clips
May braces and suspenders be sent in a P.O.W. parcel if they contain metal clips?
Yes.
His Garden
How can I send seeds to my brother for his P.O.W. garden?
Seeds may no longer be sent to individual prisoners of war, but supplies are sent to each camp by the Royal Horticultural Society for general use.
Photo by Air Mail
Can I send my husband a photograph by air mail?
An unmounted photograph of a personal nature may be enclosed in an ordinary letter sent by air mail; but enclosures may not be sent in the special prisoner of war air-mail letter-cards.
Location Wanted
Can you tell me the location of Campo P.G.154?
This camp was in North Africa, but its exact location was unknown to us.
Canvas for Embroidery
Can I send a stencilled canvas in my next of kin parcel to my son, who is a prisoner in Germany?
No. Please refer to the leaflet sent each quarter with your label. You will see that only plain linen or canvas may be sent for embroidery.
From Friends and Relatives
May parcels other than next of kin parcels be sent to prisoners?
Tobacco, cigarettes, books and games may be sent direct to prisoners of war through shops which hold permits for this purpose.
Stalag IXC
Where is Stalag IXC situated? What is the meaning of Commando No. X39?
Stalag IXC is located at Bad Sulza. “Commando No.X39” is a working detachment number.
Everything New?
Can you tell me if I must send new articles only to my husband who is a prisoner in Italy? I have been told that this is so. Also, what is the location of P.G.98?
No. Clothes sent in quarterly parcels need not be new. The location of Campo P.G.98 is Ragusa, Sicily. According to our most recent information there are no longer any British prisoners in this camp.
No Food Parcels
Can I send my son who is a prisoner in an Italian camp food parcels through friends in South Africa?
No. Private food parcels may not sent to prisoners of war.
[inserted] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoners of War Dept as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/inserted]
Printed in Great Britain for the publisher THE RED CROSS AND ST. JON WAR ORGANISATION 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London S.W.1. by THE CORNWALL PRESS, LTD. Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 2, No. 13, May 1943
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-05
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: editorial matters; all in a day's work; life in a Japanese prison camp; fun and games; letters they write home; official reports from the camps; group photographs from the camps; how next of kin are helping (including knitting pattern for sleeveless pullover) and any questions? Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Sixteen page printed document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-17
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
British Army
Royal Navy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Poland
Germany--Barth
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Łambinowice
Germany--Hohenfels (Bavaria)
Germany--Hildburghausen
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Bradley Froggatt
arts and crafts
entertainment
prisoner of war
sanitation
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22508/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-005.2.pdf
5ed5184d548c691254d5bd0fa7c7778b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Kriegie August 1988
Description
An account of the resource
The News Sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. Inside are articles about reunions and attendances, the annual dinner at Henlow, Massed Bands Spectacular, request for information about the POW camp newspaper - Daily Recco, the 1997 Remembrance Day Parade, Branch activities, Far-Eastern Campaigns Memorial, Obituaries, Friends and Sisters, the Barth Memorial, the Shuttleworth Collection, Reunions in Halifax and Ottawa, the Annual dinner, Books about POW life, a visit to RAF Elvington's new Canadian Memorial Hangar and a visit to the Caterpillar Club at Irvin Aeropspace.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1998-08
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-005
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
South African Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Birmingham
England--Stafford
England--Croydon
Canada
Ontario--Thunder Bay
Germany--Barth
Ontario--Ottawa
Nova Scotia--Halifax
Italy--Sicily
Gibraltar
Malta
England--Letchworth
Italy
Ontario
Germany
Nova Scotia
England--Herefordshire
England--Staffordshire
England--Warwickshire
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
107 Squadron
158 Squadron
38 Squadron
50 Squadron
619 Squadron
70 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
B-17
bale out
Battle
Blenheim
Boston
C-47
Catalina
Caterpillar Club
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Dulag Luft
entertainment
Goldfish Club
ground personnel
Halifax
Hampden
Harvard
Horsa
Hurricane
Ju 88
Me 109
Me 110
memorial
mess
Mosquito
Operational Training Unit
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Elvington
RAF Hendon
RAF Leeming
RAF Lissett
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Shipdham
RAF Ternhill
Red Cross
shot down
Spitfire
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stirling
the long march
training
Typhoon
Wellington
Whitley
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22545/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-013.1.pdf
02ecffc5d25beadfdc92ed9105027c18
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION
NEWS SHEET
[Drawing]
President
MRS J. O . ASSELIN, M.B.E.
Vice-President
E. A. MACNUTT, C.B.E.
Hon. Secretary
MRS. E. I. BAROTT
Hon Treasurer
MAJOR F. S. MOLSON
Honorary President
MRS. VINCENT MASSEY
Honorary Vice-Presidents
Wing Officer W. WALKER, M.B.E.
HON CHARLES G. POWER
R. A. LAIDLAW
Editor – HAZEL WANKLYN
News Sheets No. 42 150A Sun Life Building, Montreal, P. Q. May 1945
VICTORY IN EUROPE
In September 1939, Europe was plunged into a war of unprecedented destruction and brutality. A war fought not between armed forces alone but bringing devastation and death to civilians and unprotected cities.
To combat an enemy such as Germany, prepared for war in every phase both material and mental, the Allied Nations were forced to reconstruct in the shortest possible time their production programmes, their economic system and the entire point of view of their peace-loving populations. During this period of change-over, many European countries were over-run and dominated by the enemy. Then, the Allied war machine started moving relentlessly, resolutely and undefeatable it assaulted the fortressed European shores; France, Belgium, the Netherlands were freed and our victorious armies moved forward into Germany. Today their task is done, in the midst of ruined cities that once were proud European capitals, Germany lies, defeated – utterly and irrevocably.
What does Victory in Europe mean to the world? It means the end of the first phase of World War II, the liberation of hundreds of thousand [sic] of Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees; it means the end of fear and anxiety for the families of these prisoners; it also means the tragic realization that thousands of Canada’s finest young men will never come home. It means a moment of jubilant rejoicing before the full Allied recourses are brought into force in the Pacific area to crush the Japanese with the same unconditional thoroughness. Mr. Churchill has told us that “this is only time for a momentary pause” which is an apt reminder of the task still ahead of us, for no Victory can be complete until our men in the Far East are restored to their homes and World Peace is no longer a dream but a reality.
[Page break]
2 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
EDITORIAL NOTES
All Correspondence to the Association should be addressed to the Secretary, Mrs E. I. Barott, C.P.O.W.R.A., 150-A Sun Life Building, Montreal. Relatives are invited to submit their problems and difficulties which will receive prompt and sympathetic attention.
[Underlined] IN MEMORIAM [/underlined]
With the death of President Roosevelt which came as a tragic shock to the world, the United States has lost a great leader, the Allied Nations a great champion of the cause for which they are fighting, and Canada a well-loved friend.
To the family of the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt and to the American people, we offer our deep and sincere sympathy.
R.C.A.F. TO WELCOME LIBERATED P.O.W. AIRMEN IN ENGLAND
According to a Reuters despatch, when the 2,500 Canadian airmen who have been prisoners of war in Germany are released, they will find a warm welcome waiting for them in England, organized by the R.C.A.F., a forerunner of the one they will receive in Canada.
They will be provided with a double ration of food while convalescing in Great Britain as well as new clothing.
Entertainment will not be lacking at the south coastal town of Bournemouth, the headquarters of the “Welcome Project”.
Liberated prisoners will recover their personal belongings at a reception and distribution centre, and finally they will be given two weeks furlough with free rail transportation to anywhere in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
CANADIAN PRISONERS FREED
All Canada rejoices at the news of the liberation of Canadian prisoners of war in Germany. The number of freed prisoners increases daily until now almost all camps have been heard from either through individual prisoners escaping or the entire camp being liberated.
The total number of Canadian prisoners freed by May 1st was over a thousand but this number is growing so rapidly that it is reasonable to hope that before long all allied prisoners of war in Germany will be free men.
The Department of National Defence has announced that all available information is wired to next of kin within a matter of hours after it is received at Defence Headquarters but that since all information is carefully checked before being relayed to relatives there is in some cases an unavoidable delay and the prisoner himself is able to communicate with his family before the Government has sent an official notification.
There are still many Canadian prisoners who have not been heard from and to their families we would point out that as the number of freed prisoners increases the transmission of news becomes slower.
PRISONERS OF WAR AT DUNKIRK RECEIVE SUPPLIES
On the 26th of March, during the fighting around Dunkirk, a truce was arranged, with a delegate of the International Red Cross as intermediary, so that supplies of food, medicine and clothing could be sent to 105 civilian allied prisoners of war in that city.
Canadians numbering 48 were amongst the prisoners; parcels were distributed to all allied prisoners without discrimination and sufficient supplied were sent in to last until the end of May.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 3
ASSEMBLY CENTERS [inserted] I was there [underlined] Eugene [/underlined] [/inserted]
Many prisoners evacuated from camps in eastern Germany have already reached Stalag VII A. This camp and Stalag [underlined] XIII D, near Nurnburg, [/underlined] appear to be two of the main points of assembly for prisoners of war evacuated along the central route. The prisoners moved along the central route were from camps in the Leipzig-Berlin-Dresden areas. Stalag VII A is accordingly being used as an assembly center for Red Cross supplies going in by train and truck convoys from Switzerland, whence it is planned to transport them by truck to camps and hospitals throughout central Germany. Each American truck carries approximately 6 tons of food packages, medical supplies, soap, and shoe repairing materials.
All shipments of prisoners of war relief supplies into Germany in the past (except those warehoused in Lubeck) have been specifically earmarked for particular camps, as well as for prisoners by nationality. Under the conditions now prevailing, however, this method of operation is no longer possible. In camps and on the roads, Allied prisoners are now all mixed up, and the impelling need is to get food and medical supplies to them as promptly and in as large amounts as possible, without regard to nationality. All Allied governments and Red Cross societies, as well as the Swiss and Swedish authorities, are cooperating wholeheartedly in meeting the emergency.
GERMAN RECORDS SEIZED
On April 19th it was announced through the Associated Press that the American Third Army had captured the complete records of all Allied prisoners taken by the Germans since the outbreak of the War.
The records contain the latest whereabouts of Allied war prisoners, their dates of capture and other data. Prisoners who have died in camp are listed as are those wounded when taken.
At the time of going to press, the list was still in Europe and had not yet been made public.
STALAG LUFT I
“THE EASIEST CAMP IN GERMANY”
According to a prisoner of war recently repatriated from Stalag Luft I, this was the easiest camp in Germany. Thanks to the Red Cross, all the prisoners at Luft I were adequately clothed, having winter underclothes, shirts, uniform and an overcoat. The food situation was also good, again thanks to the Red Cross.
Living quarters were cramped but even so conditions were better than in most camps. Clean sheets and pillow cases were issued about every three or four weeks.
The Library, containing both fictional and technical books, was constantly being augmented from personal book parcels which, owing to the ease of censorship, got through fairly regularly.
The biggest grouse in the camp was over the length of time mail took to get through. The average being 8 to 12 weeks, with 12 to 16 weeks not uncommon. Personal parcels and cigarettes also took a long time, but quite a large proportion did finally arrive.
PROPOGANDA BROADCASTS
The closing of camps in eastern Germany and Poland since the middle of January has revealed that broadcasts from Berlin of messages from American prisoners of war are, in many cases at least, collected several weeks before broadcasting. Many messages from American prisoners of war in Oflag 64 were broadcast from Berlin late in February, although the man from that camp were moved on January 21. None of these messages gave any indication that the camp might soon be closed.
Any next of kin receiving a broadcast message, therefore, should assume that us was written by the prisoner at least a month or six weeks before being put on the air. It is also well to keep in mind that these messages are broadcast for propaganda purposes.
[Page break]
4 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
[Photograph of a Memorial to airmen]
MEMORIAL AT STALAG LUFT III
By
F/Lt. John R. Mason
Since my return to Canada from Stalag Luft III last February, I have learned of the many articles written about the “big break” in that camp little more than a year ago. Those who wrote the articles seem to have had first hand information, they may have been participants, probably bystanders. What information I could glean came from those who had planned and worked; even then I could get it only with much reticence on their part.
Having been part of this gallant gesture, these same boys were not content to forget their comrades but carried their names to posterity in a very edifying memorial. In the accompanying photograph you will realize the amount of work and skill that entered into this cairn. The tablets standing on top of the cairn bear the names of each of those heroes of Sagan. I was unfortunate enough not to know the story from the beginning, but fortunate enough to see the cairn built, the stones carved and to learn of the finish of the monument followed later by a very impressive memorial service.
Every man in camp wanted to be present but only a few were privileged to attend the service. Seven officers from Belaria, seven from the East compound, and sixteen from the North compound, including the Senior British officers, the Senior Canadian officer, two Padres and a bugler were there. The cemetery is about 1 1/2 miles from the camp and the parade marched there after assembling from the various compounds. The procession moved into the cemetery, around the circular path and paused before the memorial, where after a service by both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Padres, and the playing of the last post, the three Group Captains placed wreaths. A rather nice gesture was that by a member of the Swiss Legation who also placed a very large wreath on the Cairn.
Up to this time the entire camp had been in mourning and each man carried a black silk diamond on his sleeve. After the ceremony these were removed. This was December 4th, 1944.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 5
NEWS FROM ENGLAND
We are indebted to the Scottish Branch B.R.C.S. and the B.P.O.W.R.A. for the following information.
P.O.W.’s WELCOME R.A.F. RAIDS “SWEET MUSIC”
A picture of how our prisoners of war react to Allied bombing of Germany is given by a repatriated New Zealand pilot, Flight-Leut. Wally Mulligan, in an interview in the New Zealand Free Lance.
“The boys get a terrific kick out of it,” was this young airman’s description of hearing our bombers roaring past Stalag Luft III, where he was imprisoned. “Actually the first daylight bombers we saw were Americans. And how the chaps cheered as they swept by to attack a nearby Focke-Wulf factory! They did a beautiful job on it too.”
“Stalag Luft III is in an area approximately a hundred miles from the German capital”, continues the Free Lance interview, “and Wally Mulligan told me that in the big night-bombing raids by planes of the R.A.F. Bomber Command the prison huts would shake and tremble, and mirrors dance, from the vibrations set up as Berlin crumbled under the terrific hammering it received. “And you can guess how the boys just loved that.” grinned Mulligan. “It certainly was sweet music to our ears.”
Speaking of the road to Berlin, which he saw on his way home, he described scenes of desolation. “There’s not much of the city left to reach. For miles and miles we saw nothing but complete devastation, just piled heaps of rubble, and we didn’t go through the worst parts. You could practically call it a ghost city.”
MORE PENICILLIN FOR P.O.W.’s
Further supplies of penicillin and blood transfusion apparatus are now being sent by the Red Cross and St. John to prisoner of war camps in Germany (states Prisoner of War News). The Penicillin packs and blood transfusion sets, including plasma, are supplied by the Medical Department of the War Office, and are forwarded by the Invalid Comforts Section of the Red Cross and St. John Prisoners of War Department. As far as practicable, the supplies are sent to those hospitals which are believed to contain newly-captured men, who would be likely to receive the greatest benefit from this form of surgical treatment.
SUPPLIES SENT TO RUSSIA FOR LIBERATED P.O.W.
It was announced in the House of Commons in London that, some time ago, preparing for the eventuality of British prisoners of war being liberated by the Soviet armies, the British Red Cross War Organization sent supplies to Russia. Upon their arrival in Russia from German camps, British liberated men were consequently provided with clothing, medical supplies, cigarettes etc., from home. Similar supplies were also sent to Odessa, where a party of Red Cross Welfare Workers went to meet the freed prisoners.
“WELCOME HOME” FUND TARGET DOUBLED
To have raised £1,300 in one day is the achievement of Richmond (Surrey) P.O.W.R.A., which held a bazaar recently as part of a three months’ drive to raise funds out of which each returning prisoner of war could be given a money gift with which to celebrate his release.
The target was £1,000, but this was more than doubled by the end of the period, £2,240 being raised by a variety of schemes organised by members.
[Page break]
6 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
AMERICAN RED CROSS NEWS
We are indebted to the American Red Cross Prisoners of War Bulletin for the following information.
LATEST INFORMATION ON CAMP MOVEMENTS
(By cable from Geneva)
Red Cross trucks operating out of Lubeck in the north and Moosburg in the south succeeded, during March, in getting substantial quantities of food packages to the prisoners of war evacuated from camps in the east who were still hiking across Germany. These marching columns were scattered over very wide area, in the middle of March for example, an advance group from Stalag 344 was 30 miles east of Carlsbad while the rear of the column was in the vicinity of Bohmisch Leipa – the distance between these two points being nearly 60 miles. Likewise, the Stalag VIII B column was spread from Schlan, near Melnik, to the Koniggratz region – a distance om [sic] about 75 miles. British prisoners constituted a large part of the southern columns, but they also contained Americans.
Similar situations existed in northern Germany, where about 100,000 American and Allied prisoners evacuated from camps in the second military district (particularly, in the case of Americans from Stalags II B and II D and Stalag Luft IV) were walking across Germany to camps in the tenth military district. It was reported at the end of February that these men “were grouped in the vicinity of the Stettiner Haff, whence they will be conducted to Aflag X D (at Fischbeck), Oflag X C (at Lubuck), and Stalag X B (at Bremervorde).”
The Red Cross trucks delivering supplies to the marching columns had to search for men not only on main highways but on secondary roads. The trucks operated under German escort, and, considering the chaotic transportation conditions which must now exist inside Germany, the authorities there have manifested a cooperative spirit in getting food, medicines, and other relief supplies to the men. It is an entirely new development in warfare to have Red Cross trucks, supplied and serviced by one belligerent, operating far and wide in the territory of an enemy belligerent.
Airmen from the Dulag Luft transit camp area are now being assigned to “the new Stalag Luft at Nurnburg-Langwasser,” according to a cable received in the middle of March. This new Luft Stalag has not yet been designated by number.
Stalag Luft III at Sagan was evacuated on January 27. The men were given Red Cross food packages and were furnished some additional food by the Germans en route. The men were marched for three days, on secondary roads, to Spremberg – a distance of about 40 miles. They slept in barns along the roads. At Spremberg, the prisoners from the south and center compounds were divided into groups of 2,000 and sent by train on February 1 to Mossburg (Stalag VII A), except for a few who were sent to Stalag IIIA at Luckenwalde. Americans from the west compound were dispatched by train from Spremberg to Nunrnburg, [sic] and thence to Stalag XIII D, about eight miles from the city, which is probably “the new Stalag Luft” previously referred to. All letter mail from the airmen, however, should continue to be addressed to Stalag Luft III until new directions are given.
A cable from Geneva on March 10 stated, “Oflag 64 proceeding by rail towards Hammelburg.” An earlier message had reported that about 500 (ground force) officers from Oflag 64, “travelling by rail, were near Parchim (southeast of Wismar on a line between Wismar and Berlin), awaiting transport for Hammelburg.” Oflag XIII B and Stalag XIII C are the only prisoner of war camps known to be in the vicinity of Hammelburg. Several hundred American officers formerly at Oflag 64 were liberated by the advancing Russian armies and ave [sic] returned to the United States.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONER OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 7
FAR EAST NEWS
CAMP STANLEY
According to an address given by Mr. D.G.E. Middleburg, Netherlands Consul-General, who was present at the fall of Hong Kong, the policy of interment of civilians as practiced by the Japanese in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya and the Netherlands Indies is something quite new. They have interned all white nationals of countries that have declared war on Japan. Chinese, Indians, Javanese, even Eurasians though nationals of belligerent countries were left alone. This must of course be seen as a logical consequence of the anti-foreigners, that is anti-white movement of Japan in their so-called “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. “Asia for the Asiatics” is the slogan that takes for them the place of our “Fight for Democracy”.
Neutrals such as Swiss, Danes and Russians, however, have not been interned. The food situation for the noninterned residents soon became so bad, that many neutral nationals and Eurasians applied for admission to the Civilian Internment Camp, which applications, I believe, were all refused.
The Allied Europeans were rounded up and billeted in Chinese boarding houses, awaiting removal to the proper internment camp at Stanley. Stanley is a peninsula, a sort of appendix of Hong Kong Island. On it are situated Fort Stanley with the long range coastal artillery, an English protestant boarding school, an excellent modern prison and warders quarters. The military barracks and the prison building were not used, but the 3,000 internees were divided over the schools and warders quarters.
The location of the camp is not bad. It has plenty of sun, air and room between the buildings. The buildings themselves, however, are terribly overcrowded. People are practically packed together with hardly enough room to stretch out at night. Furniture is practically non-existant. [sic]
Fortunately there is water, electricity and a good sewage system. The buildings are new and well built but built for maybe one fifth of the number of their present occupants.
The food situation is definitely bad. As you know, an active adult person required 3,000 calories a day. The food supplied to the civilian internees has according to the Japanese a calorific value of 2,000. European doctors amongst the internees, however, maintain that not more than 1,500 calories are supplied. The food is moreover often of bad quality and it lacks variety and vitamins. It is very hard to convince the Japanese on this point, as they feed very badly themselves.
HONG KONG CIVILIAN CAMPS
On December 22nd the Civilian Internment Camps at Hong Kong were visited by Mr. Zindel, International Red Cross Delegate. Mr. Zindel reports that the general conditions at Shamshuipo Camp were much the same as his preceeding visit on August 10th, 1944. Of the many hundred men interned in this camp, 300 were hospitalized in the eight barracks which serve as a hospital. An adequate medical staff was in attendance, including 8 British doctors. Internees had previously been breeding pigs and poultry, but this has had to be curtailed due to the lack of food with which to feed the animals.
Camp “N” where prisoners from Argyle Street Camp were transferred to in May 1944, has been improved by the building of additional barracks, the vegetable garden was enlarged but here also the breeding of poultry was curtailed.
The Military Hospital at Bowen Road contained 150 patients at the time of the Delegate’s visit: the medical staff consisted of about 60 doctors and nurses. Patients were not serious cases, most of them suffering from weakness. In general the Delegate reports that the state of health in these three camps is improved although the lack of vitamins and of food containing proteins and fats is still felt.
[Page break]
8 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
INTERNMENT CAMP LIEBENAU
by
SONIA ROSKES
The following article was written for the News Sheet by a young Polish woman who recently arrived in Canada and who, with her father, mother and sister, is starting a new life in a new country. During her two years of internment at Camp Liebenau, Miss Roskes learnt to speak English from the British women who were her comrades in captivity.
I was only half awake when after four day’s journey our group, consisting of 30 women and children, arrived at the little station of Meckenbeuren about 11 miles from the Lake of Constance and only 2 miles from our final destination. It was a cold but sunny morning of New Year’s Day 1943. In my complete exhaustion following the three dreary weeks I had spent in the worst German jail of Gracow, and in a peculiar state of mental apathy which usually accompanies the feeling of being cold and hungry. I had no eyes for the beauty of my new surroundings – the snow-covered pinewoods and meadows at our feet, the majestic Swiss Alps in the background.
Suddenly my consciousness was roused by a man’s rough voice – it appeared to belong to one of our escorting guards – explaining to some of my companions that in our new place we would feel more at home as it was an internment camp for British and American Women. “Your own people will take care of you.” He concluded with a sarcastic smile, “and I hope you will like the change.”
“Your own people…” These words stirred something in our hearts some secret wish which had lain there concealed and supressed throughout the misery of the past three years. Was it possible that the camp we were going to was not just another of the concentration camps where innocent people were being killed daily by the thousands, but a place offering a chance of survival? Was it really true that in a couple of hours we would meet American and British women?
After a short while we were loaded on to a large horse-cart, including our meagre hand-luggage (all we were allowed to have according to the German order on the day of our internment) and driven in the direction of Liebenau. It was noon and the snow was dazzling white under the bright sun, when we arrived in the village in the middle of which was a block of two-storied buildings and a double-towered church which was separated from three neighbouring cottages by a high stone fence. An iron gate was flung open by an elderly German policeman, and our wagon rolled past a small guards-house to come to a standstill in front of one of the three buildings.
In a second we found ourselves surrounded by a large group of women of all ages, whose eyes smiled at us in a warm welcome and whose numberless questions, asked in about ten different languages, we in vain tried to answer. All we gathered from the chaotic conversation was that we had nothing to be afraid of any more, that as subjects of enemy countries we fell under Geneva Conventions which secured protection for prisoners of war and civilian internees on German territory, and that, though life was pretty tough and miserable in camp at times (which we would find out for ourselves very soon), the worst part of our internment was over. The appearance of the women who were gathered around our cart confirmed their reassuring words: there was nothing about them to remind us of the haunted looks of all those many thousands of underfed and persecuted beings we had known so well in Poland; their clothes, consisting in most cases of slacks and thick woollen pullovers, were in fairly good condition and except for a trace of bitterness in their voices when ever they spoke about “being locked up in a cage” they did not sound too depressed.
It was only in the evening when, after my first bath and supper I lay down in the first clean bed I had known for many a month, that I became aware of the change in my life. “However hard it may be to live for months and perhaps years under a lock,” I said to myself, “however gloomy and monotonous it may become to be herded with different people under the same roof, I shall
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 9
try to make the best of it: the main thing is that my mother, sister and myself are alive and that we shall not know the fear of a German bullet, the fear which became a part of our inner selves in Poland, any more.”
It took me about a month to become acquainted with the daily routine of camp life, to learn something about my fellow internees and to come into closer contact with some girls of my own age. I another few weeks’ time it seemed to me that I had been there for many years – so familiar appeared every face, every voice, every room.
Liebenau became an internment camp for women, holders of British and American passports who happened to live in various European countries before the outbreak of the war. Originally an asylum for mentally deficient German children and grown-ups, with an adjacent convent of German nuns in charge of the sick, it contained at the time of my internment over 600 interned women and children – a number of which by far exceeded the usual capacity of the place. The mentally deficient Germans (or “lunies” in the slang of the internees) still occupied a few wings of the camp buildings. Employed by the German nuns at field and garden work, they were a common sight within the camp boundaries; their disfigured bodies and faces did not make the prison atmosphere any brighter.
In the three years previous to my arrival, the camp had been gradually developed into a fairly well organised community. In order to keep the necessary discipline and to carry on all the official negotiations, a camp captain had been elected. That 60 year old Englishwoman, who enjoyed the greatest respect and confidence of all the internees, performed her duties with iron energy and never-failing efficiency. Mrs Violet Froom, camp captain, was always ready to solve difficult problems, to give advice and to step in whenever intervention was necessary. Assisted by six floor captains, each chosen by the members of her floor, she ran the administration, registered newcomers, reported them to the Swiss Legation – the Protective Power over all the Allied prison camps in Germany – and arranged the distribution of Red Cross food and clothing parcels. It was due to her great character, broad-minded attitude towards all the problems of the world and to her sincerely democratic ideas that a couple of hundred women, all coming from different countries, speaking different languages and having different habits of their own, could lead a relatively peaceful community life under extraordinary circumstances.
The floor-captains’ main duty was to keep order on their floors. As internees were supposed to perform all the domestic task within the camp, they compiled special working lists, all the instructions of which had to be followed strictly. The harder jobs, such as cleaning corridors, carrying food from the German kitchen, and being air raid wardens in case of raids, were done by young and strong girls; others had to keep diningrooms and bathroom tidy, to wash up dishes and attend to the boilers – our only source of tea water. Some of the most reliable and the professionally trained internees were given more responsible work; they became the organizers of schools and educational courses, shows and other small entertainments, discussion circles, and groups of literature lovers.
The head of the camp’s Educational Committee was another English-woman, Mrs Vidakovic, formerly a professor of English at the University of Belgrade, Yougoslavia. [sic] With the help of a large group of voluntary teachers and librarians, untired in her efforts to give every internee the possibility of studies and warmly interested in each individual case, she was the soul of the spiritual life within the camp – the inspiration of various courses in English and other languages, the supervisor of the library and the adviser in all matters concerning general education.
The more official part of the administration was carried out by the Germans. The six German guards gave us our mail, next-of-kin parcels and German newspapers (the only source of our political information): every evening they made roll-calls in all the rooms occupied by the internees who were not allowed out of doors after 6 p.m. They escorted the daily afternoon walks in the surroundings. An old German paymaster who had his office in one of the camp buildings dealt with
[Page break]
10 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
money questions, received various petitions and inflicted all kinds of punishment on those who broke “the law”. A staff of German nuns supervised the food.
It is when speaking about the food provided by the German [sic] that I am approaching the subject of the most important factor in our camp life. Though our living accommodations and sanitary conditions were a great deal better than those in other prisoner-of-war and civilian internment camps in Germany, the food received from the Germans would not have been sufficient to prevent us from starvation. Breakfast consisted of a slice of sticky and often mouldy bread, jam and an absolutely undrinkable coffee substitute; lunch of thin soup and some vegetables floating in a dark gravy; supper of a few potatoes, the same sticky bread and an identical “coffee”.
This is where the Red Cross comes in. Big consignments of Red Cross parcels, British and American, would arrive in the camp at frequent intervals, where they would be unloaded and unpacked with enthusiasm by the internees. Their regular weekly distribution by the camp captain secured our food situation and shut off the danger of hunger. Besides food parcels the Red Cross provided us with various clothing articles. Many an English or American woman who had been dragged out of her house by the Germans at a moment’s notice without being allowed to take the most essential items, was, after some time, dressed from top to toe in clothes sent by the Red Cross. The foundation and constant increase of our liberty was rendered possible by Red Cross book supplies. The chool [sic] for the 60 interned children could function systematically and successfully thanks to the Red Cross delivery of text-books and stationery, games and toys for the Kindergarten and various instruction leaflets for the teachers of the camp. Shows and other performances could be put up from time to time in our more than primitive theatre hall because the Red Cross always responded to our artists’ requests for theatrical costumes, paints for the scenery, and musical instruments. Many women who, not having anything particular to do, would have broken down as a result of boredom and lack of occupation, were kept busy knitting and doing all kinds of other handwork, owing to the Red Cross delivery of knitting wool , cotton and embroidery silk. Health service in the camp, naturally handicapped by shortage of trained nurses and the utter ignorance of an old German doctor, would have been ever more inadequate had it not been for the regular supply of Red Cross invalid comfort parcels and all the medicines required.
The two years which elapsed between my arrival in Liebenau and my final release from the camp were marked in the history of the place as abounding in happenings and extraordinary events. In fall 1943, when the monotony of camp life was becoming unbearable and when phrases like “I am fed up,” “I am bored stiff,” and “I wish to Goodness something would happen” were inseparable from our daily vocabulary, a great change took place. A department of the German Foreign Office arrived in the camp, where it made its permanent residence.
