大象传媒

On 23rd January we were told to get our kit together as we had to leave on the march westwards. We were told that anyone falling out would be shot. In the early hours of the following day we started off through snow covered hills towards Czechoslovakia. We stayed at Althamjew for 5 days where there was a party of prisoners who had a gramophone with one record. One side was Bing Crosby singing 鈥淚鈥檓 dreaming of a White Christmas鈥�, the other Vera Lynn鈥滻n Room 504鈥�. We played that for 5 days.

From then we had no food whatsoever for 10 days and to moisten our lips we ate snow. An old lady gave me a crust of bread. It was so hard that it cut the inside of my mouth. One day we stopped at a farm with a butchers shop attached. During the night Paddy Newman forced the bars apart and cut huge chunks of beef from a side hanging there. We all had a couple of pounds of beef each. The guard found us and threatened to shoot us if we didn鈥檛 give him some. He got his share and he promptly made us march off. The butcher didn鈥檛 find out until we were about 20 miles away. We chewed raw meat as we marched. Our entry into Czechoslovakia was marked by a very bad incident. The Czechs knew we were coming and when we got over the border men, women and children rushed up to us and gave us food. A patrol guard opened fire and hit a Polish Warsaw fighter in the arm and took most of his forearm off. We were forced to run at the time and went on. About half an hour later the guard fell dead with a bullet in his back. We did not ask where it came from, neither did the Germans, they were only too glad to get away.

That winter was very cold and roads very icy. I had both hands frost bitten and still suffer from effects today. At times we had to sleep on the roadside in deep snow huddled together and the outside men would move into the middle when they were frozen. At times we managed to get into barns and used to fill our clothes with grain or hay to dry them out. I used to cook grain in a billy can and fill my pockets and thus managed to keep going. A number of men who ate the grain raw died We arrived at Bayreut in early March where we stayed for five days. I saw some of the finest aerial dog fights over this town.

It was here that we met the Jews dressed in thin clothing. I saw 38 kicked to death on one day and we often saw bodies on the roadside.

We passed from Czechoslovakia through Ansig Oberstentansdorf and other towns which had been flattened by bombing raids. Hardly two bricks left on top of each other. Ansig was still standing and I counted 19 factory chimneys. I mentioned this to a guard and he said you don鈥檛 bomb your own property, this is not owned by the Germans!

At Bayreut we were given dehydrated vegetables to eat. A number of men ate it raw and died through it swelling up inside them. I was very ill at the time. A British doctor saved my life with some calamine tablets. We were ordered to move by train to Nuremburg. We left in open trucks and travelled through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. The area was covered in snow and the fir trees were covered in tinsel dropped by aircraft to break up the radar.

On arrival at Nuremburg I collapsed and was left for dead. I was unconscious for about twelve hours and then came round to find that I had lost most of my possessions. Someone gave me something to drink and a Red Cross parcel. From then on I started to look up.

We were in Nuremburg for 14 days with a countless number of prisoners of all nationalities. A pilot of a fighter aircraft used to come over nearly every dinner time and drop notes to let us know how things were. It was nice of him to do it. The only thing was that Gerry would open up on him with explosive bullets and we were showered with shrapnel.

Early on Easter Sunday 1000 of us were put aboard a train in open trucks. Were told we were going to Aupsberg. Shortly after we started a German troop train loaded with tanks and troops came along side us and travelled on the other line with us. Two Lightning aircraft came down and their sights were so good that they shot the troop train up without hurting us. Other than being scared stiff we were all right. Bombers then hit the line in front of us and we had to return to Nuremburg.

Just as we got there a bombing raid commenced and one truck was hit and killed 37 of our men.

The raid continued for about 20 minutes and it was like being in the middle of a tornado. The ground heaved from bomb shock. I fell to the ground and tried to claw my way into it like a mole. The raid was over as suddenly as it started and all was quiet except for what I can only describe as a death hush over Nuremburg which was burning fiercely.
On the Monday the same thing happened. We were taken out to the train, entrained, bombed, rushed back to the camp and at 12 noon another 20 minute raid.

We were paraded on the Tuesday and forced to march at gun point towards Nuremburg to dig out the dead, of which I am told there were thousands. The senior German M.O. stopped this by telling the guards that we had typhus and that we would cause an epidemic. We then returned to the camp and the next day started to walk down the autobahn to Munich. One day a number of white lorries with Red Cross on caught up with us and we had four American Red Cross parcels each. We had been weeks without a smoke and then had 400 each. At times we smoked two at a time and a haze of smoke rose from the column of 200 men I was with.

Low flying transport aircraft passed overhead very low and the aircraft crew sat in the open door showering us with chocolate and cigarettes.

Just as we arrived at Ingalstatt there was a raid by bombers on an underground magazine. The bombs hit the magazine which blew up with a terrific roar. There was heavy cloud at the time and the explosions shook the rain out of the clouds and we were soaked.

We passed over the Danube at Ingalstatt during the night time. The bridge was stacked with bombs ready to blow it up and there was a heavy bombing attack at the time. We were force marched at this time and most of us were about finished.

I noticed at this time that our guards were changed. Ours went to the Russians and we got their guards. The attitude of the guards changed and they treated us more like human beings. We were able to meet some of the Austrian people who gave us a little food. We could hear the guns on north, west and east and it was obvious that time was running out. My friend Paddy Newman was taken quite ill on and we had to leave him where he hid in a farm and we continued on. I had some German money and went to a bakers shop in a small village. There was a queue waiting for bread and a Feldfable pushed me out of the queue. The shop keeper came out and told him off and took me to the head of the queue and I got my loaf of bread.

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