大象传媒

This is Michael Charnaud鈥檚 story: it has been added by Pauline Colcutt (on behalf of the Fernhurst Centre), with permission from the author who understands the terms and conditions of adding his story to the website.

An unusual and true story of a young boy who with his mother became a prisoner of both the Germans and the Japanese May 1942 - August 1945

CHAPTER 1 - A FATEFUL JOURNEY (PART THREE)

Gradually the Raider sailed towards us, and there were grappling nets and rope ladders to climb aboard. As we drew closer I looked intently at the low ship lying ahead, lit up and glowing bright amber in the late afternoon sunshine on the deep ultramarine blue sea. All along the decks were the young crew, mostly in their early twenties, dressed smartly in white shorts leaning over the rails, looking down over us. Nearly all were wearing a vest emblazoned in dark blue with the German eagle above a swastika in a circle, and the officers wore small white cotton forage caps with a swastika emblem at the end, and below that a circular red, white and blue naval insignia. About half the men wore neatly trimmed beards mostly reddish in colour. Above flying in the gentle breeze, was the white German naval ensign, a red cross with a black swastika in the middle of of a circle. From another mast also flew the standard gold and black striped German flag. Forehead were two 15cm guns which were normally concealed in a deck house. The seaplane was now on deck, and the fore mast had a lookout in the crows nest, but above him, there was yet another lookout with large binoculars who was perched and strapped into a swivel seat perched atop the upper mast . I have never ever seen another ship with a similar seated lookout arrangement. From under the bridge housing on rails were two heavy duty quick firing anti aircraft guns with very long thin barrels probably about 7cm in diam, pointing at us , but which were later slid and concealed below the bridge structure when out of action. Astern the two sets of 15cm guns were clearly visible, and when under way, they would be covered with wooden cladding with the words 鈥淒urban鈥漵tencilled at an angle across their sides to maintain the merchant ship disguise. There was a further small aft anti-submarine gun on the poop.

Slowly as we drew nearer, many from the other boats were already scrambling up the rope ladders and a large net from a yard arm. At last we came alongside and stupidly whilst in a trough, I jumped on the nearest ladder and the all of a sudden the swell rose back, and I very nearly had my leg crushed by the lifeboat against the side of the ship, but luckily a man below put his hand up my bottom and shoved me quickly up to scramble up into safety as the boat rose. A large wicker basket was also lowered and women and small babies were hoisted aboard. I climbed up my rope ladder and as I approached the top two German sailors hauled me onto the firm deck, such a contrast to the tossing movement of a lifeboat even though the sea was calm. I was very anxious and worried as to what was going to happen next, but felt that whatever it was, it could not possibly be worse than being adrift in an open lifeboat in an immense ocean thousands of miles from land. So at that moment as I stepped aboard on the Raiders deck at about 5pm on Sunday 10th May 1942, I with my Mother, were now for the first time 鈥� Prisoners of War鈥� a situation that was going to continue with a whole variety of extraordinary experiences in all sorts of locations thousands of miles apart, until the war finally ended on August 15th 1945. From now on, we had lost our freedom, our life and conditions would be determined for us, and we would be forever under some sort of foreign regime, under military orders for better or worse until our release at the end of the War in August 1945.
CHAPTER 2 - PRISONERS OF THE GERMAN NAVY- THE THOR and REGENSBURG (PART ONE)

Once on board the 鈥淭hor鈥� there was absolute mayhem on deck with everyone jostling and trying to meet up with their loved ones as they arrived either in baskets, up rope ladders or up clambering nets. Mother had lost me and was in a tremendous panic shouting
鈥� I have lost my child; where is he?鈥�
She was quietly reassured by the ship鈥檚 doctor a tall man smartly dressed in long white trousers and shirt wearing a small forage cap with a trim red beard, who calmed her down, speaking in perfect English in a very soft voice:
鈥� Don鈥檛 worry he is on board, come I will help you find him, he is quite alright,鈥�
He led her up the companion way to the next deck, where we were re-united. Here we all were searched and had to hand in penknives and other forms of knives. Men had to hand in wallets for which a receipt was given, and all had to give their names, addresses and nationality, and servicemen their rank and number. The interview was quick, brisk and most efficient, and all the time that it was going on, various members of the crew were taking snapshots from various angles, as obviously women and children were quite a novelty on board a fighting naval vessel in time of War. Many of the Germans who spoke English kept on remarking about this.