The cowardly officials who had fled from Berlin where they were exposed to the daily danger of becoming the victims of Allied bombs and who hid shamelessly under the protection of internees who were relatively safe from this fear, took possession of one of the buildings by removing all the internees from it. We were shaking with helpless rage and indignation when, after being crowded in our small rooms more than ever before, we began to suffer from al [sic] the restrictions made by “Berlin across the garden path” as we ironically nicknamed the Foreign Office. The small amount of freedom which had been our greatest treasure up to that point was considerably cut down: two gardens, one behind and the other in front of the camp buildings, were closed to the internees; only three walks weekly were permitted; room arrests, stopping of mail, and even deportations to other camps became a frequent punishment for crimes like picking apples on country roads, waving at the Allied planes flying over Liebenau, attempts to offer a package of cigarettes to Serbian prisoners-of-war working in the village, or not greeting the German guards.
General depression and even feelings of hopelessness reached their climax in 1944 when first exchange transports on a larger scale began to leave the camp.
The first one to take place was an American repatriation transport, in February 144 [sic], including about 80 U.S.A. citizens from our camp. Anxious
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 11
speculations and wild rumours as to who was going to be chosen – the usual symptoms in every internment and P.O.W. camp whenever “something is in the air” – were put an end to by the publication of the official list of names, accompanied by a notice signed by the departmental chief of the Foreign Office to the effect that the names listed had been received from Washington. How great was our indignation when, about half an hour after the publication of the first one, another list of about 20 persons was added! It was then that we realized how great was the power the Germans had over us; for it was the German Foreign Office that had selected the people for exchange, and from which the repatriation of each one of us depended. Complaints addressed to the Swiss Legation in Berlin were censored by the German paymaster; and if he disapproved of their contents, our letters ended in his wastepaper basket.
During the next four repatriate transports which took place successively throughout the same year we had to experience yet another injustice. Whenever a number of repatriates, whether to England or the United Stated, was about to leave the camp, only a very few of our internees were included. The Germans completed the number they were supposed to give in exchange for their own prisoners by taking people from outside the camp, people who had been free all during the time the 600 Liebenau internees were slowing losing their physical and mental strength in the long years of captivity. A few days before the departure of a transport dozens of these “outsiders” would stream in; and by a special order of the Foreign Office they had to be treated like guests, which meant that they were free from all the duties we had to perform and not compelled to obey the regulations we were subject to.
At the close of the year the atmosphere in the camp became gloomier and our spirits lower than ever before. As there was a big American exchange in sight, and the small rooms could not hold any more persons, all the dining rooms where we used to gather for meetings, to study, and to take our meals, were turned into bedrooms for the “guests”: on account of bad railway connections within Germany and the Allied successes threatening the Ruhr district, our usual supply of coal was cut down, so that we were forced to pick wood on our walks in order to have boiling water at least once daily : a few weeks running not one letter reached the camp and even the German newspaper stopped arriving regularly. The schoolroom was half empty in the hours set for adults’ educational courses: the internees, for many of whom it was the fifth Christmas away from their homes, lost all their desire for the continuation of their studies and their power of concentration over books.
It was soon after New Year 1945, that the rumours about a great repatriation transport to the U.S.A. which had been very persistent for some weeks past, were officially confirmed. On January 19th a list of about 115 persons included in the exchange was put op [sic] on the notice board. Three days later, just before the transport was about to leave Liebenau to go via Switzerland to Marseilles and sail from there on the “Gripsholm” an additional list of names was published, my mother’s, sister’s and my own among them.
The happiness which filled my heart at the moment I saw our names on the list was beyond control. All jobs that remained to be done in the last day of my internment, the hectic packing, ceding my duties to some of my remaining friends, taking our luggage down to the canteen to be searched and sealed, I performed without being conscious of what I was doing. My heart was singing with mad joy while I was saying to myself, “It is really, undeniably true; it is true that in a month’s time I shall be in a free country which does not know the Gestapo and the German methods of cruel persecution; it is true that at last the misery of three and a half war years in Poland and the two years of internment are over; it is true that our family has been granted the happiness of survival.”
Over 300 British women have remained in Liebenau. It was when I was saying goodbye to these less fortunate friends of mine at the gate of the camp that I suddenly knew my happiness would never be complete until they were finally released too; it was then that I felt, with an intensity I had never known before, how deeply attached I had become to each one of them and how much their friendship had meant to me in the period of my greatest need for human understanding.
On board the Gripsholm, which we took in Marseilles and where we met American and Canadian wounded soldiers being, like ourselves, on their way home after long years of captivity, I once exchanged my experiences with a Canadian ex-prisoner-of-war. “I don’t agree with those who maintain that happiness makes one forget past sorrows and worries,” he said. “Happy as I am to have left the gloom and hardships of my prison years behind me, I know that for a long while yet I shall not be able to tear the memories of the camp out of my mind and heart. Only when I hear that all my fellow-prisoners, who have still to go through the ordeals of this final war stage in Germany,
[Page break]
12 THE CANANDIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
have safely reached the shores of Canada, will these memories give way to an undisturbed enjoyment of my new freedom.”
The Gripsholm landed in New York on Jan 21st; on the day following her disembarkment our family arrived in Canada. In the first six weeks which I have spent in this splendid free country, the broadminded, generous-hearted people of which I have already learned to love, I have often recalled the words of that wounded Canadian soldier. All I can add to them is that though Internment Camp Liebenau belongs to the past, I shall always remember the lesson I was taught there that – in order to become a useful member of any community one has to develop an attitude towards one’s fellow creatures based on understanding and goodwill; not on selfishness and prejudice!
P.O.W. AT KOBE
Air Raid Precautions
Air Raid Precautions have been taken at the Prisoner of War Hospital at Kobe, in Japan, which was visited by the International Red Cross Delegate on 18th August of this year. The report of the Delegate’s visit has just reached Australia.
The hospital is attached to the Osaka Group of camps on the main island of Japan, Honshu. At the time of the visit there were altogether 101 patients, of whom 15 were Australians and there were three Australians on the Hospital, but not Medical, Staff.
Location is said to be on a quiet, sunny hillside, in seven foreign-style wooden buildings with tiled roofs. Ventilation, drainage, water supply are reported to be adequate.
Bedding consists of straw mats on a wooden floor with five blankets for each patient, and pyjamas, Food consists mainly of rice, barley and vegetables, with very little meat and fish. There are no eggs, milk, fat, cheese, sweets, coffee or canned foods. The kitchen equipment seemed adequate, reported the delegate, but there was no refrigerator or ice-box.
(Australian P.O.W. Magazine)
AID FOR BRITONS IN FRANCE
A new Red Cross and St. John Sub-Commission has been set up in Paris to care for British Civilians, particularly children and the sick and aged, who need help in France. A considerable number of Christmas parcels as well as clothing and blankets have already been issued.
Persons eligible to receive relief include all children under 18 with British fathers and dependents of all men killed or captured while serving with the British forces. Distribution arrangements for the children include a system whereby they can be referred to the out-patients department of the Hertford Hospital, Paris, for future preventative treatment against such diseases as tuberculosis and rickets. This hospital, which will shortly be re-opened by the Red Cross and St. John, will receive supplies for this purpose of cod liver oil and Adexolin from Great Britain. The British Consuls in Lyons, Bordeaux , Nantes and Rouen have been asked to supply lists of all British subjects in their care, especially of children and aged and sick persons, so that appropriate supplies can be sent for distribution. Relief parcels have already been sent to Marseilles and Nice.
Colonel Gielgud, who has a long and intimate knowledge of the country, is at present touring France in the hope of tracking down all British subjects in the country who may be in need of help. Opportunities for extending this relief work for the British in France are also being examined.
A similar organisation to help Canadian citizens has been set up in Paris by the Canadian Red Cross, while civilians from other dominions and Colonies will come within the scope of the British scheme.
PRAISE FOR FPRISONERS [sic] OF WAR WORK
Mr. H. B. Burdekin, who is the examiner in Accountancy subjects at New Zealand University, has written to London saying:
“I am in the middle of my University exam. marking again. Curiously enough the best ones I am getting are coming from members of the armed Forces. Three batches that I had towards the end of last year from prisoner of war camps in Germany were all of high quality, some very good indeed.”
(Kincardineshire Branch B.R.C.S.)
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 13
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Question:- Would you please tell me where the reports of Japanese camps come from and how they are relayed?
Answer:- Reports on Japanese camps are written or cabled to Geneva by International Red Cross Delegates in the Far East who have visited the camps. It is well to remember that these reports are sent in writing and are subject to Japanese censorship, whereas reports on camps in Germany are made verbally by the delegate who has personally visited the camps and talked with the prisoners.
Question:- My son is a prisoner of war in Germany and his wife lives in England. If he is liberated, will I be notified?
Answer:- Only the next of kin of prisoners receive official notifications; if your daughter-in-law is registered as your son’s next of kin and has been receiving Government labels for his personal parcels, she will receive all notifications from the Government. We believe however, that by applying to the Director of Records, Ottawa, it is possible for a close relative to obtain such information as is available regarding a prisoner of war.
Question:- Is there an ordinary mail and parcel service established to the Channel Islands?
Answer:- The United Kingdom authorities have been trying for some time, through the International Red Cross, to arrange for Red Cross postal messages to go to the Islands, but the Germans cannot arrange for censorship of incoming mail at a censorship office in the Channel Islands and it is therefore necessary for all the Red Cross postal messages which the United Kingdom authorities hold to be sent to Geneva so that the International Red Cross Committee can arrange with the German Government for censorship there or in Germany. This, of course, makes the process rather slow, and so far no news has been received of any of the Red Cross messages which the United Kingdom authorities started sending to Geneva last year, having been sent on the Red Cross relief ship. These difficulties apply to ordinary mail and parcels, and there appears to be no hope of an ordinary mail and parcel service being established.
Question:- I heard on the radio that the camp where my son has is has been freed. How soon will I hear whether my son is free?
Answer:- It is impossible to give an exact length of time, but in many cases relatives received cables direct from their prisoners in England or France, approximately a week or ten days after the news of the camp liberation. There is no cause for anxiety if this news takes longer to come, since the number of liberated prisoners is reaching large proportions which will of necessity delay the transmission of messages.
Question:- Is the C.P.O.W.R.A. continuing to send cigarettes either in bulk consignments or to individual prisoners in Germany?
Answer:- No. The last regular shipment of cigarettes made by the association was sent in March, since when conditions have made it impossible to continue shipping to P.O.W. Camps. Should the situation change, the sending of cigarettes will be resumed.
REMITTANCES BY POSTAGE STAMPS VIOLATE POSTAL LAWS
Contrary to postal regulations, postage stamps are continually being used as remittance for small amounts. We receive them daily at the Headquarters office of the Association. The postal authorities point out that Post Office Money Orders, Postal Notes and Postal Scrip are provided at all Post Offices for just this purpose and the public is urged to make use of these facilities, the intention of which is to guard against loss.
[Page break]
14 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
PROVINCIAL HEADQUARTERS
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Mrs. R. Thistle
1013 Government St.
Victoria, B.B.
MANITOBA
Mr. W.S. King
Paris Building
Winnipeg, Manitoba.
ONTARIO
Mrs. Gordon Weir,
Bank of N. Scotia Bldg.,
79 Queen St. East,
Toronto, Ont.
QUEBEC
Mrs. H.E. Plant,
718 Sunlife Building,
Montreal, Que.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Mrs. George Filliter,
68 Portledge Ave.
Moncton, N.B.
NEWFOUNDLAND
Mrs. A.C. Holmes, M.B.E.,
Caribou Hut,
St. John’s, Nfld.
NOVA SCOTIA
Mrs. W.A. Black,
30 Ivanhoe Street,
aHlifax [sic], N.S.
SASKATCHEWAN
Mr. C.A. Cunning,
303 McCallum Hill Bldg.
Regina, Sask.
ALBERTA
Mrs. H. Thom,
10222, 118th St.,
Edmonton, Alta.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
150A Sun Life Bldg.,
Montreal.
MANITOBA BRANCH
The March meeting of the Manitoba Branch was attended by approximately 200 members. The Chairman announced that twenty-two new next of kin had been approached since the last meeting and welcomed any that might be present.
Two repatriated prisoners, F/Lt. Bruce McKenzie and Pte. Bud Moody, spoke to the members and answered questions.
MONCTON BRANCH
At the March meeting of the Moncton Branch, a busy month was announced by the president. A number of new prisoners of war from New Brunswick were reported and their next of kin were written to and sent copies of the News Sheet.
It was decided not to ship medical parcels from this district until such time as the situation became more clear.
ONTARIO PROVINCIAL BRANCH – TORONTO
The following slate of officers of the Ontario Provincial Branch for the coming year was recently elected:
President Mrs. Gordon Weir
Vice-President Mrs. Wallace Floody
Vice-President Mrs. R.E. McLaren
Vice-President and Treasurer Mrs. R.A. Laidlaw
Honorary Vice-President Mrs. W.E. Sprague
PURCHASING COMMITTEE
Mrs. W.E. Floody
Mrs. A. Hayward
MEN’S COMMITTEE
Mr. R.A. Laidlaw
Mr. Kelso Roberts
Mr. Avery
Mr. Norman Copeman
OTTAWA BRANCH
At the April meeting of the Ottawa Branch, it was agreed to send $50.00 to National Headquarters for the General Fund.
Guest Speaker at the meeting was Mr. M. Gratton O’Leary, well known newspaper man, whose son is a prisoner of war in Germany.
Mr. T. Campbell-Rogers was elected Chairman.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 15
SASKATCHEWAN BRANCH
Forty-five members attend the [sic] the March meeting of the Saskatchewan Branch. The Food Committee reported having packed and sent 49 parcels of food for next of kin throughout the Province. The Welfare Committee reported having sent 8 personal parcels, 2 medical parcels, 2 sports parcels and some cigarettes direct to prisoners on behalf of their next of kin. Several parcels were returned, having been destroyed in a fire on board ship last December and the Association is paying the cost of food items in the re-issue parcels.
VICTORIA BRANCH
At the April meeting of the Victoria Branch the sum of $300.00 was voted to be sent to the Association Headquarters to be used at the President’s discretion for the benefit of prisoners of war.
It was reported that since the beginning of the year, blankets, clothing and food parcels to the value of $265.00 had been sent to war prisoners.
Lt. V C. Moore, who was repatriated last September, spoke about life in a German prison hospital.
VANCOUVER BRANCH
Monthly meetings of the Vancouver Branch held in March and April; at the former, Cpl. Earl Buck, recently repatriated from Stalag 2D, spoke on his experiences while, at the latter, Col. Scott, Canadian Red Cross Commissioner, addressed the meeting. Both meetings were well attended.
NEW WESTMINSTER BRANCH
The regular meeting of the New Westminster Branch was held April 9th. 22 members were present. The meeting voted $$200.00 [sic] to be sent to Mrs. JJ. O. Asselin to be used as she thinks best for our boys arriving in Canada, also $500.00 to be sent to W.A. McAdam, Agent General B. C. House, London, to be used for B.C. boys arriving in London from the prisoner of war camps in Germany.
Plans were made for a Tag Day to be held April 28.
[Boxed] LETTERS
In future issues of the News Sheet, only letters from the Far East and recent ones from Germany will be published. With the mass movement of prisoners in Europe, it is felt that letters written from camps which no longer exist will not be of general interest to our readers. We will be glad to publish any letters, however, that contain news of transit or temporary camps which would be helpful and informative to other prisoners’ families. [/boxed]
GERMANY
OFLAG VII B
December 5th, 1944 Rec’d February 26th. 1945.
Firstly, many thanks for your letters of Sept. 11, and Oct. 3 & 10. All very welcome indeed. Secondly, we are not allowed copying pencils now, I am telling you this because with your customary acute powers of observation you would notice the change and wonder. There is nothing I want in the food or clothing line; we are limited by the Germans in the amount of clothes and food we can have in our possession.
New Year’s Day 1945 Rec’d March 29th, 1945
When I look at the date above it gives me a bit of a start I assure you. 1945 and the shades of Prison Walls still around us and the forms of many disappointed and “Browned Off” Kriegie’s still conspicuous by their presence. I might say that many a Sawback has been lost or won on the War not being over. Have personally never been one of the optimists, to say nothing of the Super O’s, but am, more or less, hoping for my next Birthday out of the “Shaft” (Kriegsgefangschaft) as we call it. However as I told you in what must have been a most confusing letter, we have had an excellent period of “Bashing” (good eating) due to O.K.W. order forbidden reserves. It really has been terrific and as far as that goes we are right on top of the world and if the Germans live up to their promise of supply to us and I believe they will, a parcel a week, we will be O.K. Cold clear weather has enabled us to get some hockey. A lot of the old speed gone and not much cunning evident yet to replace it. A lot of fun tho’. No mail recently. By the way we have practically a language of our own here and as the years roll by I find it harder than ever to
[Page break]
16 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
STALAG LUFT III
[Photograph of a man with a bucket and a pole] Wash Day. A tin can on the end of a stick is the most modern washing machine.
[Photograph of a group of men gathered around a notice board] above, - representatives of 2,000 P.O.W. crowd around the loud speaker to translate the news.
[Photograph of men standing and sitting by the side of a field] right, - Sports Day.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 17
THEATRICALS AT LUFT III
[Photograph of two men at a table with a microphone] Sound effects for the plays go over the mike
[Photograph of men playing musical instruments] Orchestra
[Photograph of a man in a female costume] One of the boys plays the lead in Pygmalion
[Photograph of three men on a dressed stage] “Thark” by Ben Trains
[Page break]
18 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
explain myself in plain English. Trust you are all well and celebrated New Year’s properly. I was asleep by 10.30 but thinking of you. Everything is fine with me. In better health, better spirits than ever before and full of the old confidence; so look after yourselves because this is the year.
January 4th, 1945. Rec’d February 26th, 1945.
Many thanks for letters Oct. 24 and Nov. 3, 7 and 14. Yours came thro’ better than from England. Thanks very much for snap, you look well. Skating is going strong at the moment, even I have been attracted. Party of Grans Blessés leave here tomorrow. The Germans made us eat our reserves of food over Xmas. Am feeling fit!!
January 25th, 1945.
More reprisals! We are now without mattresses, tables or stools! I will tell you how this came about. Last Monday we had the usual check parade at 9 a.m. and while in the middle of it, a large number of Germans were marched into the camp and surrounded the parade. We, of course, thought it was just another search until we were told that the S.B.O. (Senior British Officer) wanted to address the parade. He started by reading out a German order which was that – owing to the fact that German prisoners of war in Egypt were living in tents without any mattresses or furniture – we were to be treated alike and have ours taken away. The S.B.O. then went on to make some very appropriate remarks which are better left out here. This is my third lot of reprisals; first in Poland, then chains and now this. Fortunately we are able to see the funny side of it and having meals off the floor is at least a change and saves laying the table for meals! I have won an extra piece of pudding. As we are seven in our mess it is much easier to divide things into eight and cut a card for the extra piece. It adds great excitement to the meals!
STALAG II D
December 25th, 1944.
I’ve put this letter off a week so I could write it tonight and let you know how we spent Christmas. Yes, it’s been a day I’ll not forget for a long, long time. I’ve drawn a Xmas Card with the menu of the day on the inside, and the autographs of my ten best buddies; I’ll get it home for you if this war lasts for another five years, but don’t worry about that. I honestly don’t expect to see another Xmas here. The Christmas dinner was lovely, the out-standing thing among many, was a real custard pie, the first many of us have had in 2 1/2 years. I also have a photograph for you; as soon as I can get it censored I’ll send it, which shouldn’t be more than a week or two. The Red Cross sent us a little Xmas decoration so we’ve got the room looking quite cozy. There’s about 3 lbs of Canadian chocolate in Stalag per person, but we haven’t received that yet. Hope you all had an enjoyable Xmas.
January 1st, 1945.
Well we’ve had Christmas and New Year again; they sure do seem to slip by fast over here, maybe it’s a good thing too. I imagine it would get pretty dull if it didn’t. Well I finally got the picture you’ve been waiting for so long, you can see by it that this life isn’t doing me any harm. I hope you receive it alright. We had a very good Xmas, one of the things accomplished was the ten of us in our room have pledged to have a yearly reunion, each year it being in a different city. There are five from Windsor, two from Toronto, two from Winnipeg, and one from Hamilton. This is the best bunch of fellows I’ve ever been with and we really have some swell times.
STALAG IV A
November 26th, 1944.
Hope this letter finds you all well, as it leaves me quite well. We had a little snow storm the other day, bet you people haven’t had any yet. Although I suppose it’s quite cold. I’m working inside so I don’t mind it much. I’m expecting a letter any day now, as it’s been a very long wait. We haven’t started getting ready for Xmas yet, suppose you have your baking all done. Will see you next Fall, anyway, if not before, so hope this letter arrives alright, also the others. We got Sweet Caporal cigs. this week from the Red Cross. Hope everybody is well.
December 10th, 1944.
Haven’t received any letters yet. Hope to get some soon, hope you’ve got all of my letters. It’s quite cold here, now, but very little snow. Hope you people are all well. And also enjoyed Christmas, which I expect to. Guess I’ll be home for next Xmas if everything goes well. There isn’t much to write about, just now. So will close until I get a letter.
December 31st, 1944.
Hope this card finds you all well, as it leaves me quite well. Expecting a letter any day now. Hope you all enjoyed your New Year. Will be seeing you, soon.
January 13th, 1945.
Just to let you know that I’m well and in fair health. Hope you and the rest are all well. I hope to hear from you soon, and better still be back with you all again.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 19
STALAG IV B
December 12th, 1944.
Christmas certainly came early to Stalag IVB in the form of your Christmas shipment of chocolate. With the shortage of Red Cross parcels this chocolate has certainly put a very different outlook on our Christmas festivities. You cannot realise how much we appreciate this gift and other excellent work you have been responsible for. Thank you very much and our best wishes for the coming year to you and your fellow workers. Any chap who goes out on a working Kommando before Christmas will receive chocolate and cigarettes, before he leaves this Camp, as a gift from the Canadian Club. The cigarettes are as a result of a collection from the chaps who have received parcels from home. All in all it should be a fairly decent Christmas. The next one back home should more than make up for what we have missed in the past few years. May the ski trails be covered with snow and good skating be prevalent. For Pete’s sake, tell some of the girls to stay single until we get home.
January 3rd, 1945.
Greetings and best wishes for 1945 to you and the Canadian people. The Canadian Club, 400 strong sends this message on behalf of its members. Christmas in our Stalag went off with a bang. It started early with the arrival of your gift of chocolate, of which we were able to issue 2 1/2 bars to each Canadian. Then, as a bolt from the blue, and in the nick of time, American Xmas parcels arrived sufficient for the issue of four between ten, over and above food parcels. Many Canadians received personal parcels in the same week: so you see, there is a Santa Claus! Most old “Kriegies” consider it the best Christmas spent in captivity. Not to mention entertainments would be to portray an incomplete picture of our Christmas celebrations. The number and variety of projects were such as were never seen before. Productions for Theatre and Hut presentation were in evidence the whole week. They included drama, comedy, variety, musical, dances, pantomimes, and radio plays (behind curtains). Since most of our members were occupied in either theatre or local hut activities, we engaged in no formalities as a Club. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for all you and we hope in this new 1945 of ours. Au revoir. Many thanks. Good luck!
January 3rd, 1945.
Happy New Year! and may the next one fine me wishing you all the best, etc. in person. Now before I forget I’d better tell you what we had for Xmas dinner. Xmas week we got 1 Can. parcel between 2. 2 American between I and 1 Yank Xmas parcel between 10. Plenty of variety anyhow! Our Xmas dinner consisted of turkey, spam, boiled potatoes, diced carrots, peas, turnips and onions, with noodle soup starting things off. For dessert we had our own steam pudding with thick cream, and chocolate sauce, followed by coffee and biscuits. Pretty good, what? The pudding was really perfect altho it took about 20 hours boiling to get it that way. The ingredients were:
[Photograph of a group of four rows of men outside a hut] Group taken at Stalag 344. Pte. H. C. Turner is marked with an X. Kindly lent by Mrs. Ernest Turner of Montreal.
[Page break]
20 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
German flour, mashed Can. biscuits, egg powder, butter, sugar, milk, raisins, creamola powder plus other stuff I can’t recall. Dec 27 got an Artie Shaw record and Dec. 30 300 cigs arrived, both from the Squadron. I can’t thank them, but do you think you could S.V.P. Celebrated New Years with another big dinner altho not so somptuous [sic] a one as at Xmas. New Year’s Eve, we had a grand show lasting 5 hours in our hut. A few days ago quite a few Yanks arrived but we don’t expect them to be here for very long. Thanks a million for the pictures you sent Oct. 24. Got letter of Nov. 17 on Dec. 30 too.
January 19th, 1945.
Another month and the Canadian Club in IVB send their greetings. (censored) parcel shortage, the boys remain cheery. Another branch of club fonctions [sic] now getting under way in the formation of a system of reference groups to pass on information and to answer questions for those wishing to “gen up” on prospective trades for postwar period. Our recently formed club library is to be the central hub of a series of groups classified according to trade or information available. Will you please do us the favour of asking our Canadian correspondents especially non-relatives, not to lay too much stress on mention of our palatial holiday surroundings or luxurious comforts. Letters are very wine and bread; but such remarks tend to cause some slight dissension in the ranks. I think you will understand our point of view, and be able to tell them in such a manner as we are unable, without causing misunderstandings. Many thanks also for the cigarettes sent by your Association, which the boys are receiving regularly. It certainly helps a lot to be able to smoke regularly; and there’s nothing like good old Canadian cigs. Many thanks.
January 25th, 1945.
Well it has been some time since I’ve heard from home. Hope you had my letters O.K. I am in good health and hope you are the same. We are very cold at present as there is very wintry weather and not much heat. We have (censored) that is to say we haven’t had any Red Cross Aid for ages, which makes things very unpleasant. I received some more cigs., and boy they are worth their weight in gold here, now. I hope it will soon be over though. News is good. Joe is on his way.
STALAG VII
January 13th, 1945.
How are you? Am feeling fine and in the best of health. Was captured Dec. 13, 1944. Give friends and relatives my address so they can write to me. How is Dad? Can only write two letters a month. Don’t send cigs. Am thinking of you all the time. Write soon. Love to all.
STALAG VII A
November 8th, 1944.
Just a few lines to let you know I am getting along fairly well and am in good health. But I could do with a lot more to eat. The last two weeks my boy friend and I have been out harvesting spuds and believe me we’ve ate so many spuds that we almost look like a couple of spuds! When we come home at night we cook up two nice big dishes full for supper – and another for breakfast. I don’t know what the heck we’ll do when we are finished with the spuds! I guess my tummy will have to shrink a little bit more. I hope the war is over soon. I don’t like this life a bit. Write soon.
January 2nd, 1945. Rec’d March 17th, 1945.
A few lines to say I am fine, hope both there the same. Don’t worry, am getting plenty to eat and a good bed. Contact Red Cross about parcels and cigarettes. Hope you had a good Xmas. I attended church to celebrate our anniversary.
P.S. Send socks, towel, tooth brush.
STALAG VIII B [inserted] was in camp VIII-B for awhile [/inserted]
December 24th, 1944.
Well here it is Christmas Eve, again. I am still feeling fine, had a Red Cross parcel last night, been cooking and eating all day today. Hope everybody is fine at home. Hope to get the parcel you sent, soon. There was a ban on parcels for a while but it has been lifted since about the middle of October, so they should be coming through again alright.
STALAG IX C
November 5th, 1944. Rec’d January 16th, 1945.
Your cheering letters have still been arriving regularly. It is difficult to find things of interest that can be written but as usual I am keeping very well. The time keeps flying by, it is just a race closely run as to which will last longer this year or the war. With this letter goes my best wishes to you for the Merriest of Christmases. You say you have seen the movie “Going My Way”, with Bing Crosby, and here we have a record very popular in the camp, being one of our newest arrivals, with Bing singing the hit song from the picture. We are still not so very far apart, your letters have been arriving about one month after being sent. Still looking forward to receiving your books; they do take so long going through the censors. We have at last been granted a privilege of having a loud speaker in the camp. The commentary of the direction the boys are coming over is most interesting.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 21
November 25th, 1944 Rec’d Jan 26th, 1945.
Lately I have been most fortunate in hearing from you. Your mail and the June parcel which you sent me have arrived safely. What a grand selected parcel; and what a grand and novel idea you had in replacing the Christmas card, the snaps do carry my thoughts back to dear old Toronto and bring back many happy memories, and I do like having your picture here. Wishing you one of the Happiest of New Years.
January 15th, 1945. Rec’d March 23rd, 1945.
Everything is going allright [sic]] with me here. Receiving your mail regularly. It was also fortunate to have your books arrive safely during the holiday weeks. By the time I will have finished reading “The Robe”, “Moby Dick”, and “Mutiny on the Bounty”, I should be on the way home. What a cheerful bit of news to have heard that H. is back home. We did have some good times in hospital. Your blankets are bringing me a great deal of comfort these nights. To continue with my letter after a two and half hour interruption! During these intervals is a good opportunity for reading, many a book I have finished in this way. The greater part of my spare time is still spent plugging at my studies but the conditions in our camp are not the best for real concentration, often I do get fed up, still I try to keep at it, as I feel that progress enough has been made to see the task to a successful completion.
STALAG XI B
December 2nd, 1944. Rec’d Feb 22nd, 1945.
Today is December second. I hope that you all have a very nice Christmas although my first Xmas away from home won’t be all it is cracked up to be. Don’t worry as I expect to be out soon as the war should soon be over. Also we know that the Lord looks after his own. I wrote a letter once before but I have my doubts about it ever reaching you. This will be quite an experience to tell about. You never appreciate the Red Cross until you get in a position like this. Remember me to D. and everyone in fact, all the kids. This is about all I can write so I send all my love and don’t worry as I am okay.
December 16th, 1944. Rec’d March 8th, 1945.
Here it is December 16th and the war is that many days nearer an end. I suppose I will have to tell you all about my experiences when I get home. They say these take about two months to travel so I hope to be free once more that is before you get this. But you live in hopes in these places. You will have some souvenirs if these ever get through. I have a lot of time to read my Bible.
