大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Mr. Smithson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Saturday 21st October. Joy! Spinner and myself were fetched out of our hut by two guards and told we were moving. Ten seconds to pick up our meagre belongings and we were ready for off. Why we were picked out, I never knew exactly but it seems that as Glider Pilots we should be prisoners of the Luftwaffe and not the Army. There were other Glider Pilots there, so why pick on us? May be because we were the first Glider Pilots in this camp. We were not sorry and followed the guards. We soon knew that they were from the Luftwaffe. We went to the railway station at Frankfurt and waited for a train for Auberoizal, [?] an interrogation centre. For all that the town had been heavily bombed, there were quite a number of people on the platform. Then, almost enjoying ourselves, the air raid warning sounded. No one took much notice but then another one, slightly different, sounded, this time there was almost panic and we all went down into a large passage under the lines. The guards explained that the first warning was for the area and the second for somewhere nearer. Once again, having seen the devastation our bombing had done to the town, I wondered if I was near my end. Not so! Nothing happened and the all clear went. Later the guards told us that the bombs had dropped 16 kilometres away.

Arriving at the interrogation centre, we were put into solitary confinement. This was a room along a corridor, containing about 10 similar rooms. Inside there was a bed, which was the same length as the room. The width of the door and the width of the bed made up the width of the room. By the side of the door was a handle, which, when released, made the arm of a signal drop down on the corridor side of the room. This was to use in case of ones need to call a guard in order to use the toilet or in case of any emergency. It was not long before I learnt to set it a long time before it was really required as the guards never opened the door straight away. Sometimes twenty or even half an hour would pass before it was answered. On one of my calls I gave the guard a cigarette and hoped it would payoff. To another guard I bartered a few cigarettes and a small piece of soap for two apples. The first cigarette paid off best. The next day, the first guard was on duty when the meal came about 11-00 hours. The food was porridge and each prisoner had about half a mug full. The guard saw me and picked up my mess tin which held about four times as much as the mug and held it in front of the soldier giving out the porridge, muttered something, and I was given about four times the ration.

On the second day of our confinement, I was taken for another interrogation. This time I was put into an office and waited for something to happen. There were a few magazines devoted to flying lying about so I opened one and read for a few minutes until a young Luftwaffe officer came in and sat down at the desk. He appeared very pleasant and asked me the usual questions of name rank and number, which I answered. He then asked me where I had flown from and where I was to land. I replied that I could not answer any more questions and looked at him, I also said that I did not think that he would have answered any more, had he been in a similar situation. He seemed to accept this and started to talk about some of the German aeroplanes mentioned in the magazine I had been looking at. He was very relaxed and did not seem very anxious to find out any more about my war activities. I thought that he was just enjoying some different company.

Spinner and myself were only in this camp for about 3/4 days before moving again. I only remember walking alongside a tram track to the station. [In Germany a few years ago I saw that there were many such tracks by the side of the road with coupled carriages running on them.] After a couple of miles or so we reached the station and boarded a train for Vetzlau, where we arrived after a relatively short journey. I think it is a small town on the edge of the Ruhr. Here we had a marvellous meal of soup, bread, corned beef and potatoes. At first I found it difficult to get the spoon to my mouth without spilling most of its contents. The excitement of food like this made our hands tremble. This camp was staffed by English army personnel. With food like that, they must never have known what it was like to be POWs. No luck about staying there. We left that evening for a permanent camp. On leaving we were given a Red Cross parcel each. One of the three times that I had a parcel to myself

At the railway station we entered a truck but what a difference. There were twenty- four of us. Spinner and myself were the only glider pilots in the group all the rest were RAF. The truck had been altered. There were large windows along the sides. Short forms to seat two screwed to the floor with eight of them along each side. There was plenty of room and by two men turning round and facing another two, we could put the window blackouts on our knees and play chess or cards. The 5/6 guards had a room at one end. The Sergeant I/C was an Austrian and could speak good English. The journey became pleasant and as we could look out of the windows, much more interesting than previous journeys.

The journey was a very long one and also very slow as, again, the engine was used for other work at various times on the way. We were heading for Upper Silesia without really knowing where that was. The country was very open without many particularly good views but at least we could see things. We had set off on Tuesday the 24th October and arrived at our destination on Saturday the 28th October. It was the longest train journey I had ever had. The destination was a village called Bankau near a small town Kreutsburg. The German Polish border was in the area with the largest Town Breslau. The only town with a name that I had heard before.

