大象传媒

This journey began on the 20th January 1945 when the whole village of Faulen, along with the POW workforce of 22 POWs was evacuated in front of the Russian winter offensive into Germany. With our two guards, our initial line of march was SW to Freistadt and Graudenze where we crossed the frozen River Vistula over the ice, because all bridges over the river were either mined or blown. We then headed NW to Schwertz- Tuchel-Scblochau-Stegar-Baldenberg-Bublitz-Belgard (a Luftwaffe POW camp for allied aircrews), then changed direction westwards and continued to Treptow-Kamin-Woolin-Sweinamunde and Penamunde (the rocket stations) crossing the River Oder by ferry. Another change of direction to the NW took us to Useden-Anklam-Greiswald, then another change to the SW to Denmin-Parchim-Schwerin-Kirchjesar-Donitz (crossing the River Elbe) and on towards Bromberg, but another change of direction took us towards Hanover but we finally stopped at Lebrte about 28km short of that city on the 29th March. We had covered 1500km (700 miles) in 12 weeks, marching on average between 12-48km (7-30 miles) daily depending on the weather and terrain, and starting initially in mid-winter when the 'going' was difficult and it was very very cold.
We were still in Lehrte when the Americans liberated the town which was not fought over because of the hospitals there, and the local airfield was used as a forward supply base for their Dakotas.
Initially the Americans flew their own personnel back to the States from Cherbourg, but because their POWS were fewer in number this job was soon over and consequently they agreed to fly the remaining British POWs to Brussels for the final leg of the journey home. Finally on the 27th of April, 22 of us were flown home in the bomb bay of a Wellington bomber returning from a mission over SE Germany, to an airfield near Reading thus ending five unforgettable years as a German POW.!!

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