大象传媒

James Peall is a man with an incredible memory 鈥� and boy can he talk! He sits among a life time of photographs, journals and memento鈥檚 but he is also connected to the world through his computer. Although he spends most of his time corresponding and organising he is not a man to sit still! His is very lively and when we spoke he refused to brush over the smallest of details as he recounts his time in the war and the people he met.
鈥淭o us it is important to remember.鈥� he says.

James was with the Buffs. He left for France from Southampton and landed at LeHavre to proceed inland to where his company were set to work to build a railway siding. Despite being in the theatre of operations there was little evidence of war for about three weeks and, having seen no action, they were all confused by the orders to break camp and return to LeHavre where they were to go back to England to finish their training. After boarding the train new orders arrived. Leave the train, march to a convoy of trucks and drive the rest of the day and night towards the front line arriving at Doulon where he spent the night in a convent.

鈥淭he next day we were distributed around the supposed strong points but our armament was useless against tanks and that is exactly what the Germans had. We were just a labour corps, we had 50 rounds each, a Bren gun and a useless anti-tank rifle.鈥�

They fortified the position to the best of their ability but there was a thought running through the minds of every soldier. 鈥淲e were pretty nearly certain that we were going to go into action, we weren鈥檛 happy about it because we weren鈥檛 adequately armed. No artillery, no tanks, nothing. We were just on our own. Just one battalion of soldiers. They left us in a field about as big as a football pitch and told us to dig in. Later we heard some distant small arms fire and the message came round that three tanks had broken through. We found out that these were just the advanced 鈥榮couting party鈥� which called in our position and we were shelled and mortared. I don鈥檛 think we suffered any casualties but we didn鈥檛 half take a pounding.鈥�

In the face of this overwhelming power the officer, Mr. Money, ordered to withdraw by sections to meet at a crossroad to the rear of their position. 鈥淲e moved out by sections but when we got there the crossroads was a bit hot. There was a lot of stuff flying there so we entered an orchard up the road. We saw Mr. Money come out and get to the crossroads and disappear into the cornfield. There was another platoon already in the cornfield but they got up on the road and started marching away. I didn鈥檛 think that was exactly the thing to do so I took my section along the hedgerows. I thought we were falling back but because we didn鈥檛 know where we were in fact we were advancing! The six of us were on the loose for about a day and a night behind enemy lines. We decided to travel only by night鈥�

His section had an insurmountable task to perform, to catch up with the German advance and cross through it to get back to the British lines. But the German advance was too quick. Even Headquarters some distance in to the rear couldn鈥檛 escape capture and they had motor transportation. The whole battalion was overrun and wandering behind enemy lines. I asked him if, at this time he felt a crushing fear.

鈥淣o it wasn鈥檛 like that, we just felt very uncomfortable, not scared. Your heart was thumping a bit. You got used to the fear. We had been strafed by dive bombers. While we were hiding in the woods the Germans started to close on our position and they surrounded us and that was the end of that! The only thing we could do was lay down our weapons. The Germans marched us out of the woods and took us up to a road with a ditch on one side and lined us up facing the ditch. I was expecting them to shoot us so I just called the section to attention, I said 鈥楻ight Lads, stand to attention we鈥檙e gonna take it.鈥� But the Germans didn鈥檛. They were behind us and after standing there for a bit I heard a voice speak in English.鈥�
鈥淩ight chaps come back now, you realise you are prisoners now, we don鈥檛 mistreat you. Sorry we don鈥檛 have spare food to give you,鈥� but he gave us a bottle of wine to share!

We marched for over a week without food against the constant stream of German tanks going to the front. We were not allowed to stop to drink or anything and our condition was pretty poor with swollen tongues and cracked lips. We lived on the nettles we found and boiled to eat. They are terrible.鈥�
The prisoners were housed in several camps but the worst was one was at Trier which was run by the SS.