As soon as we had had our photographs taken in a hut in the forlager we entered the camp proper and were greeted with, enthusiasm by many of the POWs there. They were avid for news from England. Many having been prisoners for one, two, three or may be four years. I have the photographs that were taken at Bankau and very rough I looked. It must have been a week without a wash or shave.

The camp was not a large one and held about 1400 prisoners, mainly RAF some glider pilots. and a few Americans. It was really a rectangle of barbed wire surrounding an area of almost level ground. The men's huts were in two rows parallel to the side wire. The entrance was at one end and opened on to the forlager in which were the camp administration huts, and which we passed through in order to enter our much larger part of the camp. Thus we had to pass through two guarded gates. The area in the centre of the camp was used as a football pitch. Two huts were not used to house prisoners but used (a) for schoolrooms or small meeting rooms. (b) A large single room to house the theatre or large religious services. The wire was about 15ft high and consisted of an outer and inner wall about 5ft apart. The narrow area between filled with an even worse type of wire, which we called dannert. There was a trip wire about 9/10 yards inside the main wire. This was to keep the prisoners away from the main wire. Overstep this trip wire and you could be shot by any of the guards in the watch towers which were spaced about fifty yards apart around the outside of the camp.

Spinner and myself were placed in room 49/12 in a hut about the middle of the top side of the football area. When we arrived, there were 12 men in the room, all RAF. We soon found out all the things we could do and the things that were not on.

We soon settled in. There were many things to do and I quickly joined the French class, the Building Construction class and one on Surveying. The Library was fairly good and I decided to "gen" up on the classics beginning with Martin Chuzzlewit. The weather had been fairly dry but we did have a heavy storm at the beginning of November, which flooded the football pitch. Towards the end of November it became much colder and I remarked that it was always around minus degrees. I managed to play the piano a little but found the lack of practice left much to be desired and I was unable to get on to the piano often enough to improve. I joined the Yorkshire Club and listened to many tales about the county from various members.

There was a canary in the camp [a crystal set], which brought us the news from the 大象传媒. This set was highly secret. I never knew where it was kept. When the news was ready and reception good [it was not always so], four men brought it round. One man stood at each end of the corridor which went down the middle of each hut; one stood in the corridor outside the door of the room in which the news was being read. One of the men inside the room would keep watch through the windows for any outside danger. Any goon in the block and the paper was hidden and everything looked quite innocent.

I was surprised at the number of activities that went on in the camp. The Roman Catholics, Anglicans and other denominations had services. Theatricals were popular - many counties had clubs. Football was played almost continually except when it was under water or 9 inch deep in snow. I sang in the choir as we were getting ready for Christmas even, though no one would say that I was a good singer but I have always enjoyed singing and if someone was in pitch nearby I could keep with them. I was a founder member of the Dickens Fellowship and very much liked reading aloud. The book chosen was Pickwick Papers. The group began with six members and all read. After four meetings the room was full and we had to cut down on the number of readers. I started to give lessons in Building Construction to Staff Sergeant George Greenwood as well as attending the class in it. I took over this class after Christmas and ran it until we left.

Christmas was starting to become something special. In November we had started to save a small portion of rations out of the parcels we were now receiving. [The parcels varied from one parcel to 2 men per week and up to 4 men to each]. At this time all in the room messed together. Someone got two green and white check tablecloths from somewhere. Others made little lamps out of used powdered-egg tins, oleo-margarine and short lengths of unravelled pyjama cord. [I never got near any pyjamas and wondered how they came to be there? Possibly by men who had been in the camp much longer than I had and had them sent in a personal parcel. Point to note, I never received any message of any kind as a POW.]

Christmas Day arrived and after a very enjoyable Carol Service we set out 49/12 ready for our Christmas Dinner. The tablecloths were put on the two tables we had. We laid out the home made plates [Tins from parcels bashed into shape for plates, dishes, mugs and even knives and forks] and what ever things we had. We placed the lights along the centres of the tables as well as four small home made Christmas trees. These had been made from pine cuttings brought into the camp for fuel. Kenyon-Omeroyd had made a menu for each of us out of brown paper. We all signed each other's menu along with our home addresses.

Word must have got around the camp. We had to hold up the start of the dinner as there was a constant stream of "Kreigies" coming to have a look at the lay-out. We certainly had a feast that day.

I managed to sing myself hoarse at the two later services we had, one being in the Lazerette [Hospital]. I have just read my rough diary and find that we also sang at a service on Christmas Eve. I also noted that the effects of eating was not too pleasant as I did not get over the "s--s" until Thursday 28th December. I had a rest from any activities until New Years Eve when we saw the New Year in, playing Monopoly until 01-00hrs on the first of January 1945.

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