大象传媒

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My husband at the age of 19 joined the Territorials in Ramsgate and was sent to Crete via Egypt. The Germans were anxious to take Crete as this was the remaining outpost for the Allies in the Mediterranean. The Germans scream bombed the island for 6 weeks and it was eventually decided to evacuate the troops from the island. 2 warships were sent to the opposite side of the island to pick up the troops, who had to walk over the mountains to get to there. However, the ships were unable to wait and just as the troops arrived, they saw the boats heading off over the horizon. The Germans then captured the troops and marched them back across the island. They were then transferred by train to Austria via Italy to a railway town called St. Veitz. All the German trains going to the front went through St Veitz and my husband and the other prisoners had to repair the rails (taking the opportunity to sabotage them whenever possible)

The men also had to assist the Austrian farmers in the mountains. At that time they farmed with oxen and John, my husband had two oxen which he named Maxi and Mona. One of their main tasks was to bring down the frozen swedes that were stored in great piles in the fields. The animals like the men, were starving and one day Maxi slipped as he was bringing down a load. One of the German guards came over and starting kicking the animal. My husband shouted at the guard that if he touched the animal again he would kill him. Surprisingly the guard never did it again.

My husband had learnt German at school and spoke the language well. Consequently, he became the translator for the prisoners and had regular contact with the senior German officer in the town. He was threatened on several occasions as he stood up for the rights of the prisoners and frequently was kept in solitary confinement. He was also often unwell as he had contracted malaria during his time in Egypt and got frequent recurrences. My husband spent a total of 4 years in the camp.

When they were eventually released he went to stay with an Austrian family. They were very kind to him and he formed a firm friendship with their daughter Trudy. Her boyfriend was in a Russian prisoner of war camp. The came over to England to visit us after the war.

The British captain who was in charge of checking how the Austrian farmers had treated the English prisoners, turned out to be a school friend of my husband. John joined him on the visits to the farmers and was able to translate and also put a few facts right!

When my husband was discharged he flew back to England in the bomb hold of a plane. It was the most awful journey and he never flew in a plane again.

Soon after his return, he was sent to act as a translator in a prisoner of war camp for Germans in Scotland. When he came to leave, they gave him a card signed by all the men and they had carved him 2 table lamps from wood, one of a girl and one a boy and the shades they had painted with people in varying national costumes. I asked my husband why they had liked him so much and he said that they were only boys, and he did what he could to make their lives a little easier despite previous animosity.

Several years later my husband was in hospital when one of the doctors came over to him. He explained that his case had been discussed at the postgraduate meeting the previous day and he realised that he (the doctor) had been on the same train as my husband going from Crete through Italy. They both found it very helpful to share their experiences with each other as they had not been able to discuss it with anyone else as they felt they might not understand.

My husband never really recovered from his experiences during the war. The damage to his feet caused by walking over the mountains in Crete meant that the skin on his feet never healed properly. He, along with many other men, continued to have nightmares throughout the rest of his life. That said, he was a man of tremendous humour and made
terrible puns.

My husband was an ordinary man and yet, like many other men coped with experiences that are hard to imagine these days.

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