大象传媒

Before the march, I met Ginger. He had been sent to the farms to work but not at the Walterherr's farm. We had received a Red Cross parcel, which was shared between the three of us, that was Ginger, Green and myself. We were to march out of Poland into Germany, another bloody march but how far? As we marched away, Ginger said"Shall all three of us vanish along the road" We thought about this idea as we marched. We had been marching a good three or four hours. Later, we had seen men leave the ranks. Some had returned but some others had not. Ginger said"I'm off to the toilet" He went so I followed but Green did not come. We waited until the column had marched away and we were waiting for Green but he never turned up. We moved out and cut across country, so as not to return to Danzig, where we had come from. It was a long walk and when we reached the road to Hornstein, we just kept going. It must have been between 11.00p.m. and 12.00p.m. when we came to a check point. Two German soldiers were on duty and they stopped us both. We could not have run or we would have been shot. They asked us in German, where were we going? I said" We have got lost from the line of march into Germany and that we were going to return to the village, where we had worked". They let us pass and a few miles later, we cut up a back road to the village. We entered the barn through the back door and then made a hiding place. Then we settled down to sleep.
The next morning, a Ukranian girl came into the barn. Ginger called her and she was pleased to see him, as he had worked with this girl. That night all of the Ukranians
came to the barn and they helped us getting food. We spent two weeks there, waiting for the Russians. That night, our friends informed us that the S S Military and also the German M.P.s were seeking Army desserters. Any of them that they found was either shot or hung. Had they had found us we would have ended up the same way as a deserter, either at the end of a rope or a bullet.
So we decided to walk away and out of the village and hide. Then we decided to walk into the German guards with the Prisoners-of-War, who were now doing our jobs.
Ginger went to his farm and I walked down to the Walterherr's farm. They welcomed me. Hans said"here comes the black devil" in German. I had coffee and something to eat. I went into the stables , Hans the shire horse had been put down because of his foot. Schueller neighed and Gert just whimpered. She was just wasting away. The Vet could not find out what was wrong with her. I cut some sugar beet to give to her and she was eating this when I left. A German guard arrived, Ginger and I were now on our way back to Danzig. We were taken to a French Prisoner-of-War camp. We were taken to the punishment block and dropped our kit. We were free to come and go as we liked. Other British Prisoners-of-War were also at the camp.
One morning, at about 11.30 a.m. the Air Raid warning sounded. The French all rushed to the Air raid shelters and the British Prisoners-of-War raced to the kitchen for the thick soup. A week later, we, the British was marched down to the Docks, we then boarded a ship. The British was then led to the stern of the ship and told to climb down into the hold. There was straw on the bottom of the hold plus the toilet bucket. The ship was Belgium ship and the crew was Belgium but had German guards. The name of the ship was SS LYS. We learned in the folksel, there were 250 Polish Officers and in the forward hold there were 8 to 10 Thousand Russians Prisoners-of-War. We were on the Baltic sea, one could see ice floating on the water. It was rumoured that the Belgium crew were going to take over the ship and run it into Sweden. How the Germans found out, we will never know. They were all arrested and put under guard. Some of the Poles and four British Prisoners-of-War helped to stoke the boiler. Days later, we arrived at Le Beck. We were then marched to a cattle holding pens, God knows what had happened to the Russians and the Poles. We each received a Red Cross Parcel. It was Canadian. We did hear that the Germans had found 5 dead Russians in the hold, with their livers missing. True or false I do not know. A few days later, the British was loaded onto cattle wagons to be taken further into Germany. We had travelled a day and a night. We then stopped, none of us understood why the train had stopped. We noticed that some British and German aircraft lay in wreckage around the land. Next morning the train returned to Le Beck and to the cattle market.
We lived on the Red Cross parcels and the food. The Germans gave us no food whatsoever. The warehouses, in the Docks were full of Red Cross parcels. There were ships in the harbour full of Political prisoners and we did hear that the Germans,
were going to take the ships out into the Baltic and sink them. But a British Destroyer appeared at the entrance of the harbour. The guards of the Poitical prisoners had disappeared. We were in the yard of the cattle market, when shouting came from the Poitical prisoners and as we looked towards them and to the ships, we saw two bodies hanging from the yard arm. Also in the railway siding, a German train had arrived with pom pom guns mounted on the wagons. The German trops got off the train to stretch their legs and made sure that we could not approach them. We did hear that an ultimatum had been given to Le Beck citzens and the Army. It was either a open City or it would be shelled and bombed.
The Bergermaster and the Military Commander declared Le Beck an open City. The first British troops that we saw were from the Cheshire Regiment. They came and marched away the Germans from the train. They told us that these bastards, the Germans, had turned their guns on British troops and they were now pleased that they were now in their hands.
We were now free to do as we wished. We tried to get some more Red Cross parcels for food, but we were informed that they were for the Displaced persons. Ginger and I took a walk through the streets of Le Beck. The shoe shop was full of shoes and boots. As we walked further, we passed a grocery store, we heard voices, English voices and then tried the doors,they were all locked. We then went to the rear of the store, the rear door opened and surprise, surprise, the British soldiers were filling sacks of German food. Ginger said to them could we help them. But somebody said "NO" and told us to "F... OFF".
We saw German soldiers walking to the compound. A few days later, we were loaded into a wagon and taken by road to Lunerberg. On arrival, I met Bert Marable, he was with me at the farm of Walterherr. I said to him"Where is Green?" He replied "You wait until he sees you" I said "Why?" He said "You and Ginger left the line of march and took the Red Cross parcels" Both Ginger and I said to Bert"That Green was going to follow, but he did not" I said "Lets go and see him" Bert replied " He is dead, he was killed at a railway goods yard, when the Ally planes had bombed it" he also said that there were other Prisoners-of-War had been killed by Ally planes on the march. They appeared with their guns firing and when the Prisoners-of-War stood in the road, the Pilot must have known that they were Prisoners-of-War. They flew over the column, did a Victory Roll, then flew back over the column.
Every day, Bert said that the planes would appear and fly over the column, do a Victory Roll and then flew away. He also said that the German guards got between the Prisoners-of-War. We were then taken to a barracks where we slept.
At the weekend, we went down to the town and we notices that the ATS and WRAF waiting in the square, roped off with RedCaps on duty. The lads were walking passed shouting rude remarks such as "Officers groundsheets". The women were not allowed to walk the streets alone but could be escorted by a service man, he signed for her and had to return her.

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