大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Mr Smithson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions.
LIFE AS A RAF IN LUCKENWALDE FROM FRIDAY THE 9TH FEBRUARY UNTIL MY ARRIVAL HOME ON MONDAY THE 28TH MAY 1945

Spent most of to-day getting to know our compound and settling in the hut. George Waller has been made hut leader. Not an important position as it really means that he dishes out food or parcels, if any, that we may have. The hut is not so crowded as at Limburg but otherwise is similar. There are no beds so we kip on the floor, better than the straw that was available, as the straw becomes alive and that is no joke. The camp is very large and consists of a number of compounds with 5/6 huts in each and each hut housing 300/350 men. At the entrance to the camp there is a forlager for the German guards, administration and lazerette. Down the centre of the camp runs a road with a turning space at the bottom. I never knew how many compounds there were but in the camp were servicemen from Britain, France, America, Russia, Italy, Poland and a number of central European countries. The few Italians must have been taken prisoner when the Germans carried on fighting in Italy after their surrender. There were a few from India, probably our own forces.

There was also a canary working well and we had a good news service. The first day, we heard that Russian were only 70 miles From Berlin. Along one side of the camp is a wood. Our hut was on the opposite side and overlooked a road, which ran alongside the outer wire. This wire stretched round the whole of the camp and at a distance of about 50/60 yards from the compound wire. Each compound had a gate to the adjacent compounds, each with a guard. The gates to the road also had a guard. The Americans were in tents [similar to marquees] alongside the wood.

At this time we had no Red Cross parcels but the German rations were more regular. A typical day's ration was better than at Bankau, being 1/5th of a loaf of bread, almost a cup of soup, part of a spoonful of sugar, about one cubic inch of margarine and 5/6 potatoes pre-boiled in their skins; the latter usually having a large amount of rotten ones among them. The margarine and sugar often missed. Now and then we had something called spread; I think it was intended to be jam. This was entered in the diary as a little [very little].

I must have managed to get some razor blades from somewhere as I exchanged some for German Marks [the first time I had any German currency] and then bought [changed them for] some soap powder of very poor quality. There must have been some trade with the outside but I never found out anything about it.

There was a library in the camp, which I made use of as often as possible, although books were not always available. There were also gramophone records in the camp. Symphony concerts were held which I enjoyed immensely. I heard many of the artists I had heard and seen in England.

Parades were held once a day and became very much a trial. The Germans had to get the count to tally but this was very hard to do as there was always someone sick and this made for miscounts. This had then to be repeated and some of the men passed out through the long time standing, which was often an hour or more.

On Friday 16th February the Defending Power's Representatives visited the camp. During this visit, they came into our block and whilst there were looking around and talking with Pete Thompson the camp leader. One of our younger prisoners took off his shirt and showed what lack of food did to the prisoners. His ribs were showing through his skin just as the old nags did when we saw them on the cinema before the war. After they had gone, I took my own shirt off and tried to look at myself I found that I could get my fingers and part of the palm of my hand to disappear up under my bottom rib. I was shaken and wondered what my weight had fallen to. I guessed at about 7/8 stones [at that time, young and fit, I had weighed 11 stones.] Later, when the Defending Power's Representatives had departed, Pete Thompson came round again and gave us a report on the visit. He said that the Defending Power's Representatives were trying to get some Red Cross parcels through to us but that was really the business of the Red Cross. They also said that we could expect conditions to get worse rather than better.

As time moved slowly on, I met an Irishman who had been taken prisoner at Dunkirk. It could have easily been me. We had quite a time talking about our movements there but he was more interested in what it was like in England when we left. That was the norm. Long time prisoners always wanted to know about England with particular news about their area or county. Phil, the Irishman, lived in England so I could tell him about many of the places I had been billeted in when I was in the 246 Field Company Royal Engineers. There were many Irishmen in the camp and not all from the North. I often thought it was strange for men from the South to join the British Army and Air Force. At Bankau, there was, in our hut, a RAF pilot from Dublin. When finishing my time in the Army before demobilisation, I was stationed in Belfast. Saturday teatime and having my tea in Bobby's restaurant, I looked across the room at another table and there was Paddy; we had quite a chat. He was on re-pat leave and would be out of the forces before me.

Being relatively close to Berlin and Potsdam we heard many of the air raids on them. Some of these became very heavy. The German news reported them as being very serious. The guards are now resigned to losing the war although there is no relaxing of their watchfulness. They talk more freely to us and there is more barter between them and some of the prisoners.

