大象传媒

The European war was over and after 6 years of military service I was eagerly awaiting 鈥渄emob鈥� and my return home to my wife Ann.

In September 1945 I was still stationed in Germany near Keefeld and I recall two events which helped to occupy the waiting time.

As a senior N.C.O I volunteered to take charge of an escort party to repatriate 500 German P.O.W's.

One day in late September I reported to IJMUIDEN on the Dutch coast and was put in charge of 20 soldiers. We boarded an aging German troopship manned by a German crew and the 500 prisoners came aboard. They had no weapons and we were armed but I鈥檓 pretty sure that they would not try to overwhelm us, they were only too pleased to be going home.

Fortunately the ship鈥檚 Captain spoke some English and I had a smattering of German so we got by. It was quite a rough journey with a sea swell as we sailed NE around the Dutch coast and past FRIESLAND and quite a few of the escort party felt sea sick 鈥� we were not sailors!

The ship refuelled, took on provisions and set sail again but with a different crew and no passengers apart from us! When we docked in IJMUIDEN there were more P.O.W鈥檚 to come aboard and a new escort party to take over from us.

It was a week鈥檚 鈥渃ruise鈥� which I still remember but can鈥檛 say it was one I enjoyed but it was as experience and helped to pass some more time away before demob.

But a couple of weeks later when I qualified as a teacher it was one of my wartime stories which the class always asked for in the last hour of Friday afternoon!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Action desk on behalf of Harry Reeves and has been added to the site with his permission. Harry Reeves fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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