大象传媒

This story relates to the story carried on this site under the banner "A Fateful Voyage: Convoy under Attack in the Atlantic - Tale of Unexploded Bombs and Heroism"

When the CRITON was sunk by Vichy warships on 21 June 1941, her Master, Captain Dobeson, became Senior British Officer at the concentration camps at Conakry, and later at Timbuctoo. But those too ill to move when those of CRITON's crew fit enough, were transported to Timbuctoo, stayed in Conakry, and elected from amongst themselves the only French speaker, 3rd Radio Officer Peter Johnson, aged 19, as Senior British Officer. When they were later moved to a camp at Kankan Peter continued in his role as Senior British Officer.

When those crew at Timbuctoo were moved to Kankan almost a year later, to rejoin their shipmates, they all elected to have Peter Johnson continue as Senior British Officer rather than Capt Dobeson, because Peter by then knew the local Vichy French administration and its procedures. Peter had also, vary bravely, stepped in at one time to prevent the Vichy French from opening fire on the prisoners.

In October/November 1942, when the Vichy French authorities became jittery about Operation Torch and its possible consequences, they began to arrest some members of the civilian population and threw them into the camp too! At one time 19 year-old Peter had over 200 prisoners to contend with, but he never received any official recognition, unlike those Senior British Officers and others in German/Italian/Japanese camps who received honours and awards.

During the whole 18 months of their imprisonment others of CRITON's crew made escape attempts, on one occasion walking more than 400 miles up the Niger. Escape in West Africa was markedly more difficult than it was in a European country: they had a bounty on their heads that was a lot of money for a native, and the white British stood out like a sore thumb amongst the native population; Also it was so hot during the day that they could only travel at night (when it was often extremely cold), but this did aid their non-detection; Apart from the river there was no water supply, and it was desert away from the river making it impossible to forage for food; Yet another problem was the lack of modern transportation. Nevertheless they made several attempts from Conakry, trying to steal a fishing boat to sail to Freetown, one attempt from Timbuctoo, and again several from Kankan. All were ultimatley unsuccessful, but in the author's opinion they faced much greater difficulties than those POWs making "home runs" from Europe.

Punishment upon recapture involved locking the escapers in a small roofless shed, so that they could not protect themselves from the sun for periods of two or three weeks. Although in Timbuctoo, the entire crew were locked in their airless cells for 100 days. Consequently TB spread amongst the prisoners, and many of them sufferered from a variety of ailments after their release, including Peter de Neumann who contracted TB whilst a prisoner, although this mode of transmittal was conveniently and unsympathetically denied by uncomprehending British examining doctors upon his arrival in the UK. Peter Johnson died in a sanatorium some years after the war, and many of the others suffered ill-health too, some never returning to sea.

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