Around this time in March I was not too well. I think that the dirt from the food we were given had affected my stomach and I had severe pains with indigestion. The soup and potatoes were often very dirty as the cookhouse was not very particular with regard to hygiene. The potatoes were always boiled in their skins and not washed or cleaned in any way. This day was not a happy one as we were told that the night before, three men of the RAF had been shot for raiding the Red Cross parcel store. The name of the RAF was not too well liked for some time. These are for all Allied Prisoners and the Germans had nothing to do with them except for the guarding of the hut where they are kept. At that time there were only a few parcels there arid nowhere enough to make an issue. There were also some special parcels for the Lazerette and only for the seriously ill prisoners. I never knew what happened to those who were shot.

The weather was now fairly good and we could almost think of spring. March had come in like a lamb. We had been electing a new Man of Confidence as Ron Meade, the one we had at Bankau, was taken ill on the march and did not get to Luckenwalde. As usual in war, I never heard what happened to him. The only news I had of any sick at Bankau and not able to walk, was that they were freed by the Russians and finally repatriated from a port on the Black Sea, Oddessa I think. John Snowden was elected as the new Man of Confidence. In the short time he had been working, he had got a canary for us and we do not now rely on the Army for any news. I feel that I have not explained what a Man of Confidence does. His job is to liase with the Germans and discuss any matters of difference between them and us. He has therefore to be free from any clandestine activities that may be underway.

At this time we learned what we had had to eat on the Hunger March. We were all interested to know what we had existed on during those terrible days.

RATIONS FOR THE HUNGER MARCH FROM THE 19TH JANUARY UNTIL
8TH FEBRUARY 1945 INCLUDING 4 DAYS IN THE CATTLE TRUCK.

Per person 2 3/5ths loaves
11/2 lbs. Margarine.
23/30ths of a tin of meat.
15 1/2 biscuits [large]
30 1/2 biscuits [dog biscuits]
3/5th cup of barley.
1/5th cup of flour.
1/5th cup of sugar.
The cookhouse [type of field kitchen] provided 20 potatoes.
8 cups of soup [mainly barley] and 2 cups of coffee.

To us another brilliant day. Wednesday 7th March. News was announced that 80,000 parcels had arrived in the camp. A train, which should have gone further into Germany, had arrived in the station at Luckenwalde and was held up there because of the situation ahead. A meeting of the S.B.O. and the Medical Officer had decreed that there was no need to try and keep them for any situation that might or might not arise in the future. Each of us was to have one and then half each week. The euphoria that arose could not be described. Our wildest dreams come true. For all except me! I had another bout of indigestion and could not eat anything. I just looked at my parcel.

The next day I went to see the Medical Officer and found that he had nothing but advice to give me. Saying, as he laughed, not to eat anything for a day or two. I did this and in a couple of days I was fit again and now had a whole parcel to go at. Another great news item was that the Americans had crossed the Rhine.

The compound is now a hive of activity. Blowers and smokies are on the go all the time. Tin bashing is another popular job. This takes the form of bashing any used tins, first flat, then shaping, by cutting and pressing, into plates, mugs, dishes or any other article desired. I went into the wood with a wood gathering party and returned with enough to keep the blower going for some time.

The war must be nearing the end as I have been given my pen back, which had been taken from me on entering Bankau. I had then been given a receipt and never expected to see the pen again but on producing this ticket, which I still have, the pen was returned intact. Even in a prison we do have surprises. Another surprise was that when I looked at my diary, I found that on the same day I had given some "Vick" to Phil, the Irishman who had a cold. I must have carried a number of first aid things with me. I know that I had some Germalene because I always kept some after being knocked down by a car in Ripon on my first free Saturday after joining the Royal Engineers. The scars only responded to Germalene: Nothing the Army gave me did any good.

Wednesday 14th March. To-day I visited the Lazerette to have my ears syringed. I do make a lot of wax and due to the general dirt they needed syringing. That though was not the real reason for the visit; it was only an excuse. We wanted some more wood and on the way back from there we passed a copse where we could pick some up. The German Doctor [said to be the Doctor for the Romanian King] looked in my ears and brodled about in them and caused me quite a bit of pain. I wondered if he guessed that the real reason was not my ears and made sure that I did not go again. He may have really been clearing them out. I shall never know.

All the men in our block have been X-rayed; another surprise. I never expected the Germans to waste X-rays on us. The reason was said to be the high incidence of men reporting sick.

St. Patrick's Day, my Grandmother's Birthday. Due to the number of Irishmen in the compound it became a real feast day. Gambling for cigarettes was carried on in many places, played with either cards or dice. Some of the organisers became very rich as cigarettes were used in the place of money. Stalls were set up and trading carried on for the exchange of goods and food. The dealers took a payment in cigarettes according to the amount of goods exchanged. I also watched both a Rugby and soccer match. I can not remember what the teams were.

