´óÏó´«Ã½

Following the capture of my comrades and myself at a place in Germany called WELDFEUGHT, we were placed in the lower parts of a building awaiting the cessation of shelling by British 25-pounder guns. The shelling was concentrated and accurate and it was decided to move all the prisoners to a village in the rear of the German lines. As we prepared to rush up the stairs and into the open air, a shell blasted the house and one of my own men was mortally wounded.

We were now required to race across open fields to reach the cover of a wood some distance away. I had always been a fairly good runner, but on this occasion I excelled myself. But when a shell exploded forward of me I swung to the right, only to find shells falling in that direction and then later also to the left.

The only thing was to run as fast as possible — prisoners and guards. Eventually the shelling eased off. Whether the artillery observers recognised the fleeing mob as British infantrymen or whether we had reached the range of their guns, we never learned. Collected together again in the wood, we were then marched to a nameless village, where all the prisoners were questioned. No food was supplied, but we were allowed to sleep in a house on straw.

The following day, Monday 23rd January 1945, we received some soup and were again allowed to sleep. On the Tuesday, we were forced to march a very long way - some people reckoned 20 miles — to a place called Wassengal. On the way we saw RAF planes carrying out bombing raids and reached a church hall about 6pm. Here we received some good soup and bread and settled down to sleep on the floor.

On Wednesday 24 January, with the agreement of the guards, we somehow or other hitchhiked to near Düsseldorf and then crossed a bridge over the River Rhine. In the town we were billeted down in the cellars as there were many air raids taking place, causing serious damage to the town. We did not get much food but the guards here were more lenient than the earlier ones — we obviously shared a common danger from the frequent air raids.

In the early evening of Friday 26th January 1945, we were escorted by a heavy guard to the main railway station, from where we would start our journey to a Prisoner-of-War Camp.

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