大象传媒

Letters Home - December 1945 鈥� Part Two

Our particular consignment was furniture, food, and ammunition. Believe it or not, but an extra freight was provided by several small bands of people hiding in the wagons, trying to reach Berlin! This was in the early and cold hours of the morning, yet they intended to ride through two nights and days in open wagons through the cold night and with the smoke and grit pouring from the engine upon them.
We soon had them off the wagons and never saw them again, yet when we arrived at Berlin they had travelled all the way with us! Later we found out that before several wagons were sealed up the German guards had secreted them inside, then applied the seal to the door. Thus at the Russian border, the Russian guards found no trace of any German personnel.

After travelling for an hour in the English zone a sudden jolt indicated to us something was amiss, upon investigating finding the last two tracks off of the rails. We spent half a day replacing them, then thankfully looked forward to resuming our journey, but no! we had to unhook our locomotive to tow another train which had exhausted its coal supply. Upon its return to us we resumed our journey, reaching the Russian border in an hour. Then my first glimpse of our 鈥楥omrades鈥�. Since that time I have seen hundreds of Russians, yet it is such an assortment. The majorityare of the peasant type, some even Mongols, but each imbued with a 鈥榗omplex鈥�- that he is a little lord. That is certainly OK 鈥� when practiced upon the Germans- but it鈥檚 a different matter when tried to apply to anybody connected with the British zone. I detest the Russians as indeed we all do who have been to Berlin.

A terrible retribution is now going on in Russian occupied Germany. We arrived at the first station inside Russian territory and the fantastic sight that met my eyes! I could have wept- wept for the sake of humanity. Sprawled all over the station were families with pathetic bundles containing goodness knows what- but containing their worldly possessions! They were part of the flotsam and jetsom that the Russians had forced from their homes in what was now Polish Germany. There they sat and laid, mostly women with their children, others aged couples, and some mere youngsters in the world alone, they all sat and shivered with nowhere to go. The joy upon their faces to see the sight of we four English guards. 鈥楧er Englander!鈥� I鈥檝e since learned that the one hope of salvation for Germany lies in England, the people wish to know when are the English going to occupy all of Germany and drive the Russians out. Two armed Russian tommy-gunners were pacing the length of the platform, their short guns slung around their necks. They gave us a smile and tried to converse in German, meanwhile the Germans were cringing with fear at the sight of them. At this stage of the journey we were in the Russian zone and heading in the direction of Berlin, it was most surprising to see crowds of people besieging our wagons in an effortto reach Berlin. I spoke to a brother and sister who had made their way from Bremen, they informed me they had been on the station for two days and the Russians had taken their food from them as well as watches. Several times during the night three Russian guards had come amongst the shivering crowd and selected several becoming women with the words they know so well 鈥淜ommen Sie Mit鈥�. To escape their attentions the girl had donned her brothers long army raincoat and peaked cap.

It became night again with snow falling, and as we journeyed onward well fed and warmed by our two blazing stoves I could hear the poor German devils in the next open wagon stamping their feet in an effort to get warm, silhouetted from the red glow of the engine I could see them standing with coat collars turned up and hands thrust deeply into pockets. Hitler鈥檚 master race!

From the Russian frontier to Berlin exists one solitary track, thus a single service is in operation, this makes it very easy to operate for the Russians, also the considerable amount of sleepers and lines have been transported back to Russia . Their engineers have made a very good railway bridge over the River Elbe but my heart is always in my mouth as our train groans its way to the far side.

One halt we made, two of us wandered down the wagons as usual when from the darkness a shot rang out, immediately we leaped under the wheels of the nearest wagon and swung our rifles up into an aiming position upon the wheels, we intently scanned the darkness and saw several bullets in the form of tracers flying into the air. We called across the line and found it was a Russian sentry being a bit playful, we had a chat with him, gave him a cigarette and found he was guarding one wagonfull of potatoes- for converting into Schnapps!

One year ago I told you of evacuations through flooding, now in the very heart of the originators of all this needless conflict. I have witnessed the latest mass evacuation, evacuation from the hunger and disease that is so much evident in Berlin. The poor little mites!- I know they are German- but you cannot shut out the cries of hungry children as they lie sprawled upon the floors of wagons, many of them have no parents and many have lost all trace of them. They are journeying to farmers in the English zone where they may be just a fraction luckier and find something to eat.

Like every other big town Berlin is 鈥楰aput鈥� but it has a slight difference, the people are organising a few activities such as opera and cinemas. At the opera is Macbeth and, ironically enough, Henry V in the cinema- a description of our wars against France! I鈥檝e visited the famous 鈥楩emina鈥� night club, where you can purchase liqueur at fifteen shillings a glass.

Black Market is rampant, its chief centre being by the Brandenburger gate. I鈥檝e sold ten cigarettes for fifty shillings, and I鈥檇 high hopes of obtaining several wrist watches, but the Russians have taken them all. You will be interested to know the name of 鈥楧alley鈥� reposes upon HItler鈥檚 Reichstag, you will remember it was burned out by Hitler鈥檚 orders way back in 1933. I鈥檓 more familiar with Berlin than London perhaps you can recall some of the names that appeared in the bitter street fighting; Templehof, Tiergarten, Spandau, Charlottonberg. I had an address to visit in Berlin from the people I knew in Wilhelmshaven and upon arriving at the street thought of the futility of the purpose, one end of the street were several knocked out German tanks and the other end was flattened by bombs, however I endeavoured to trace the house and found it had miraculously survived the ordeal. The people were pleased to see an English Tommy and to kknow their friends in Wilhelmshaven were quite safe after having their house bombed.

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