鈥淭hey marched us up the hill in the night and in the morning they marched us down again but they called all the town out to throw stones at us. At the station they packed us into rail trucks. They locked the doors and that was us for about five days while we went to Poland. We arrived at the POW camp about the same time the Dunkirk evacuation was over.鈥�

All of this had a profound effect on the prisoners and James was made sharply aware of it shortly afterwards when he was on a working party.

鈥淲e were moving some furniture in the German barracks when I noticed myself in the mirror of the wardrobe. I didn鈥檛 recognise who it was I was looking at. My features were so hollow and my head was shaved.鈥� Here he laughs heartily and adds 鈥淏ut I had a bushy moustache!鈥� James spent time in several other POW camps situated in Poland and Germany. War news came from the Poles but generally prisoners were unaware of the progress of the war. He recounts that the food was not nourishing or frequent but the British and Canadian Red Cross parcels saved them. Towards the end of the war the POW鈥檚 were now in camps in Germany and getting reports about allied activities which they would plot on secret maps printed on the back of calendars held in the barracks. At night they would take the shutters down and see the fires all around from allied bombing.

鈥淵ou could hear them around eight o鈥檆lock at night, the sirens would go off, the planes would come over and all hell would break loose! Sometimes a few fighters would come down and try to shoot up the sentry towers. Then on March 17th we were marched out of the camp on a series of pointless marches through the country, through villages and sleeping in fields until April 20th. I heard that the sick were going to be repatriated so I lay down and convincingly pretended to be ill. In the confusion the Germans put me in charge of some genuinely sick American airmen and given papers and orders to get them back to the hospital. With the help of a local Polish farmer and his truck we were about to board the when another 6 POW鈥檚 were handed over to me by a German officer. Now fully loaded with papers that didn鈥檛 tally with the number of prisoners on board I showed my cut throat razor to the driver that I meant business.鈥�

鈥淲e had to bluff our way through two roadblocks and were lucky not to have been shot at the second. The officer refused that suggestion from his troops, the Hitler Youth, and he let us through. We made our way down the road encountering more German tanks and soon we got to a medical facility run by British medical POW鈥檚. After we unloaded the sick airmen we were told to just 鈥榞et lost鈥� amongst the hundreds of other assembled prisoners. That is when I met my old pal Geordie.鈥�

James then went to forage through the local village for food and had to beat a hasty retreat when the village was shelled and the German troop activity increased. He made his way back to the assembly point and told his friends about the extra activity in the village. Attention to this was instantly diverted by the call to eat.

鈥淎t that moment the yell came 鈥榮puds up鈥� and we got into the queue for boiled potato鈥檚 and I told Geordie about the action in the village. He said 鈥楢h rubbish, wait a minute though 鈥� Tanks! British tanks!鈥� Everybody stopped and looked round but saw nothing. Soon two tanks did come in to view and their guns swivelled round toward us!鈥�

Here James laughs his hearty laugh again as he says, 鈥淎nd we all flattened ourselves to the ground! When we realised that we were recognised we all started running down towards the tank when an amazing thing happened. The medical officer appeared amongst us and we all stood to attention. He continued towards the vehicle, had a word with the driver and turned to us and gave the thumbs up! Then we started to celebrate.鈥�

After five years as prisoners of war James tells me that everyone鈥檚 first priority was to get washed and shaved. The soldiers felt back in the army again and their discipline kicked in. Remarkably the men now needed to find their own way back to the rear and by using their wits, good judgement and a lot of good fortune with transportation, James and his friends were back in Britain in about four days.

鈥淚 got a plane to Buckinghamshire where everything was well organised. I wrote a telegram to my father, was given a new uniform and a pass to the railway. My first port of call was London and I remember the crowds in the station cheering us as we got off the train. I spent some personal time in London and then got a train to Margate. I got off the train and was met by my father. Another soldier was there too and noticed that I was a bit overcome with emotion so he offered to take my bags off the platform."

What a reunion that must have been.

These memoirs were transcribed by Steve Murphy and uploaded with James Peall's permission. Thank You James!

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