大象传媒

We travelled to Danzig by train, the guard that accompanied us did not speak a word all the time that we were on the train. I was looking out of the window, when I saw Tate and Lyles of London. This was the company that was using the Sugar beet factory , where we had been working. The train did stop at some of the stations.
When we arrived at Danzig station, we got off the train and started to walk along the road, outside of the station. I noticed that there was a Jewish woman repairing the road, also a German guard. I turned around and said "Are they prisoners?" The guard replied "That they are Jews. I noticed a different uniform, it was a Russian Kossack. I had previously seen these Russians at a show that was on at the Olympia at Kensington.
We walked for about an hour and a half then we had arrived at Danzig brewery. We went in through the yard, I noticed that there was a barbed wire fence, I thought I was back home again! I was taken to the guard, a Prisoner-of-War Sergeant came into the room and the guard told him that I was the replacement. The Sergeant's name was Bill Smith, he was in charge of the Prisoners-of-War working party. He never did any work in the brewery. Later, I was told that there were 28 Prisoners-of-War in the working party. That evening, when the men returned from work, I was introduced to the men. There was Taffy Jones and his brother-in-law Ted Evans. I sat down and had tea with them. After tea, men were leaving the billet to shower before supper. Supper was at 7.00 p.m. and we had a fry up. This was an egg, bread and lard, then after we had supper, the men played cards and wrote cards for home. Some were reading books and they also had beer to drink, even the guard walked down with a large jug of beer that he had filled and then he returned to his quarters. At 10.30 p.m. it was lights out and so to bed. The sleeping quarters was another long room which had 40 beds in it.
Next morning we were woken up to the shouting of "Roust, Roust". It was Sergeant Smith that was calling us to get up at
6.00 a.m. We got dressed and washed up then had a cup of tea. We were told that breakfast would be at 9.00 a.m. so off we went to work until that time. As we got ready for work, Taffy said to me "Put on a warm pullover as it is cold in the cellar". Dave and Fred said "You will be working with us" so away we went to work. We had to clean out large barrels and they had a man hole in the bottom. Dave showed me how to get in and out and for me to have a try at doing it. I laid on the floor and put my head inside, then I pulled myself in. Dave followed then a brush and a wooden bucket was passed in and the light was already inside. Dave then showed me how to do the job and I had to scrub all around the barrel. When this had been finished, a hose pipe was passed in and then you washed it all around the barrel. Dave worked with me uo to 9.00 a.m. and then we went in for breakfast. We had black pudding, fried bread, an egg and a mug of tea. We finished breakfast at 9.30 a.m. and then we went back to work. Dave had told me not to be so particular about the work, but to just do the job. On our return back, I was introduced to the German staff. When I spoke to them in German, they turned around and asked me if I was a Pollack? I told them that I was not and that I was English and no Pole. Any how after that I was handed a copper mug full of beer. It was yeast,beer and sugar, it was quite warm. I drank some of it and when it went down it was quite warming. Then we went back on the job. Lunch was at 12.00 p.m. and this consisted of meat pie and vegetables. We resumed work at 1.00 p.m. and had more beer. At 4.30 p.m. we finished work for the day. Dave said to me to go and have a shower but when the warm air hit me, I felt quite drunk. I had a shower and I did not have any tea but I went to my bunk and laid down and before I knew it I was asleep. It was supper time when I eventually woke up. That evening, while playing cards, 4 of the men were talking and I heard one of them say"Don't be daft, the men did not run away at Dunkirk. It was an order and they had been ordered by Gort, to withdraw" They replied "Yes, but why were the men throwing away their rifles?" "I saw them" said one of the French " I saw them run, also the Germans, I tell you they did".
I had heard this story before in France, but I kept quiet as I did not want to be drawn into this discussion.
We did the same job the next day. Dave said to me "Watch this" I could see the men with buckets. The staff of the cellar said that it was time for the cooked beer to be pumped from the cooking houses into the vats, which was half ful of water. This beer was coming over was strong and back came the men with their buckets full of beer. Behind the barrels, it was hidden, in went the sugar water then the yeast. This would then be left until it was ready for drinking.
