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MR. ERIC T. REEVES

I enlisted in the 5th Queens Royal Regiment at Reigate, Surrey in April 1937 at the age of 16. On lst September 1939 we were mobilised and trained for war until November 1939. Classified as "immature" being only aged 18 at the timer
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I then joined the 2/5 Battalion Queens Royal Regiment on vulnerable point guarding until at the end of April 1940 the Battalion to join the B.E.F. (British Expeditionary Force) in France.

18th May 1940 the Battalion force marched to a small village called Ballencourt, near Abbeville, about 7 to 8 hours march (approximately 20 miles or so).

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19th May 1940 told to prepare to meet the enemy.

20th May 1940 bombed by the German airforce. Took casualties.
At about 16.00 hrs we made our first contact with the enemy and exchanged fire. They had Mark 4 and Mark 3 tanks. We had rifles and light machine guns.
We were forced to withdraw but were eventually surrounded.
In trying to breakout we were taken prisoner by a S.S. Tank Unit.

My first reaction was fear that we were now defenceless under the guns of German tanks. Then helplessness at having been forced to submit and a sense of foreboding at what might lay ahead.

The senior N.C.O. in charge of our group - we were no longer a proper unit - was a Colour Sergeant Moxon, he was from a different company to mine. I was "D" company. He asked the German Officer if he could get some attention for the wounded men amongst us. This the German Officer did and he also saw that we were fed.
The German front line troops, with whom we had exchanged fire, treated us better than I would have expected.
We were made captive during the early hours of the morning on 21st May 1940.
My unease was heightened as we were marched through the outskirts of Abbeville, at the sight of a French horse-drawn supply column which presumably must have been attacked on the road by German tanks and shot to pieces.
The horses, and there were many, were dead and very badly mutilated. The drivers were laid in neat rows on the roadside. By their copper coloured skin, they must have been French Colonial troops.

We were marched for 21 days until 11th June 1940, sleeping always in fields with virtually no rations. We lived on marigolds or raw potatoes, dandelion leaves, clover tops and stinging nettles.
Water was almost unobtainable. When we passed a farm or hamlet, the French women would put out pails of water, which our guards would kick over if they were in time, before we had a drink.
It should be remembered that we were front line infantry, so when we prepared for action, we were in Battle Orders. This meant no greatcoats or blankets, only what was deemed necessary to do battle. Consequently, we "froze" at night and "baked" in the day time.

We eventually arrived on 11th June at Trier in Germany, hungry, unwashed and on the point of exhaustion. Some, perhaps, 2,000 British army and many more French, were then segregated.
On 12th June were "packed" into what we now refer to as "cattle trucks", some 60/70 men to a truck. We were forced to sit with our knees drawn up in order to accommodate that many men. We had no sanitation and some men were in a very bad way with dysentery (this is not very nice, but you did ask). After 3 days and 2 nights the doors were finally unlocked and we were in Poland at a place called Schubin.
During the journey I was furthest from the door, it was impossible to reach the two pails of water that were put in on infrequent occasions, or the 4/5 loaves of bread that were thrown in. Anyway, with our "Jacknives" confiscated, we could not have cut it anyway.
As, I am sure, you can imagine the "fit" men who went to France were now in a very bad way. To my shame now, I for one was completely demoralised. We were staggering about because our legs would not work properly.
I will always remember the "Voice of Authority" amongst us, I do not know who, but I'll bet he was regular army and probably a Warrant Officer shouting "YOU ARE STILL SOLDIERS OF THE BRITISH ARMY !!" Fall in in threes, ready to march off, show them that we can't be beaten. Heads high, we marched into that first prison camp - Stalag XX1 B. Schubin.

From July 1940 until June 1942 I was a prisoner in Stalag XX1D at Warthelagen which I estimate is a slow train ride of about three quarters of an hour from Posen (now Poznan).

Our camp was situated in a very large Tank training area (think of Bovington in Dorset), which was about a mile and a half from the river Warthe.
We laboured in gravel pits, broke up brick rubble for road building within the training area and "filled in" shell holes on the artillery ranges. It was at this camp that we saw the first "Tiger" tanks and 6 barrel Mortars being tested. We saw the build up of what we now know was for the attack on Russia.
We were made to collect the "heads" of sunflowers grown on acres of land.
Around the end of 1940 or early 1941, I cannot exactly remember, we received our first Red Cross parcels. One between five men.
We were continuously hungry up until then, but things began to improve over the weeks and months that followed. Just prior to leaving Warthelagen we were getting at least one parcel between two men, but not every week.
At the end of 1941 we were formed into two companies of 200 men per company and designated B.A.B XX1 (Bau und Arbeits Battalion 21 - Building and Labour Battalion).
In June 1942 we were transported to Blechhammer, Hydebreck in Upper Silesia. We were now at an oil refinery, which I believe was on the point of being completed. At this camp we were forced to unload anything that came daily by rail etc. Blechhammer employed about 50,000 slave workers. Forced labour from all over Europe:
Concentration Camp Jews - Gypsies, political prisoners - Convicted felons
German Army soldiers under punishment

During 1944 we were bombed from June and every month thereafter by the American Army Airforce. Tragically, we lost some of our mates. We were not allowed to go into the air raid shelters, which among other things we had been forced to build. The other nationalities there were also hard hit.
The Jewish Concentration Camp was about a kilometre away from our camp and I believe it now has a memorial there.
In January 1945 our camps, there were other British P.O.Ws in two other camps at Blechhamer, we numbered approximately 2,000 in all, were evacuated before the Russian Armv could liberate them and we began the long march which ended in March 1945 at Moosburg in Austria (I do not know the exact date). Myself with a couple of others had "Fallen Out", we finished up in Czechoslovakian Protectorate and we were liberated by Russians on 9th May 1945.
We made our way across to the Americans and in the early hours of 10th or 11th May we were FREE.

Post script : I recently visited the Queen鈥檚 Surrey Regimental Museum where I saw displayed the Medals of the late C/Sgt Moxon. We were separated during the Abbevill to Trien march in 1980 and I never met him again. I was pleased to see that amongst his Campaign Medals an MBE

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