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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Nottingham on behalf of Sydney Barthorpe with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

My thoughts were rekindled of amazing escapes from POW camps from reading a newspaper. However, it is not often that one hears about how the Germans actually made escaping possible. This is what happened from the camp I found myself in.

Captured in Norway in 1940, I was in the 8th Foresters. I was taken to Bleckhammer Camp in Upper Silesia, Poland. Arriving in Mid-1941, we became part of the work-force used to build an oil refinery, (Silesian coal suitable for the extraction of oil). As the refinery expanded, more labour was brought in, by 1944 many thousands were working there from all over Europe.

In 1944 the Germans decided to start producing petrol. After a successful first day, the plant was lightly bombed by a small raid (this could have been due to bad intelligence). However, From then on every time the refinery got into production the refinery was bombed. The accuracy and frequency of the bombing raids grew, with bombs landing just outside the perimeter. The Germans were now forced to do something about it.

They decided to put canisters out that gave out a white blanket of mist called ‘nabel werfer’, this covered an area much larger than the refinery extending to our camp and other workers. Even using this technique, most of the bombs that fell during the next three raids fell inside the refinery area. When the Germans sent up a spotter plane to try to discover why they were still being so accurately targeted, they discovered that the main powerhouse had three chimneys, each one being 96 metres high, and 30 of those metres were still visible even after the mist screen had been used. These provided idea markers for the bombers. They therefore, removed some 35 metres off the chimneys so the mist would completely cover them and the refinery to solve the problem. Now the whole area was bombed, including the camps. One raid killed and wounded many after three direct hits on an air raid shelter. Our camp contained many unexploded bombs that night, which we had to sleep beside.

The Germans officers became uneasy about the deaths. During the raids the camp staff and sick were locked in but men at work and guards were able to scatter into the woods. The camp doctor, Captain Davidson thought something should be done, he was one to never miss a chance to fight for our rights. After approaching the Germans eventually it was agreed that during future raids when the sirens went, the camp gates were to be opened with the stipulation that there was to be ‘No escaping or messing around with women’. Captain Davidson resulted in gaining the trust from everyman during this time, and although there was a time limit imposed on all to be back inside the camp within two hours of the all-clear, this was never abused — a condition that remained until our release.

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