大象传媒

The next morning I was awaked by the shouting , by one of the guards, shouting of "Roust, Roust", which was a way of saying Good Morning. I dressed and washed then had a quick look around. We were all sleeping in the back room of the farm on two tier bunks which had straw mattresses. I had only one blanket over the mattress to cover me. I also had a feather quilt which kept me very warm. The other lads went off to work and the guard took me to the farm, he then handed me over to a Polish worker and I was told to call him Paul. The
woman's name was Sheba, so Paul had told me. I was shown by Paul, what job that I would be doing and that was cleaning out the stables, then feeding and cleaning out the cow's manure from the cows. I had to push up the clean bedding and then clear the manure onto a barrow, wheel it to the dung heap. Sheba then milked the cows, I then cleared the horse's stables. I was told then to give another feed to the cows. I also had to clear the sump of the cows, horses and the pig urine night and morning. I thought to myself here is another chapter of my life.
At 8.30 a.m. we went into the kitchen for breakfast and on my plate I had 4 slices of bread, one black pudding with cheese and one lard coffee, with milk but no sugar. This was wet and warm but drinkable. I enjoyed my breakfast and the German frau said "No man or beast should leave the farm until they had eaten," even the guard had his food at the farm.
After breakfast I did jobs about the yard and the barn. I then had to bring in fresh bedding for the cows, also the horses. the animals were out working. I never saw much of the farmer, Mr Waltherr. At about
12.00 p.m., Paul returned with the horse and took it into the stables. Paul then fed the three horses and I fed the cows. Paul washed his hands and he said to me "come". We went into the kitchen where there was a lovely fire into the stove. We had pea soup with bits of meat floating on the top of it. All three of us sat down together. After lunch, Paul returned to the fields. I went chopping wood for the fire, after doing that I worked around the yard again. The chickens were around in the yard. The farmer had a dog and when he saw me, he went for me. But it was because he did not know me. I spoke to him but he was not at all sure of me. Then the guard asked me if I was getting on alright, of which I replied "Yes" Also if the food was alright and again I said "Yes".
At 4.00 p.m. Paul returned to the yard and unharnessed the horse, then fed and bedded them down.
We went again to the kitchen, whereby we were given a coffe and a slice of bread and lard. Sheba had started milking. Paul and I began cutting up swedes with the hand cutting machine. At about 6.30 p.m. we were called in for our supper. This was a fry up with a fried egg on top. After supper, the guard took me back to the billet, the others returned a little later.
We were all in the billet and I introduced myself. They said that their names were, Bert, Jimmy, Tich, Digger, Green ,Smith and Reg, so there was 8 of us. At the other camp there was 10 men, but these men were very suspicious of the men. I said to them, "believe what you like". I told them I came from Mortlake and that my unit was the East Surrey Regiment. The man called Bert had been a bus conductor and he knew where I came from. He asked me if Mortlake was near to the River Thames at Barnes and Richmond. He also knew the bus garage at Mortlake. I replied that it was situated at Avondale Road near the railway. He then knew that I had been telling the truth. he said to the others "It is OK, he is not a spy" but the others were still not convinced. But in the end I won them round.
It had started to snow, so Paul could not work in the fields, so it was back to the barn, on the thrashing machine, then Paul and I would us the clapping machine to get the grain from the chaff. This took us a day and a half. Paul and I loaded the grain and it was taken to the collection point.
The snow has begun to get deeper and no wagon would come out, so we had to get the sledge out. This was made into a wagon to enable it to carry grain, potatoes and swedes and whatever else we needed to carry. It was now very cold but not a wet cold but it was quite dry. The snow made lovely snowballs!
I was chatting to Bert one evening and he asked me what had happened to the others that I had left at the other camp. I told him that they were working at the Sugar beet factory, that would have been Tate and Lyles of London.
The weather had got very bad, so we thought it would probably snow before Christmas. When it was a few weeks later it was Christmas 1942. We tried to do as best as we could, to decorate our billet. We did have a Christmas tree and we had a good fire in the stove. We all went to our farms to feed the cattle and to clean out the stables. Paul was having trouble getting water at the pond, so I took an axe to him. But it was very hard trying to break the ice. We then filled the barrel with water and ice, then we returned to the yard. We took the barrel into the stables. Sheba had been shovelling snow into the feed troughs. We then went to have breakfast and then returned back to our billet. I had received a letter from home so we now had letters to reply to. I then returned to the farm for Christmas lunch. We had roast chicken, potatoes boiled and white custard pudding. my thoughts turned to home at what sort of Christmas my family would be having.
Paul, Sheba and myself had a plain cake with sugar baked on top. Christmas, at the billet was very quiet. We just laid on our bunks and the weather outside was bad. We had a job to walk to and from work. It was beginning to get on our nerves and we would all be glad when winter was over.