Since I had come to the brewery, I had noticed the men was suffering from the D.T.s, which was caused by drinking too much of the beer. I spoke to Dave about this and he said " Sorry, but I do not know you well enough to tell you our secrets". Yet I had been informed that all of the Red Cross parcels went to the kitchen. You had chocolate, soap and all the food. I then heard that a week before I arrived there had been 14 parcels had arrived,they were Canadian, which meant that it was 14 bags of gold dust! The lorries were driven by Germans, they all had a Prisoners-of-War working on the delivery lorry. They had a wood burner on the side.
I now had been working at the brewery for 6 weeks and there was always plenty of beer to drink, which had been stolen from the cellar. It was German Officers beer! This beer was the best and very strong. Dave then told me about the electrician. He had keys to fit every door in his workshop , which was in the loft. He had a still working on electricity and the sugar water was stolen from the cellar and taken to the workshop, then the water and the yeast was added. When it had finished working, you then had Schnapps.
Bill Bilham was talking of repatuation. He had twice been on interview at the medical panel German team, the allies and the International Red Cross. The Germans had agreed to the list also the Allies. But the Swiss International Red Cross disagreed. They always kept some back. Bill Bilham, at the last meeting had asked them "Why?" The reply was "We do not want Germany invading Switzerland" Bill said "BULL SH..".
I was asked many questions of what I did. I told them that I had been in the Navy as a Stoker and things had been going well.
I had received my money for the work, as we all did. I learnt one night,that we all paid for our quarters,the wire, all of our food and for the guards. This all had to be taken out of our money. The guards did the shopping for the men. Our camp money, the Germans exchanged in the German Army canteen. It was no good complaining but we had tobacco and every thing that we needed. Bill Bilham was off once again on a medical interview, to see if he could go home. We all wished him the best of luck. A week later Sergeant Smith told us that Bill Bilham was going home. Sergeant Smith said "The machinist in the machine room wants to see you, because you was a Stoker in the Navy" I replied "Yes" He then said "Will you work on our boiler?" I replied "Yes". All that I had to do was to take over at 8.00 a.m. every day, Monday to Friday. I had to stoke the boilers, watch the steam and water gauge. I was now set, as I did not have to endure any more of those cold dungeons.
Wheeling in the coal one day I looked up and saw Aircraft in the sky. They were British planes and later we had heard that they had flown to Warsaw and dropped arms and ammunition and then flown to Russia. We were all just about ready for bed when we heard Aircraft flying off, next, the Air raid warning went off. We were told to go to the cellar under the Big house. There were three landings and we were at the bottom. I thought to myself "God help us should this house be hit" Dave found a air shaft and up we all climbed. Then we sat and watched the bombing of the Naval Dockyard. The wireless was in the electrician's workshop, but only he knew where the hiding place was.
The coffee, which was gold dust to us, was used to exchange for food. We always had a large joint on a Sunday, some 20-25 pounds in weight. We had legs of pork, a full hand sometimes, also we had horse meat. The Germans also got fed from our kitchen. They were as good as gold. On other weeks, the guard took the men to the beach, but it was up to you whether you went or if you wanted to stay at the billet. I had washing to do this time but the lads enjoyed their swim. But there was a complaint made about the Prisoners-of-War being at the beach,with all of the German families being there as well. The camp at Stolenzberg, I had heard that they had refused to go to work over the matter of food. An Officer entered the camp asking questions of why this was happening. He drove away from the camp, but a little while later he returned, and he had brought with him 3 tanks and troops. He addressed the camp and said"I will give you 5 minutes to leave to start work or I will flatten the camp and you will all be dead". Someone said "Remember Lingfield racecourse when the Jerries did the same and that was because the bacon had been over cooked"
We were now coming to Christmas and 1945. Again, we wondered what was going to happen.
Russia was knocking on the door in February 1945 and we were told we would soon be leaving and moving back to Germany.
One night, after we had our tea, one of the lads "What is Polish measles" and someone shouted "Grow up and use your common sense" end of quesion.
In late February early March, we were ordered to pack our kit as we were leaving.
The snow had melted and it was quite warm out. We packed all of our kit and marched out of the brewery up to the large camp. Here we found the camp was full to overflowing of Prisoners-of-War. I met Bert and the rest of the gang from my last working place on the farm. Here we heard of a German liner that had been in Danzig since the beginning of the War. It had been used to train German Navy Ratings. When it left Danzig, it was full of German civilians, Navy Ratings and some soldiers. We had heard that it had ben sunk by a Russian submarine. That was the news, but I could not say if this was true or not.

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