[Photograph of a group of men standing in a sports field] Photograph of a Ball Team at Stalag Luft III. Back Row, left to right: Lt. M.L. Taylor, (Eng.); Flt/Lt. L.A.E. Osbon (Eng.); F/O F.N. Scott (Hespler, Ont.); F/Lt. R. Coste (Toronto); F/O J.S. Acheson (Winnipeg); F/O A.R. Wallace (Toronto); G/C Larry Wray (Ottawa); Front Row, left to right: F/Lt. S. Pozer (Duck Lake, Sask.); F/O H.H. Beaupre (Waterloo); F/O E.R. Soulliere (Roseland, Ont.); F/Lt. D.W. McKim (Lynedoch, Ont.). Kindly lent by Mrs. Larry Wray of Ottawa.
[Page break]
22 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
the thing is there is a lot you don’t really understand in it. I suppose D. and you are getting along alright. The dog should be fairly well grown by the time I get back. I estimate I will be home by July, we will see how close I have guessed. Well I will close this hoping for the best, putting my trust in God.
January 3rd, 1945.
Another issue of paper so will write every time they come through with it. Been under the weather for the past few days but much better today. Got a Red Cross box of food for New Year’s so made the day much nicer than Christmas was. I could sure use a pair of socks as I’ve been using the same pair since coming here, almost afraid to wash them as they may fall to pieces. I often wonder if you have my first letter yet. It will be three months on the 16th since being trapped. No use me asking you to write as I know you do. Please send cigs. Maybe I’ll be out of here by the time they get, but in case not could sure use them.
STALAG 357
January 17th, 1945.
I received five parcels today. 1 personal and 4 cigarette parcels. The personal one was sent last June and was in perfect order; everything complete and undamaged. The cigarettes were re-addressed from Italy.
STALAG LUFT III
November 6th, 1944.
Well, here’s my first letter for this month and my twenty-third since arrival in Lower Silesia. I’ve been sending home a couple of letters and a card per month for the last couple of months. Rec’d quite a bit of mail lately, latest around mid-September. Glad all O.K. at home and that my mail is getting there. Things are O.K. here; weather getting somewhat damp and cold, and I fear winter is almost upon us once more. Got both lots of snaps now – they’re always welcome. Thank everyone for writing for me. Received book parcel lately, also parcel from Toronto, books, etc. Also receiving cigarettes. Slippers, suspenders and a kitbag are items I could use in next parcel. If sending sweaters, make them vee-neck or sweatshirt style as I now have a sleeve-less and turtleneck type, please.
November 8th, 1945.
I really feel ashamed of myself. For three years I have felt as though I have known you very well and this is the first letter I have written to you. In the summer of 1941, we Canadians were very short of food, blankets, clothing and sports equipment. Due to your remarkable efforts in organizing the P.O.W. we now stand well ahead of any other nationality. For the past two years, I have seen thousands of Canadian Red Cross parcels arriving, as well as all kinds of sports equipment. You can well imagine the effect of all this work upon the morale of the “Kriegies”. The fact that we are allowed food in our clothing parcels in an achievement in itself! Group Captain Wray of the R.C.A.F., who was here last summer, was very impressed and immediately dispatched a letter to the P.O.W. and Red Cross for their excellent work. So, on behalf of all the boys at the receiving end – many, many thanks for everything.
November 25th, 1944.
One month to go to the third Christmas of the Captivity, that’s what there is to go to. This year, in contrast to last, when I became quite petulant at the prospect and wrote a letter quite unworthy of One of Our Brave Boys – I am prepared to accept it philosophically. Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it brings a “bash” if at all possible. We are greedily hoping that despite every obstacle the Red Cross Christmas Food parcels may arrive in time, and speculating wildly on what the Canadian Government’s Christmas Cars was hinting at – “a small Christmas present for your personal use.” Now do you think that would be something to eat? Life here is interesting. I am back at the trumpet again. (Somehow I can’t think of the sound I make during practice is giving pleasure to any ear other than my own, no matter how many yards of Lake Simcoe should lie between). I have a very small part (Prof. Willard), and a great interest in my friend’s production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”, with an all-Canadian cast. I am a book reviewer for “The Circuit”. – And I announce the public programs of recorded Swing and Jazz music.
November 28th, 1944.
This is a mere P.S. to the letter written a couple of days ago, provoked by the receipt of 3 letters from you yesterday – including one of Oct 17 – the fastest in a long time. The “in touch” feeling in boosted by your receiving my July letter.
December 6th, 1944. Rec’d March 15th, 1945.
Received a couple of September and October letters from you. As you can no doubt guess I am definitely brassed off at the idea of spending my fourth Christmas here, and I have warned everyone against wishing me a “Merry Christmas” – it will be far from merry. However, once it is over, we can always get optimistic again and reiterate the cry home by Christmas 45 (?). The main thing I want to tell you is that, on December 4th, there
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 23
was a dedication service at the new memorial for the … (censored) … It is in the little cemetery about 1 1/2 miles from the north camp. Seven officers were allowed to go from the compound, the East, and sixteen from the North, including the two Padre’s, and the bugler. I was one of the seven from here. The memorial is in the form of a large altar table with three scroll-like stones sweeping up at the back with the … names on it. We all lined up around it while the R.C. and C. of E. padres read a burial service, then the last post, after which the three Group Captains put wreaths on and then the Swiss Legation also put on quite a large one. It was well done and the memorial is really very nice.
December 7th, 1944.
Delighted to receive your two letters of August 14th and September 29th. Once again we were warmed to the heart by the news of all you are doing for us. It makes us feel very humble, but it is that humbleness born of pride. You make us realise how glorious a heritage it is to be a Canadian, and everyday we are here we become more aware of what that really means to us. Out of this experience we will return to Canada far better citizens than we were, for we have truly awakened to what we previously took very lightly for granted. Typically, our Canada has far surpassed all other countries in the help given to us Ps. O. W. and we regard you as responsible for a great part of that. The winter weather has made life slightly less pleasant here, and the reduction of our Red Cross food by half but we are getting by cheerfully and not too unpleasantly. Impatient, certainly, but always hoping that our return to you is just around the corner. Our theatre is averaging one production every 10-12 days, each running for 7 days, providing us with excellent entertainment. Educational program is going very strong and I am sending you under separate cover a routine report on that branch of our activities. The health of the camp, generally, has been excellent, really amazingly so. Regular hours are probably very good for us, although we do yearn for a little of the less regular. First chocolate has arrived so hope remainder will be here in time. A thousand thanks, a grand Xmas gift for us. All have been saving a bit here and there for months for Christmas, so we hope to have a grand day of it. We will be thinking of you all at that time particularly and sending in spirit our cheeriest greetings. From all the lads and myself our thankful thoughts and regards to you.
December 9th, 1944.
Received five letters from you to-day also two from friends. These are the first received in six weeks. Many thanks for them. Very sorry to hear about F.D. being shot up but I suppose it is much better than being shot down. I have been a little under the weather for a few days but am O.K. now. There is a touch of “flu” in the camp but nothing serious. We had a film last week which was a big event in the camp. It was called “The Spoilers”, a whooping, roaring gold-rush
[Photograph of a group of men on a field] Group taken at Stalag Luft III showing amongst others: F/Lt. G.H. Rainville, D.F.M. (Port Henry, Ont.); F/Lt. R.R. Smith, D.F.C. (London); F/O J.E. Loree (Guelph); F/O L. Stevens (Rosser, Man.); F/O W.V. Ransom (Ottawa); P/O T.E. Jackson (Vancouver); F/O J.A. Hawtin (Beaverton, Ont.); F/O G.P. Gardiner (Merlin, Ont.); F/O E.R. Soulliere (Roseland, Ont.).
[Page break]
24 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
picture and everyone enjoyed it very much. We had a play called “The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. The boys did very well. The food situation is about the same on the camp and we are managing O.K. I am afraid we won’t have a Xmas as I did last year. The people there (missing in France for 6 1/2 months) were very good to me. The Germans are giving us potatoes, cabbage and swedes at present, which are very helpful. That blanket you sent which arrived on the hottest day of the year is surely useful now in this cold weather. To think that I was not very happy when I received it that day! I am still studying but am afraid I am like everyone here unable to concentrate on the subject for long.
December 10th, 1944.
My uniform arrived a few weeks ago and is a very good fit. Thanks very much. It was really a good idea sending it here instead of London because it could so easily have been lost and anyway I might not have been able to use it before moths got into it, tho’ I still think that we will not be here that long. Mail has been pretty good lately. I’m still doing a little work tho’ I have finished all the books from the Canadian Legion Educational Service which you or Dad sent. Neither of the ones on the soya bean or hydrophonies have arrived yet tho’ and I am looking forward to their arrival any day now. It’s a little late for Xmas Greetings but nevertheless Merry Xmas to all the family.
December 11th. 1944.
Mail is coming in fairly regularly, latest around mid-October. Glad to receive those snaps. This morning was surprised to receive an old July letter, but it was extremely welcome, containing as it did, snaps. All O.K. here and glad to learn that parcel is on the way. I’ve been very fortunate in that line so far and haven’t missed any. Could use pyjamas and summer underwear shorts in next parcel – but no Red Cross type or whatever they’ve been so far. They were far too large. Jockey shorts if possible, if not, the broadcloth type, but please a medium size. Also could use a bath towel, preferably a large and heavy type, like those ones we used to have at home. I’ve mentioned slippers already, I think, also shows.
December 23rd, 1944 Rec’d March 24th, 1945.
Two more days until Christmas. About all Christmas means here is an excuse for a big food dash. We have been on reduced rations for weeks, saving food for Christmas day, when we are going to have a gargantuan meal, or rather a series of meals. We have made a Christmas cake from ground biscuits. We have also decorated the room with painted toilet paper streamers and coloured and silvered paper from cigarette packages – it looks quite gay – we only wish the news was as cheering. Have not had mail since the beginning of the month. Am overdue a parcel from home – hope they concentrate on food – particularly chocolate – worth its weight in gold here – and spices which are valuable to relieve the monotony of our diet. Will be able to get to Mass on Christmas day.
December 26th, 1944.
I’ve written you a previous letter earlier this month, but haven’t received much mail since that time, only a couple of slightly overdue September letters. Still O.K. here, but the weather’s gotten really cold in the last week or so. The German papers came out with a met. forecast a few weeks ago, predicting the coldest winter in the last century, and it seems to be coming true. A good point about it, however, is that it guarantees a certain amount of skating and hockey, something that was altogether missing last winter, which was rather mild. There aren’t many skates around, and they are mostly the clamp-on type, but I’ve been out a few times already. Xmas was featured by American Christmas parcels, quite a large bash of food resulting therefrom, and a certain amount of slightly forced and artificial gaiety, which was dissipated fairly quickly. No Kriegie brews this year, as I think I’ve already mentioned, worse luck. So while the Merry Christmas theme was problematical, the Happy Returns motif is still uppermost in most kriegies’ minds. The Canadian chocolate was received – many thanks to the C.P.O.W.R.A. I’ve already mentioned requiring shoes, any type, preferably fairly husky pair of brogues or walking shoes, not necessarily black, also gym shoes. By the way, the sweater is a great blessing these days.
December 26th, 1944.
A Happy New Year to you my Censor.
A Happy New Year to you all at home. I received your letter of Sept. 25th and the snaps, also three other letters. We had a very nice Christmas indeed. The American Red Cross parcels arrived and they were very good. We had turkey, Xmas pudding, nuts and candy and it sure was a grand feeling to get up fully satisfied for once. In fact some of the boys did not manage to do so. We received the Canadian chocolate from the P.O.W. R. Ass., and it was very much appreciated by all the boys. Please thank them from us all. The Canadian and English Xmas parcels did not arrive in time, but will probably arrive any day now. Hope you all had a happy time together. My best to all friends.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 25
December 26th, 1944.
‘Twas the night after Xmas, everyone well fed – some too well fed – thanks to the American Red Cross, Can. Red Cross, Can. Relatives Ass’n (who are to be congratulated on their efforts on our behalf and we really do appreciate it) Xmas day was quite a success as for as we are concerned in these circumstances – dry yes – but it made us appreciate culinary efforts of our room cooks the more. We are having a cold season but it is excellent for ice skating – already we are well under way and have opened the season with two good games. Our equipment is good thanks to Can. Rel. Ass’n. Unfortunately the equipment D.M. sent has not turned up but we do appreciate your efforts and know what must have happened to it. Do hope you all enjoyed a good time and we feel that it just must be our last (said that now five times) but still one must be right some time if one tries often enough. Do pay my own hearty respects to the above mentioned organizations – they have certainly earned our respect. Say Hello to all and sundry – do ask them to write – getting that lost feeling with so little mail coming in. Photos are more than welcome.
December 26th, 1944.
Christmas has come and gone again without the five of us being together, but I do hope you were all home and carried on as usual. I’m curious to know what Mother got for each of you from me. The day before Christmas a Simpson parcel arrived. Haven’t had any mail since November 25th so Mother’s October 15th is my latest. It has been cold here for the last fortnight, so we have been able to freeze a good hockey and skating rink. It’s fun watching chaps who have never seen ice, learning to skate. Hope my skates get here in time. It was very thoughtful of you to think of sending them. Our Theatre is producing “The Drunkard” now and it is excellent. The American Christmas parcels arrived in time, so we had turkey and pudding for dinner. The Canadian chocolate also came in good order. You’ve no idea how we all appreciate the work you folks are doing for us. I only wish I could thank everybody personally. Perhaps some day I can. Well, with a bit of luck and hard work, we will be together this time next year, but in the meantime, don’t let things get you down and take good care of yourselves. I may be going on twenty-eight now but you will think you have a fifteen-year-old on your hands when I get going. I have just found out that we do not have street cars in London now. I’m still in good health and spirits, but I do get homesick once in a while, about every minute.
December 27th, 1944.
Another Christmas has come and gone, and here’s hoping it is the last one here. Our Christmas was not too bad considering the circumstances. We had turkey, plum pudding, etc., from the Red Cross parcels. Ginger worked overtime the week before, and we still have some of his home made mince pies to eat. We had intended having mince pies at our Christmas dinner, but after the plum pudding, we found we couldn’t eat anything more. We have had some cold weather lately, and we
[Photograph of a group of men] Group taken at Stalag Luft III. F/O J.L. McKeown is marked with X. Kindly lent by Mrs. Jas. McKeown of Smith’s Falls, Ont.
[Page break]
26 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
were able to have an exhibition hockey match on Christmas Day. We were all able to get a turn at skating also. There was also an England vs. Scotland soccer game, and there was a big “fun fair” in the canteen to raise cigarettes for new arrivals. Our room entered a “horse” in the horse race, and were able to raise fifty cigarettes for each of the new arrivals in our room. I have been out skating the last four or five days. A hockey schedule is being drawn up and I am looking forward to a few games. I have been giving skating lessons to the others in our room, who are all English, with the exception of one. I am only allowed three letters and four post cards a month, so this is the last letter this month. I have been sending my post cards to some of the gang.
December 28th, 1944 Rec’d March 14th, 1945.
Sunday evening, church service just over and it is letter time. Received five letters this week and a Christmas card from Prime Minister McKenzie King on behalf of Canadians everywhere – a very kind and appreciated gesture. I am doing a bit of writing in our Quill club we have organized on the camp. Received parcel of gramophone records. Bing Crosby and T. Dorsey – a very good selection, and I am very grateful. Please thank the Sask. P.O.W. Relatives Association for sports parcel which was useful and practical. We play a little hockey and do some studying. Here’s hoping ’45 will see us all united once more.
December 29th, 1944 Rec’d February 26th, 1945.
We were quite busy Xmas week – grinding biscuits and barley for flour, breaking prune stones to use the inside for our cake. Ours must have weighed about 10 lbs with a chocolate icing. We also had four American Christmas and four ordinary parcels so we had a big bash; but I ate too much and couldn’t hold it. Suppose to be the coldest winter in 100 years so we have made a good hockey rink and three other surfaces for skating. We opened on the 24th with East vs. West Canada game. I played and we won 4-0. I wished I had known we would be here this winter I’d have asked for my skates. We have about 350 for 2,000 men. Clamp on skates!!! A few private jobs, but we manage. Have been fairly warm at nite with socks on and greatcoat over bed. Don’t know why the R.C. wouldn’t let J. send blankets: too late now, I really have no complaints!!!
December 29th, 1944. Rec’d March 14th, 1945.
I guess Happy New Year will be late but I can’t remember that it takes a couple of months for these things to get home. We had a magnificent “bash” over Christmas – thanks to the American Red Cross Christmas parcels. They had turkey, plum pudding, butter etc. We were hoping the British of Canadian ones would arrive in time to give us a big feed on New Years but we still have that to look forward to. Incidentally we Canadians in the camp are surely proud of the Prisoners of War Relatives Association and the Canadian Red Cross, they have done so very much for us. Had a letter from you today with snaps enclosed – they were really swell to get. We are having cold weather here and the skating is really good. B. et I are on the same hockey team and the games are a riot. I’m one of the stronger players so you can guess the standard of the team. Thanks for the menthols.
STALAG LUFT VII
Christmas Day 1944.
The day started at 8:00 with a parade. We are having only one today. Chief interest is eating the Red Cross food that we have saved. Aside from that it’s a normal day. Church Services and carol singing are a plenty; went to Welsh Club party last nite. Big soccer game this afternoon. We have stew, pudding, cake trifles and bread. All in good spirits. Red Cross Xmas parcels not here yet. Hope you aren’t worrying about me.
MARLAG UND MILAG NORD
December 26th, 1944.
Things are pretty quiet tonight – most of the boys from our room have gone to see the pantomime “Robinson Crusoe”, so I’ll take advantage and drop a few lines. Well, to begin with our Xmas here wasn’t bad, I think we all managed to get that usual stuffed to the brim feeling somehow and on the whole spent a fairly enjoyable day behind the wire. I think the odds are in favour of spending the next one at home – what do you say? I went to the Nativity Play, Carol Service and Watchnight Service and it was very well done. It is the first time I have seen such a service – believe it is more of an Anglican Service. The R.C.’s also held their various Services and masses too. Believe it or not I had a skate on Xmas Day. We haven’t got proper skated, but several of the old “gufangs” made them out of old hinges and any piece of scrap metal they could get their hands on. It really is funny to see them – all shapes and sizes. We skate on water ponds, which are near our huts in case of fire. So much for camp life. Mail is good lately – some of the boys getting five or six letters at a time. Latest letter in November.
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 27
January 1945
This is the letter I promised in my Jan. 4/45 card of a few days ago, and without further preamble, would say Milag is the Merchant Navy and Marlag the Naval section of this camp which is located in country district on N.W. Germany. In former compound a small town in itself, save for appearance, we have everything a community should have (save liberty) and many things it should not. Of first mentioned there is Administration from Chief Confidence Man (Mayor) right thru to Sunday, and street depts. Good theatre (produced from farce to light opera) “Pirates of Penyance” [sic] – Christmas attraction – 8 day run – Cinema, English and German films – library – school – C. of E. and R.C. Chopes, all sports, baseball, football, hockey, indoor, debates, talks, lectures, gardening. Our present population is 2,500 – mostly U.K. men. 100 Canadians, 70 N.Z. and Australians, Egypt, Indo-China, etc. represented. Colors, white black, brown, yellow. Opposition interests begins and ends in keeping us inside. Administration, all activities, our own work. Self? To sea before war search local color – became embroiled in conflict – 1st ship torpedoed Sept. 15/40 lost 23 men – joined another ended up here Mar 25/41. Experiences many and varied. Interests – Lit. & Art – Government social reform. Now reading up Mills “Political Economy”. Like helping others but resources limited. Dream dreams but in this materialistic world many go unfulfilled. Abhor strife. Believe in state ownership, national resources. International viewpoint necessary to just and sound peace. Future in lap if Gods but believe prospects good.
December 29th, 1944. Rec’d March 14th, 1945.
I guess Happy New Year will be late but I can’t remember that it takes a couple of months for these things to get home. We had a magnificent “bash” over Christmas – thanks to the American Red Cross Christmas parcels. They had turkey, plum pudding, butter etc. We were hoping the British or Canadian ones would arrive in time to give us a big feed on New Year but we still have that to look forward to. Incidentally we Canadians in the camp are surely proud of the Prisoners of War Relatives Association and the Canadian Red Cross, they have done so very much for us. Had a letter from you today with snaps enclosed – they were really swell to get. We are having cold weather here and the skating is really good. B. and I are on the same hockey team and the games are a riot. I’m one of the stronger players so you can guess the standard of the team. Thanks for the menthols.
DIRECTORY
Subscribers are urged to buy from the companies listed here as they are helping to defray the cost of this bulletin.
[Advertisements from Burton’s Limited, Diggon’s, Wm. Collins Sons & Co. and F.E. Osborne]
[Page break]
30 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
[Advertisements from British Consols, Sweet Caporal, Charles Ogilvy, Hudson’s Bay Company]
[Page break]
May 1945 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION 31
[Advertisement from Molson’s Brewery Limited]
[Page break]
33 THE CANADIAN PRISONERS OF WAR RELATIVES ASSOCIATION May 1945
[Advertisement from Dawes Black Horse Brewery]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
News Sheet No 42 May 1945
Description
An account of the resource
The News Sheet of the Canadian Prisoner of War Relatives Association. This edition covers Victory in Europe, the death of President Roosevelt, the liberation of Canadian POWs, assembly centres for released POWs, the seizure of German POW records, Stalag Luft I "the easiest camp in Germany", propaganda broadcasts, the memorial at Stalag Luft III, news from England, the American Red Cross news, Far East News, Internment camp Liebenau, Questions & Answers, Canadian branch news, news from German POW Camps and adverts.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Canadian Prisoners of War Relatives Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-05
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
32 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-013
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Bournemouth
Germany--Lübeck
Germany--Moosburg an der Isar
Germany--Fischbach
Germany--Bremervörde
Germany--Luckenwalde
Germany--Spremberg
Switzerland--Geneva
China--Hong Kong
Germany--Liebenau Site
Japan--Kōbe-shi
France--Paris
France--Nantes
France--Rouen
France--Nice
Canada
Manitoba
New Brunswick--Moncton
Ontario--Toronto
Ontario--Ottawa
Saskatchewan
British Columbia--Victoria
British Columbia--Vancouver
British Columbia--New Westminster
France--Lyon
France--Marseille
France--Dunkerque
Germany--Barth
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Poland--Tychowo
Poland--Łambinowice
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Karlovy Vary
Germany--Nuremberg
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
France
Ontario
New Brunswick
Germany
China
Japan
Switzerland
England--Hampshire
Germany--Parchim
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-05
aircrew
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Dulag Luft
entertainment
faith
fear
memorial
prisoner of war
Red Cross
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
sport
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 7
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22570/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-017.1.pdf
71c89cd5622fbbb2f0ce3a1b16012534
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Kriegie August 1986
Description
An account of the resource
News-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the large Canadian reunion of 1985 at Calgary, the Annual Dinner at Lords, Recco report of ex-POW activities, requests for help, Alan Bryett's lectures, the Association's AGM and annual reunion, Book reviews, advance notice of the Southampton reunion, two donations from the Larry Slattery Memorial Fund to a County Primary School band and to Merida - a 17 year old from Wiltshire, a reunion at RAF Hendon, news and photograph of the Blenheim restoration, the newly formed RAF Historical Society, the Dedication Parade and Service held at Windsor, a story about a German girl from Heydekrug who had moved to Brazil and a cartoon exhorting members to pay their subs.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986-08
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
12 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-017
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Alberta--Calgary
Alberta--Banff
Alberta--Lake Louise
England--London
Australia
Victoria--Melbourne
Queensland
England--Manchester
England--Great Yarmouth
England--Taunton
Ontario--Cornwall
Lithuania--Šilutė
England--Doncaster
England--Brighton
England--Pulborough
England--Kingston upon Thames
Scotland--Aberdeen
England--Fordingbridge
England--Bristol
England--Nottingham
England--Princes Risborough
England--Olney
England--Southampton
England--Cheshire
United States
Texas
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Bad Fallingbostel
Victoria
England--Windsor (Windsor and Maidenhead)
Poland
Great Britain
Ontario
Alberta
Germany
Lithuania
England--Berkshire
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Hampshire
England--Norfolk
England--Somerset
England--Surrey
England--Sussex
England--Lancashire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Yorkshire
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
10 Squadron
158 Squadron
7 Squadron
aircrew
arts and crafts
bale out
Blenheim
entertainment
Halifax
Lancaster
memorial
mess
navigator
Pathfinders
prisoner of war
RAF Duxford
RAF Hendon
RAF Melbourne
shot down
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22591/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-020.1.pdf
7b1c61361b70f04326f80c626596473f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE
Prisoner of War
[Symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1 [Symbol]
VOL. 4 No. 38. Free to Next of Kin JUNE, 1945
The Editor Writes –
OFLAGS and Stalags, Milag and Marlag and Ilags are no more. With the unconditional surrender of Germany those prison camps which had not already been overrun by our Armies advancing from the west and the east were liberated by the victorious Allies. At the moment of writing some 137,000 ex-prisoners have reached this country, a certain number are still in transit, somewhere in Germany or Belgium, and according to the latest figures, another 30,000 who were released by our Russian Allies are awaiting transport to our lines.
Free at Last
Many of these will have got through before this issue of the journal has been printed, but obviously the task of transporting thousands of men from the interior of Germany through the dispersal camps to this country is a slow process. But the outstanding fact is that the long days of captivity are ended and that the great moment of release for which we have all waited for so long has come at last. To the men who have come back and to those who will be returning in the near future I would like to offer a hearty welcome and cordial congratulations.
Flown Home
The majority of our prisoners were home within a week of VE-day. Most of them were brought to this country by air, and it is clear that there has been the absolute minimum of delay. The American Forces have earned our grateful thanks for all they have done, and we would wish to be associated with the message sent by Sir James Grigg to General Eisenhower which is printed on page 2. Many prisoners have been brought back in Flying Fortresses, but the R.A.F. has been far from idle. Up to May 15th, 28,961 men had been flown to England by No. 46 Group of R.A.F. Transport Command, while an additional 20,761 were moved from forward airfields in Germany to rear bases for transference to England.
Red Cross in Forward Areas
Ex-prisoners of war have been delighted and amazed to find Red Cross and St. John representatives waiting to welcome them in army reception and transit camps right in the forward areas. Twenty men and women drawn from the Red Cross organisations of Great Britain, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa were sent out to Germany to be attached to these camps. Various teams have been made up, and one of the most forward units is living under canvas. Major Lee-Warner, their leader, says that one of the great joys of the returning prisoners is to meet and talk with someone, especially a woman, from their own country.
City of Waking Dreamers
What will it feel like to be free again? That question must have been asked thousands of times in the camps during the last five years. Now they know the answer. To most it was like waking up – gradually – from a bad dream. There were a few days around about VE-Day when Brussels became a city of waking dreamers. They streamed in by the thousand in lorries and trains and planes, and were directed to the Army registration offices where they gave their names and other particulars.
Formalities over, they filed past the Red Cross counter where treasure bags were distributed and various useful articles – pyjamas, towels, rope-soled slippers, dentifrice, and so forth – were displayed for those who needed them. The jewels in Ali Baba’s cave were not more precious. It all seemed unbelievable to the bewildered men.
[Photograph of a large group of men celebrating in front of a Lancaster aircraft] Repatriated cheering as they leave the Lancaster that brought them home to a British airfield.
[Page break]
2 The Prisoner of War JUNE, 1945
His Blessing
One man was found sitting on the kerb with his head in his hands. Someone asked him what he was doing. “Waiting to wake up,” was the answer. Another man came up to a Red Cross welfare girl and asked her for pencil and paper, which she gave him. He came to attention and saluted. “May all your children be ex-prisoners of war!” he said solemnly. “Well, that’s a nice sort of blessing!” exclaimed the girl. But she knew what he meant – he could think of no more blissful state than freedom regained.
Double Rations
Returned prisoners of war are able to buy twice the ordinary quantities of nationally rationed food during the period of their 42 days’ repatriation leave. Double rations are also provided at reception camps, and in one week in England a R.A.A.F. repatriate increased his weight by nearly two stone. The Australian, a warrant officer from New South Wales, said that no one could praise too highly the Services Authorities and the Australian and British Red Cross for what they were doing for prisoners. On his arrival, he said, he made a mistake by saying “pass the margarine.” He was soon corrected and told that only butter was served to returning prisoners.
Packing Centres Closing
The packing of food parcels for prisoners of war in Europe has now ceased, and the Packing Centres are being closed. Some 8 1/2 million parcels were available on VE day. The surplus parcels are not being wasted, as some 5 1/2 million have been put at the disposal of the authorities for distribution to ex-prisoners of war and civilians of the Allied nations who have been rescued from the Germans by the Allied Armies. The contents of parcels opened after two years’ wandering have been found to be still good.
Help for C.I.
Mr. Morrison, the Home Secretary, reporting to the House of Commons on May 17th on his visit to the Channel Islands, stated that the health and physique of the population was on the whole better than he had dared to hope. This, he said, was in large measure due to the supplies which had been received from the British Red Cross and St. John. He believed that although the Germans took a considerable share of local produce, they did not attempt to divert the Red Cross supplies to their own use. The whole of the supplies
[Photograph of a group of people on a street, waving flags] The whole village turned out to greet this sergeant when he returned to his home in Oreston, South Devon.
carried on the Vega were supplied by the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation and that the ship was chartered and paid for by Red Cross and St. John.
Invalid Diets
Readers will be glad to know that special care has been given to all our prisoners whose health has been greatly impaired by long privations in German camps. Fifty cases of Red Cross “comforts” and “invalid diet” parcels containing specially prepared food was flown out for them in four Dakota aircraft to Red Cross depots at reception bases beyond Hanover.
Home for the Homeless
Prisoners of war who have returned to this country to find that their homes had been destroyed by bombs, or who have neither families of their own or friends in this country with whom they can stay, are being looked after by a specially formed section of the Red Cross and St. John. They are able, if they desire, to stay for all or part of their 42 days’ leave at a large country house in one of the loveliest spots in the Home Counties. Living in friendly and restful surroundings, they do just as they please, and no effort is spared by the Red Cross staff to give them a thoroughly enjoyable holiday.
Oflag Literary Talent
Capt. Peter Baker has just returned to London from Oflag 79. “There was a lot of literary talent in our camp,” he said. “In fact, I have brought back an anthology of the work of my fellow-prisoners.” Contributors include Viscount Cranley, John Grime of the Daily Express, John Talbot and Jack Smyth of Reuters, and Bill Bowes the Yorkshire and England cricketer. All royalties on the book which is to be published next winter will go to the Boys’ Club founded by members of Oflag 79. Bill Bowes will probably be the club’s first warden.
