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April 1st. Stopped at a German Air Force base. Put into old huts that had held Ukrainian POWs at one time. 20 men to a room and sleeping on the floor. Issued with 2 litres of soup and 1 loaf between 5 men. Put to work unloading stones from railway wagons.

On April 4th we marched out of camp at 6.00am to a place about 21 miles away to be de-loused. When we returned in the evening we found that the air force camp had been bombed whilst we were absent. There was a further raid during which there were bursts of machine gun fire across the roofs of our huts. The following morning we were detailed to begin filling in the bomb craters around the camp. Seven Germans were killed in the raid.

April 7th at mid-day hundreds of allied bombers and fighters passed over our camp. At 3.10pm the planes returned and must have had some bombs left to get rid of and dropped them on our camp. Our German guards locked us in our huts and then dived off into the air-raid shelters.

April 8th. Moved out at 5.00am and marched for about 25 miles. The allied front is said to be about 25 miles from here.

April 9th we did 26 miles and there are a lot of German troops around now. We are to stay at this village for two days. During this stay hundreds of bombers passed overhead.

April 11th after marching a further 15 miles we arrived at a village named Helenberg. Now we can hear the sound of gunfire.

April 12th. Slept in a barn. At 5.00am the German Captain in charge and the guards moved out — those not ready were left behind. Gunfire is quite close. We found plenty of spuds to eat.

April 13th. Aubrey Grace and I collected up a lot of clothing and blankets that had been left in the barn when the majority of the lads moved off yesterday. We took some of it into the village and exchanged it for eggs and bacon and bread. We were without any guards now, but then a German soldier appeared and marched us about 6 miles from the village and left us.

April 14th. There are 50 of us left and we split up. Six of us went to a small village, Oldendorf, where ‘Lofty’ Dove, myself and an American went to the Burgemeisters house and asked for food. We were given white bread, fried eggs, spuds, cake, jam, sausage and coffee.

April 15th. Moved to a village called Clenze. There’s a camp there with French POWs and a few Yanks. We stayed overnight and slept on the floor.

April 17th. We moved on and had a guard with us again. We arrived at a place called Tannenberg.

April 18th. arrived at a village called Quickborn — 8 of us - and we were put in a Serbian camp. Their guard got us some bread.

April 19th. Our guard said that we must cross the river Elbe. We’ve got about 15 Americans with us now. Ended up in a barn tonight, and on our way to a place named Ludwigslust. There are also about 30 Germans with us now. Our planes were over strafing again.

We went further than a few miles today April 20th. The guards are too scared of our planes which keep coming over and strafing the area.

April 21st Drew red-cross parcels form a French camp at Ludwigslust. Left our wounded here. Remainder of us went to the railway station to sleep because we’re supposed to be going on a train in the morning to a place named Schwerin. Some way outside the station an ammunition train had been hit and there was a lot of the contents strewn across the tracks. Nearby, also halted, was a German troop train. The men were all standing around outside of it. A few of them came to our guards and asked if they could take some of us down the track to pick up the unexploded ammunition. Myself and a few other Britishers plus about a dozen Yanks were detailed to do this. We all refused to move which annoyed the German troops; after calling us all the names that they could think of one of them stood in front if us with a machine gun and said ‘start working or I’ll shoot you all’.

Nobody moved but at that moment a German officer standing watching from a distance, called out that we should be taken back to the railway station again. That was a relief.

April 22nd. Boarded train at 6.40am. Moved off at mid-day. Had no bread issued to us since April 15th. Only boiled potatoes. Arrived safely at very large camp. There’s Russians, Poles, Serbs, French all in separate compounds. Still no bread, but issued with some flour instead. We were a few miles outside Schwerin.

April 23rd. Bread was issued. 17 men to each loaf. The soup is like water. But we have been issued with red-cross parcels.

By April 29th we had been given more red-cross parcels, and having stopped our marching for a week now, we were feeling much healthier.

May 2nd. Today all the guards vanished and our own officers took command. Later, to resounding cheers American Infantry arrived. One of them threw some wire cutters over the wire to us. Although we had been told not to leave the camp or to pick up any arms by our own officer in charge, I’m afraid that his words fell on deaf ears.

We cut our way through the barbed-wire and got out onto the road. Thousands of German prisoners were streaming back past our camp and like they did to us in 1940, we relieved them of watches etc. Our liberated lads were returning to camp with motor cycles, radios, boxes of cigars, cars and binoculars. One even rode around the camp on a horse.

Aubrey Grace and I went to a house that had a car in the front. An Auto-Union. We told the person living there that we were taking it and drove off. Six miles along the road we were stopped by American troops and told we had to go back because the Russian troops were only a short distance ahead. We visited some flats in Schwerin on May 5th and upon leaving to return to the camp found that someone had stolen our car.

We spent the night at a hospital in Schwerin that was occupied by American troops. In the morning they returned us to our camp in a jeep.

May 6th. Left the camp today. American trucks arrived to transport us all back across the river Elbe to the British lines.

We were installed in a German barracks. We were deloused and given all new clothing, bathed and given cigarettes and food. On May 7th ‘Monty’ was in the area.

May 9th. After being taken to the airfield at Lubeck we finally boarded a Lancaster bomber and set out for England. Aubrey Grace and I managed to squeeze into the tail gunners ‘pod’ at the rear of the plane and had a clears view of the journey back home. We landed at Westcott aerodrome where we were given a great reception and a good meal inside a hanger before being taken to Beaconsfield Reception Camp. Went on leave on May 11th

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