Time goes on and the weather being good, morale went up as well. The war was also going well and Montgomery was reported to have said that we were into the final push. This feeling of euphoria was not held by everyone and I was astonished when Vie Cooper came to me one day and in very low key asked me if I really thought the war would be over soon. Vic was one of the men I most admired in the camp, being very clever himself and also doing a great deal of good but now he was very much unsure of himself, and asking someone like me to re-assure him that the war really was ending. I had some doubts but not that the war was not ending but because we had no idea what some of the Germans might do before it actually ended. I had not forgotten what the German S.S. Feldfabel had said about us in the garage, on our march through Holland. I had never met men who thought about other men as he did, there could be others.

Our life was now disrupted by our own Air Force and the D.S.A. Air Corps. Daylight bombing was taking place almost every day. Mosquitoes and medium bombers flew over the camp, which meant we had to go inside the huts. At times I stayed by the door and chatted with he guard. They were now under no illusions about the way the war was going but they still had their duty to do. My diary contains many references to the war situation as we were daily informed of the situation in both Europe and Asia. They were intensely important to us at the time but not to people 50+ years after.

I realise that the tone of the writing is now about the good things but it is important to know that we lived a very poor existence. An entry says that we had a breakfast of fried bread and a few fried potatoes - very few. We had been on 10 to a loaf, which was now slightly better at 8 to a loaf. The loaf weighed 2000gms and we had that, only for the day. We sliced the bread as thin as possible and used a knife and fork to eat it. The amount of bread we had varied almost from day to day. Two days after I noted that the ration had gone up from 10 to a loaf to 8 to a loaf. It returned to the old ration of 10 to a loaf. One day we had a photo check and were standing in ranks of five for two and a half hours. Our main worry is the fact that the future is an unknown quantity and anything unpleasant can still happen. This was a feeling that I find myself unable to explain. I still can't. The prisoners who had been in captivity a long time found this a very terrible emotion and explains the reason why Vic Cooper asked me for an assurance that the war was really coming to an end. Another feeling of depression was the lack of home news, especially for the married men who had not been prisoner long. I and others taken around the same time never had any news from home.

For a short time we had been free from rumours about ourselves and were beginning to think that we should be here until the end. Alas, this was not to be. On Tuesday the 10th April we had reports that we [ie the Bankau contingent] were to move almost immediately and 300 men had orders to stand by, ready to move, on the morning of the 12th. The 300 were ready then we also were warned that we could expect to go in a day or so. On the Friday morning the 300 left to march to the railway station but at night they had not left the station and later returned to the camp. We came to the conclusion that the Germans are not able to run the trains in the direction they wanted. Some prisoners had speculated that the reason for the move was to go to the area of Berthesgarten where it was said that Hitler was going to make a last stand. There they were to be used as hostages in the way that selected prisoners from Colditz were to be used.

Excitement is increasing every day. Friday night, three prisoners tried to escape, foolishly in my opinion at the time. Two were shot; one died instantly, the another in the afternoon and the third was brought back to the camp.

Movement about the camp is easier and the gate between our compound and the next has been destroyed, the wood being used for firewood. It shows what unarmed men can do with a little co-operation. The gate had one armed guard standing by it, although we were not hindered from passing to and fro as we wished. So three men started talking to the Guard and as time passed others wandered through and pushed against the upright gatepost as often as they passed. After a few days of this the upright became very loose in the ground. The next day some bother was created in the hut nearest to the gate. The Guard went to see what was the matter and during his absence a well organised gang, with stolen wire cutters and iron bars, quickly cut the attached wires, prised the post out of the ground and in seconds it was carried into another hut and there cut and chopped into smaller pieces. A very fast bit of work! We benefited from some of the wood, it had been a large post. There were no repercussions and the Guard was not replaced.

Friday the 20th.April and more rumours going about. A flight of Marauders [U.S.A. medium bombers] flew low over the camp. Guns from the surrounding fronts are much louder. German surplus staff left. Ground alarms set off in the area and more rumours of evacuation. Still, with all this excitement I had a walk round he camp with George Waller; it was great. The tension could be felt in the atmosphere and flashes at a distance of about ten miles were all around us except for the North. We hardly went to sleep back in the hut but of course we did; the excitement tired us out.