University of London
Repatriates who have arranged to take external examinations of the University of London while prisoners of war and still wish to take them in England should communicate immediately with the External Registrar at The College, Richmond, Surrey, stating exactly for what examinations, with subjects and options, they wish to be considered as candidates. Those who during captivity took only a part of their examinations, and those who have not heard results of examinations already taken, should similarly communicate immediately with the External Registrar.
Model of Stalag IXC
A scale model 4ft. x 4ft. of Stalag IXC was on display in the London Museum during preparations for Red Cross Flag Day, was shown to the Queen when she visited the museum during the day. The model was designed by a repatriated P.o.W., Mr. W. Prentice, and constructed by Mr. H.E. Kingsman. It was given to Red Cross and St. John by the Union of Post Office Workers (South-Eastern office), of which both men are members.
American Kindness
Sir James Grigg, Secretary of State for War, has sent the following letter of appreciation to General Eisenhower:
“I want to express to you my deep gratitude for the way in which United States Forces have treated our prisoners of war. The advance of the allied armies, under your inspiring leadership, has brought freedom to thousands of these unfortunate prisoners in German hands. Soon, we may hope all of them will be free.
The swift return of these ex-prisoners to this country is, I know, a task calling for the highest degree of organisation and enthusiasm. Had it not been for the initiative and sympathy displayed by the United States Staff, Air Forces, and all concerned, the repatriation of our men would have been seriously hampered. As it is, their homecoming has been effected with the utmost rapidity, and they are loud in their praise and gratitude for the many kindnesses showered upon them by all ranks of the United Stated Forces at the time of their liberation and during their homeward journey.
May I ask you to accept my sincere thanks and to convey an expression of our very warm appreciation to all concerned.
[Page break]
JUNE, 1945 The Prisoner of War 3
How the Convoys Got Through
[Photograph of Red Cross trucks in a ship’s hold] The trucks are loaded with their precious cargoes.
EARLY in March a delegate of the International Red Cross visited a Canadian prisoner of war camp at Moosburg, and asked for twelve volunteers to drive trucks taking Red Cross supplies to prisoners on the move and in marooned stalags. There was an immediate response to the request, and on March 8th the volunteers were taken to Lubeck where they met M. Paul de Blonay, a Swiss I.R.C. delegate.
The little party of twelve, which was in charge of Sgt. Maj. Moss, learnt that 50 loaded trucks were awaiting drivers at Constance, on the Swiss border. Then a further thirty Canadians and twenty-two Americans were recruited from camps at Lubeck, and eight Men of Confidence who had come to draw rations for camps since liberated, made up the total required.
One Step from Freedom
When the men had given their word of honour that they would make no attempt to escape, the Germans allowed them to proceed by passenger train to Constance. There they found themselves in the German-held part of the town, with only a barrier separating them from Switzerland and freedom.
Sgt. Maj. Moss told a representative of THE PRISONER OF WAR that the drivers had plenty of opportunities to escape into Switzerland, but not one had succumbed to the temptation. Had any done so, the Germans would have carried out their threat and taken every supply truck off the road.
The fifty trucks consisted of G.M.C.s carrying 1,000 parcels each, and Chevrolets carrying 800 each. They were divided into three separate convoys.
Once convoy moving from Constance to Moosburg, via Gefrees and Carlsbad, found a hospital in Gefrees containing forty British P.o.W.s all too ill to be moved. There were no nurses, but one German doctor without medical equipment had remained in charge.
The convoy supplied Red Cross medical parcels and food.
“Those parcels undoubtedly saved the men’s lives,” said Sgt. Maj. Moss. “They were so excited when they saw what we were bringing them, and cheered and shouted so much, that it was quite a job to get them fed.”
This convoy reloaded at Moosburg from a Red Cross dump, and returned with further stocks to Gefrees.
When the original supplies from Constance were exhausted the trucks ran shuttle services from the dumps at Moosburg and Lubeck. Two trucks left Lubeck on April 8th to deliver French parcels from Behrensdorf to French P.o.W.s south-east of Berlin. The drivers reported tremendous congestion on the roads mostly caused by German civilians fleeing from the Russian front towards the American lines. At one point Pte. Charlie Smith, of Manitoba, found himself in a very hot spot, and then discovered he was two miles to the rear of the advancing Russians.
The trekking convoys moved by day and night. During one period of eight days the drivers averaged only three hours sleep per night. South of Wisman a convoy of twelve trucks returning empty for more supplies gave a lift to several hundred Allied women stranded on the road. Many of the women were so weak they had to be lifted into the vehicles. This convoy was involved in an Allied raid, and one American driver was killed and two Canadians were wounded. Four trucks were destroyed and two badly damaged.
Each convoy was accompanied by a German guard, but on a number of occasions S.S. tried to commandeer food parcels, petrol, etc. South of Berlin in an armed hold-up the S.S. stole one loaded truck; and near San Bostal they seized 160 parcels and a supply of petrol.
Thefts might have reached a serious level had not each driver been issued with a certificate by high-ranking officials of the Waffen S.S. There were few occasions when these certificates failed to protect the Red Cross supplies.
Altogether 14,000 marching prisoners were contacted by this party of drivers. Each received one parcel to last for five days. At the end of this time a convoy would overtake the column again and make a fresh issue. It proved impossible to allot more than one parcel per man because the marchers had no transport to carry extra supplies.
The volunteer drivers received their freedom at Lubeck, on May 2nd at 3.25 p.m. when the first British tank came rolling in. It was a great moment, but the work itself did not finish until May 8th. The convoy men remained inn Germany for another six days to feed P.o.W.s and evacuees awaiting transport to the United Kingdom. When at last their own turn came to leave, they handed over their trucks to Swiss Red Cross drivers.
[Boxed] AUTHORITY FROM THE S.S.
Lubeck.
19th April, 1945
[Underlined] CERTIFICATE [/underlined]
Lorry No. GE 55 YY of the International Red Cross, its entire load and its petrol and oil are the property of the International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva. Requisition thereof would therefore be a breach of international law, and a general warning is hereby issued against such requisition. Any person disregarding this warning offends not only against international law but also against Military law and will be tried by a German military court.
SCHROEDER
S.S. Brigadier and Major-General of Police
For
BERGER
C.in C. Home Forces
Chief of Prisoners of War Administration
Senior Group Leader and General in the Armed S.S.
For International Red Cross Committee
P. DE BLONAY
Delegate. [/boxed]
[Page break]
4 The Prisoner of War JUNE, 1945
Victory Smiles
Released in time for VE-Day celebrations, these British troops from a prisoner of war camp in Saxony awaited repatriation at an emergency transit camp in Naumberg, Germany, when these pictures were taken. They come from many parts of the British Isles and Dominion.
[Photographs of groups of smiling men] NORTH OF ENGLAND, LONDON & WALES, YORKSHIRE, GLASGOW, SOUTH AFRICA, LONDON
[Page break]
JUNE, 1945 The Prisoner of War 5
FINDING HIS FEET
Red Cross and St. John has sent every next of kin advice about food for ex-prisoners of war. Here are a chat and some hints on the subject by RADIO DOCTOR
IT would be natural to welcome the boys home with a terrific bust-up – to try to make up to them something of what they have lost – to shower them with hospitality to show our gratitude, our delight at seeing them in their own armchair again. But let us go into this a bit more deeply.
When people are badly under-nourished through too little food it isn’t only the face and the arms and the waistline; it isn’t only the parts you can see which are thinner, but some of the parts you can’t see. One of them is the tummy itself, or the stomach and the intestines to be more exact. The internal workings may have suffered, and particularly the arrangements for digesting food and for absorbing food.
“The Body Lives on Itself”
This is what happens in starvation or partial starvation. First the reserves are used up, the sugar in the muscles, the fat under the skin, and so on. Then, when things have got really bad and there are no more reserves, the body lives on itself. It gets its energy from its own tissues, and uses them up in doing so. And among the tissues it uses up are the tissues of the alimentary tract. This means that the digestion apparatus may be under par.
So though the undernourished need a lot, they can’t take a lot – at least, at first. That is Rule No. 1 – go steady at first. Get acclimatised. Small meals and plenty of them rather than large meals and blow-outs!
The second point is, the boys will naturally be excited at the prospect of foods they haven’t seen for years – unaccustomed foods, at least to them, like roast beef and Yorkshire, steak and kidney pudding, roast pork complete with a lively piece of crackling. On these, too, they must go steady. For their tummies have forgotten them. Give them the shock of having to tackle something they haven’t had inside them for years and they may revolt. They will have to learn once more to tackle them.
“No Fatty Foods at First”
The third point is that it is the fatty foods which will disturb them most at first. It is a general rule that fatty foods cause more upset than others, and this is particularly true of the recovering tummy. No fried, fatty or seasoned foods for the first few weeks.
Let me suggest some meals. First breakfast: bacon, yes. The fat of bacon is very digestible if there isn’t too much of it. Let the bacon be crisp. Egg, yes. But let it be boiled, or poached, or scrambled. No fried eggs just yet. Toast and marmalade, yes. But when you are putting the butter or the margarine on the toast, let the toast be cold. Porridge and milk, yes. For “elevenses” – and there should be “elevenses" – cocoa, milky coffee or milk, sandwiches, scones, biscuits, plain cake. Dinner: meat, of course, but not too much fat. And pork is barred for a bit (I hope it isn’t pork week in your district!). Fish, by all means, but not fried.
Getting Into Training
Puddings, go in for the lighter sort – milk puddings, puddings of the junkety, custardy sort. At tea-time, a milky tea, with jam sandwiches, or raisin sandwiches, and plain cake or biscuits. At bedtime, something milky, and with a biscuit or two; salad vegetables, yes. Sweets and chocolate, yes. In short, a simple building-up diet, with nothing fatty, nothing fancy in the first few weeks.
It is like getting into training for a race. Start gently, and build up as you go along. It will take time to become adjusted to the new life.
[Photograph of a group of four men around a cooking fire outdoors] These Americans liberated by the British eat their first freedom meal with gusto.
- And Seven Other Tips
FROM Stalag to the family fireside. From bleak isolation of the German prison camp – redeemed only by the comradeship of fellow-prisoners and the letters and parcels from home – to the warm comfort of family and friends.
What can you do to help your repatriated prisoner of war to find his feet. Here are some tips:-
(1) Before you meet your man think for a moment of what home-coming means to him. He has been leading a hard and unnatural life, maybe for years. He is returning to a life which has changed since he left it. It will take him time to get back into his old ways.
(2) Let his first glimpse of you be at home. In his mind’s eye he has carried round his prison camp a picture of you in your home, in his home. He pictures you as he left you at home.
(3) At first he wants only his own family (sometimes not every member of that). Don’t let all his relatives and friends crowd round him. Ration the visitors for the first day or two at least.
(4) Remember that he is anxious above all to be “like everyone else.” He may hide his difficulties or pretend he has none. Let him. Take no notice. Wait for him to talk. Don’t worry him with your questions.
(5) He may be moody, even irritable. He may want to be alone and, unlike the film star, really mean it. In this way he is slipping into things at his own pace. He doesn’t want sympathy or pity. Be patient and don’t fuss over him.
(6) Naturally, he will want to know about the changes which have taken place since he went away. Fill in the gaps in his knowledge easily and naturally, in course of ordinary conversation. Don’t talk at him. It is no good pretending that nothing has changed – that will make him suspicious. Don’t pretend that he has changed and you haven’t. You’re different too. Don’t tell him of your war hardships or remind him of his. He has had enough.
(7) He may be full of grouses. If he is, just listen. Don’t join in his grouses, but don’t contradict him.
Let me sum it all up in five simple words: “Help him – don’t hurry him.” And soon in both mind and body he will cover the distance between prison camp and home. He will take root once more, in the soil of home.
Reprinted by courtesy of the DAILY MAIL.
[Page break]
6 The Prisoner of War JUNE, 1945
WINNING BACK THEIR WEIGHT!
[Photograph of a man standing on scales being measured by a nurse] Above A corporal has his weight tested on the ward, so that nurse may report his progress to the doctor.
Below The magic mixture which helps to bring back the weight. Cook and her voluntary assistant at Little Missenden. [Photograph of two ladies preparing baking materials]
[Photograph of a group of men around a table, smiling] Above The first meal downstairs at Seer Green is a treat and (left) a group of repatriates sunning themselves.
[Photograph of a group of people sitting on a lawn and on deckchairs]
[Photograph of a hospital ward] Below A parachute regiment padre meets an old friend in a corner of one of the wards at Little Missenden.
A NUMBER of the prisoners of war who had done the 400 miles forced march from Poland into Germany were sent to two Red Cross and St. John Convalescent Homes at Seer Green and Little Missenden converted into Camp Reception Stations for rehabilitation and rest.
When first seen the men presented an alarming appearance, looking critically ill, but these seemingly severe cases improved rapidly.
All suffered in varying degrees from emaciation, loss of weight of between one and three stone and exhaustion, and 10% of the more severe cases have shown swelling of the feet and ankles.
The routine was complete rest in bed, warmth, two hot water bottles and light diet. Fats, in the form of butter, were tolerated better tan was expected. Slight difficulty was experienced at the outset due to the desire of patients to eat large quantities of white bread and butter. Consequently abdominal pains. All patients when first admitted showed a dazed cheerfulness and were very glad to speak of their many experiences.
The weak appearance of so many of these men appears to have been due to the long forced march on starvation diet, as the majority of the men said they were fairly fit prior to the march. All prisoners were loud in their praise of Red Cross parcels and said that those kept them alive. The average gain in weight has been in the neighbourhood of 8 lbs. over a ten-day stay.
[Page break]
JUNE, 1945 The Prisoner of War 7
THE MARCH IS OVER
A Lance Corporal wrote home from a camp near Hanover where he was awaiting repatriation, describing his long trek across Germany from Stalag XXA.
[Picture of a man bowing in front of a globe with a cross on it - we Bow our heads in gratitude] Tribute was paid to the Red Cross in this very fine stage decoration at Stalag VIIIB.
“THE march is over and done with. We carried it through with the ever-steady British spirit, in spite of quite unnecessary indignities imposed by the Germans.
“We left Thorn (Poland) on the 20th January, foot-slogging from that date until we finished up not far from Hanover on the 6th April.
“We started off on snowbound roads, several feet deep, with home-made sledges loaded with what kit we could carry. The first night was spent in the open with the snow as our mattress. It was surprisingly warm! The rest of the way we slept herded together in barns and cowsheds amongst the animals.
“Fortunately the weather was, on the whole fair, so that we were spared the discomfort of marching in wet clothes during our 400 miles trek.
“Sometimes eight men shared one loaf of bread a day, but more often than not there was no bread at all. Occasionally we received thin, watered soup made from swedes and potatoes. We were so hungry we ate any raw vegetables that came our way, and liked them. There were no Red Cross food parcels to help as the Germans had ordered all stocks in Stalag XXA to be consumed by the end of the second week in January.
“All through the weary days of the long march the Germans showed no sympathy for the inadequate food, warmth and shelter provided for the prisoners. When at last the men could march no farther, and the Americans were reported to be advancing rapidly, the German leader, not wanting to be caught himself, agreed to let them remain where they were.
“Now, as I write, I am a free man, sportingly clothed in a light silk American shirt, wide open at the neck, matched by a similarly light pair of khaki daks, with sandals on the hardened soles of my feet, and somewhat swollen ankles. It is heaven to have plenty of hot water and a hot shower whenever we want, and to be shaved – if we need it twice a day. I feel definitely a clean and healthy man again.
“We have out American allies to thank for our timely rescue. They went out of their way to ensure we had at once every comfort we desired.
“It is difficult to realise we are no longer prisoners, but our own masters under Allied Command. We are in charge of this camp, which is really a civilian evacuee camp, flying the British Red Cross flag. It is housing people of many nationalities - Russians, Poles, French, Italians, Serbs, Jugo-Slavs, Lithuanians, South African natives, and women and children.”
Bridging the Gap
REPATRIATED prisoners of war who are discharged or released from the Service are to have an opportunity to accustom themselves gradually to social surroundings once again by entering voluntary camps. These camps, which are to be set up by the Army in pleasant surroundings near towns all over the country, will be known as Civil Resettlement Units. Any man who is interested may select one near his home and will probably stay there between four and six weeks. It is, however, possible to leave a t any time within that period, or the course can be lengthened if necessary up to three months. Only men who have been discharged, or are about to be discharged, are eligible.
Half-way House
As a half-way house between Army and home life, C.R.U.s are to be run on realistic lines with full awareness of the things for which they cater. Discipline is cut to a minimum, and a man’s only duties will be to keep his bed and belongings tidy. (Incidentally, it is to be a real bed with springs, and he will sleep between sheets.) Breakfast will be at 8 a.m., and the programme for the day begins at 9.0 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. During this time the repatriate may choose between films, talks and discussions which will bring him up to date with events which have taken place during his absence; visits to factories, technical schools and offices and other outings, so that to a great extent he will arrange his own day. Facilities will be available for advice of qualified persons on employment, finance, health and personal matters. There will be light physical exercises and optional games to vary the day.
During “working” hours repatriates will wear uniform. Later they may change into civilian clothes whether they stay in the camp during the evening or go out. Week-end leave (Friday night to Monday morning) can always be arranged for those who choose to go home, and sleeping-out passes will be given to those whose homes are nearby.
Usual pay and allowances are allotted according to the man’s war substantive rank. The period spent at a C.R.U. in no way affects length of leave, possible claim for pension, or reinstatement rights into a pre-war job.
All home-coming P.o.W.s will receive a pamphlet telling them about these units and giving a good deal of other information which may fill in some of the gaps the P.o.W.s noticed in letters from home whilst in a prison camp. “Changes have taken place,” the pamphlet relates, “in Civvy Street. Your friends have been engaged in war work. Many are on jobs that did not exist before. There are ration cards and wartime regulations. Your wives, mothers, and sisters have carried the burden of war work as well as the extra difficulties of wartime housekeeping. It is a different world in many ways from the one you left.
“You have changed too. You are older than when you joined the Army. You are more experienced … You have a new outlook on civil life, a more developed outlook, and quite possibly a better one than before. But you will need time to find your feet again. Going back after all these changes will not be easy … You may feel confused until you have got used to civil life again. It is to help you bridge this gap between the Army and civil life that C.R.U.s have been set up.”
[Page break]
8 The Prisoner of War JUNE, 1945
Released Doctor’s Tribute
TWO R.A.M.C. doctors now back in England after long years spent in German captivity have made some interesting observations about their experiences.
Doctor C. was a senior medical officer for 18 months at a hospital in Poland. “I would like tit to be known,” he said, “that hundreds of our lads would never have survived the first year of their captivity if it had not been for the splendid work of the Polish civilians, who at great personal risk smuggled in supplies of bread and other necessities during that first period before the Red Cross machinery got working. The penalties were severe, but they did not hesitate to help in every way they could.”
Praising the Invalid Comforts Section of the Red Cross, the doctor said: “Whatever we asked for in the way of medical supplies or surgical equipment was sent out to us via air from Lisbon. This section has done one of the greatest jobs of the war.”
Another doctor, writing to the Invalid Comforts Section, said: “I am sure you can well realise the almost incredible state one gets into on first being in England again after five years over there. Thank you very much for your wonderful personal interest in us all. It has meant so much to mothers to feel that someone was actually thinking about us as people, and not just as P.o.W. numbers.
“You will be pleased to hear that our surplus stocks of food parcels and the invalid diet parcels, actually, fed the whole hospital, and the staff at Marienburg (XXB) for about a month and also during the long trek in farm carts from Marienburg to Warsaw.”
Film Story of Camp Life
A FILM entitled Lovers Meeting will be made shortly by Ealing Studios. The story reveals what happened to a group of men, captured during the battle of France in 1940, after the barbed wire closed round them, and how their next of kin spent the empty years between the men’s departure and their return home.
The story traces the reactions of the prisoners throughout the psychological stages of their confinement. It shows how at first disillusionment took control, with its attendant loss of faith. The gradually self-respect and hope returned. The arrival of the Red Cross parcels is shown, with all that they meant to the men, not only in material benefits, but in the realisation that they were not forgotten by the people at home. The periods of boredom are portrayed; the days of rain and cold, when the thoughts turned inward, and spirits were cramped by isolation and barbed wire.
The climax of the story comes with repatriation.
Out from the Battle!
AN exhibition entitled “out from the Battle!” is being arranged by the British Red Cross and St. John War Organisation in collaboration with the War Office and the Army Medical Services. It is being sponsored by the Daily Herald, and will be held in the grounds of Clarence House, St. James’s Park, by kind permission of His Majesty the King, from June 12th to July 31st, 1945. All proceeds will go to the Duke of Gloucester’s Red Cross and St. John Fund.
The exhibition will show the whole process and treatment of wounded men from the moment they become battle casualties until they reach a base hospital and convalescent home.
The R.A.M.C. is putting on realistic reproductions of a Regimental Aid Post; Casualty Collecting Post; Advanced Dressing Station; Mobile X-Ray Unit; Field Operating Theatre; Field Hospital Ward.
Visitors will be able to see how the basic work of the R.A.M.C. in the field is supplemented by welfare officers, stores and comforts of the British Red Cross and St. John War Organisation.
Graphic displays in a series of huts will illustrate:-
(1) Evacuation of the wounded by road, rail, ship and air, and a unique exhibition of captured German medical equipment, ranging from a mobile resuscitation outfit to paper bandages.
(2) The production, testing and uses of penicillin, and the collection, treatment and distribution of blood to the wounded.
(3) The work of the Army Dental Corps in the field, with a special exhibit showing the skill employed in dealing with maxillo-facial injuries.
(4) How the Hygiene Branch of the Medical Services deals with the prevention and extermination of disease – with particular reference to jungle warfare.
(5) How the British Red Cross and St. John War Organisation aids the wounded and their relatives.
(6) Occupational therapy; with a remarkable display of craftmanship by wounded men.
(7) The work of Hospital Libraries.
An R.A.M.C. Austin ambulance will be on show which was abandoned in 1940 at Dunkirk, and used for four years by the Germans who repaired it and fitted metal panelling to the interior. The Germans took the ambulance to the Russian Front, but on D-Day sent it back for service in France. It was recaptured by the British at Commeaux on August 20th, 1944. Now with a mileage record of 100,000 miles, the vehicle has been loaned to the Exhibition by the Austin Motor Company, to whom it was presented by Field Marshal Montgomery.
The Exhibition will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sundays 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.).
Exam. Successes
DURING the past month 131 examination results have been announced for prisoner of war candidates. These include passes in Hungarian, Modern Chinese, Malay and Persian, the papers for which were sent by the School of Slavonic Studies and the School of Oriental Studies.
Flt.Lt. A.P.L. Barber has passed the LL.B. Final Examination of the University of Leeds with First Class Honours.
A group of fifteen officers formerly in Oflag XIIB have taken the Senior General Examination of the Royal Horticultural Society, and all of them have passed first-class. The group includes two brigadiers and three lieutenant colonels and one South African captain.
Several Camp Education Officers have informed Red Cross that before leaving Germany they packed up a number of complete examination scripts and handed them over to responsible officers of the liberating forces with the request that they should be despatched to the New Bodleian. It is hoped that these scripts will eventually reach England safely, as many ex-prisoners of war now in this country have written to enquire about their examinations.
All information concerning examinations will be passed on to ex-prisoner of war candidates by the Educational Books Section as soon as available.
Repatriates, Please Note
The Indoor Recreations Section much regrets that their small stock of musical instruments, for distribution to repatriated prisoners of war, is now exhausted. A supply of music and artists’ materials is still available on application to St. James’s Palace, London, S.W.1.
[Boxed] HAVE YOU MOVED?
If so, do not forget to notify the Army, Navy or R.A.F. authorities as well as the Red Cross of your change of address. [/boxed]
Printed in GREAT BRITAIN for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14, Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Prisoner of War June 1945
Description
An account of the resource
The official journal of the Prisoners of War Department of the Red Cross and St John War Organisation. This edition covers the editor's comments, How the Convoys got through, photographs of ex-POWs titled 'Victory Smiles', Finding his Feet - nutritional advice, Seven Other tips for returning ex-POWs, photographs of ex-POWs regaining their weight, the March is Over about the Long March, Bridging the Gap about Civil Resettlement Units, Released Doctor's tributes, an exhibition titled 'Out from the Battle', a film made about POW experiences and Exam results from POW camps.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Eight printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-020
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
United States Army Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Hannover
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Channel Islands
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Naumburg (Saxony-Anhalt)
Great Britain
England--London
Germany--Lübeck
Poland
Poland--Łambinowice
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Karlovy Vary
Germany--Konstanz
Germany--Moosburg an der Isar
Germany
Belgium
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation. Prisoners of war department
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-06
aircrew
B-17
C-47
Lancaster
memorial
Operation Exodus (1945)
prisoner of war
Red Cross
Stalag 8B
the long march
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22593/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-022.2.pdf
7926a26f45c20e495523731963048cc3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE
Prisoner of War
[Symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON S.W.1.
VOL. 3 No. 35. Free to Next of Kin MARCH, 1945
The Editor Writes –
MANY inquiries are, naturally, reaching the Prisoners of War Department from anxious relatives for news of the camps in Poland and Western and Eastern Germany, which have either been overrun by the victorious advances of the Russian Army or else lie in the direct path of the Allied Armies both in the east and west. The progress of the Allied attacks, accompanied as they have been by terrific air bombardment, have necessarily resulted in the mass movement by the Germans of camps and prisoners towards the centre of Germany under difficult conditions, and in almost complete disorganisation of the German transport system. The resulting effects on the condition of our prisoners is discussed in the statement made by Sir James Grigg, the Secretary of State for War, on February 28th, which is printed in full on page 3, and the Chairman of Red Cross and St. John Prisoners of War Department on p. 2.
Liberated Prisoners
It is now possible from the various official statements that have been made to gain a fairly clear picture of what is happening as regards prisoners of war who have been overtaken and liberated by the Russian advance. Information has been received from the Soviet authorities that 2,661 British Commonwealth prisoners of war (of whom 70 are officers) recovered from German camps were on their way by rail to Odessa and that they were to be assembled in a transit camp which was under construction. Since that news arrived, Sir James Grigg has stated in the House of Commons that the Soviet authorities are giving facilities for officers in our military mission to visit the camp in Lublin where prisoners are awaiting transfer to Odessa. Officers from the mission are also on their way to Odessa and their first task on arrival will be to collect and make lists of names and then telegraph them home at the earliest possible moment. The Service Departments will inform next of kin of any news of individual prisoners immediately it is received. A list of the camps involved and information of German plans for their transfer will be found on page 16.
[Photograph of five men in uniform] A group of prisoners at Stalag IIID which was situated at Berlin-Steglitz and to which the Postmaster-General advises that no more parcels should now be sent.
I must call readers’ attention to the important announcement on page 16 concerning parcels and letters to these camps and emphasising that no new parcels should be sent.
Red Cross Depot at Odessa
In accordance with the agreement recently concluded in the Crimea, the Soviet authorities are providing food, clothes and any necessary medical attention for our men. These basic supplies which the Russians are providing will be supplemented by the food, medical parcels, cigarettes, tobacco, chocolate and soap to the value of £77,000, which was sent to Russia last year by Red Cross and St. John. Red Cross and St. John are preparing to co-operate wholeheartedly with the Soviet Government in caring for our ex-prisoners of war until they can be repatriated. They are desirous of setting up a depot at Odessa, with stocks of Red Cross comforts and a team of women Welfare Officers. Already over 400 cases of Red Cross comforts have been shipped to Odessa and further shipments will take place in the future.
A Word of Warning
I would advise nest of kin to watch the papers for statements made in the House of Commons or issued as official announcements, but to be sceptical of any unofficial reports about prison camps or prisoners of war until they have been officially confirmed. The newspapers indicate the sources of reports which reach them from time to time through neutral countries, and it is easy to distinguish these reports from the official statements.
[Page break]
2 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
Prisoners Exchange
Mr. Eden has announced in the House of Commons that a fresh proposal regarding the exchange of able-bodied long-term prisoners of war has been handed to the Swiss Government for communication to the German Government providing for the direct repatriation through Switzerland of a number of British prisoners of war from the Navy, Army, Air Force and Merchant Service captured before July 1st, 1940, in exchange for an equal number of German prisoners.
Priority for Discharge
In answer to a question in the House of Commons of February 6th as to whether prisoners of war repatriated to this country are required to undergo training, with a view to their services being used again in other theatres of war, and whether any long period of imprisonment by the enemy will entitle released prisoners to immediate or early discharge from the Army either now or at the conclusion of hostilities in Europe, Sir James Grigg said: “Returned prisoners will be given no formal priority for release, but as a large number of them joined the services in the early years of the war their priority will be high.”
Medical Attention
Those people who have any fears that the medical attention supplies to prisoners of war upon their return to this country is not fully adequate may be reassured by the recent statement of the Minister of Health, Mr, Henry Willink. “Returning prisoners of war,“ he said, “have the benefit of all the resources of the Emergency Hospital Scheme, when the Service Department concerned requests that they be treated under that scheme.” As for those suffering from tuberculosis whose condition calls for sanatorium treatment, special measures are taken to secure their admission to a sanatorium and they need treatment, but it is not always possible to avoid a short waiting period at home, during which the patient is under the expert care of the tuberculosis officer.
The Best Yet
“The best since I have been a prisoner of war” was the verdict on Christmas pronounced in a letter from Stalag IVG. “We had from Saturday mid-day to Tuesday night holiday. We spent the time with concerts, dancing and singing. We cleared one of the barrack rooms out which we used for the shows and dancing. The sixteen lads in our room clubbed together and had a high tea on Christmas Day.” The Entertainment Committee in Stalag XIA have kindly sent a special report of their Christmas festivities. I am sorry that it arrived too late for it to be printed in full. They say: “To all our loved ones at home it will be very pleasant to know that this Christmas and New Year was certainly the best we have ever had during our captivity.”
