大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Walter Hobson and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

It was the summer of 1938 and all the talk those days was would Germany try to grab extra land to help create a super race of pure Germans. In order to do this would he go to war? Some leaders said no others said yes and the Ministry of Defence was 鈥淥rr Belisher鈥� and decided to introduce conscription. In order to do this they decided to call up all males between the ages of 20 and 21 years of age. Which was called Orr Belisher鈥檚 Army later nicknamed 鈥淥rr Belishers Rabble鈥�.

As I was approaching 20 I knew I would be called up but it was only for six months, or so we thought. In the mean time I met a lovely girl from Broomhill, her name was Lily Bickerdike. We were very close and on 3rd September of that year we were married at St Mary鈥檚 Church, Wombwell. Everything went well for us as we went to live with her father. Her mother had died when she was only 9 years old, so she had it rough and at the age of 14 she was left to look after her father and brother and she did very well in the circumstances.

The following March we had a baby daughter called Maureen, and then I got called the St George鈥檚 Hall in Barnsley for a medical. There were seven doctors for examining and the chairman was my own doctor from Wath-upon-Dearne, Dr Johnson. He knew my medical history so I was passed AI. After that we went to the recruiting officer who asked us what we would like to join and as I was a bricklayer I said the Royal Engineers. He said I would have trouble getting into this unit.

Anyway in July 1939 the first batch were called up and their uniform was grey flannels, light blue shirt and a black beret.

In the meantime Germany decided to move. He began invading Europe. Our Prime Minister was Neville Chamberlain and he went over to Germany to try to talk peace with Adolf Hitler and he came away waving a piece of paper saying鈥� peace in our time鈥�. After that Hitler invaded Poland and as they were going down the Danzig Corridor our government decided enough was enough and on the 3rd September 1939 declared war on Germany.

In the meantime all our reserves were called up including the Territorials and so the inevitable happened. I was called to appear at York at Fulford Infantry Barracks on 16 October 1939. There was a railway warrant and we were met at York Railway Station by soldiers and an officer. He called our names and we got on to lorries to take us to our various camps around York. I had left a wife and baby daughter, 7 months old, and I had no idea how long for, not the six months as we had thought when called upon. Turned out to be 6 years and 115 days, 2陆 years as a POW. The regiment I joined was the West Yorkshire Regiment The Prince of Wales Own 14th a foot. My pay was 2s a day of which I had 1s a day to pay for my wife鈥檚 allowance.

I did a fire-fighting course at Catterick, they offered me a job training ATS but I didn鈥檛 accept.

I went to Sussex working on farms and was called for an interview for the Para鈥檚. I was then stationed at Hardwick Hall, Chesterfield, in a ruin. We were training with grenades and one went off and got two of us in the blood wagon, we got peppered with shrapnel and were deafened. The other lad played on it and got out of the army. I was also gassed during training, a lance corporal and I were running trough a street and a gas canister was thrown at us, it should have been a smoke canister! At least I could go home for weekends while I was training.

We left Britain in a large convoy on the Strathmore, a P&O liner, it was carrying 7,000 troops. It had an Alaskan crew. We were at sea for 17 days. The convoy had to change course every twenty minutes to dodge U-boats, the hooter would go and it was one for port and two for starboard.

I was taken prisoner of war at the invasion of Tangiers. (Col. Frost was a smashing chap. He said when I blow the bugle everyman for himself and try to get back to your own unit.) I was captured and spent a month in Sicily and then Naples. I worked on the land for the Italians before escaping with another man, Jack Ritchie. An Italian family took them in. We were caught again because a local girl split on them to her German boyfriend. They found her later in the river with her throat cut.

We managed to escape again and some Italians used to bring us food. They tried to get us to Switzerland. A girl and a lame chap took us to his house. They brought out cheese, wine, and biscuits. We set off for the frontier in the lame chap鈥檚 car, he was the local butcher. There was a revolver in the pocket of the car for them. But it was the wrong guards and they had to go back. Tried and again and the guards took them up a little railway track. We were told get through frontiers and head north. We got to a wire with bells on, we pulled the wire up and got under, we had gone back into Italy! We got taken by the German Guards and were put into a shed full of potatoes to sleep. We had to parade in front of the Officer鈥檚 wife, as she hadn鈥檛 seen an English man before. We were sent to Milan for interrogation, we had to go in one at a time. We stayed there for a week or so. And made friends with a Serbian Soldier. We found a way out in a fence, Walter got Pneumonia and a doctor had to come into the camp to see him. We were re-captured.

We went to Austria for one month on our way to Germany

Going through Bremmar Pass the RAF raided. We had to stay on the trains, the guards went into the shelters. We ended up at Musseberg Gas Chambers. French in one compound, Italians in another, civilians in another and the English and Americans in another.

Every Friday we had to go into a building and take off our clothes and put them on a conveyor belt to fumigate them. They we went into a square concrete building and cold water came down for a shower. But it was gas that came down when civilians were in there.

I tried to escape with three others. I got a job in the cookhouse to get some food together, bread, sugar, and onions. But before we could, four other soldiers took our escape route and a machine gunner killed them all.

I worked in the Iron Ore mines at Ullendorf. We had to speak German 鈥� any other language was forbidden.

We only had the clothes we stood up in.

The food was terrible, one loaf between 5 people, 4 people if you were working. I pinched the turkey鈥檚 dinner; it was mashed potato and caraway seeds.

A guard shot an Alsatian who had got too friendly with the prisoners.

RAF bombed the little village at the side of the camp. They made us go clear the village. We found a fresh egg ad shared it between 6 of us!

After the mines they took us to work building the ramps for the VI and VII rockets. We tried to escape up a shaft but got taken back.

Germans tried to get the prisoners to fight for them 鈥� said they鈥檇 be called the 鈥楩ree British鈥�.

When the Allies started moving the Germans put us on a march to get them away. In the morning the Germans were guarding us in the afternoon we were guarding the Germans.

I was demobbed on 2 December 1945. I was sent to a civilian re-settlement unit at Ilkley, I was there for six week and could come home at weekends. We went round to all different employers to try to get a job; I was lucky my job with the local builders was still open. It took a lot of getting used to not being at war and being a civilian again. Came out of the army Class B.

In later years we went on holiday to Italy and asked the Chief of Police if he could help me find the people who had helped us. We went to Milan to meet them.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.