Saturday the 21st April and I was awakened by a chap standing in the doorway and saying that the Germans were moving out. I, among others, bounded off the floor and through the door to see what was going on. It was true. Along the road by the outside wire [60 yards away] platoons of Germans were stationed about 40 yards apart with NCOs and Officers standing near. After a few minutes a whistle blew and they all stood up and set off walking away from the camp. The watch towers were empty and no German personnel could be seen. We were on our own.

Work had now to be done in organising ourselves. The Army was immediately formed into guards and pickets for our own protection. Shortly afterwards the Wing Commander came round to inform us of the situation. The Norwegian General being the highest ranking officer, was in charge of the camp with the Wing Commander under him. He also told us that the Russians were surrounding the town and camp and that we could expect to be liberated either that day or the next. Some men, in their exuberance, ate what food they had left but as usual I wanted to see some more food before finishing mine.

A couple of men had picked up a two bicycles from somewhere and were riding down the centre road when one of the cycles slowly collapsed under one of the riders and he ended up on the ground. There was still fun to be had. There was also the other side of life. A German S.S. Major came into the camp at night and warned us not to show any lights. Clearly we were not yet entirely liberated.

SUNDAY THE 22ND APRIL. This is the day when we are truly free. The first surprise was that the text of the reading for the day was Galations Chap.5 verse 1.

Early in the morning a spearhead of Russians forces came through the camp consisting of a few infantrymen and a number of tanks. They freed their own prisoners by giving them a rifle each and marching them out of the camp. We understood that they would be attached to units in the area and that any food they wanted could be obtained by the use of their rifles. That was all that these Russian forces did. At the end of the road the column turned round and re-passed us as we lined the road. We were very excited and threw cigarettes to them, which they accepted and seemed quite grateful but little was reciprocated, one or two only, throwing back cigars.

That evening six of us made a celebration meal on the spur of the moment. The meal was made up of; first a sandwich: bread - spam - cheese - spam - bread and mashed potatoes. Next a cold pudding made out of cocoa-ground bread-nuts-raisins and margarine. Cocoa and klim mixed together made a cream. We finished with slices of bread spread with margarine and pineapple jam. A small amount of German sugar and saccharin we had was used to sweeten the tea we drank. The following attended the meal:- W.J.Hudson from Bristol, George E.Waller from Ilford, H.Eckford from Newcastle-on-Tyne, Robert E Stubbs from Sunbury-on-Thames, Arthur Newton [Spinner] from Stockport and myself from Huddersfield. It was quite an event.

The following day most of the nationalities except the British and the Americans moved out. We thought that we should have to wait for the Allied and Russian forces to meet before we could be moved. As the situation was very fluid we had been ordered not to go out of the camp. Not everyone obeyed but I felt that it was best as hundreds of released prisoners milling around the district with trigger happy Russians having recently taken part in fighting could make for dangerous happenings.

On Tuesday the 24th we each had a quarter of a Canadian Red Cross parcel issued. Whilst looking at it and deciding how to use it and as usual sitting on the floor, a chap shoved his head round the door and asked I there was anyone from Yorkshire there. I responded and said that I was. He then told me that there was a Norwegian Officer outside wanting a Yorkshireman. I got up and went to meet him. The Officer had with him an infantryman acting as interpreter. The officer then asked me if I knew anyone in the camp from Huddersfield. On my telling him that I came from there, he was very pleased and continued by asking me if I knew anyone called Brook and that he was in textiles. I explained that I knew many Brook[e]s as it was a common name there. He carried on saying hat his family traded with a firm in Huddersfield and that they had become friends. He wanted them to know that he was OK as he had been a prisoner since the German attack on Norway and there had been no news either way. I promised to do what I could when I returned to England. We carried on talking with the help of the interpreter and was invited to bring a friend to their mess to have afternoon tea the following afternoon. After sprucing ourselves up, Spinner went with me and were met at the door of their mess by a batman and taken inside. Rather a shock, a long table was laid out with mugs and plates, the General at the head and Officers down each side. We were led to places at the opposite end to the General. In very good English he welcomed us and apologised for the tea making excuses for his companions who, he said, would be bombarding us with questions in variable standards of English. He also explained that until recently they had not had contact with people outside themselves and the Germans and that English was the language they all understood was most important to their future life when back in Norway. I responded by saying that it would be very enjoyable and explained about there being many Brookes in Huddersfield and a little more about the Town. We were then given our tea with a certain amount of palaver and different interruptions from differing Officers all wanting to ask questions. [After the war, with the help of my father I was able to contact the right Brooke. He was a cloth merchant trading under the name of Brooke Taverner. He had been on Special Constable duty with my Father and without knowing it I had met Mr Brooke in the Police Box when he and my Father were on duty during one of my leaves earlier in the war.] On referring to the diary I find that I had made an entry that we were given some soup, and in that soup, there was more meat than we had had from the Germans during our entire POW period.