Studied by Margarine Light
A vivid impression of the difficulties under which students in camps have to work is given in a letter received from a warrant officer in Stalag 357. He writes: “Those students who can afford sufficient margarine from their ration or who have enough cigarettes to purchase one of these lamps work in the dim, uncertain light of a ‘Fat Lamp’ for periods of four to five hours.” In spite of the handicaps (which include overcrowding and “paralysing cold”), all the students “display a keenness that is surprisingly alive.” Another typical instance of difficulties conquered comes from Stalag IVB, where the lack of chalk precipitated a minor crisis until one prisoner, after experimenting privately with plaster of paris and tooth powder baked in the oven, produced a successful substitute.
Spectacles from England
In 1942 the Joint War Emergency Committee of the Optical Profession offered to provide spectacles with Army standard-type frames, free of charge, for prisoners of war. Up to the end of December the Invalid Comforts Section of the Red Cross Prisoners of War Department received no fewer than 3,340 pairs of spectacles from the committee. These represent an extremely valuable gift to our prisoners of war, and a deep debt of gratitude is owed to all members of the committee for their kindness. When spectacles cannot be obtained at the camps the senior medical officers send lists of optical prescriptions to the Invalid Comforts Section. These are then sent to the committee and distributed amongst its members for dispensing.
Reception in Cyprus
On November 16th last 300 repatriated prisoners of war arrived in Famagusta, Cyprus. These men were escapees to Switzerland, where they had been for a year, and they were full of praise for the kindness shown them. All the workers of the Prisoners of War Bureau in Cyprus assisted in the reception that was given to them by the Red Cross and at which the Governor, the Officer Commanding the Area, and the Deputy Commissioner, British Red Cross, were present. From all accounts the ex-prisoners of war were in very good heart and health and much appreciated the special Cyprus food and drink given to them. The men, I am told, have since been to the Prisoners of War Bureau, and were most grateful to the Red Cross for the parcel which kept them alive in Italy. There are still 1,500 Cypriot prisoners of war in Germany.
TRANSPORT OF FOOD PARCELS By Sir Richard Howard-Vyse, K.C.M.G. D.S.O.
IN the February number of this journal I told our readers that the flow of parcels via the Mediterranean and the Baltic had improved sufficiently to allow the resumption of the full issue of a parcel a week as soon as sufficient stocks were available in camps. I said that it was entirely a question of rail transport through Germany, as to which we had reason at the moment to feel hopeful, but I added that in view of the Russian advance it was dangerous to prophesy.
These words were written in the first half of January, since when it has become clear that the successes of the Russians, coupled with bombing attacks from this side have thoroughly disorganised the German railway system. Matters have been complicated, of course, by the fact that the men from many of the camps overrun by the Russians were moved away beforehand by the Germans. Details of these moves, so far as they are known, have been published in the Press, and I understand that supplementary information will be issued from time to time; reports of statements by the Secretary of State for war appear elsewhere in this journal.
We now know that in December and early in January supplies arrived at some camps, for instance, Oflag VA, Oflag VIIIB, and Stalags IVD, XIA, XXB and Stalagluft III (since moved) and 357; they may have reached others, and geographically it seems likely that they may have done so; but we have no information one way or another.
The position to-day – and I am writing on February 28th – is that hardly any despatches are being made from Switzerland, but that, after a total cessation of several days, there is, for the moment at any rate, a flow through the Baltic port of Lubeck, though nothing like sufficient.
The supplies, as all know, are there. As regards food parcels the steps which are being taken to produce the transport so vitally necessary, I have little to add to the statement made by Sir James Grigg to-day. It will be seen from that statement that all available resources have been enlisted, including the active co-operation of S.H.A.E.F., and, of course, the good offices of the International Red Cross Committee. The War Organisation has authorised that Committee to incur, on our behalf, any expenditure which may be necessary to procure and operate additional transport and we are in the closest possible contact with all concerned.
One thought I would offer which may be comforting. The prisoners know, as well as we do, that this is the dawn of victory and of release.
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 3
EMERGENCY SUPPLIES
For the Camps
Statement by Sir James Grigg, Secretary of State for War, in the House of Commons on February 28th
THE House is already aware that the progress of the Allied attacks on Germany by land and from the air has resulted in mass movements of prisoners and civilians from the perimeter toward the central districts, particularly from the eastern side of Germany. The conditions under which such movements must take place have largely been created by the military success of the Allies. But inevitably these conditions involve for large numbers of our prisoners in Germany movement on foot, under difficult conditions, with inadequate provision on the road for accommodation at night and for food, and eventually overcrowding in the camps to which they are moved back.
The representatives of the Protecting Power in Germany are doing all they can to secure improvements from the Germans; and their efforts have not been without some results. For example, they have been assured that in future sick or weak prisoners will be moved by train or lorry, and we know for certain that this has been done in some recent cases. Between February 19 and 24 their inspectors were due to pay special visits to certain camps to which British prisoners of war have been transferred, and I will give the substance of their reports to the House as soon as they arrive.
FOOD RESERVES.
The Government and the British Red Cross War Organisation had foreseen that as the weight of attack on Germany was pressed home this situation might arise. Efforts had therefore been made to establish substantial reserves in the camps of Red Cross food parcels, medical supplies and comforts, clothing and boots; and we hope that in spite of the interruptions in supplies to Geneva consequent on operations in the south of France last summer, the position in the matter of clothing will not become serious.
In the case of food parcels, however, the Germans last autumn insisted on those reserve stocks being reduced to a weekly basis. To the best of our knowledge this order was enforced in most of the camps, and the excess stocks were consumed accordingly. Recently the International Red Cross Committee, as a result of long negotiations, had secured agreement from the German authorities to the establishment of limited reserve supplies of food parcels outside the camps, but this agreement came too late for it to become effective before the dis-organisation in Germany had reached a point where transport facilities for Red Cross supplies from Switzerland had been seriously reduced. Not only are few railway wagons reaching Switzerland from Germany, but such trains as are dispatched from Geneva cannot, we understand, get very far into Germany. While everyone will welcome the results of this disorganisation so far as the war effort is concerned, it has created increasing anxiety for the welfare of the British Commonwealth prisoners.
Naturally this situation has for a long time been present in the minds of His Majesty’s Government and of the British Red Cross Society, and various possibilities have been examined in order to meet it. The supply of food to prisoners from the air is one of those possibilities. The Government have satisfied themselves that this is not at present practicable, but if circumstances change and it becomes feasible use will certainly be made of this means of supply.
LORRY CONVOYS
Negotiations are in train for the purchase of lorries in Sweden which could enter Germany and be used to transport supplies for Lübeck to prisoner-of-war camps in northern Germany. These lorries burn wood. As Sweden is so abundantly supplied this is a great advantage, but we have undertaken to replace any tyres or oil which are used for this project, and also any petrol in the event of ordinary lorries being used as well as the wood-burning ones.
Similar projects have been examined for introducing supplies from Switzerland. The railways in south Germany are apparently so disorganised and clogged with traffic that the supply of wagons in Switzerland in not likely to help. It has been possible to proceed further with the supply of lorries. The Supreme Allied Command, who are, as it were, on the spot, are obviously in the best position to do whatever is possible. The British Government in the United Kingdom, as well as the Commonwealth and the United States Governments, in agreement with the respective national Red Cross organisation, have asked the Supreme Allied Command in France to carry on on their behalf all negotiations with the International Red Cross in these matters. Members will realise that nothing is likely to be achieved except through the good offices of the International Red Cross Committee.
One hundred lorries which were being used in France by the International Red Cross have been assembled in Switzerland, and they are now ready to enter Germany with food parcels. It is, however, impossible to proceed further without the agreement of the German authorities, and I do not yet know to what extent the steps which the International Red Cross are endeavouring to take will be in fact be acceptable to the Germans. I understand that a representative of their left Switzerland yesterday for Berlin in order to obtain the agreement which is necessary.
UNSPARING EFFORT
But I would like to assure the House that there will be no difficulty on the score of provision of lorries by the Supreme Allied Command. Indeed, 100 more lorries are ready to go into Switzerland at once if those which are there now are allowed into Germany, and arrangements have been made to supply petrol, oil, tyres and spare parts to Switzerland when they are needed. I should add that the British Red Cross War Organisation have authorised the International Red Cross Committee to incur on their behalf any expenditure which they consider necessary in connection with the care of our prisoners now in German hands.
I hope I have shown that the Government in this country, the Supreme Allied Command, and the British Red Cross are doing all in their power to see that any request from the International Red Cross for vehicles, fuel, or maintenance stores which can be effectively used to supply our prisoners is met, subject only to the condition that such assistance will not weaken the attack on Germany and so delay the conclusion of hostilities. I will give the House any further information I can at the earliest possible opportunity.
[Boxed] HAVE YOU MOVED?
If so, do not forget to notify the Army, Navy or R.A.F. authorities as well as the Red Cross of your change of address. [/boxed]
[Page break]
4 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
[Drawing] “We know how to cook”
BY NORMAN W. GOULD
ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLETCHER
YOU may not know it, but we prisoners of war are pretty good cooks. So would you be if you had been without the Gentle Ministering Hand for four years. Of course we are not the only ones. There are our traditional comrades on the home front – husbands of Service wives and other hairy citizens, who make aeroplanes by day and cook their own supper at night. Men who couldn’t be trusted to boil an egg, men who didn’t know a saucepan from a frying pan now boil the egg in the saucepan with perfect confidence. (When they can get the egg.)
We prisoners are proud to be in the vanguard of this movement. We have learned to keep our chins up in our prison kitchens; we shall be able to carry our heads no less high in our own homes. We have broken the tyranny of the Women’s Kitchen Front: WE KNOW HOW TO COOK!! For us it has been a bloodless victory; no woman has yet dared to invade our kitchens. (We have even jettisoned this effeminate word, the scenes of our culinary triumphs are known as cook-houses.) For the hairy aeroplane merchants we have great respect. Time after time they have successfully repelled the invasions of wives on leave. But what of the enemy within our ranks? The man who still has a woman in his kitchen. To those soft, overfed creatures – martyrs to the feminine Fresh Wholesome Food cult, we address this message: “Be a master in your own kitchen, free yourself from woman’s age-old tyranny: cook your own food!”
Take the Gestapo, the Ku Klux Klan, and a pinch of the British Secret Service. Roll them into one – a deep, dark and sinister combination, yet a mere crew of amateurs compared with the secret Sisterhood of British Housewives. For centuries we British males have been in the stranglehold of this organisation, weak tools in the hands of our unscrupulous women.
Napoleon knew all about it. He taught his soldiers to march on their stomachs. They got so stomach conscious that they took to cooking their own food when they got home again. To-day the finest cooks in the world are Frenchmen. No Frenchman cares two hoots if his wife does walk out of the house and kitchen, he can cook his own food. The poor, envious Englishman can’t even light the gas. Or rather, couldn’t.
Any foreigner who has been around will tell you that English cooking is the worst in the world. Plain and stodgy. But we liked it, because from birth we were stuffed with the S.B.H. propaganda about Fresh Wholesome Food. We were taught that tinned food is slow poison, we were lulled to sleep as children with tales of bachelors who lived on tinned salmon. Day after day it was dinned into us that no man was to be trusted with the preparation of food. In the end we believed it.
In four short years, we prisoners (together with our traditional comrades, the hairy aeroplane supper cookers) have achieved complete liberation. We started under a tremendous handi-
[Drawing of three men cooking]
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 5
[Drawing of a man cooking on a stove, throwing a tin into a bin]
cap and we have had to overcome great obstacles.
Some idea of the magnitude of our task can be gained when we reveal that of the hundreds of thousands of letters that have poured into our camps, not one instance is recorded of a recipe being given. *
*This article was written before the issue of the Red Cross recipe book.
In the first dark year (1940) when we were groping for knowledge, a hardy pioneer made a cake from a packet of old pancake mixture (and not much else) and put it on display. In one day, in a spirit of true brotherhood, he answered 249 questions about cake-making and cooking generally. To-day any prisoner will don his boiler suit and mix a cake without thinking twice about it.
Symbolic of the revolution are the communal prison cook-houses. Eight, ten or even twelve men stand shoulder to shoulder stirring their porridge or stewing their prunes. Friendly advice is passed from one to the other; a haze of tobacco smoke hangs in the air. From time to time an empty tin is aimed with deadly accuracy at the bin. These are the men who are furthering the cause of culinary science. Already before the end of 1941 they had discovered six new ways of cooking potatoes: they are responsible for the introduction of crushed biscuits as a substitute for flour; by untiring research they have overcome the pink salmon problem, with no less than 22 different methods of disposing of this pest. Camp medical officers have been furnished with invaluable data on the treatment of boils.
No less successful have been our comrades on the home front. Business men have applied business efficiency methods to the kitchen. It has been found that by using the whole range of crockery, including the Sunday tea service, washing-up need only be done once every ten days, in place of the old method of washing up small units three or four times a day. The total saving of time and energy is of undoubted significance.
We prisoners are busy planning for the future. A committee of camp leaders has already adopted the Master Plan. Post-war reconstruction will leave us no time for the trivialities of the kitchen. Our Plan, the New London and the “Homes Fit for Farmworkers To Live In” schemes will engage our full attention. Our women will return to the kitchen.
Complacently we shall sit in the back seat – and tell them how to drive.
[Cartoon]
[Page break]
6 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
The Brighter Side
So many letters have been received in which the chief topic was Christmas Festivities that this month’s “Brighter Side” is devoted to their cheerful accounts of how Christmas was spent in the camps.
[Two photographs of people in a play] Two scenes from the lavish production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Which was produced at Stalag IXC.
A TYPICAL account of the way in which prisoners spent Christmas Day is given by a flight lieutenant in Stalag Luft 3, who writes: “I started the day by taking Holy Communion, and the rest of the day was spent eating excellent food and plenty of it supplied by the good old Red Cross.” The menu was:
Turkey
Roast and Mashed Potatoes
Peas Carrots
Christmas Pudding and Cream
Chocolate Tarts
Apple Tart
Christmas Cake
Dates, Sweets and Nuts
Coffee
“We had a film called ‘Male Animal’ featuring Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland, and the Christmas show put on by the boys was excellent.”
True to Army Tradition
In Oflag VA the “other ranks” had their Christmas on Boxing Day, and, as one prisoner puts it, “true to the British Army tradition, we were waited on completely – tea brought to our barracks I the morning and all carry fatigues done by officers.” The officers cleaned out the barracks, waited at table, and provided a full day’s entertainment. The weather was ideal: “10 degrees below in the morning and arm enough to sunbathe at midday.”
Padre Kept Busy
A padre in Stalag Luft 3 states that he has beaten all his previous records for services – and for parties. He took eight services in two days and attended nine parties. ”The carol services were very good. The midnight service was crowded to the doors of the theatre. I had a large Communion service in the theatre at 8 a.m. Christmas Day. I was so pleased all were well attended and appreciated.” There follows a staggering list of the food that was consumed at all the parties, and the padre did justice with a bumper feast on Boxing Day, “the most delightful meal for 4 1/2 years.”
Christmas Fare
Writing on Christmas Eve from Stalag 357, where food parcels had been arriving infrequently and were shared one between four men during the festive season, a prisoner says: “I am afraid the stocking is nearly empty this year, but we are going to make the best of things.” That they did is borne out by another prisoner’s letter, which insists: “All our saving was definitely worth it, although I am afraid we rather over-did things. Our stomachs could not quite cope with the Christmas pudding, but after a rather bilious afternoon I was tucking away merrily at tea-time and right through the evening.” Eight waggons of Canadian parcels arrived from Sweden just before Christmas, and the special British Christmas parcels arrived soon afterwards.
Our Wonderful Duff!
In Stalag 383 food was not so plentiful either, and their Christmas menu was, according to one letter, “Breakfast: two slices of bread and perhaps fried egg flakes and tea. Dinner: stew and our wonderful duff. Tea: two slices of bread and jam and our cake. Supper: the issue soup.” The decorations in one room at this camp were carried out with holly, evergreen and coloured paper.
Stalag IVB decorated their menu with greetings in all languages a week before Christmas, and IVG’s huts were decorated with streamers, lanterns and fans. IVF received decorations from Geneva, and IVB made hangings from tins and labels.
“A Christmas tree as high as the roof, helped to give a traditional touch to Christmas at Stalag 398; while Oflag 79 produced a tree from pine sprays and rowan berries, trimmed with coloured shavings.
Better Than Expected
Christmas in Oflag VIIB turned out even better than expected, because they were ordered by the German War Office to eat all the Red Cross food stocks by the middle of January. The entertainments are reported to have been good and very crowded. They included a “Fun Fair” and a “Toy Fair,” from which most of the actual toys went to civilian internee camps, musical evenings and carol singing.
At Oflag IVC they also had a carol service. In a panto., “Hey Diddle Snow White,” was written for the occasion. Snow-White was a blasé young lady, and the Fairy Queen arrived on the stage once by parachute and once by tank.
Cakes – a Speciality
In nearly every camp over Christmas they made cakes and the account of the one made in Stalag XIA is pretty typical: “The little combine of three with whom I share grub decided I must make a cake! I did! – ground-up biscuits, currants, jam, egg powder, prunes, powdered milk, marmalade and salt all went into it – a solid lump, believe me! We then decorated it, and although it was slightly heavy it went
(Continued on page 12)
[Boxed] Most of the paragraphs on this page refer to activities in the big base camps and it should not be assumed that they are typical of conditions in all camps or in outlying working detachments where facilities for sport and amusement are much fewer. [/boxed]
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 7
Letters They Write Home
[Photograph of a group of men playing musical instruments] The dance band plays in the courtyard at Oflag IXA/H.
P.o.W. Craftsmen
Oflag VIIB. 30.11.44.
I DO wish you could see some of the absolutely staggering things which are being made in the camp. Some of the work is as fine as I shall ever see in my life. It is fantastic what is being done with the material available. For instance, in our mess we have a complete little kitchen range, made out of cocoa tins, and lovely brogue shoes are being made out of army boots. The wood-workers have got busy making looms which turn out scarves, ties, etc., in all kinds of patterns. The knitting too. I have never seen anything like it – sweaters, hats, rugs. Then there is the embroidery work which I would not have believed possible.
The theatrical world is doing great stuff. French Without Tears was excellent. But I do not know what we should do without our 50-piece orchestra who are responsible for prom. concerts. A change of programme every week – Saturday and Sunday. Just as well, for months now we have not been allowed out for an airing. I badly want a holiday.
Protection from Mud
Stalag 383. 12.11.44.
We have at last conquered that arch-fiend, mud! The place was inches deep in it after all the snow we had. It’s about an inch deep now.
Home-made mud-pattens laboriously carved out of wood raised about 2in. from the ground with 4in. shields of tin fore and aft have done the trick. You just buckle them on when you go out and your boots remain clean, polished, and above all dry. These things are a real craze here: you can hear them being made all over the place at all times of the day.
I’ve been feeling rather a fraud at meal times lately whenever I butter the bread for the five of us, as I dip into a whacking great 5lb. tin of the stuff, part of the fortnightly issue from the Argentine. Poor starving gefangeners! We are having a loaf baked up at the cook-house to-day, 2-3lb., and did it have a hammering! Should be good and certainly will be a nice change.
After Arnhem
Stalag IXC. 5.11.44.
I HAVE now got settled into work after our adventures in Holland. We were captured after a stiff battle at Arnhem. From there we went to another town in Holland and looked after our patients for about three weeks before being moved to Germany. We arrived after a long journey and had a wonderful reception, being met with cigarettes and a good meal. We rested for a day, and then I was sent with another M.O. to another hospital, where I was pleasantly surprised to find two friends.
I am in the best of health and am kept busy looking after quite a number of patients. We have a comfortable mess (there are nine of us) and good food from Red Cross parcels. I share a room with three other M.O.s, and we get along very happily together.
Putting on Weight
Stalag XVIIIA. Undated.
THINGS are about the same here – plenty of work in the woods, but still find time for our bit of sport. There was a grand game of football last Sunday-England v. Scotland-and, lo and behold, Scotland won 6-2.
Do you know when I joined the army my weight was 142lb? I’ve never gone below that, and now I’m 178lb. Yes, God bless the Red Cross.
A Poster Artist
Oflag 79. 29.9.44.
I AM busily engaged on internal publicity – mainly concerned with entertainments. I have also just finished eleven small and three large posters for a Red Cross Appeal Week scheme. I have also started a series of “interest” wall sheets – “Stop, Look, Listen” topic, and others, each dealing with one current and one post-war subject. I am so busy that the time is zipping by.
Keeping Shop
Stalag IVB. 25.11.44.
THINGS here are not too bad except that we are short of cigarettes and parcels. However, there are six of us in the office and four have received parcels, so we share cigarettes. Had a bulk issue this week, and I feel just like a shop-keeper behind the counter of a well-filled store dishing out groceries and cutting up cheese. I cut the cheese so well there are no makeweights!
Varied Activity
Oflag VIIB. 10.11.44.
WE have had snow for the past two days and are all preparing to hibernate for the winter! Coal is very short – much less than last year, which was less than the previous year.
We are still on half rations of Red Cross parcels, but a number of private parcels have come in recently.
The new conductor of the orchestra now holds weekly promenade concerts, and I very much enjoyed the first one last week-end, as I also did a show given by our orderlies and a choral and orchestral concert.
We have just had another number of our camp magazine Touchstone, in which there is an able article on land nationalisation.
No, I have not had any more parole walks or cinema visits. These were stopped by a higher authority in the autumn and for the main body of the camp have not been restarted.
The Feminine Touch
Stalag VIIIB. 17.12.44.
I THINK I will dare the Censor and give you an interesting letter. The subject – the village and the people in it amongst whom I have now lived for three and a half years. Commencing with the women … they age early; those engaged on the land begin to age at thirty! Whilst working they dress in old clothes no English Miss would be seen dead in; but on Sundays they are very neatly dressed and, indeed, do really know how to wear clothes. The older women wear rather long skirts, a cute little silk coatee that hangs loose behind, but is tucked into the skirt in front, and a shawl over head and shoulders.
[Page break]
8 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
[Photograph of a lovely garden with a wooden arch] A view of the garden in the Merchant Navy Section at Marlag und Milag Nord. The seeds were sent out through the Red Cross by the Royal Horticultural Society.
Thawing of an Icicle
Oflag 79. 20.11.44.
LAST week, but for the central heating, I would have surely become an icicle. The weather was very cold, with quite a bit of snow, and everyone went about wrapped up in overcoats and blankets.
One or two officers managed to produce furs, and adorned themselves with foxes and minks draped around their necks. I borrowed a beautiful-looking skunk, which I wrapped round my face. Very fetching. I also wore a muff – an old sock with no foot to it.
Then in the midst of our shiverings came the news that the central heating was coming on, and I flew to the nearest radiator. Sure enough it was warm, and as it became hotter so I discarded my apparel. Off came my skunk, my overcoat, my leather jacket, my battle-dress jacket, and my cardigan, and I was left with my woollen vest and two shirts.
It was a pleasure to thaw, and now I never wander very far from the radiator, which has also become my kitchen, heating up meats and puddings nicely and warming me inwardly.
Keeping Warm
Oflag IVC. 17.11.44.
I AM now an “usherette” for our theatre as well as being “second in command” for cinema, a very humble job, but something to keep one out of mischief.
They seem to be bringing quite a lot of fresh prisoners here, and you would laugh if you could see us all on parade. We wear anything to keep warm, and look like ladies from Lapland.
Tough Guy
Stalag IVB. 16.9.44.
THREE of us attend the weight-lifting class. We were all measured this morning; I have put on 1 1/4in. on my chest and 1in. on both biceps, also there has been a vast improvement in my wrists, forearms and legs. The heaviest weight I can lift above my head is 155 lb., which is good going, considering we have only been training for one month.
The instructor here has written to the Health and Strength Club and we have all been made members, so that we can continue physical training when we reach Blighty. Am told this is the only weight-lifting class in the P.o.W. camps in Germany.
Shifting Dirt
Stalag XIIIB. 19.11.44.
I MOVED here with about 150 others three weeks ago to-day on the first British working Commandos in this area. Apparently it is a fairly safe area from the point of view of the R.A.F. The nearest bomb was reported as five kilometres away. I can hardly believe it was as close as that, or the building where we live would have fallen down! I understand now there the term “Jerry-built” comes from, although this place was Russian P.o.W. built.
The job we are on is general labour on the construction of what appears to be a canal running parallel with a river; but I cannot imagine what the canal is for, and I hope I am not here long enough to find out. Shifting dirt from one place to another does not appeal to me as a pastime.
I had hoped at one time to be there in person to wish you a “Merry Christmas,” but I’m afraid that this will have to do. Save me a pudding, though, and a jar of mincemeat – it won’t have time to go bad.
Keeping Fit
Stalag IVF. 29.10.44.
ALL in all, things are pretty good everywhere – even here on our half parcels. We had some parcels from Stalag yesterday, enough until the middle of December. We notice the difference, of course, but we are still doing pretty well.
Football every week-end keeps us pretty fit, and the news keeps us cheerful. The German civilians here can’t make out why prisoners of war are always laughing and singing. They think the English are mad. So they are, I think!
From a Man of Confidence
Stalag 383. 12.12.44.
… HERE we are settling down once more for the winter. Things are not so good as they were with us, but nevertheless we have small reason to complain. We are still on half rations of Red Cross food, but that amount is a godsend to us and very precious.
Enthusiasm for educational work and theatrical entertainment keeps as high as ever. A record number of exams are being taken by our men here, and we are in the midst of them at present. Many of the chaps have done extremely well, and in two years our honours list is very gratifying. It is strange to raise pride in an Alma Mater in a P.o.W. camp, but nevertheless we do get the “old school tie” feeling, even for our Stalag school.
[Photograph of four men playing cards] A cosy game of cards at Stalag XVIIIA.
A Lengthy Move
Stalag VIIA. 10.9.44.
THE reason why I have been so long in writing is that we took three and a half weeks to go to our camp and correspondence was impossible. On our way we passed Munich and saw some nice towns and surroundings. Finally, we arrived at Augsburg, where our camp is situated.
I have plenty of mates as our whole company was captured in Italy. We are in a working camp (treatment so far in good) and we go out every day to different jobs and we are not too hard worked.
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 9
In Full Dress
Oflag 79. 17.10.44.
WHAT a day! Have received my first parcel, dated June. Am now sitting in my new slippers, socks, shirt and a tie given me by a room friend who also got a parcel. It is the first time I have had a tie on for just over a year, and it feels wonderful! To-night I shall sleep in pyjamas instead of a vest and pants.
The parcel was absolutely marvellous, and could not have been packed better. I shared the chocolate with twenty of my friends who have given me some in the past. They all said how good it was.
All That Glitters …
Stalag IVB. 16.9.44.
I HAVE been reading quite a lot since I got here, having access to plenty of books.
This camp is situated well into the country so do not worry – I’m not getting into the R.A.F.’s way at all. We are able to follow the progress of the war although a little behind with the news.
The scene here resembles a tinsmith’s shop. The improvised tables are glittering with plates and mugs – you would be astounded at the extent of our improvisation. Anything and everything is made from tin – even clocks.
From a Theatre Enthusiast
Stalag 344. 12.11.44.
IT is a glorious mushroom season here in the forests, although the lovely red ones with white spots on that one imagines the pixies and gnomes to use at night are very poisonous.
We are going to have a very quiet Christmas here this time. Our loved ones at home will figure very largely in our thoughts and songs. We hope sincerely the doodles will not interfere with your own Christmas and that the New Year will bring the continued success of the companies, theatre and otherwise. (Referring to the Old Vic, and Sadler’s Wells.)
[Photograph of four men, one with boxing gloves] In a fighting mood at Stalag XXB.
[Two photographs of groups of men in uniform] Cheerful groups of men pose for a picture at Stalag XVIIA (right) and Stalag IVD (below).
All Kinds of Work
Stalag IVF. 24.12.44.
I AM miles away from any town of importance. There is only a small village three miles from us, and that is miles from any town. We never see any air raids, so never worry in that respect.
I am doing all kinds of work – roof repairing, joiner, blacksmith and painting on all quarry property at camp.
Music in Camp
Stalag XVIIA. 13.11.44.
We held a short Remembrance Service on Saturday, and at Sunday morning service the choir sang “Oh Valiant Hearts.”
We formerly had two C. of E. padres, viz., Rev. Price-Rees and Rev. J. Collins. The latter, a former Cambridge Blue, left about five days ago. He must have been well over six and a half feet tall, and he was very well liked here.
I received another of your most welcome letters. I think home letters are the “Bovril” in our camp life, which prevents “that sinking feeling.” Parcels have run out, so things are more or less unexciting at the moment.
Our last concert went well but I still have lots of ground to cover before I regain my former confidence in playing the piano before public gatherings. Still, after four years’ stagnation, I suppose this is not surprising. I have arranged the finale chorus of The Mikado for the next show, as the boys here seem to enjoy this opera most of all.
Food Production
Stalag 357. 20.11.44.
Sport is defunct at present. Reading and cards are the main items over and above the varied interests we all take up to try and keep the rust from the grooves. I have taken up maths., insurance and German grammar. Nothing much stays put though.
“Concoctions” is the over-powering topic now to spin out half-rations of food and tobacco. We are all fit and cheery.
[Boxed] SEND US YOUR PICTURES AND LETTERS
TEN SHILLINGS will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate sheet of paper, showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James’s Palace, London, S.W.1. The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/boxed]
[Page break]
10 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
Official Reports from
[Photograph of the archway over an entrance to a courtyard] The courtyard at Oflag IVC where there have been no changes in the general layout of the camp since it was last visited in July, 1944.
OFLAG IVC, COLDITZ
Total strength of camp at time of visit was 239 officers and 51 other ranks, the total number of British prisoners of war being 200. There were no changes with regard to the general layout and interior arrangements of the camp since the last visit in July, 1944. The privileges promised by the camp commandant for further recreational facilities had not materialised. It has now been said that the chapel may be reopened.
There is a decided increase in the number of sick personnel, the most common symptoms being nervousness, insomnia and dyspepsia. There is a lack of medical and surgical equipment. British stocks are almost exhausted and the German supplies are inadequate.
(Visited October, 1944.)
STALAG IIA, NEUBRANDENBURG
This is a new camp and was visited for the first time. There are 253 American prisoners who were recently captured on the Western Front and 200 British N.C.O.s captured at Arnhem. It is situated in the vicinity of Neubrandenburg, about 70 miles north of Berlin. There are three barracks, of which two are at present partially occupied, and one serves as a reserve for expected new arrivals. There are slit trenches for protection from air raids.
Each barrack contains two sections. The sections are divided into 10 partitions, each partition holding 24 to 30 double-tier bunks, with hessian mattresses filled with wood shavings and two blankets for each man. There are tables and benches, and in each section one oven and one stove; between the sections there is a wash-room and a boiler for heating purposes. Hot showers are available once a week. Electric lighting is inadequate.
