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This reminiscence was told to Ken Otter by William Alderson's brother in law, Mr Milton Dixon, and entered onto the website by Catherine Dawson of Woodhouse Close Library.

William Robert Alderson lived in Padiham, Burnley, Lancs. He was a member of the Territorial Army and attached to the 4th/5th Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. In August 1939 he was at work in a paper mill when he was called to attend his army drill hall immediately. When war was declared on 3rd September William was elated and later that day he left home with his regiment and travelled by train to Northumberland where he was billeted in a poultry hut with no windows. Later he was billeted over a stables in Belsy Hall and there training commenced. Route marches, firearms training and PT soon had him fit.

In January 1940 his unit moved to Wiltshire and William remembered they lived on stew (it became called SOS — Same Old Stew). The following month the unit was given 3 days embarkation leave prior to going to France. He arrived in Cherbourg and recalls being very seasick but excited at being in France. William had trained as a cook but transferred to the Military Police and was moved to the French and Belgium border. In May the German army advanced into France and William’s Unit retreated towards Dunkerque. On the retreat, however, William became separated and on 28th May was captured by the advancing Germans. He was taken by train, in cattle trucks, across Europe to Lansdorf on the Czechoslovakian border (Stalag 8B). The journey of many days was endured with men packed in like sardines and only room to stand. Some suffered from dysentery to add to the problems of the prisoners. William recalled seeing one of his fellow prisoners commit suicide, whilst on a working party, by jumping in front of a train.

At the POW camp conditions worsened as he faced his first winter with little food, lice and disease all around him. In the summer of 1941 William escaped from a working party he was in and made his way across Czechoslovakia but after injuring himself he was recaptured by German soldiers and kept in solitary confinement for 3 weeks. Later he met a Russian girl and the two fell in love.

In 1944 William escaped again, but was again captured, although he had travelled as far as Poland. He was returned to the previous POW camp and again met up with the Russian, whom he nicknamed ‘Amie’. In January 1945 William escaped from the POW camp and was taken into the care of the advancing Russians, together with Amie. Amie was refused permission to leave the USSR and William made his way to Odessa where he arrived on 12th March 1945. From Odessa he went by boat to Istanbul and eventually home to England and his waiting mother in Lancashire. He had been away six years, but was never to see ‘Amie’ again.

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