One day our childish humour came to the front: Spinner and I were walking down the centre road when we were passed by a wagon. On the back were some bods carrying some nude females. As they passed everyone roared with laughter. It was only as they got nearer that we could see that the nudes were only dressmaker's models. Where they had got them from is anybody's guess.

Friday the 27th April. Walking towards the main gate this morning I met [along with hundreds of others] the first American troops from the Western front. There were three of them in a scout car along with a newspaper reporter. They promised to report back and send trucks and ambulances as soon as possible. [I have a photo of this in my album.] On the 29th I had a hot shower; the first since our arrival in Luckenwalde, an event in itself [We did have cold showers.] Today a Russian Repatriation Officer arrived with his staff bringing some food and extra clothing.

We were now able to go anywhere in the camp, so I went to have a look in what had been the Russian Compound. I had always understood that the Russian people were not Christians. In this compound was the strangest surprise that I had at any time as a prisoner. I have had a rough time during my captivity and have often been very despondent and wondered if I should get through. The treatment of the Russians was worse. Their government had not signed the Geneva Convention and virtually cast out any serviceman taken prisoner. At times we had a whip round to see if we could spare anything from our parcels. We always found something and threw the tins over the fences into their compound. The stories we heard, of how they had to live when in captivity, were unbelievable unless you had met the men.

Rations were given according to numbers counted on parade. In our case, prisoners sick and in the hut were counted. Not so in the case of the Russians; so ill men were carried on to parade. Some who had died were thrown down the abort [w.c.] in order that the total would remain as high as possible by fiddling the count, when on parade. The crowding in their huts was also much greater than in ours. I have given the approximate size of a hut and how they held 300/350 men. The huts used by the Russians were even more crowded. Tuberculosis was rife; one prisoner died the day the camp was liberated. Their huts were much more crowded than ours and yet these non-Christians had set aside a complete hut as a church. Considering the tools they had to work with, it was magnificent. The inside pillars had been decorated with coloured capitals and a raised knave made at the East End with wooden rails. Around the walls had been painted the Stations of the Cross. For our Christian Services we used a room about a quarter of the size of a hut and that was one used by the Frenr.[I have a photo of the inside of the Russian Church.]

The first of May has arrived and we Glider Pilots have been told to get ready for a move. There are still local outbreaks of fighting in the area and we have just learned that we should have moved a week ago but that fighting and movement of refugees stopped it. We are definitely spectators of a war. Fires can be seen and guns heard all around us now. The watch towers even have spectators upon them looking at whatever is going on; shell bursts and fires can be seen. We learnt afterwards that there had been a large battle in the area and 160,000 German prisoners taken. There had been a lot of noise but I am not sure about the numbers.

The 2nd May. People at home are now talking about what to do on V.E.Day [Victory in Europe]. We are not sure of our fate. The reports and rumours change almost hourly. Our move by train is definitely off but some Americans have already moved to another camp about six miles away. Not knowing what is' going to happen is one of the major worries of POW life and the cause of many upsets in individual lives. There is nothing we can do except hope and pray.

We were now getting food from the Russians that had been taken from the Germans. The Russians did not have the same way of waging war as our own forces. The lived off the land they had occupied and thus we had packets of differing articles of food some of which we had no idea how to prepare. One such was a kind of semolina which when cooked, would not drop out of the pan even when the pan was held upside down. It was still eaten! No sign of trucks from the American forces and my diary is full of questions as to their possible arrival. It is now Saturday and we still speculate. Some of the Americans are leaving to try and make their own way to the River Elbe where their own forces are said to be. I had just finished writing about the non-arrival of American trucks when I read that they did arrive that Saturday. Unfortunately only two trucks came and those only due to a whip round by the unit from where the scout car came. We did hear that the largest surrender of troops in history had been made to General Montgomery in NW Germany, Holland and Denmark.

Each day and the anxiety on the men's faces deepens. There were reports that some American trucks had arrived on Sunday evening but that the Russians would not let them be loaded. Their Senior Officers said that they had to wait until they had permission from their High Command in Moscow. They now had another reason for not letting us go; we had to be registered and that meant that a list had to be made of all the Allied prisoners. This nominal roll had then to be sent to Moscow and permission awaited from there. On Monday the 7th May our latest "gen" was that, if the permission did not come through, the Senior British Officer would march us out without it. I was doubtful about this, as the Russians do not submit easily.

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