The cooking is done by French cooks in the camp’s central kitchen. The German rations are considered inadequate both in quantity and quality. The commandant agreed to detail American cooks to the kitchen. Red Cross supplies were exhausted at the time of visit.
The camp hospital was excellently equipped; the surgical section is under the care of a Polish doctor.
No Red Cross clothing supplies have arrived so far and many prisoners are badly in need of articles such as socks, shoes, underwear and greatcoats, Prisoners do their own laundry, but it will later be done by the camp laundry when that has been repaired.
There is no American or British chaplain. Prisoners of the Roman Catholic faith may attend Mass in the camp chapel, where a French priest officiates.
Although there is adequate recreational space there is a complete lack of sports equipment and so far the only physical exercise available has been walks. No incoming mail had been received at the time of visit. The visiting delegate was satisfactorily impressed with this camp; the German authorities appeared reasonable.
(Visited November, 1944.)
STALAG VIIA, MOOSBURG
The total strength of the camp at the time of visit was 11,688 prisoners of war, of whom 91 were British officers, 908 British N.C.O.s and 5,720 British other ranks.
Officers’ Section. – Two new barracks have been opened since the last visit and constitute a substantial improvement in the living arrangements. Officer are not allowed to meet other ranks in sport or entertainment activities. The prisoners have double-tier wooden bunks with straw mattresses. There is one recreation room with tables and benches. Heating arrangements are inadequate, and although there are stoves for the cooking of Red Cross food, the fuel supply is not sufficient. Each officer has one hot shower a week.
General state of health is good. Medical attention is given by a British medical officer when necessary.
There is a general shortage of clothing such as greatcoats, battledress and underwear. Officers have to wash their own socks and handkerchiefs as these articles are not accepted by the laundry.
Mail is still erratic. Complaint was made of a shortage of messing equipment. Only one bowl and one spoon has been issued to each officer.
This camp, it must be realised, is merely a transit camp for officers, and the inhabitants are all recent captures who are awaiting admission to a permanent oflag.
Other Ranks. – There have been no material changes in this section of the camp since the last visit in April. 1944. More wells have been dug, thus improving the water supply. There were no complaints regarding shortage of water during the summer. British cooks are now employed in part of the cookhouse. There were no complaints about the food.
The new arrivals are all recent captures from the Italian and Western Fronts and are without winter clothing.
Religious and recreational facilities are well organised and there were no complaints. There is good liaison with the German welfare officers. Concerts and shows are frequent.
The general state of health in the camp is satisfactory.
(Visited October, 1944.)
LABOUR DETACHMENTS
Dependent on Stalag VIIA
After the heavy bombardment of Munich a work detachment of about 1,400 men was formed for demolition work. The men have to travel for about three or four hours each day. They receive two meals in Munich and their full regular ration at Stalag. In the event of air attacks shelters are provided.
The Delegate held a meeting with the Men of Confidence from the following detachments:-
3911 Ludwig Ferdinandstr. Strength 571 prisoners of war.
3732 Hindenburgstr. 264.
3785 Pasing. 604.
3881 Laim. 101
3841 Schleissheimstr. 85.
3657 Res Lazaret Bad Tolz. 46.
3712 Schleirsee. 20.
3914 Wolfratschausen. 16.
also Nos. 1, 2 and 4 and 6 Railway Companies.
Since the last visit, the city of Munich has suffered several air raids. Up to the time of the visit there had been no British casualties. There are adequate air-raid shelters. The general conditions in all these detachments was reported to be satisfactory though here and there overcrowding occurs owing to destruction of barracks by fire bombs. The chief complaint by the medical officers was that several barracks were infested with vermin, chiefly fleas, but no lice.
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 11
the Camps
[Photograph of a group of man in costume putting on a play] A play in progress at Oflag IVC, and (below) a corner of the gymnasium at Stalag VIIA, Moosburg.
[Photograph of men boxing training]
[Boxed] IN every case where the conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted, it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/boxed]
The state of health in all the detachments is reported as good. Further supplies of Red Cross clothing and shoes are badly needed. Draught beer is available in all detachments. The chaplain from the main stalag pays regular visits. Welfare work is well organised.
(Visited October, 1944.)
STALAG VIIA, GORLITZ
Strength of camp at date of visit was 1,225 British prisoners of war. 1,960 prisoners of war are scattered in 47 working detachments. There have been no changes in the material layout of the camp since the last visit in July and the interior arrangements are still satisfactory. There were no complaints about washing and bathing facilities.
This camp is now entirely out of stock of Red Cross parcels, but the men realise the difficulties of transport in the despatching of supplies and it was hoped that a new supply would arrive in the near future.
The Red Cross clothing position is reported to be good, the only shortage being small-size boots and jackets. There were 184 prisoners sick at the time of visit, but none of them seriously. The camp hospital is still run very satisfactorily by British medical officers and there was an adequate drug supply.
Recreational facilities are still very satisfactory. Rugby and football are played daily and there is physical training every morning and evening. The camp band was on tour to work detachments. English and American films are shown.
The discipline barrack mentioned in the last report was said to be more or less over-crowded and only a very few British prisoners of war awaiting court martial are being kept there.
Conditions at this camp remained very good and all possible support is received from the German authorities.
(Visited November, 1944.)
LABOUR DETACHMENTS
Dependent on STALAG VIIIA
No. 12403, Fellhammer. – 152 British prisoners of war work in a coal mine, of whom 102 work below ground. Accommodation has improved, in so far as a new recreation barrack has been built. The Man of Confidence complained that not enough disinfectant was being used and there are far too many fleas and lice. Clothing is short, especially trousers. Heating is inadequate, but the German authorities promised to issue a third blanket for each prisoner. Medical attention is given by a German civilian doctor, medical supplies were short.
No. 10003, Siegersdorf. – 34 British prisoners of war work in a tile factory for nine hours a day. every second Sunday is free. The only complaint was that the margarine ration had been cut. The German authorities promised to look into this matter, but it was feared that this cut is current all over Germany.
[Photograph of a group of four men] A group of prisoners of war at Stalag VIIIA Gorlitz, where conditions were reported good and recreational facilities satisfactory.
26 British prisoners of war at No. 11101, Weise, are employed in a stone quarry for nine hours daily, no work on Sundays. There were no complaints. At detachment No. 1102, Kerzdorf, 57 prisoners of war are employed in a cement works making blocks for houses. Saturday afternoons and Sundays are free. The prisoners had no complaints.
No. 14804, Konigshan.- 50 British prisoners of war are accommodated in a stone house in the small village of Konigshan. They are engaged in the repair and maintenance of railway lines. Working hours are 9 1/2 hours daily, with Saturday afternoons and Sundays free. Work is said to be hard, but can be managed by the prisoners.
There are double-tier beds and each prisoner of war has three German blankets. There is plenty of space in the house. Good light and air, the electric lighting is sufficient. The prisoners are
[Page break]
12 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
able to have a hot bath daily. Food is adequate and is cooked by the prisoners themselves. The only complaint was that they have had only horse meat issued to them, but it appears that the whole population of this area is having no other kind of meat.
There is one recognised medical orderly at this detachment. He is able to treat all minor ailments. Seriously ill prisoners are taken to hospital at Trautenau, where they are very well looked after. There is an urgent need of boots and greatcoats. Laundry is done by two prisoners who have every Saturday and Monday free to do the washing for the whole camp. In winter difficulty is experienced in the drying of the washing. The Germans have promised to issue more coal for this purpose.
Football is played regularly in a nearby field. There are plenty of indoor games and musical equipment. The general impression given to the delegate was that this is an excellent detachment.
No. 14808, Ober-Altstadt. – Strength of this detachment is 85 prisoners of war. They are accommodated in a large wooden barrack situated near a small village in the valley of the Riesengebirge. The men work in three different flax factories for 9 1/2 hours daily. Saturday afternoons and Sundays are free with the exception of some men who have to work every third Sunday. Full compensation is given in the week.
Twelve men sleep in each room. Each man has a cupboard to himself and has been issued with two German blankets. There is a very good washroom in the barrack with running water. Each man has a hot shower each week and if desired one can be had almost daily.
There is a large well-equipped kitchen with two large boilers and a good-size stove. The cooking is done by two British prisoners. The only complaint about the German rations was the quality of the meat. There had been no issue of Red Cross parcels for two weeks.
Medical treatment is not satisfactory as the German doctor is always too busy to examine the prisoners properly and the men have to rely on the medical orderly. The clothing situation is quite satisfactory except for boots and greatcoats. There is plenty of opportunity for football and indoor sports. The large messroom has been transferred into a theatre, which is much in use and very satisfactory. Mail is slack at present.
This working detachment which used to be so good has deteriorated since the appointment of a new commandant. A further commandant is to be appointed and it is hoped that the detachment will again flourish.
(Visited November, 1944.)
[Photograph of six men in uniform] Some prisoners at Stalag 317 (XVIIIC) where the total number of our men is 982. The interior arrangements here have not improved since the last visit in March, 1944.
STALAG 317 XVIIIC, MARKT PONGAU
The total number of prisoners in the stalag area is 982, of whom 713 are in the base camp and 269 in six labour detachments. The interior arrangements have not improved since the last visit in March, 1944. Many of the newcomers to the camp are without palliasses and have to sleep on the bare planks of wooden double-tier bunks. Working men are now able to get a hot bath on two extra evenings.
At the time of the visit the stock of Red Cross parcels was expected to last about two months. Stocks of Red Cross clothing are now practically nil owing to the outfitting of new arrivals.
The hospital is satisfactory and the three British medical officers work amicably with the German doctor. Laundry is done by the men themselves. There is a regular issue of soap.
Prisoners in the work detachments are engaged on surface work, building, demolition, road mending, etc. Men in the Stalag who work on Sunday mornings have Saturday afternoons free. There is a fair-size recreation field for sports and exercises. Four American films have recently arrived. Three have been shown and the fourth will be shown in the near future.
Mail is again coming in quite regularly.
The camp did not give a good impression to the visiting delegate. The former fair-minded commandant had been replaced by an East Prussian, who fails to exact the necessary authority from his subordinated. The visiting delegate met the British Men of Confidence from the six detachments. There were no serious complaints from any of them.
(Visited October, 1944.)
HOSPITAL, MEININGEN
The total number of patients in the hospital at the time of visit was 252 American and 160 British. The hospital staff numbered 60, making a grand total of 472 British and American prisoners of war. Since the last visit the hospital is now slightly overcrowded owing to an influx of new patients from Arnhem. The increased number of patients has resulted in more beds having to be put up in the various wards, but two new barracks are to be erected, replacing two smaller ones, which should improve conditions in all wards and rectify the overcrowding. A weekly hot shower is still available, but the existing number of washrooms is insufficient. A new barrack with washrooms and toilet facilities is also to be built.
The supply of fresh vegetables had increased greatly during the last few weeks and there were no complaints regarding food. There was six to seven weeks’ supply of Red Cross parcels, including invalid diet parcels.
As pointed out in the last report on this hospital, all the patients have been transferred from Obermassfeld for orthopaedic exercises. Experienced sports officers are daily directing courses of physical training, and artificial limbs are being made in the special well-equipped workshop. There is an adequate supply of drugs and medicines.
There is still no stock of upper clothing. Greatcoats and blankets are greatly in demand.
1,000 razor blades were recently received from the Germans, but otherwise there was nothing on sale in the canteen. The cigarette position is now bad for all prisoners of war, the German monthly issue having been stopped. Mail, which was bad at the time of the invasion, is now coming in again for long term prisoners of war.
The general impression of this hospital is till good. When the new barracks have been completed the overcrowding should be considerably decreased and conditions will be very satisfactory.
(Visited November, 1944.)
BRIGHTER SIDE (contd. from page 8).
down O.K.” One pudding at this camp weighed 22 lb.
Story with a Moral
“Here we are again with good news and a story with a moral.” Thus begins a letter from Stalag 344, which continues: “For the last two or three weeks our faces were growing longer and longer as Christmas approached and Red Cross receded. As we did not expect - or get – anything, it was a blue outlook.” Then the parcels began at last to arrive – a small issue on the Saturday morning, and a larger one in the afternoon. So the writer was able to report: “Everyone has that cheerful feeling only to be succeeded by that day to come.”
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 13
More Come Home
[Photograph of a group of men in uniform] Some of the first repatriates to step ashore from the Arundel Castle which brought 764 of them home early in February.
WHEN the ship loomed slowly into sight out of the Merseyside mists her whiteness made the scene almost unreal. Gradually the large red cross and the lettering on her side became discernible. Then as the tugs brought her with painful slowness to the quayside, the rows of men on every vantage point aboard could be seen. When the silence had become almost unbearable, they broke suddenly into a full-throated cheer, the echo of which was taken up by the famous warbling call from the Australians. The military band played familiar tunes and the singing of those on the landing stage mingled with the voices from the ship.
Greetings from the shore were short and to the point. We were delighted to have the men back again. They would be conveyed to their destinations as speedily as possible. That was all they were really anxious to know. Every sentence of welcome spoke into the microphone was echoed back with an answering cheer from the ship – particularly loud when the magic word “home” was voiced.
Later, on board, the 764 repatriates ceased to be a cheering, excited mass and separated into their varying personalities, each with his own personal hopes and fears. These were the men lost to England on the fighting retreat to Dunkirk, at the Salerno landings, in the air over Germany and at Arnhem. Now they had returned, some after a captivity lasting five years.
They were eager for news, eager to tell of their experiences. Smiles were the order of the day. When you saw the expression on a man’s face, his injuries mattered no longer. Often the greater his incapacity, the broader seemed his grin. This was the moment for which they had been waiting for so long. Their patience while they waited their turn to go ashore was remarkable, as they listened for the cheerful and efficient announcements over the ship’s radio for “Such and Such” to report on “C” deck ready to disembark.
An R.A.F. Warrant Officer, who recounted proudly that he had been taking part in the famous raid on the Dortmund-Ems Canal when his aircraft was shot down, said that he had been an expert in feminine make-up for shows in Stalag Luft I, III, VI, VII. He expected people in Oldham would find him “different” after five years away, but was reassured to the contrary.
A young Pole with a particularly beaming smile who was bound for a hospital in Scotland to have an artificial limb fitted, said that the loss of a leg would in no way hamper him in his profession, which was law.
A lieutenant from Oflag 79 spoke enthusiastically of the small daughter who had been described to him in letters, but whom he had not yet seen. His home was in Surrey, and he asked keen questions about flying bomb damage.
Many repatriated naturally wanted news of flying bombs and rockets from the “receiving” end. These weapons had been so highly propagandised by the Germans that our humorous term “doodles” and buzz bombs, which were new to many, seemed almost flippant.
There was one big fact, however, which the Germans could not hide from our men, and that was the work of the R.A.F. Quite apart from any experience they may have had in camp of the raids, they were able to see for themselves through the carriage windows as they journeyed across Germany the mile upon mile of devastation.
Many had brought themselves up to date with news of this country in their chats with the six British Red Cross and St. John – and one Australian Red Cross – welfare officers, and the eight nurses of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, who cared for those too ill to be up and about. These women with their Red Cross comforts and the canteen which had supplied 200,500 cups of tea during the voyage had been the first link with home, and this had obviously meant a very great deal. Enthusiastic signed tributes were received on behalf of the repatriates by these welfare officers and more than £100 was given in donations as expressions of gratitude. B.C.S.
[Boxed] How They Help
In addition to those mentioned below, we wish to thank the many kind readers whose help to the funds this month we cannot find room to record here individually. [/boxed]
THE annual dance and whist drive held by the wardens of “A” district, Northwood, was well supported, and a lively account of the proceedings related that “during a break from dancing the guests allowed a mysterious ‘Mr. S.’ to hold one of his unique ‘sales of work,’ when he disposed of an assortment of goods at amazing prices. This gentleman seems to work on a system that extracts money from willing bidders at £2 per minute, as in half an hour he ‘took’ £52 from a very generous audience, so bringing the total for the evening to £143.”
Wardens at Post 22, Turpens Lane, Chigwell, have helped, too, with another donation, and the Rattery Platoon (Devon) of the Home Guard arranged whist drives and a dance from which they made £55 11s., thereby achieving £112 in all to help our prisoners of war. Whist drives for which Mr. J.C. Gendenning, of Brampton, Cumberland, was responsible, have brought in the handsome amount of £219 14s., while the Swinton branch of the British Legion send £12 3s. 6d., a further gift.
£2 7s. 6d. has come from Mrs. Peck, of Sheffield, who sold a glass bowl and stand, and £3 as a Christmas present for her son who has been a prisoner for three years from Mrs. Bromham, of Addiscombe. Miss Davies, of Leeds, who has two nephews who are prisoners of war, has realised an average of £1 5s. each month for the last twelve months by means of eggs!
A cheque forwarded from some thirty members of the Rowley Regis Areas of the British Prisoners of War Relatives Association, with the amount previously subscribed since March, 1943, adds up to £700, and money to cover the cost of 418 food parcels was raised from a New Year’s concert arranged by Mr. A.G. Baxter at the Odeon Theatre, Llandudno, among the artists being Clive Richardson and Tony Lowry of the B.B.C.
[Page break]
14 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
Football in the Camps
[Photographs of football teams from STALAG 344, STALAG XXB, STALAG 383, STALAG XVIIA, STALAG IXC, B.B.AB. 21 and OFLAG VIIB.]
[Page break]
MARCH, 1945 The Prisoner of War 15
Personal Parcels Man
A P.o.W. at Stalag 357 Describes his Work
[Photograph of five men in greatcoats] These five prisoners of war at Stalag IVA act as postmen.
I BUSY myself with the affairs of the R.A.F. here, who number some 3,200 men. This means that their interests at all times must be cared for, whether it be a question of food parcels or private parcels. It signifies little on paper, but I can assure you that many problems rendered here would tax the tactfulness of Solomon himself.
We manage to get to work before the others go on roll-call as our parcel office is situated outside the compound, in what is called the Vorlager, which adjoins, but is separated from the compound. Here our office deals with all the personal parcels which arrive at the camp. The parcels are coming in very well, but we expect a hold-up shortly due to the parcel route closing in July and August. They are sorted into the various sections, listed, and the lists sent round the camp informing the lucky individuals when to collect them. The parcels are then pushed on a two-wheeled cart into he compound and opened and searched by the Germans in a central room.
When They Move
Our other department deals with parcels which belong to individuals who, for some reason or other, are no longer with us. As previously reported, the whole of Stalag Luft 6 did not come here with us, and, as most of the parcels addressed to Luft 6 arrive at this camp first, this department is kept very busy.
It is also our duty to report any parcels which have been damaged en route, and, believe me, there are quite a number. Sacks of parcels sent on by other Stalags have lists inside them telling us the number of parcels contained therein and it is our duty to ensure that everything is all right, sign the receipt and return to the Stalag concerned. If anything untoward has happened to the sack a report must be made to the P.O.
Book Censorship
Book parcels are dealt with in a different way. These are not allowed in the compound until such time as they have been censored. We therefore open the parcel, and prepare the book for censoring, and take them to the censor. This officer controls all matter (printed) which is destined for the compound. He is assisted in his work by three ladies and a few men, and everything that concerns parcels or books is reported to this office either by the German in charge of our department or by myself. My face is becoming known here as it was previously at the Luft camps.
How Parcels Arrive
The sacks of personal parcels arrive by two distinct means. Some come by rail to the station, and we collect them by motor. Recently, however, it has been very hard to obtain a motor so we have had to perform this task by hand-cart. The others come by post and we collect them from the local post-office on the hand-cart.
The personnel at both of these4 sources are beginning to know me now, and the job of collecting parcels, although quite hard, is most enjoyable. A better knowledge of customs and language is obtained, and the chance of my becoming a victim of barbed-wire fever is very remote. One of the fair sex even went to the extent of calling me a funny man, but it might even mean that I have developed a “Stalag-happy” complex. This is a current expression now in use.
December 3rd, 1944.
[Photograph of a knitted scarf]
Knit This Practical Scarf
IN MOSS STITCH
[Instructions for knitting a scarf]
[Page break]
16 The Prisoner of War MARCH, 1945
Camp Transfers
Statement on February 13th
TWELVE camps, whose numbers are given below, have either been over-run by the Soviet Forces or are in their direct path. There were about 60,000 prisoners from the British Commonwealth in these camps.
Following are the camps:-
Stalag IIB, Stalag IID, Stalag IIIB, Stalag IIIC, Stalag 344, Stalag VIIIB, Stalag VIIIC, Stalag XXA, Stalag XXB, Stalag Luft III, Stalag IV, Stalag Luft VII.
Information given in the House of Commons on February 22nd
AS regards the movements of camps in Eastern Germany, the present position, according to the latest information available, is as follows:
Stalags XXA, XXB and IIB are moving through the Province of Mecklenburg. Some are being moved by rail.
From Stalag Luft III 2,000 British and American prisoners of war have been transferred to Stalag IIIA, at Luckenwalde; 2,000 to Marlag und Milag Nord (near Hamburg); 2,000 to Stalag XIIIC, east of Frankfurt-on-Main, and 4,000 to Stalag VIIIA in Bavaria.
Prisoners of war from Stalags VIIIA and VIIIC are moving through Saxony. A number of prisoners unfit to travel are being moved from Stalag VIIIA by rail.
Some prisoners from Stalag Luft IV are reported to be at Usedom, near Swinemunde on the Baltic.
Stalag Luft VII was reported to be near Spremburg, from where the prisoners are to be transferred to the neighbourhood of Nuremburg and Moosburg in Bavaria.
Stalag VIIIB is reported to be moving towards Aussig, south of Dresden.
The final destination of the prisoners transferred from the above camps is not yet known.
War Office Statement, February 26th
Four thousand British and American sick have left Lamsdorf (Stalag 344) for a destination in Germany as yet unknown. Fit prisoners from Stalag 344 are on the march between Boemisch Lippa and Carlsbad.
Prisoners from Stalag VIIIA are dividing: part are proceeding towards Cassel, part to Nuremburg, while prisoners from Stalag VIIIC are moving – some towards Hanover, others towards Cassel. Advance parties are already nearing their destination.
PARCELS
For P.o.W.s Formerly in Camps in Easter Germany and Poland
THE Postmaster-General announces that PARCELS should not now be sent to British prisoners of war formerly in the camps (including associated labour detachments and hospitals) in Poland and Eastern Germany mentioned below until new addresses are received either through official notification to the next of kin from letters from the men themselves.
LETTERS for these prisoners can continue to be posted addressed to the last-known camp address.
The camps in question are:-
Stalag IIB
Stalag IID
Stalag IIIA
Stalag IIIB
Stalag IIIC
Stalag IIID
Stalag VIIIA
Stalag VIIIB
Stalag VIIIC
Stalag XXA
Stalag XXB
Stalag XXID
Stalag 344
Stalag Luft III, Luft IV, Luft VIII
B.A.B. 20 B.A.B. 21
Oflag 64
The Post Office will despatch, as the opportunity offers, next of kin parcels for those camps which have already been repacked and reposted by the British Red Cross, and also parcels of cigarettes, tobacco, etc., posted by holders of censorship permits in expectation that they will be redirected by the German authorities.
In order, however, not to add to the difficulties of redirection, the British Red Cross will return to the senders any next of kin parcels for these camps which have not been reposted, and the public should not place further orders with holders of censorship permits as parcels sent by this means cannot be returned.
In the case of other camps, next of kin and “permit” parcels as well as letters can continue to be sent for the time being. Readers are advised to look out for further official announcements.
Labels and Coupons
In view of the G.P.O. announcement, no more labels and coupons will be issued for the time being to the next of kin of prisoners whose last address was that of one of the camps mentioned. This applies to first and later issues.
A postcard will be sent to the next of kin of men in these camps whose parcels were despatched shortly before February 16th, giving the date of despatch and explaining the position.
Next of kin already holding labels and coupons for men in these camps should keep them until a new address is known. They are advised to consult the P.o.W. Department before despatching any further parcels and to look out for further official announcements by the General Post Office.
[Boxed] NUMBER PLEASE.
Please be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/boxed]
Y.M.C.A. SPORTS MEDALS
The British Man of Confidence at Stalag IVA has written to inform the mother of a lance-corporal there that the Y.M.C.A. Sports Medal has been awarded to her son “who has organised football under difficult conditions and has striven week after week to keep the ‘lads’ at the game. He demonstrated his sportsmanship and love of the game in a recent ‘England v. Scotland’ match. He captained the losing team (England) and, as a token of goodwill, presented his Regimental Cap Badge to the captain of the winning side. A cap badge to a soldier in captivity is his most treasure possession. Such spirit as his puts Britain where she is in the world of sport…”
P.o.W. Exhibition Catalogues
Those who may still wish to obtain a copy of the catalogue as a souvenir of the Prisoners of War Exhibition which was held in London last year should send 7d. to cover cost and postage as soon as possible to-
Mr. Tomlins, Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, Publicity Department, 24, Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1.
Gift from Woolwich
The British Armaments Inspection Department at Woolwich is helping to provide weekly food parcels for prisoners of war. They have already sent Red Cross a cheque for £100, with their good wishes and their target is £500.
County Representatives
Please note the following change:-
DEVONSHIRE.- Mrs. Geoffrey Tomes, B.R.C.S. Office, Prudential Chambers, Exeter.
[Boxed] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
This journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoners of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/boxed]
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN for the publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14, Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W.. by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Prisoner of War March 1945
Description
An account of the resource
The official journal of the Prisoners of War Department of the Red Cross and St John War Organisation. This edition covers the Editors comments, the transport of food parcels, Emergency supplies for the camp, POW cooking, articles about Christmas in the camps, letter written by POWs for home, Official reports from the camps, More Come Home -repatriates returning, charitable donations, photographs of camp football teams, a POW postman who deals with parcels and a knitting pattern for a scarf.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-022
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Cyprus--Famagusta
Switzerland--Geneva
Germany--Berlin
Netherlands--Arnhem
Germany--Colditz
Germany--Neubrandenburg
Germany--Munich
Germany--Görlitz (Görlitz)
Germany--Meiningen
Germany--Obermassfeld-Grimmenthal
Great Britain
England--Merseyside
England--Oldham
England--Surrey
Germany--Lübeck
Germany--Barth
Poland
Poland--Łambinowice
Poland--Tychowo
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Moosburg an der Isar
Ukraine--Odesa
Germany
Cyprus
Netherlands
Switzerland
Ukraine
England--Lancashire
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation. Prisoners of war department
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04
aircrew
arts and crafts
entertainment
faith
forced labour
prisoner of war
Red Cross
sanitation
sport
Stalag 3A
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 6
Stalag Luft 7
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22594/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-023.2.pdf
a02db80744787a6f9a921729ebed4e0b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
THE
Prisoner of War
[Symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1 [Symbol]
VOL. 3 No. 36 Free to Next of Kin APRIL, 1945
The Editor Writes –
There is good news regarding the distribution of supplies from Switzerland to camps in different parts of Germany to which prisoners from eastern Germany have been sent. Fifty railway waggons, 48 with food and two with medical supplies, which left Switzerland for the neighbourhood of Moosburg, some distance north of Munich, have reached their destination and supplies are being distributed from there by lorry to British and United States prisoners of war in the vicinity.
Supplies by road
Eighteen lorries which crossed the Swiss frontier into Germany for Northern Czechoslovakia have reached their destination and distributed food parcels to some 18,000 British and United States prisoners of war in the Eger, Prague, Marienbad and Carlsbad areas. An extra 100 lorries are available in Switzerland for use as opportunity offers.
In the north at Lubeck, two large lorries already in use by the I.R.C.C. have been supplied with petrol and oil and it is hoped to obtain further lorries for use in this area from Sweden.
Ex-Prisoners at Odessa
Various estimated have been made unofficially of the total number of prisoners of war released by the Russians, but the only information that has been verified is that which has been given in reply to questions in the House of Commons. On March 6th Sir James Grigg announced that the arrival of 14 officers and 464 other ranks at the transit camp at Odessa had been reported by our Military Mission in Moscow, and on March 9th, Mr. Arthur Henderson, Financial Secretary to the War Office, in answer to a request for information about the 2,600 prisoners reported on their way to Odessa, replied that no further information had been received. Sir James Grigg has, however, given an assurance that he will give all the information he receives.
The advancing armies in the West are also overrunning prisoner of war camps, and one report speaks of 3,000 Allied soldiers, liberated from Krefeld, but there has as yet been no official information of this report.
[Group of people in uniform standing by a man at a desk] OFF TO SWEDEN. Officers of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John, bound for Sweden to look after British repatriated prisoners, take leave of Colonel Montague Brown at Red Cross Headquarters in London.
Exchange of Prisoners
Negotiations for the exchange of British and German able-bodied prisoners have not yet been completed but if they are successful the proposed scheme may well affect a considerable number of British and Commonwealth prisoners, captured before July 1st, 1940. But, lest too high hopes are raised, I must emphasise that the whole matter is still in the preliminary stages. During this war most of the prisoners exchanged have been gravely wounded men and non-combatants covered by the Geneva Convention of 1929, and the present negotiations are the first for an exchange in which the prisoners involved would be active and physically fit men.
Six British Red Cross welfare workers are waiting at a northern port ready to embark for Sweden.
As I write, approximately 800 Britons, Turks, Portuguese and Argentines have arrived in England in the repatriation ship Drottningholm for an exchange of German civilians.
Leave for Repatriates
Repatriated prisoners of war are given 42 days’ leave as soon as they are fit to go to their homes after arrival in this country. They are able to obtain ration cards, vouchers for handkerchiefs and Naafi rations of chocolates, cigarettes and tobacco. Arrangements are also made for them to be placed on the Service register as electors.
This was officially stated in the House of Commons
[Page break]
2 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
last month when it was also announced that if an ex-prisoner on leaving hospital is discharged from the Army on medical grounds he is given not 42 but 56 days’ leave.
New Arrangements
Repatriates receive the amount of leave only if they are not subject to the new arrangements for members of the Forces. That is, if their in-patient treatment in a Service or E.M.S. hospital is not complete, they will not be discharged from the Services until at least eight calendar months, including 56 days’ notice have elapsed from the date of their first absence from duty through illness. The new rule does not apply to patients such as those suffering from tuberculosis, once they have been transferred to civil sanatoria. Nor will it shorten any longer period of retention in the Service now allowed under normal regulations.