The weeks dragged by and it was the same routine. It was now March 1942 and we were just beginning to see a change in the weather. As the weeks went by, it was now Spring. Paul was back in the fields working. The Germans wanted the Poles to sign documents. When the documents arrived, Paul signed his but Sheba would not sign hers. In June, Paul was called up to join the German Army. Frau Walterherr asked me what my name was in German and I replied "Bob or Robert" She said because Paul had been called up to the Services, that his job would now fall to me. A few days later, Alex, from the other village arrived to take my place, cleaning out the stables. I now had learnt the names of the horses. There was Schueller who had been Polish transport Army horse, then there was Hans, who was a farm horse part Shire, then there was the mare called Gert and she had been an Officer's Cavalry horse. But the horse named Schueller was quite a character. Whenever the Frau was about, he would nay and Frau would come in and put more ground oats in the trough and water. Then they did not have to eat the food , they just drank it.
The daughter of the farmer lived at the farm with a baby girl. I did not see much of her or her baby. Her husband was in the German Army and at that moment he was in Russia. I noticed that whenever a visitor came to the billet, he had lunch, tea and supper at the farm.
It was now Spring and nearly every Sunday, two of the Officers would visit the farm. I was also told that Herr Walterherr had been a Prisoner-of-War in Russia in the 1914/1917. He had suffered frostbite in his feet.
I had to show Alex what he was expected to do on the farm, he also had to fill the boiler with potatoes for the pigs and children. He had done the job at his last farm, I found out that the name of the farm was Hans.
One morning, Hans come to Robert so off we went down to the field and he showed me how to plough with Hans and Gert. The horse, after about an hour, he gave me the reins and he stopped with me until we returned to the farm for lunch. After lunch, I went out with the horse to continue along ploughing the field each day, for nearly a week. I ploughed he field and he would come down to see if I was doing the job as I was shown. Once the field had ben finished, he ploughed the part of the field and across the bottom. It was very interesting work. I was out alone doing the job. Our day to collect and deliver to milk to the factory, Hans dropped the cart the first time. After that I travelled alone. I met other Prisoners-of-War, sometimes they would tell you news about the war and other times they would pass a message . All news was shared by the other Prisoners-of-War.
We did hear a rumour of what the Prisoners-of-War were doing at the Sauerkraut Factory. It is unprintable to tell you what it was, it was only a rumour and if one was to write about all of their remorses in their life, it would fill pages.
Then one cannot say if it was true or not.
Hans showed me how to harrow the field. He now had left me on my own, he would start the first two rows and then he was off. Hans planted the field with rye, oats, wheat,and black peas for the cattle. The house garden was for planting peas, carrots,herbs and tomatoes. There was also an orchard which had apples,cooking cherries and also bee hives.
It was Sunday, after lunch. Time to think about Easter coloured eggs. Every now and then a packet of German tobacco was put in your pocket, from who, you did not know. If you was short of a smoke, Hans would leave his tobacco tray and cigarette papers on the kitchen window sill. We had received parcels from home and my father had sent tobacco through the Red Cross. We wondered how our families were coping with the food rationing. All of us were living well, two were not so Sheba gave me some flour. I stole the eggs and we would make pancakes for the evening. In the billet at night, you had to watch your tongue, you would sometimes hear movements by the window. If you did hear anything, you would put your fingers to your lips and then the subject would be changed.
Planting potatoes, Hans had the horse. He went over to field. Frau, Sheba, Alex and myself planted the potatoes, banking up the spuds. I lead the horse Hans. When the potatoes was about 6 inches high I would then harrow the field a day later. Then the potatoes would be banked up again.
When in August, we spent two days cutting peat in all the fields. We opened the hole that Hans had cut down. When it was deep enough, I had a cutting tool and then Hans would cut down and I would cut across first. When we had finished, we had a swim. We did the same thing the next day. The peat was food for the winter. When Hans's wife went to the mill with grain for flour, Frau Patygee was in charge, she used to chat to Alex whenever she could. I noticed, that she always flirted with the German Officers.
Cutting the corn, out came an old machine. First a passage round the field was made. Hans would cut and I would bundle. then tie them with the cutting machine. Frau Patygee,Sheba and Alex would just cut. I bundled them up and stacked them to dry. This was done to all of the field but not the cattle peas. You would be loading the corn on to the wagon, this would be done by Alex and myself. Potato picking was also done by the same people.
Once all of the field had been cleared it was back to thrashing again. As 1943 began to close, we did hear that Russia was fighting back. A barn fire, we all turned up and by the time that the Germans had said "Heil Hitler" the barn had been burnt to the ground. Also when we heard "Heil Hitler" we would say "Sh-- so High"
Hans son was a Bergermaster of the town. He came and took the honeycombs from the hives.He took the honey out and when he left, he had taken the lot. There was shouting in the yard, Frau and Sheba. The Frau had hit Sheba, SHeba had hit her back and then hans punched Sheba. She went to the Police, they came and took her away.
She got 6months for this and two days later there was a new girl, which had been from another village. She was Ukranian

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