大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Mr. Smithson and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The New Year came in very cold with constant snow showers. On running across the football pitch to the showers [we had one now and then] I got a touch of frost bite because I had started running across without my side hat which had flaps which covered my ears. I had to spend the next hour rubbing my ears. I now fully understand why the Germans have ear muffs when they are outside and wearing a trilby.

The Germans sent round a news communique fairly regularly and we find that it is usually in agreement with any of our own news. Now and then we are able to see a German newspaper. The lists of casualties are written in a Gothic script and seem longer than ours that I have read when in England.

One day we were slow in turning out for parade and therefore had an extra one as a punishment. Some punishment, usually very hilarious.

I am now busy and attending more classes. One on public speaking, another being a Bible Class led by V. Victor Cooper. He hopes to become a Methodist Minister after the war. he has been a prisoner since being shot down when piloting a Hampden in a raid on the Kiel Canal at the beginning of the war. Think of it a POW since September 1939 [Now January 1945]. He has put his time to good use. He can speak French, Spanish, Italian, German and at the moment is starting on Russian. He told me that he learns the grammar of a language in about six months; after that vocabulary is the only necessity. I spent a few years learning French and am now left with only a smattering for my visits to France. I do not think my English is too good either.

The New Year continued with constant snowfalls and icy cold weather. Our activities of play and study started again. When I write this now I wonder what life would have been like at University. Some of the prisoners who have been in captivity a long time have had the chance of taking degrees and passed them. There is nothing stable enough for study of that kind now. Rumours abound about the war situation and possibilities of our movement from the camp. I have remarked before that I had no news from home and only found out the family situation when I telephoned home from Derby on my way there when on repatriation leave. I wrote many letters and cards but they only arrived home after my own arrival there.

One of our ways of passing time was to get into conversation with the ferrets; our name for the German guards who wandered about the compound seemingly with nothing to do. Their real job was to watch for any clandestine activities. Only once did I hear about anything of that kind and that had been found out. A tunnel had been started some time before I arrived. During my time in the camp, some of the sand from the tunnel stored in one of the hut roofs started to sifter through the ceiling boards. A ferret spotted it. That was the end of the tunnel. As far as I was aware, every one thought the war was so near it's end that any chance of escape was not worth the candle. The only time I tried was in Holland near Amersfoot which, I mentioned earlier in these jottings. To return to the points I was making about the ferrets. We often managed to have things brought into the camp by them. We had things from the parcels they wanted and they would exchange things we wanted for them. Examples were cigarettes of ours and cutlery of theirs. Some POWs became very proficient at barter. We also exchanged some of our parcel contents for other things. I did not smoke so I exchanged my cigarette ration for chocolate. I had thought for some time that when we moved the German organisation would be likely to fall apart, and therefore the food situation would deteriorate. Chocolate was one of the basics of food, along with bread. The chocolate was mainly American and named a "D" bar. It came in the American parcel. I had stopped eating my ration some time before Christmas and had saved eight bars at that time.

One aspect of our life was the absence of privacy for oneself or for any private conversation. We used the circuit for this purpose. The circuit was a well-trodden path round the edge of the compound and just inside the trip wire. Every day a stream of prisoners could be seen tramping, together or singly, round it. Everyone walking the same way and at roughly the same speed. We talked about anything but mainly ourselves. We found out much about each other. Walking with Kenyon Omeroyd a friend from 49/12 I heard about much of his life. He had been shot down in Northern France, where he evaded capture by living with different families in France and Belgium. Once he stayed in a flat above where a German platoon was billeted and every day he walked past some of them when going out. I was very interested in part of his pre-war life. He had a sabbatical from his university and toured Greece and Eastern Europe, making a living giving lessons in English. He managed for almost a year but then had to be returned to England by the British Consul as he had run out of money.

The circuit was, indirectly, the cause of sadness in the camp. One morning the air raid warning was sounded. This meant that prisoners had to stay in the hut they were in or if they were outside, go into the nearest hut even if it were not their own. A young airman did not hear the warning and decided to go on to the circuit. This he did by going out of the rear door of his hut and on to the circuit there. It was not unusual for the circuit at the back of the huts to be empty. He set off walking. Had he gone out by the other door he would have seen immediately that the compound was empty and known what was wrong. By chance a German soldier, not connected with the camp, saw him, took his rifle, knelt on one knee, took aim, fired and killed him. At the Court of Enquiry held by the Germans they excused the soldier by saying that the Airman should not have been outside his hut and that the soldier's family had all been killed in the bombing of Cologne. Such is war.

During my stay in Bankau the Theatrical group put on two shows. The first was a kind of pantomime and called "Pantomania". The opening scene brought the house down. It represented the beginning of "Macbeth" with three witches gathered round a cauldron over a fire and singing about toil and trouble. That is, until they opened out and it could be seen that the cauldron was actually a "Blower". [A crude machine made out of klim tins, string and a base board. The klim tins were fashioned into various parts. Cylinders, fans, cranks and fire grates to hold the fire, which was made by burning any wood or cardboard available. The string was plaited to make the cable to drive the fans by turning a handle. The fans blew air up through a form of chimney on the top of which was placed a tin full of water to be boiled.] There were many variants between the American and British models. The American having a double-form of drive and the British a direct one. There was a more simple affair called a smokey which had no forced draught. Water, about a pint, in a tin took about five minutes to boil.

The other show was a straight play, "Journey's End" by R.C. Sherriff I was fortunate to go to the first performance. Somewhere in the middle of the play the word "Hun" is used. At this performance, on the actor saying the word, the German Commandant, who was sitting on the front row, jumped up and stopped the play, saying that the word "Hun" could not be used with regard to Germans. On profuse apologies being made and their word given that the word would not be used again, the play was allowed to finish. In our situation it was an emotional experience. However the following night and the second performance, the actor was so engrossed in his act that he forgot to say German instead of "Hun": This time, on the play being stopped, there was no reprieve. The audience saw only half a play.

I have a note in my diary that on the 15/16th, Mon/Tues of January some of the men were making bags and cases to carry their belongings in, ready for any sudden move. I thought there was some sense in this, so I altered my kit bag so that I could carry it slung over my shoulder with the draw cord fastened to my belt and so leave my arms free. I also thought about what things I could carry over a long distance as it was clear to me that we should not have transport. Some of the RAF types must have thought we should be on a Sunday School outing as they were filling attach茅 cases with belongings they had collected over months and years.

On Wednesday, on returning from a choir practice and having a coffee in the billet; word came round that we had to be ready to move in an hour. It was bedlam: any food uneaten was scoffed immediately. Egg powder, syrup and porridge were mixed together and also eaten; we also tried to make a stew. After the panic, things did settle down a little but rumours flew round the camp like fire. One of them was that the Russians were only about ten miles from the camp. We could hear gunfire in the distance but to me it was much further than ten miles. Nothing happened and at night we had a fine intercession service. I had the Padre and Vic Cooper sign my New Testament along with their addresses. Thursday morning and we expected to go then but were told that it was off and we might be here another another day or two. Settled down and then were called out on parade about 17-30hrs ready to go. NO! Returned to billets after messing about for half an hour. Next a Russian air raid with bombs dropping close by. We now thought we should be here all night but were called out again at 21-00hrs. NO back into billets and told that 03-00hrs. Friday was the time for the off. That time passed but at last we left Bankau at 04-00hrs. That was the last I saw of my main POW camp'. I was not sorry to go but very much wondered what was in store for us.

THAT IS THE END OF MY FIRST PERIOD AS A PRISONER OF WAR LEAVING BANKAU ON FRIDAY THE 19TH. JANUARY 1945

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