大象传媒

Video recording of Jack Ross interviewed by John Gaisford made on 12/3/2005
Edited transcript by J David 23/9/05

I was here until 1942, when I had a message, a policeman knocked at the door, accompanied by a German soldier, handed me a sheet, you are required to report at the boat, no, at the Gaumont Cinema, down St Julien鈥檚 Avenue there, and we advise you to equip yourself with warm blankets, and what not, which we did, we went there , and we were stuck in there, and we were paraded down to a boat, the 鈥淩obert Muller鈥�, which was the coal boat actually, and all it was in the holds was long wooden benches, no backs to them or anything like that, and you were expected to sit on those. We did not go on that boat in the end, we went onto the boat, but we did not go away on it. They took us off, so we were grounded then for another couple of days, and we went eventually on a ship鈥檚 tender, the 鈥淢inatar鈥� which was a ship鈥檚 tender to 鈥淟a France鈥�, a liner. It was a funny sort of thing, we were all on deck, but the 鈥淢uller鈥�, that was terrible, the sanitary arrangements were a slit in the side of the ship, that seemed to be their sanitary arrangements, no toilets or anything like that, and women and children would all be in that lot. Anyway, we went over then to St Malo, where incidentally the French population did their best to give us food and stuff, although we had been equipped with food, to travel. I had a great big German wurst sausage, which was very nice too, I enjoyed it, having subsisted on boiled cabbage for about six weeks, nothing else, I was very pleased to have it. They were very good, these French women, coming up and trying to put it through the windows, So we travelled then across to the 鈥� now I鈥檓 on to the internsment, you know 鈥� went across to Dorsten, a place in the Ruhr, a very bleak sort of camp, with woods around it, you looked up and sometimes you鈥檇 see a ship going along a canal, way up above us
Just below there was the dam-busters dam, the Mohne Dam was it called? I expect that camp was inundated, probably flooded, I don鈥檛 know. Anyway, they separated the males, the unattached males, and we were all sent down to Laufen, on the Bavarian-Austrian border, on the river Salzach, you could see Salzburg about eleven miles away. Funny, a lot of people make pilgrimages, a chap I鈥檓 rooming with now in the hotel, Alfie Priaulx for instance, I don鈥檛 know if you鈥檝e got hold of him, probably not, because his speech has gone a bit, you know, he鈥檚 not frightfully lucid and clear, but he could probably tell you more than I can,
I鈥︹�︹��. Do you know how the occupying forces here came to pick you for sending over there鈥�
Jack Ross. Yes, because I was English-born. And the funny thing is, I had been seconded from Le Riche to the Greffe, to extract all the names of the foreign people, which the British were as well, you see, so the qualification for Hitler鈥檚 invitation, for the Fuhrer鈥檚 invitation鈥�
I got out of the camp once, I just walked out with a plank of wood on my shoulder, just like that, I wasn鈥檛 challenged, but when I came to come back in, all hell went loose, you know, some poor little sod got shot, I expect, or got a hell of an ear bashing, to say the least! I got quite near old Hitler鈥檚 place 鈥� what was it called 鈥� Berchtesgarten. I got quite near there. I was in charge of a gardening party at Laufen, we used to go there. First of all we had we had a commandant, he was a swine, he was a real Prussian, a Maieur 鈥� he gave old Selfy, Roy Self, that was the father of the Self boys, a friend of mine, he was learning German, he got the German mixed up, because they used to come at night, an under-officer with about six soldaten, and the appel sheet like that on the table, Self said, he should have said 鈥淎m dem tabel鈥� but he said 鈥淎uf鈥� something and he looked round, and of course everybody laughed. That wasn鈥檛 nice, and Roy Self, having been a sergeant in the West Kents should have known better. But he questioned us, [ ] and the Unter-Fuhrer who came over as a guest of Ambi Sherwill and we went in one door and out through another, so we couldn鈥檛 communicate or say 鈥渄on鈥檛 tell them so-and so鈥� . 鈥淎h, sit down, Mr Ross, I see we went to the same school鈥� I said鈥漝id we? 鈥淭hat鈥檚 Winchester, isn鈥檛 it?鈥� it wasn鈥檛, but very similar [became my school-room mate, ] apart from Graham Parker was in the same form, he played rugby for England, and he played cricket for Cambridge, Gloucestershire, - but that鈥檚 nothing to do with Germany is it 鈥� The Sonderfurher, he came over here 鈥淲hat happened with so-and-so?鈥� 鈥淲ell, your under-officer鈥檚 got no sense of humour, Mr Self, he鈥檚 been trying to learn German and he got his tenses and things mixed up.鈥� And he sort of smiled, sickly, like they did 鈥� but he spoke beautiful English, if he鈥檇 been here he鈥檇 have attracted the birds all right 鈥� A legal man actually, the Sonderfuhrers were usually barristers or something like that, well his title was Doktor [Gallifer], of course they were all Doktors, whether they were pox-doctors or what they were I don鈥檛 know! Some of them were quite good, actually.
And of course, the great day came, we were liberated. We used to be in the Garden and look up there and there were the bombers coming up from Italy, and they鈥檇 be coming back from England loaded with bombs, and drop their bombs on Germany, they鈥檇 be coming up from Italy, after the Italian landings, you know, drop their bombs on Germany and go on to England to refuel and reload their bombs and so on like that,, and you鈥檇 see the dog-fights, two-or-three, perhaps, German fighters go up amongst them, occasionally you鈥檇 see a plane come down, if it was a German one, you thought, all right, cheers, [When it wasn鈥檛 ] there was a great feeling of sadness, frankly naturally, you never knew, it might have been your own brother, I didn鈥檛 have any brothers, it so happened that we were in Cologne with an air-raid on, incidentally I went over there in the first contingent, we were on our way down to Dorsten, and a friend of mine, I didn鈥檛 know, he鈥檚 a newspaper man, actually, he worked for the Gloucester Citizen, and he joined the Air Force, and he said 鈥淚 flew in Number 836, it was an old thing held together with pieces of string, Churchill wanted to make a 1000-bomber raid, that鈥檚 what he did, grabbed together all the things he could. It made an impact and a story, you see. Of course a lot of them got shot down, their defences were poor. A lot of good chaps were shot down, well trained, really well-trained chaps, very sad.

Jack Ross

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