Tribute to Medical Officer
A prisoner in Stalag 383 who has been suffering from a badly septic hand has written home praising enthusiastically the British medical officer who has been attending to him in the hospital. Of his time in hospital he says: “Of course, I’ve had a lot of pain and it made me ill, but, oh, the treat to be in this quiet room (only four men with me) after years in the crowded Stalags and to be out of the bitter cold. We get a little more food in here, too, and I’m afraid that means a great deal to all of us now.” Like many other prisoners, he spends a lot of his time studying, and goes on: “I have had to give up my Spanish studies as I find that two subjects will be as much as I can cope with before next summer, as the standard is, of course, much higher than matriculation. My period of study for European history is 1500-1914, which is a big undertaking. My Polish teacher is now one of my closest friends. He is very fond of music and we go to a lot of gramophone recitals together. I hope I can show him a little hospitality after the war, in England, before he returns to his own country.”
Contents of Food Parcels
It has been announced that from the beginning of April food parcels for prisoners of war will each contain 8 oz. of butter. Up to the present time 54 per cent. contained butter and the rest margarine. In future no more margarine will be sent.
May I call the attention of next of kin to the important announcement from the G.P.O. about parcels which appears on page 16.
[Photograph of a large group of men] INDOOR MEETING. Men at Stalag IVB meet together in one of the camp huts.
Camp Hospital Conditions
I am grateful to a repatriated prisoner for information about conditions in the tuberculosis camp hospital at Reserve Lazaret 742, Elsterhorst. He wrote to the parents of a staff-sergeant who is official interpreter at the hospital and camp: “I was a prisoner at Lazaret 742 for six months where I was able to see the splendid work your son is doing. He runs the administration of the whole place, and runs it very well indeed.” The food and living conditions, he added, were much better than in the ordinary prison camps.
A Rifleman’s Violin
A rifleman in Stalag IVC had a very agreeable surprise last November, when he received his violin. It had been sent off to him two years before by his wife. Writing to the Red Cross telling the story, she says: “It had been to Italy and followed him to Germany. I felt you would be interested to know this as I brought the violin up the St. James’s myself and your organisation packed it and sent it off for me. It says much for the way it was packed, for it arrived quite intact and my husband was able to play it at once.”
Lucky Reunion
By a chance in a thousand, a captain captured in Normandy found to his amazement, on arrival at Oflag 79 that his elder brother was in the camp. His brother, who has been a prisoner for about three years, was captured in Egypt, had been a prisoner in Italy and in several camps in Germany as well. Sheer coincidence brought them to the same camp. In brotherly fashion, the captain writes: “Try as hard as I can, I can detect neither mental nor physical difference in him, there isn’t any. Neither fatter than he was nor thinner; neither older nor younger, in looks or in manner. Take it or leave it. Olly is Olly; and if anything a bit more so … so far I have been unable to do anything at all except talk and talk and talk to Olly.”
Repatriates Tribute
I much appreciated the letter sent to me by a private recently repatriated from Switzerland. “Without your marvellous organisation,” he wrote, “it would have been just a horrid existence.” He added that since he had been home he had derived a lot of pleasure from reading The Prisoner of War. “They must have proved a big help during that worrying time.” He enclosed a donation with his letter, writing “May I help others who are still behind the confines of the prison camps even as others who helped me whilst I was in that position? A letter received from an officer in Oflag VIIB shoes that those who are still prisoners are hearing news of repatriated prisoners. He writes: “I know a number of officers from here who have been repatriated, and we sometimes hear from previous repatriates. They seem to have ample rations, petrol, clothing coupons, etc., given them on arrival.”
Food for Body and Mind
Over 28,000,000 Red Cross parcels of food and invalid comforts and over 1,000,000 next-of-kin parcels have been sent to British prisoners of war and internees in European prison camps since the beginning of the war. But it must not be forgotten that while the greater number of food parcels are packed in England, all the Dominions and the British communities in the Argentine and Brazil contribute to the work either by packing, by financial aid, or by provision of bulk food, for which a parcel equivalent is included in the figure above. In addition many thousands of pounds have been spent by the Red Cross on sending to the prisoners about 500,000 books of every kind needed for education or recreation, on music and musical instruments, indoor games and outdoor sports equipment. Not only the body, but also the mind of the prisoner of war has been kept fit and healthy.
[Boxed] HAVE YOU MOVED?
If so, do not forget to notify the Army, Navy or R.A.F. authorities as well as the Red Cross of your change of address. [/boxed]
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 3
Released by the Russians
[Photograph of a group of men] Russian seamen at Odessa watch the ships depart.
RELEASED by the Russians during their swift advance into Eastern Germany, 400 British prisoners of war are, at the time of writing, on their way home to the United Kingdom. They form an advance party which will be followed by others, bringing ever larger numbers of freed captives back to those who have waited so long for their return. The majority of these men come from camps near Torun, Stalags XXA and XXB.
A second shipload of repatriates follows closely in the wake of the first.
Upon arrival in the United Kingdom they will receive 42 days’ home leave, after which they will attend a medical board. Then, depending on their state of health, they will either return to their units for a course of training in the United Kingdom, or receive the hospital treatment which has been prescribed.
Three Welfare Officers of the British Red Cross and St. John War Organisation passed through Moscow, where a special British staff is now established to contact released British p.o.w.s, on their way to Odessa.
Other Red Cross personnel plan to join those now in Russia, and together they hope to set up a semi-permanent depot at Odessa, with supplies of Red Cross comforts sufficient for 10,000 men.
These comforts include books, games, tobacco, cigarettes, soap and other toilet requisites, gramophones with recordings of E.N.S.A. shows etc. Food, clothing and medical supplies are also being sent to supplement those provided by our Russian allies.
Special consignments of tea, milk, sugar and biscuits will be available to repatriates during the journey home, so that they may enjoy “elevenses.”
More Are Coming
Almost every day trains draw into Odessa, chief southern port of Russia, bringing prisoners rescued by the Red Army – British, American, French, etc. – a great many of them civilians freed from internment camps.
When they reach this old fortified city of the Ukraine, built by the Empress Catherine in 1784-1792, and now badly damaged in the war, British p.o.w.s are taken to warm and spacious quarters in large buildings adapted as rest homes, where hot baths and excellent food are provided. Worn uniforms and ragged underclothes are exchanged for new outfits, comprising great-coats, battledresses, and warm underwear. New badges of rank and medal ribbons are issued to those entitled to wear them.
“See you in Berlin”
Various entertainments have been arranged to fill in the days of waiting until ships can take the men home.
Winter in the Ukraine is both longer and colder than in Western Europe. In January the temperature is much the same as in Stockholm at that time of year, whilst in July it is on a par to that experienced in Madrid.
As the first repatriate ship, a luxury liner of pre-war days, weighed anchor with her load of excited, happy men, someone shouted to the crowd of Russians watching from the quayside: “Thanks for everything. See you again soon, in Berlin.”
The remark brought a thunderous reply from the Russians- “Da, da” (Yes, yes) roared back from a dozen throats.
Ex-Internees Welcomed Home
AFTER years of internment, between two and three hundred British civilians, men, women and children, have been released from the German camps of Biberach, Wurzach, Liebenau and Ilag VII.
The large majority of those freed are Channel Islanders, who were forcibly deported from their homes by the Nazis in September, 1942.
A number of medical cases with their families were included in the draft. Fourteen men who joined this repatriation had been scheduled to join a previous one, but were held up in Sweden at the last minute. They had been detained at the request of the German Government when the total number of British to be exchanged was found to exceed that of the German.
Help and Gifts
At the port of embarkation at Gothenburg, in Sweden, and during the homeward voyage in the Drottningholm, the Swedish Red Cross looked after the comfort and welfare of the repatriates. When they reached the United Kingdom they were met by officers of the British Red Cross, who gave them every assistance in addition to dispensing gifts of chocolates, cigarettes and newspapers. Warm clothing costing up to £10 per head had been provided by the British Red Cross, through their Swedish colleagues, to each ex-internee before sailing.
The Ministry of Health is responsible for all arrangements made for the reception of British civilians released from enemy hands. There are excellent hostels provided at the port of disembarkation, where those requiring temporary accommodation may stay.
Previous repatriations took place in January, 1942, October, 1943 and August and September, 1944.
[Photograph of a group of people outside]
[Page break]
4 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
The Brighter Side
[Boxed] Most of the paragraphs on this page refer to activities in the big base camps and it should not be assumed that they are typical of conditions in all camps or in outlying working detachments where facilities for sport and amusement are much fewer. [/boxed]
[Picture of the front and rear pages of a pantomime programme] Pantomime programme at Marlag und Milag Nord.
FEW camps have put on a more impressive selection of shows than Marlag und Milag Nord. Bandwaggon and Marlag Coons are among the regular features. Such well-known plays as French Without Tears, Hobson’s Choice, and The Importance of Being Earnest have been produced; while Gilbert and Sullivan have been well represented with H.M.S. Pinafore, The Gondoliers and Pirates of Penzance. Pantomimes are regular favourites and the men have produced Aladdin, Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe and Dick Whittington.
Their skill in reproducing all the atmosphere of a West End show is shown by the front and back covers of the programme devised for Dick Whittington, which was written and produced by one of the prisoners. There were three acts of two scenes each and music by Mac and his Grand Pantomime Orchestra. The cast consisted of 25, with a chorus of ten villagers and eight “rats.”
On New Year’s Eve the Merchant Navy arranged a Fancy Dress Ball with some of the prisoners dressed up as girls, and had an excellent entertainment.
Hogmanay Dinner
A prisoner at Stalag IVC writes of the New Year celebrations in the camp: “Two of my pals, being Jocks, they insisted that at New Year we should have a real Hogmanay Dinner. One chap, a sign-writer, did some excellent painting of seasonal greetings, decorated the room and gave it a really cheerful and cosy appearance. Three of us did the cooking and 18 sat down to dinner.” Afterwards they had impromptu turns and a sing-song accompanied by an accordion and guitar, and finally finished up with a supper.
In the same camp they recently put on the sketch The Monkey’s Paw. It was originally intended to produce it as am “eerie hair-raising drama,” but as things were rather hectic they eventually put it on unrehearsed as a farce, rather, it appears, to the despair of the promoter. Still, the audience got plenty of good laughs.
High Opinion of Shakespeare
They have a very high opinion of Shakespeare in another camp, where The Comedy of Errors is halfway through its run. It is being played as a sort of pantomime farce, with song and dance, bright colours and red noses, and one prisoner writes: “I think the audience enjoy it, but they can’t get over an almost religious respect for William Shakespeare; they sit and chuckle, refuse to applaud the songs and afterwards tell one that they are coming to see it twice more. Very odd…”
On Tour
A corporal from Stalag 344E3 has written home to say that he is now at an entirely new place, 600 miles from his own camp. It appears that he is out on tour with one of their shows, Night Must Fall, which they are playing to prisoners who are not able to put on shows of their own. He added: “I am having some quite novel experiences. It is quite a change after four years in E3. You have probably read of the camp in the papers. It is a very nice place.”
Plenty of Entertainment
There is plenty of entertainment to be had at Stalag IVB and prisoners have a choice of going to the pantomime or the musical revue, listening to music, or reading, playing football or indoor games. At Christmas they produced a modern Nativity play, Christmas on the Green, which, in the words of one prisoner, recalled “a beautiful Miracle play of the Middle Ages.” The pantomime started its run just after Christmas, following a musical revue, Springtime for Jennifer, which had been written by a prisoner and was “one of the best yet.”
English football enthusiasts at the same camp are feeling very pleased with themselves because England recently beat Wales 3-0.
Another prisoner who wrote home is more enthusiastic about music. He writes: “Bolt, who recently gave the Unfinished, Rosamunde, Ballet and Gluck-Motte Suite, has thrilled us with Beethoven (Ind. Sy. Fidelio, Egmont and that exquisite poem Romance in F). The orchestra of 45 men is international and now plays finely. A young Warsaw violinist gave a sensitive rendering.”
Prisoner Playwright
As a pleasant reversal of the usual conditions, it is interesting to be able to record that a prisoner of war in Germany was able to bring laughter and joy to a large number of people in England this Christmas. L/Sgt. Derek C. Lunn, a prisoner since Dunkirk and now at Stalag 357 (22), was asked by his fiancée in Woking to send her something for her Girl Guides to perform. He forwarded a delightful outline of a pantomime, which, being too ambitious for her small company, was taken up by the local Commissioner. A treatment was worked out by an amateur playwright in the neighbourhood, and four performances were played to crowded houses.
The net result was a cheque for £100 being handed over to the Y.W.C.A. Appeal Fund, and the pantomime has been so successful that hundreds of would-be spectators who were unable to secure tickets have insisted on further performances in the near future. The whole of the cast, comprising Brownies, Guides, Rangers and Sea Rangers, signed a special letter of thanks to the author.
Indoor Games
At this time of year indoor games and recreation are naturally very popular. In Stalag IVB they organise quiz shows, and entertainments and lectures as well as all the usual indoor sports. Before the prisoners at Stalag Luft III were moved to the south-west, the camp had for a time a special entertainments section, with provision for lectures and classes. The most popular were those in French, German and shorthand.
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 5
Escaped Prisoners Reach Italy
DOROTHY M. CLARKE,
Official Red Cross Correspondent, Describes Their Reception There
[Photograph of a line of men peeping out from washing cubicles] Hot showers are enjoyed by all.
ONE Belgian and thirteen British soldiers who had escaped from German prison camps reached Italy at the end of December. Several of them had been prisoners of war since 1940, when they were captured defending Metz during the Battle of France.
Private J. Creighton, whose home is in Sligo, Eire, was one of those taken at Metz. After a long period in prison in German Occupied France, he managed to break out and reach Switzerland. Then, when the American Army invaded Southern France and advanced to the Swiss border, he crossed the frontier and joined them.
Private William Powell, who comes from Sydney, Australia, told me that he had been on the run in Northern Italy for many months after escaping from a German prison camp. After many adventures he made his way through the enemy’s lines into Allied territory.
Upon arrival at a special reception camp in Southern Italy each man received a hot meal and a comfortable bed. Next morning after breakfast, which was served from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., the new arrivals had to report at the reception office and fill in forms giving full particulars about themselves and their movements. Then they went to the disrobing-room and removed their somewhat heterogeneous collection of garments, which were taken away for disinfestation whilst the men themselves enjoyed hot showers. This was followed by medical inspection and injections, and a full issue of fresh clothing from the Quartermaster.
Called on the Red Cross
Dressed in their new outfits, the men called at the British Red Cross store, where an officer of the War Organisation presented each with a Red Cross “Glory Bag” containing various toilet necessities, writing-paper, etc.
The men had next to be interrogated by officials of the Security Department, who checked their credentials and established their identity; after this they received their first pay as free citizens – a memorable occasion they will not easily forget.
Whilst awaiting repatriation to their homes the men are at liberty to enjoy all the amenities of the reception camp; their only fatigue, if it can be called such, is attendance at one parade daily to answer to their names at roll-call.
Three times a week a cinema performance is given at the camp. In charge of the large and well-equipped club room, with its billiard and ping-pong tables, dart-boards, and E.F.I. canteen, are two English ladies, members of the W.V.S. One is Mrs. Dimbleby, mother of the well-known broadcaster.
The days of waiting need not be spent in idle leisure only, for a fatherly War Office has provided the facilities of a warrant officer’s education for those desiring to avail themselves of the opportunity of hearing lectures, studying maps, joining in discussions of topical interest, and making use of the well-stocked library.
From the Folks at Home
The British Red Cross Welfare Officer attached to the camp has been largely responsible for equipping the sick bay and small chapel. She made the altar-cloth in the chapel herself, and on her orders local craftsmen executed the wooden crucifix and candlesticks.
Gifts of the British Red Cross in the sick bay are the cheerful looking yellow counterpanes, hiding drab Army blankets; and the bright curtains at the windows, which give the plain flambo hut a more homely appearance. The wireless set, gramophone, easy chairs, hot-water bottles, bedrests, rugs, heating stoves, flower vases, games, etc., which do so much to ease and cheer sick men who have known little comfort or happiness during long years of captivity, were all bought with those pennies subscribed each week by the folks at home.
“When you write your report there is one thing I would like you to be sure to mention,” the Camp Commandant said to me before I left; “and that is, that every man who comes to this camp tells me he would not be alive if it had not been for the British Red Cross food parcels which he received whilst a prisoner.”
I can report how Red Cross money is being spent, but if only subscribers at home could actually see the use to which their gifts are put, then they would be amply repaid for what they have given. It is not only the material contributed, but the spirit of remembrance and gratitude of the giver, which means so much to men in exile. As Sir Walter Scott wrote:-
“It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart and mind to mind,
In body and soul can bind.”
When the “cease fire” sounds, and all prison gates open, the still captive comrades of these men will return to a changed world; but not, one hopes, to a world in which people will easily forget their sacrifice and their suffering.
[Photograph of people gathered around a fireplace] The first real rest in years.
[Page break]
6 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
Official
[Photograph of a large building by a bridge over water] BESIDE THE STILL WATERS. View of Oflag IXA/H.
DULAG 339, MANTUA
This is the new name for the transit camp in German-occupied Italy, formerly known as Stalag 337. The camp is intended to serve as a transit camp for prisoners captured on the Italian front while awaiting transfer to Germany. As a rule prisoners are here only two or three days, but lately, owing to the bombing of communications and transport, prisoners have been kept two or three weeks. On the day of visit there were 321 British and 95 American prisoners of war in this camp.
The camp is situated on the outskirts of Mantua, near the Lake Inferiore. Four large buildings and an old garage have been converted and made habitable, two are used as dormitories, one is reserved for stores, and the fourth is used for workshops, showers, etc. A kitchen has been installed in the middle of the camp and underground there is an air raid shelter to hold 500 prisoners.
The dormitories are not heated and are well aired. The temperature is at present adequate. Each prisoner has three blankets. The beds are the two-tier type. There is practically no lighting in the camp.
There is a large washhouse with running water. Fifteen shower-baths have been installed, but there is no hot water. The prisoners receive soap. The kitchen is run by a German N.C.O. helped by six prisoners. The food was not plentiful, but appeared sufficient. Supplementary rations are provided for prisoners who work. It has not been possible to install a canteen in the camp. There is a shortage of clothing.
Medical treatment is available at the neighbouring hospital, where the prisoners can also have dental and eye treatment. There is no British chaplain.
The prisoners are entitled to send a postcard to their next of kin as soon as they arrive in the camp. Permanent staff may write every week.
There is a library of 350 English books, and the prisoners have supplies of games and playing cards.
(Visited November, 1944.)
OFLAG IXA/H, SPANGENBERG
Upper Camp
28 newly captured officers had arrived from the Western front, making a total of 185 officers and 36 other ranks.
Interior arrangements are adequate at the moment, but it is feared that if many more prisoners arrive from the Western front the dormitories will be overcrowded. This will also apply to the library and recreational rooms.
All the Roman Catholic prisoners of war have been moved to Oflag IXA/Z, since there is no priest in this camp.
Recreational facilities are satisfactory. Walks are organised twice a week.
Lower Camp
Total strength on day of visit was 210 officers and 34 other ranks.
The situation with regard to overcrowding was the same here as in the Upper Camp. Many dormitories are already very full. If many new captures are sent to this camp the overcrowding is likely to be serious.
The central heating will be out of use when the present stock of coke is exhausted. It is hoped that further supplies will be forthcoming, this being a camp for senior officers, the average age being 43 years.
Recreational facilities are well organised. The prisoners go for two walks each week and in addition parties go out of the camp nearly every day to collect wood.
Mail is stated to be very good. Letters from England arrive within two or three weeks.
The general impression from both the Lower and Upper Camps is that at present conditions are fairly satisfactory; but it is the future which causes anxiety, in that if there is to be a large increase of officers, both camps will be seriously overcrowded and the existing facilities such as heating, lighting, water supply, and sanitation, will be unable to stand the increased burden.
(Visited November, 1944.)
OFLAG IXA/Z, ROTHENBURG
Total strength 405 officers and 56 other ranks.
Interior arrangements are satisfactory at the moment, but an increase in the camp strength is expected, which will cause overcrowding.
[Photograph of a group of men in uniform outside] CAPTIVE BUT NOT DOWNHEARTED. A smiling group of men at Stalag IVF.
There has been no improvement in the lighting of the camp, and if extra lighting is to be given to the recreational rooms it will be necessary to reduce the lighting in some of the other rooms. Central heating is at present only available for a few hours in the evenings. The shortage of coal, owing to transport difficulties, is current throughout Germany, and it was considered unlikely that the full scale of coal could be delivered before the winter. The officers are allowed to go out most days to collect wood.
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 7
from the Camps
[Boxed] In every case where the conditions call for remedy, the protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/boxed]
Owing to the shortage of coal, hot showers are available only once a fortnight, and the prisoners are only able to have a hot evening meal four times a week.
Nearly 300 prisoners have been inoculated against typhus, with anti-typhoid inoculations to follow. German supplies of drugs and medicines are now better, but most of the supplies are received from Red Cross sources.
There are three chaplains at the camp – one Church of England, one Roman Catholic, and one Baptist.
The spirit in the camp is high, and it is hoped that there will be no considerable increase in the number of prisoners, since the existing facilities are likely to prove inadequate.
(Visited November, 1944.)
LABOUR DETACHMENTS
Dependent in STALAG IVF
No. Z128, Marienthal. – 20 prisoners of war work in a tramway factory 10 hours daily. Sunday is generally free.
The only complaint is a lack of working gloves, which the Germans promised to provide.
9 British prisoners at W123, Bogenstein, are employed digging air raid shelters for 55 hours weekly. Sundays are free.
[Photograph of group of men] HOLD IT NOW! Members of a working party at Stalag IVG pose for their photograph to be taken.
[Drawing of a large building OFLAG IX AZ. Germany] LAST CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY? A sketch of Oflag IXA/Z drawn by a senior British officer, and sent as a Christmas card to the Red Cross.
There were no complaints at Detachment No. Z15, Suedkapmfbahn, where 97 prisoners of war are engaged on various maintenance jobs for nine hours daily.
No. G168, Glauchau. – This camp is housed in a large wooden barrack and has good air-raid shelters. There are 26 British prisoners of war employed in an artificial wood factory for 60 hours a week, with Sundays generally free. There are four sleeping rooms with a separate dining room and a separate room for the medical orderly and the cook. There are sufficient tables and chairs. Some of the roofs leak. Each prisoner has two blankets.
The washing facilities are adequate and the prisoners can have a hot shower each week in the factory. There is a small library in the camp, also a gramophone. Prisoners are able to play football.
Detachment No. L106, Loessnitz. – The 58 British prisoners of war in this detachment live in a two-storied stone building near a small village. There are no air-raid shelters in the camp, but there are good shelters at the factory where the prisoners are employed manufacturing cotton for 60 hours a week. Sunday is generally free.
Interior arrangements are adequate. There are two sleeping rooms. Lighting and heating are in order. Every prisoner has two blankets. Hot showers are available at any time in the factory. The prisoners of war have their own cook. Prisoners do their own laundry, but the soap is said to be insufficient.
Detachment No. 87, Oberstuetzengruen. – 53 British prisoners work 60 hours weekly loading and unloading wood. Every third Sunday is free.
The prisoners have only been having a hot shower once every fortnight. In future they will be able to have one every week. The 191 British prisoners of war in Detachment No. 104, Kohlenschacht Lugau had no complaints. They work eight to nine hours daily on the surface of a coal mine and every second Sunday is free.
At Detachment No. 129, Rachau, 20 British prisoners of war work in a paper factory. The hours are 60 a week with Sunday generally free. The 16 prisoners at No. A13, Lindengarten, work for the German Red Cross eight to nine hours a day, and had no complaints.
There were no complaints at the following detachments:-
No. 149, Wuestembrad, where 18 British prisoners of war work for 8 1/2 hours a day at digging air-raid shelters; at No. C89, Neemestrasse, where 24 British prisoners of war work at load-
[Page break]
8 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
ing and unloading glass for nine hours a day; and at No. C104, Limbacherstrasse, where 7 British prisoners of war are employed in a brickworks for 9 1/2 hours a day.
(Visited November, 1944.)
RESERVE LAZARET HOHENSTEIN (STALAG IVF)
On the day of the visit there were 41 British and 38 American patients in this hospital. There are two British medical officer and four British medical orderlies on the staff of the hospital. There were no complaints on either the conditions or the treatment at this hospital.
The drug supply is in order, and there was a good stock of medicaments. Dental treatment is done by a French dentist and is reported to be satisfactory.
(Visited November, 1944.)
LABOUR DETACHMENTS
Dependent on STALAG IVG
The delegate only visited a few working detachments, but met most of the district Men of Confidence.
District Leipzig East. – There are 971 British prisoners of war in 11 detachments. The Men of Confidence had no serious complaints.
District Leipzig Nord. – 344 British prisoners of war in five working detachments. The only complaint was that in this district all stocks of Red Cross parcels have been moved outside the camps and the keys not given to the Men of Confidence.
District Leipzig West. – 497 British prisoners of war in seven working detachments. Here again the Men of Confidence complained that stocks of Red Cross parcels are inaccessible. Arrangements will be made to secure more store-rooms.
District Espenhain. – 500 British prisoners of war in three working detachments. The chief complaint was that there was a French doctor in charge of the prisoners who does not speak English. As it will hardly be possible to get a British medical officer to this area, arrangements will be made to secure an interpreter.
[Photograph of five men in uniform] RED CROSS STAFF AT STALAG IVG, where the general health of prisoners is reported to be good.
District Grimma. – 368 British prisoners of war in six working detachments. There were no complaints.
District Wurzer. – 533 British prisoners of war in ten detachments. There were no serious complaints.
District Borna. – 266 British prisoners of war in five detachments. The only complaint was that at Detachment No. 102, Bad Lausick, the men had been unable to play football although there is a good sports field at their disposal. It was agreed that prisoners will again be allowed to play football on their free Sundays.
Detachment No. 654, Coswig. – 26 British prisoners of war are employed 65 hours a week in workshops and had no complaints about working conditions. There was no Sunday work.
The prisoners are well accommodated in a large barrack with two sleeping rooms. Lighting and heating are satisfactory. There are adequate air-raid shelters. The clothing position is bad in this camp. The laundry has to be sent out to a German firm, who often lose the prisoners’ garments. Medical attention is good.
Detachment No. 434, Grossteinberg. – 79 British prisoners of war work in a stone quarry for nine hours a day. Prisoners work one Sunday in each month. The prisoners sleep on wooden three-tier beds and have two blankets each. Lighting and heating facilities are in order. Medical attention is satisfactory. The camp is visited regularly by a padre. There were no complaints.
Detachment No. 104, Rittmitz. – There are 41 British prisoners of war in this camp, some of whom work in a factory and the others in a stone quarry. There was no Sunday work. Living quarters in a stone building are adequately furnished with double-tier beds. Hot showers are available at the factory. A stove for cooking Red Cross food parcels was expected to arrive shortly. The general impression was that this was a fairly satisfactory camp.
(Visited November, 1944.)
RESERVE LAZARET HAID (b)/TRAUN
This lazaret is attached to Stalag 398. It consists of several barracks forming part of a large compound housing foreign labourers engaged in a nearby ironworks at Pupping.
The hospital accommodates prisoners of any nationality. At the time of the visit there were 30 British prisoners, and 14 Americans for whom special rooms are reserved. These arrangements are considered satisfactory.
Clinical equipment is adequate. There is one British medical officer who is able to carry out any treatment required. The British medical staff work amicably with the German authorities. Cooking is done by foreign prisoner cooks and rations are considered to be very unsatisfactory. The chaplain from Stalag 398 pays regular visits to the hospital. There are sufficient recreational grounds within the compound.
(Visited November, 1944.)
Reports on Stalag IVG, Oshatz and IVF, Hartmannsdorf, will be found on page 16.
[Photograph of eleven men in uniform] BRITISH AND SOUTH AFRICAN Back Row, Left to Right: Bobs Tatham (Natal); Ned Sparks (Gt. Britain); Bob Cullen (Natal); Ronald Abbot (Cape Town); Geoffrey Reid (Cape Town). Front Row: Bobby Gain (Cape Town); Paddy Doyle (Gt. Britain); Neil Orpen (Cape Town); Billy Reynolds (Somerset West); Zander Dewar (Natal); Tony Burch (Uitenhage).
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 9
The Letters They Write Home
[Photograph of two men boxing, watched by a group of men] THE FIRST ROUND OPENS.- Men of a working party at Stalag XVIIA hold a boxing match in a wood.
Like Great-Grandmother’s
Oflag VIIB 26.12.44.
As by a German order all reserves of food in the camp must be consumed before new parcels are allowed in, everyone has had (and is having) a very well-fed time of it. I made a really excellent brawn from bully, meat roll and bacon, and Steve and I produced a Christmas cake which would not have made a bad show of it even in the presence of the genuine article á la Great-Grand-mother’s recipe!!
The ingredients may interest you: 1 small tin Horlick’s, 3 Canadian Red Cross biscuits ground to flour, egg powder, milk powder, bicarb. of soda, chopped raisins and apricots, and prune kernels and hazel nuts, butter, sugar.
Officers made toys, which were auctioned and the money and toys are to go to the Ilags for the children, mostly from the Channel Islands.
We had an old time Boxing Booth á la Sanger. They produced an excellent Christmas number of our magazine, with a ghost story and a new poem on Cheshire. Steve and I got up in darkness for the 7 a.m. service, and it was jolly cold, but we made it.
We are able to help the new boys out over food, and just at present there is plenty for all and the future will have to look after itself.
Carved Crib with Razor
Oflag V A. 27.12.44.
We have had days now of very hard frost; Christmas Day itself was beautifully sunny, clear and crisp, without a cloud all day. I managed to finish the crib I tried to make. It finally consisted of a very plain stable of cardboard, with a star over it, and inside Joseph, Mary and one shepherd. The Child was a vague head sticking out of a bundle of cloth in the manger-only just adequate-but Joseph was quite imposing with a green robe, and Mary was really very sweet, in blue, sitting on a stool, leaning forward to put a covering over the Child. The Shepherd, in what looked like a brown gym tunic, was kneeling at the other side. It was put in the chapel, and, I says it as should not, really looks very nice.
I really enjoyed carving the figures-though with nothing but a razor blade some bits were difficult, and, to begin with, my “anatomy” was bad - arms and legs would not come right.
I went to Mass at 7.30, when there were 140 there. At 9 o’clock there were twice as many.
We had a good breakfast in the mess (porridge, sausages, eggs and coffee), and later on an excellent lunch (meat pie, mashed potatoes, peas, trifle, cake and mincepie), complete with orchestra playing.
Christmas in Cookhouse
Stalag 383. 27.12.44.
Considering the circumstances, we had a very good Christmas as prisoners of war. Wacky and I spent Christmas Eve and Day with Dai (a sergeant in the Welsh Guards) who, being in charge of the soup kitchen, has a room in the cookhouse.
On Christmas Eve, we each had a litre or so of beer and a bit of a sing-song.
The following morning we started the day with an English breakfast (we managed to save a few tins during better times). Our dinner consisted of mashed and roast potatoes, peas, swede and roast meat, and followed by an excellent pudding (made with bread and raisins) with “Klim” washed down with a bottle of beer. I suppose the beer here is no stronger than it is at home nowadays.
We had a very nice cake for tea; Ivor spent a few hours endeavouring to give it the necessary seasonal appearance and finished up by having the words “A Merry Christmas” printed on the wrapper.
Imposing Little Ceremony
Stalag IVF. 6.11.44.
My last outing was on All Souls Day, when I went down to the hospital cemetery to attend a short memorial service conducted by the French chaplain. I went from there with the French and Belgian Men of Confidence, and the Italian chaplain, in the French Red Cross lorry.
A large contingent from the hospital marched down to the cemetery. After prayers the names of the prisoners of all nationalities who had died, were read out. Our senior doctor read the British names.
Then we went on to the civilian cemetery in the town, where other prisoners are buried, and the service was repeated. It was quite an imposing little ceremony.
A Pretty Decent Chap
Stalag IVD. 23.2.45.
This week has been a record for illness. We all have rotten colds – it has run all round the Stube – 40 of us. Tons of snow and very cold still. But hope you are free from colds yourself.
Still plenty of work and the hours are long. Am on night shift every other week on a metal press, Have a pretty decent chap in charge named Max, who has a bit of sympathy for us. No cigarettes or mail yet, but tell Hilda to get the baking pans ready as we are betting on seeing you in the near future.
Fire Fuhrer
Oflag VIIB. 1.1.45.
At present, as I am our room “fire fuhrer,” I seem to spend my entire days trying to make lumps of wood fit into our tiny stove, which won’t burn when we want to cook, and soars through anything when we try to damp it down.
It really isn’t fair, this business of ten officers living, sleeping, eating in the kitchen; or you might call it cooking, eating, living in one bedroom.
To-day I spent hammering old tins out flat and joining them together to make tops for cooking pots, my tool kit consisting of a rusty iron bar and a jagged knife. I get quite a bit of amusement out of it really.
To turn to a less squalid side of life, I’ve spent half to one hour daily, for the last week, on skates on the flooded hockey pitch.
News and Rumours
Stalag IVF. 29.10.44.
Most of our lads have just received their first personal parcels, and are they happy? Socks with the foot complete, shirts in one piece, and cigarettes are arriving as well. So just at a time
[Page break]
10 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
when things looked black, owing to the food parcels being cut to one between two men, we are laughing again. It is good to see how everybody takes all hard knocks with a smile, and they are numerous these days.
You were asking in your letter, do we get news of the progress of the war? Yes; we hear and see enough to help us form opinions on what is happening. But genuine news is far outweighed by rumours, so we have to sort it out.
I notice you have not been able to make any plans for the post-war. I believe that applies to most of us. I often think of the worry ahead for all of us. What a splendid opportunity for all to make a great effort to create a better standard of living in Europe. Nobody should go short of food after six years of suffering. May we be able to give the lead to other nations. I am continuing my letter on another card.
Arguments and Discussions
Stalag 357. 5.11.44.
The location of this new 357 is quite good, being on grass this time, and down the side of a real Scottish wood. There are about 6,500 men here, mixed R.A.F. and Army and all nationalities, so arguments and discussions are many and varied. We have electric light installed, and now have a hot plate in each hut.
Lights were out again last night at 7 p.m., so we had an evening’s community singing with all sorts of songs and stories. An Aussie in the bed above me is pretty good!
I have been issued with a pair of new boots and a French great coat, so am now well equipped.
Making a Start
Stalag 357. 20.9.44.
We are gradually organising our social life in this new camp. The library has opened and once again I spend a few hours in it every day. For sport we have football, rugby, cricket and racing.
It should not be long before the school is open and then I will be able to resume my studies.
Saw Volkssturm Practicing
Stalag IVB. 1.12.44.
Seeing the Volkssturm practicing on the range near the camp on Sundays is just like seeing the Home Guard at home.
To-night I saw at the theatre Springtime for Jennifer; these productions are excellent and amazing.
The editor of New Times, the paper for
[Photograph of a group of people performing a play] CLOTHES AND THE MAN.- An Able Seaman gives a realistic rendering of Lady Bowden during a theatrical performance at Stalag 344.
4,000 English-speaking prisoners, has asked me to join the editorial board and contribute regularly, so I am not out of touch with my life as it was and as it will be.
Each day I cook our two meals for my “mucker” and myself and I am modestly an increasingly good cook. You would be amazed to see me in my skyblue French overcoat, maroon beret, et.
Midnight Parade
Stalag XIA. 25.12.44.
Christmas Day here was really quite amazing. All the boys have entered into the spirit of things and are
[Boxed] SEND US YOUR PICTURES AND LETTERS
Ten shillings will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate piece of paper showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James’s Palace, London, S.W.1. The cost of these prices and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/boxed]
determined to have as merry a time as possible. On Christmas Eve we had a carol service complete with orchestra and choir. After that we had a concert in our room, and finished up by parading round the other rooms at midnight singing at the tops of our voices.
The following morning at 6 o’clock they had their own back by waking us with a fanfare of trumpets, trombones, drums, etc.
Our Christmas dinner was a great achievement; we had saved some stuff from our parcels and made a big pudding for sixteen of us, and our three-tier cake was the talk of the camp.
We are all feeling a little uncomfortable now, but nevertheless contented. We toasted you all after dinner (in tea) and feel sure we will be with you soon.
New Arrivals
Biberach. 26.11.44.
We have quite a mixed crowd of people in the camp, including about 140 (men, women and children) who arrived recently. Special arrangements had to be made on their arrival, and they are now getting more settles down. The women are up fairly early in the morning, and soon the lines outside their barracks are full of washing.
We now have 84 persons in our barrack with none in hospital. There are 17 in our room.
The hospital and Red Cross staff have had a little more to do lately, and have done it well. About 2,000 Red Cross parcels arrived here recently, and are very welcome.
Nearly a Black Christmas
Stalag IVD. 26.12.44.
It looked like being a black Christmas for us here with no parcels, but on Christmas Eve the works foreman came in dressed as Father Christmas and brought good news. Parcels were at the distributing centre and he had been able to make arrangements for collecting them on Christmas morning. After that the band got going with a swing and the dance was on.
On Christmas morning we went to the pictures. The big picture was an ice skating film and was very good. Also news and a short picture taken in Salzburg area. Going again on New Year’s Day, the picture being a circus film, which should be good.
It has been very cold all the holiday – well below freezing point. Start work again tomorrow.
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 11
“Rookery Nook” at Stalag XXA
[Group of three photographs of a number of players in stage production]
GERALD: “She’s just a sweet, innocent little girl.”
Putz leaves in a nasty rage.
Clive and Gerald tell Twine to get Rona’s clothes from the German.
The well-known play Rookery Nook was first produced in London many years ago when Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls and Robertson Hare played the original parts. Since then, it has been revived by many theatrical companies, including those in prisoner of war camps, and is a favourite everywhere.
The theme of the play is a matrimonial muddle at a country house, and as the scenes shown here were not marked on these photographs from Germany, we asked Mr. Ralph Lynn to caption them. In returning them, he says, “I think they have done wonders by the photographs. God bless them, and good luck to them all.”
LETTERS (Continued from previous page)
Table Bombs
Stalag XIA. 25.12.44.
To-day we put on the best show for the camp at 10 o’clock until 12 mid-day. We all put our iced cakes and puddings on show and all down the centre of the room on the decorated tables were paper flowers and table bombs. They really looked well. Mind you the inscriptions would not pass the censor, but none the less for all that we enjoyed it.
The table bombs gave us all enough hats and flags for the room. To-morrow I have to arrange, by way of entertainment, a mock trial for some unfortunate individual. For all this good food and so on we have to give our thanks to the Red Cross.
A Wizard Day
Stalag Luft III 26.12.44.
We had an absolute wizard day yesterday, which I shall always remember as one, I think, of the best in my life. After ten weeks of pretty lean diet on half parcels, a consignment of American Christmas parcels arrived, and from them we enjoyed, among many good things, turkey and Christmas puddings which were the last word.
One fellow from our room has cooking right at his finger tips, and we were supplied through the day with an assortment of eats which, in my opinion, would have graced with distinction the tables of a Royal household! We have plenty left over for to-day and the New Year, which includes a 16lb. cake untouched from yesterday.
Excuse all this talk about food, but here at times it is an interesting topic.
3,000 Feet Up
Stalag XVIIB. B.H.V.101. 3.12.44.
The snow I wrote about went away, but to-day it is snowing again. This time we want it for the sleighs to get in the winter firewood. The Austrians tell us that they get snowed up here.
We are 3,000 feet up the mountains. One place where we have been working is higher still. On a clear day we can see the Alps in the distance.
I shall soon be a Jack of all trades. We have been chaff-cutting on a motor saw, laying floorlogs, forestry and roadmaking – a bit of everything. I am keeping fine despite all.
We have a cat that catches the rats; it is hard to feed her these days.
Bit of a Miner
Stalag IVD. 25.12.44.
I have now changed my kommando and am no longer at the sugar factory, but am a bit of a miner. The work is hard, but I am used to that, as you know. Work makes the time pass more quickly.
This Stalag is very well organised, which is a great asset. Last night they held a dance which was a “wow.” You would be surprised to see what wonderful looking girls some of the chaps turned out to be. Went for a laugh and I certainly had it.
To-day we went to a service, and although it was only held in a hut it was as impressive as any held in a church.
[Page break]
12 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
[Boxed] How They Help
In addition to those mentioned below, we wish to thank the many kind readers whose help to the funds this month we cannot find room to record here individually. [/boxed]
MR. PAYNE, of “The Crown and Anchor,” Gallows Tree Common, near Reading, has collected £33 7s. from a sale of goods given by his customers, which he forwards with the comment: “It is only a little, but I must thank you for the Red Cross parcels received by my son who is a prisoner of war in Germany.”
With the help of friends Mrs. Agnew has collected £94 7s. 6d. in Jarrow, also for food parcels.
Mrs. Kellow, who writes from Liskeard that she has recently had two cheerful letters from her nephew in Stalag XIA, sends £3, and a total of £15 is reached by a fifth contribution from Mrs. Millard, Risca, Monmouthshire. On behalf of his staff at Llantwit Major, W/O A.S. Hamblin has forwarded £20.
Father Helps Son
A further donation of £5 17s. 6d. has been received from the staff of Nicholl’s Stores, Kensington, and the staff of 50 at Messrs. R.W. Greff and Company of Bishop’s Stortford, who have two colleagues prisoners of war, one in Europe and the other in the Far East, have raised the sum of £112, an increase of £2 on the total for the previous year and the result of the sale of their handwork and toy making.
“Friends at Electra House, London,” have been keeping their eye “on the ball,” and over £2,000 has been collected in sixpences during the past eighteen months or so, and they give us the following “crazy” figures realised from other recent efforts:-
A dart-board … £15
Three fruit cakes … £13
A portable gramophone and tennis racquet … £55
A trug of fresh fruit … £22
Bunches of cut flowers per bunch … £4
Shell eggs … £1 a piece!
Nat Gonella, the ace trumpeter, and the dance band of the Royal Tank Regiment were the star attractions at a ball and cabaret held in the Bournemouth Town Hall, which resulted in £71 15s. 8d. being raised for prisoners of war. Mr. Leo Wells, the promoter, has a son who is a prisoner of war and writes that he is already organising another ball which promises to be an even greater success.
Another successful dance, organised by the Aeronautical Inspection Department, raising £170 17s. 4d. took place at the Co-operative Hall, Nottingham.
Jean Medlock and some of her friends at Shefford, all nine years old, wrote and performed a play, and from the entrance fee of 1d. per person were able to send 5s. Rita Burgess of Luton, who is also nine, has given a second donation, mentioning that she is knitting mittens from the pattern published in the journal, for her father, who is a prisoner of war.
Prisoner Wins Prize
Half of the proceeds of three plays presented by the Upper Killay Young People’s Dramatic Society have been devoted to the Red Cross, and the carols of the Wantage Rangers profited the fund by £1. £2 in Victoria pennies has been saved by Jean Rome, Dunstable, and the combined efforts of the Parsons, Jones and West families at Tirphil, New Tredegar, in collecting threepenny pieces have produced £5.
The East Wales v. West Wales Secondary Schools Union rugby match, which was played on the Gnoll Ground, Neath, was the means of raising £192 1s. 4d., which is a particularly fine result, as the match had to be postponed on the first date arranged because of bad weather.
The two organisers of the Blaenclydach and District Prisoners of War Fund arranged a competition which brought in £120. The prizes were donated by Miss Thomas, Tonypandy, and one of the winners was previously a prisoner of war in Italy.
Gave Own Coupons
A courageous helper is Mrs. Futcher, of Catford, who is 87, who through physical disability can seldom go out of doors, and then only in a wheel-chair. Mrs. Futcher gave her first donation in March, 1942, and has now contributed £42 earned from the sale of kettle-holders at 6d. each, and towels purchased with her own coupons which she converted into face cloths.
Mrs. Say, of Marlborough, has sent in £1 10s., which she writes, “is the result of turning out sundry small things which have been put out of sight. A lot of people perhaps would like to follow suit.” Domino tournaments and competitions run by Mr. A. Garrett, of Hedge End, near Southampton, have produced the splendid figure of £115, while patrons of the Mansfield Hotel, Hove, have raised more than £500 over fifteen months and are aiming at £1,000.
By January 31st, 1945, expenditure and allocations to p.o.w.’s food and comforts had reached £15,511,000.
[Picture of a cherub] [Underlined] Our Gift. £51 * 10 * 0. [/underlined]
[Picture of a candle] [Underlined] To Prisoners of War [/underlined] 22nd. Dec. 1944.
Accept this our donation for the Prisoners of War.
Made by the sale on calendars and Xmas cards galore,
We are but five young tracers and we’ve made our own design
And printed by all by hand a thousand cards without a whine.
Individually each card is made, no copying, no stencil,
A box of paints, a brush, a drawing pen, and just a pencil.
Altho’ the work entailed has used up nearly all our leisure,
We wish to state emphatically it’s been the greatest pleasure
And tho’ we’ve sometimes floundered when we’re making up our rhyme
Each card has its appropriate verse, and is dispatched in time.
So to conclude we send to you the best of Xmas cheer,
And may the boys look forward to a happier New Year.
[Underlined] From – [/underlined] [Signatures]
Surveyors’ Dept., P.D.Ltd., Ystrad Mynach, Glam. [Drawing of a duck]
Five young tracers of Messrs. Powell Dufftyn of Ystrad Mynach, sent the above poem with a donation to the Penny-a-Week Fund.
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 13
Prisoner of War Artists
[Drawing of a man carrying a full load of kit] Packed and Ready! A cartoon sent home as a postcard to his wife by Corporal Harold Coulter.
[Drawing of a country scene] A view seen looking north from an Oflag theatre painted by Major W.F. Anderson.
[Drawing of Pinocchio] Pinocchio was painted by Warrant Officer Gordon C.G. Hawkins and sent home from Germany as a birthday card for his small son Richard.
[Drawing of a bed with associated furniture] A corner of the hospital was the subject of a first attempt at a pen and ink sketch made by Captain Robert Ferguson who has taken up drawing and painting as a winter occupation.
[Drawing of a cartoon rabbit] ‘Pooky Rabbit was crayoned in bright colours for Richard by his father, Warrant Officer Gordon C.G. Hawkins.
[Drawing of men walking inside a barbed wire area, with look-out post] A barbed-wire view painted by Lieutenant Worsley, official Naval war artist.
[Page break]
14 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
Examination Successes
Since the beginning of the year over a thousand examination scripts have reached the Educational Books Section from camps in Germany. Many more are arriving almost daily and are being forwarded to the examining bodies concerned for correction. It is very encouraging to have this evidence that the autumn and winter examinations have been able to be held before the break-up and dispersal of some of the camps owing to the Russian advance.
Applications for future examinations are also coming in in great numbers: as one camp leader says of the men in his camp, “Will their keenness never flag?” and it does not look as if it will, as since the New Year nearly 1,200 examination entries have been received.
More than one camp education officer has written about the difficulties under which the examinations have been taken, e.g., intense cold, interruptions due to air-raid alarms, shortage of stationery, etc. We have every reason to be proud of the men who can work and study in such conditions.
New Pass List Ready
The most recent edition of the pass list giving the examination results for July to December, 1944, is now available. Copies are obtainable on application to the Educational Books Section at the New Bodleian, Oxford, 3d. in stamps should be sent with the application.
Some copies of previous lists are also still available (July to December, 1943, and January to June, 1944).
News From Camps
Lieut. D.C. Crichton has been elected an Associate Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on the results of the examination which he took in camp last year.
A Canadian flight lieutenant, J.P. Gofton, has been credited with written papers in chemistry and biology towards a medical degree at the University of Manitoba. He took papers in these subjects in the first M.B. examinations of the University of London under a special arrangement whereby members of the United Nations may take the London examinations for the purpose of obtaining credits in the equivalent examinations in their own countries.
Two prisoners of war have passed the Final Examinations of their respective professions, viz., Lieut. E.S. Bell, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and Sgt. R.C. MacKenzie, the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants.
Another accountant prisoner of war, Sgt. P.C.G. Montgomery, has passed the First Division of the Final Examination of the Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
Lieut. A.H. Eagles, who passed the Associate Membership Examination of the Institution of Sanitary Engineers last year, has been elected as an Associate Member of the Institution.
One civilian internee in Ilag Kreuzburg has passed the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English examination, and three in the same camp have passed the Lower Certificate.
Lieut. G.C. Sunley has passed the examination for the Certificate in Russian of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
A corporal who passed the written papers for the City and Guilds of London Institute examination in Gas Fitting in Stalag XXA in 1942 has now been repatriated, and has applied to take the practical part of the examination. Arrangements are being made for him to do so.
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
[Table of numbers of candidates applying for and taking examinations, with numbers of results from December 1942 to February 1945]
THE ABOVE FIGURES GIVE THE TOTALS BY THE END OF EACH SIX-MONTHLY PERIOD
Proportion of total successes for results published during February: 82 per cent.
OFLAG 79 – Described by a Repatriate
OFLAG 79 was previously used by the Germans as a Luftwaffe Cadet School, and in consequence the fittings, buildings, sanitation etc., are of a higher standard than one expects to find in a normal Oflag. There are seven double-storey buildings in the camp, which are sub-divided into small rooms accommodating anything from six to fifteen persons. The centre of the camp has a large pine-grove, which helps to break the monotonous barbed wire outlook. The inside perimeter wire is about a mile in circumference, so really one need not suffer from lack of exercise.
The camp is not actually in Brunswick, but is situated in a small village about 5 kilometres east of the town. The village is called Braunschweig Querem.
The German rations were not good. The sole diet, with a few exceptions, was black bread and potatoes. Occasionally vegetable soup, millet and fresh meat were issued, and once weekly a small ration of ersatz margarine, sugar, jam, coffee and tea.
This diet, of course, would have been almost impossible without the aid of the Red Cross food parcels which were issued to us weekly. I really feel that one cannot do enough to help the Red Cross in the wonderful work.
The chaps in the camp have things fairly well organised. When I left they had the theatre going with a new play every week. The junior University – covering almost every subject under the sun – was operating very efficiently. The camp library (most of the books from private parcels) was fairly well stocked, and the indoor and outdoor games were going strong.
The treatment from the Germans was not bad, and I personally have not witnessed any individual acts of cruelty.
H.D.G.
NOTE: This account was written by an officer p.o.w. repatriated in the Autumn of 1944 and therefore describes conditions at the time he left Germany.
[Page break]
APRIL, 1945 The Prisoner of War 15
An All Purpose Pullover
WITH SHOULDER CABLE STITICHING
[Photograph of a man wearing uniform and a pullover]
[Instructions for making a pullover]
[Page break]
16 The Prisoner of War APRIL, 1945
New Film on Loan
A NEW film entitled “Prisoner of War,” compiled for the British Red Cross and St. John by the Gaumont British Picture Corporation Ltd., with commentary by Mr. F.V.H. Emmett, is available free of charge, for private or public display.
The film is 35 mm. size, one reel, with sound recording, and takes ten minutes to run. It is the story of a man captured in Europe and records various incidents which occur during his sojourn in enemy hands.
Applications to borrow Prisoner of War must be made at least two weeks before the date fixed for showing.
Private individuals should apply to:- The Central Film Library, Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London, S.W.7, and pay return carriage.
Professional requests should be sent to:- The Publicity Department, Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, 24, Carlton House Terrace, London, S.W.1.
Please Note
Owing to urgent last minute alterations at the time of going to Press, three errors were made in the camp names in the March issue of “The Prisoner of War.” On page 2, in the article Transport of Food Parcels, Oflag VIIIB should have read Oflag VIIB. On page 16, in the first paragraph of Camp Transfers, Stalag IV should have read Stalag Luft IV; and in the notice Parcels, Luft VIII should have read Luft VII.
REPORTS FROM THE CAMPS
(Continued from page 8)
STALAG IVG, OSCHATZ
The main camp was not visited, there being only 19 British prisoners on the permanent staff. There are 64 British working detachments in the Stalag area containing 4,055 British prisoners of war.
The three British medical officers in the Stalag area reported that the general state of health is good. Dental treatment is done by local dentists and is satisfactory.
STALAG IVF, HARTMANNSDORF
There are only 27 prisoners of war in the main Stalag. The total number dependent on the Stalag is 5,524 British and American prisoners of war, who are dispersed in 95 labour detachments. Interior arrangements in the main Stalag are good and there were no complaints.
[Boxed] NUMBER PLEASE!
Please be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/boxed]
Camp Transfers
LATEST NEWS OF PROGRESS
(Red Cross Map Reference Shown in Brackets)
FROM DATE OF INFORMATION LOCATION
Stalag IIB March 10th Marching to west part of Wehrkreis II (3D/E).
Stalag IID March 10th Marching to west part of Wehrkreis II (3D/E).
Stalag IIIB March 10th At Maerkisch Reitz (E.4).
Stalag IIIC March 10th At Seefeld, near Werneuschin (E.4).
Stalag 344 Feb 27th Teplitz Schonau being used as assembly point (E.6).
[Stalag 344] March 7th 4,000 British and American sick journeying by rail to:
Stalag XIB – Fallingbostel (C.4).
Stalag XIIIC – Hamelburg (C.7).
Stalag VIIA – Moosburg (D.8).
Stalag IXB – Wegscheid Badorb (C.6).
Stalag VIIIA March 9th Head of southern group (marching towards Nuremburg) east of Jena (D.6). Sick prisoners and British Medical Officers remained at Gorlitz (F.5).
Stalag VIIIB March 7th Advance groups at Rakonitz (E.7). Rear groups at Melnik (F.6).
Stalag VIIIC March 9th Head of northern group (moving towards Hanover) west of Soemmerda (D.5). Head of southern group (moving towards Cassel) near Gersund, west of Eisenach (C.6).
Stalag XXA Feb. 25th Prisoners collected in Uckermark region (E.3) and moving westwards.
Stalag XXB Feb. 21st Near Malchin and Tetorow (E.3) and moving westwards.
Stalag Luft III Feb. 23rd Prisoners transferred to S.E. region of province of Oldenburg (B.4), Stalag IIIA Luckenwalde (E.5) and other camps (see March Journal)
[Stalag Luft III] March 7th 480 sick left at Sagan (F.5).
Stalag Luft IV March 10th 1,500 British and U.S. prisoners are proceeding to Stalag Luft I, Barth (E.2). 1,550 British and U.S. prisoners proceeding to Nuremburg [missing reference]. 3,600 British and U.S. prisoners proceeding to Stalag XIB (C.4) and Stalag 357, Fallingbostel (C.4).
Stalag Luft VII Feb. 20th Reported at Stalag IIIA, Luckenwalde (E.5).
PARCELS POST SUSPENDED
THE Postmaster General announces that in the present phase of the war, transport conditions make it difficult to forward next-of-kin and permit parcels to prisoners of war in Germany.
Although, therefore, it is hoped that it may be possible to forward some, or all, of the present accumulation of these parcels to destination, it is necessary to suspend further posting of next-of-kin and permit parcels for the present.
Labels and Coupons
No more labels and coupons will be issued for the present. This applies to first and later issues.
Next of kin and acting next of kin (including county branches, associations and packing centres) are asked particularly not to return issues already in their possession, but to keep them until further notice. Parcels partially prepared should also be kept intact with any remaining unused coupons.
The Red Cross will repack and hand over to the G.P.O. any parcels received at the Packing Centres at Finsbury Circus or Glasgow, which were posted before the G.P.O. announcement was made.
[Boxed] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
This journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoners of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/boxed]
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14 Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by THE CORNWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, S.E.1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Prisoner of War, April 1945
Description
An account of the resource
The official journal of the Prisoners of War Department of the Red Cross and St John War Organisation. This edition covers the Editors comments, POWs released by the Russians, ex-Internees welcomed home, entertainment at the Camps, Escaped Prisoners reach Italy, Official reports from the Camps, POW letters to their homes, Rookery Nook play, charitable contributions, POW artists, Exam results, a description of Oflag 79 camp, a knitting pattern for a pullover, a new film titled 'Prisoner of War', Camp transfers and the suspension of parcel post.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-023
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Czech Republic--Prague
Germany--Krefeld
Russia (Federation)--Moscow
Germany--Liebenau Site
France--Metz
Ireland--Sligo
Australia
New South Wales--Sydney
Germany--Spangenberg
Italy--Mantua
Germany--Marienthal
Germany--Glauchau
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Coswig (Saxony)
Germany--Braunschweig
Poland
Poland--Tychowo
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Karlovy Vary
Germany--Moosburg an der Isar
Ukraine--Odesa
Czech Republic--Cheb
Sweden--Göteborg
Germany--Biberach an der Riss
Italy
France
New South Wales
Germany
Ireland
Russia (Federation)
Sweden
Ukraine
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation. Prisoners of war department
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04
aircrew
arts and crafts
childhood in wartime
entertainment
faith
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
prisoner of war
Red Cross
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 7
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1385/25843/SBakerDA19210428v20185.1.jpg
7fb180d1d025b828e9cd4f13ed5946f5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Baker, Donald Arthur
D A Baker
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-11-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Baker, DA
Description
An account of the resource
187 items. Donald Arthur Baker (b. 1921) travelled from Southern Rhodesia to England in 1940 to join the Royal Air Force. Trained as a pilot in 1941 he was operational with 144 Squadron at RAF North Luffenham flying Hampdens. He was shot down on 5 November 1941 and remained a prisoner of war mostly in Stalag Luft 3 until 1945. He return to farm in Southern Rhodesia after the war. The collection contains letters to his mother throughout the war as well as other correspondence and documents including his prisoner of war log with photographs and notes.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by June Baker Maree and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Map of German prisoner of war camps
Description
An account of the resource
Map with handwritten annotations for some camps including Dulag Luft, Stalag Luft 1 (mistakenly labelled Stalag Luft II), Stalag Luft 3, Stalag Luft 6 and Stalag 8B
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Black and white sketch map with handwritten annotation
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SBakerDA19210428v20185
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Poland
Germany--Oberursel
Poland--Żagań
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Dulag Luft
prisoner of war
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1515/28663/SDryhurstHG1332214v10008-0001.2.jpg
a3445f85dbf077e65b0b8d45ecb6ebac
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1515/28663/SDryhurstHG1332214v10008-0002.2.jpg
ab7bd4cb4c235167a190924cc7eb20f2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dryhurst, Harold Gainsford
H G Dryhurst
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-06-08
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Dryhurst, HG
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. The collection concerns Harold Dryhurst (1923 - 1967, 1332214 Royal Air Force) and contains his log books, letters, memoirs, documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs. He flew operations as a pilot with 103 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Glen Dryhurst and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Kriegsgefangenenpost
[rubber stamp] Stalag 344
[date stamp] 11.8.44.
Miss K. Wagstaff
Police Station
High Street,
Tring,
Hertfordshire,
England
[rubber stamp] PASSED P.W.4918
Sender: Sgt. Dryhurst. H.G.
26826.
[page break]
H. G. Dryhurst,
26826
Stalag 344
Germany.
7.8.1944.
Dear Kay,
We have had a marvellous week-end of entertainment, a carnival procession and a fun-fair, reproduced to the best of our ability, facilities not being up to requirement. It has been appropriate weather for the occasion too.
The tableaus which constituted the procession were on a par with many I have seen at home, there was a “Things to come” effort with that of a “Chinese mandarins”, models of ships, very intricate too, one had a workable engine and an “Engineering” reproduction of the “Clydeside”, they were the main ones, afterwards a visit to the fun-fair, cigarettes being the currency for shies, darts and some very local talent. You must realise Kaye that we are all men who have been confined for a considerable time.
A friend of my calling dropped in to have a casual chat recently but I was not surprised to see him as I had heard he was around. I believe you know Sam.
I have convalesced sufficiently now Kaye and am ready for the fray which I hope will materialise, just spend a hectic period before I launch out again on some more nomadic travelling. I am still studying hard and have take [sic] up Spanish besides German & French which I already knew. Yes, my people, yourself & Joe are very near to me in spirit near, but yet so far.
Well Kaye give my regards to all, have you contacted my home yet?, Cherio, [sic]
Lots of love,
Harold.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Harold Dryhurst to Kaye Wagstaff
Description
An account of the resource
Writes of recent entertainment and the weather. Continues with description of crafts and fun fair. Mentions friends visiting, that he has convalesced and he has taken up Spanish.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
H G Dryhurst
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-08-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two sided handwritten prisoner of war letter form
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SDryhurstHG1332214v10008
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Hertfordshire
England--Tring
Poland
Poland--Łambinowice
England--Herefordshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-08-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jan Waller
prisoner of war
Stalag 8B