鈥淏ut it is wartime, how is it that you British are all so foolhardy as to be travelling with women and children on the High Seas at such a time with all the dangers ?鈥�
A good question!

After all this procedure, we were taken down flights of stairs to our quarters which were in compartments below the water line. There were three separate large confinement rooms, one for the crews and coloureds including the Lascars, a second room for the ships officers, and other service officers, and also other first class men passengers, and a third smaller one for the women and children. Our room was incredibly hot as steam pipes passed through it, but there was a ventilation system and provided that was working which it was once we were under way, conditions were bearable. At one end were latrines, which worked very erratically and inefficiently with a constant over flooding and there was a perpetual nauseous smell emanating from them. Obviously the pump system could not cope, as we were below the water line. To sleep, each person was issued with a hammock, pillow and a towel bearing the inscription in large letters 鈥淜RIEGSMARINE鈥� and saltwater soap. Bowls, knives and forks were also issued personally for meals.

Not long after we had accustomed ourselves to our new surroundings, we were under way again with the relief of some fresh air slowly starting to cool the sweltering room. We were brought our first meal in a large urn by an energetic happy fat young lad who could not speak a word of English. The meal consisted of a thick heavy soup made up of beans, lentils, and a plentiful supply of pieces of chopped frankfurter style sausage mixed in. Also provided was ample black rye bread. This I had never eaten before, and to start with I did not care for its bitter pungent taste, but soon got accustomed to it, and then found that it was most palatable, especially when eaten with the nourishing soup. Later also we discovered that by kneeding it well with a little water and then drying it on the steam pipes, one could make good hard dice, for playing and passing the time away. This was in fact one of the first of the many adaptations that we had to learn to make life bearable in the coming years. I rigged my hammock next to Mother and we turned in for our first night to sleep tired and exhausted after such an eventful day, with the lights out at 8.30 pm. The raider was now travelling fast from the scene of action, with its diesel engines throbbing at full speed of about 18 knots, half as fast again as the 鈥淣ankin鈥� as we rocked gently in our hammocks. There was now a strong blast of cool ventilation air blowing making our quarters less stuffy and smelly, and as I lay alongside Mother in the dark, rocked by the gentle throbbing motion of the ship, in completely strange surroundings, I could quietly reflect on just what an eventful and exciting day it had been from that first moment at 7 o鈥檆lock when someone had seen an aeroplane, and how very close we had all been to death and disaster. I personally had survived the cannon fire as it swept through the music room. Then we were all lucky that the shell that hit us was forward on the bow, and not astern igniting all the ammunition we were carrying in a catastrophic explosion, and finally that we had taken to the boats in calm seas and had been rescued by the ship that had attacked us. We were now under enemy control, and we would dearly love to be saved, but we all knew that were we to be involved in a naval action with a British warship, it would be the end, locked up as we were below the waterline, in the most vulnerable part of the ship which if we were to be struck by a torpedo would mean an instantaneous death. I felt it strange that apart from the loneliness and fear of taking to the lifeboats, I had not felt any sense of panic or trauma during the action, but was rather curious in fact with all the excitement as to what would come next, and so with the steady vibrating hum of the diesel engines, I was soon rocked fast asleep.

Next morning at 6 am the loudspeaker system throughout our quarters reverberated to records of German military marches, and then the guard posted outside our quarters with his tommy gun started shouting 鈥淩iesen... riesen鈥� repeatedly for us to get up and roll up our hammocks.. For breakfast we were given again black rye bread and jam, but porridge too was available. The beverage was a bitter ersatz coffee and the whole meal was overlooked by the prison officer, a jovial fellow who spoke good English, and joked that we need not worry about any tax inspectors aboard their vessel and the trip also we would be glad to hear was free of charge! Later that morning we were allowed onto the rear part of the upper deck. It was a wonderful feeling and a real joy to step out once again into the bright sunshine, after the dismal dark hold below, and see the ship speeding fast through the deep blue sea with the large white bow waves breaking away from the forehead as we travelled briskly on a south westerly course. The men were only allowed on deck for one hour, whereas us women and children were allowed more than twice as long. The area that we were confined to was marked off by a rope strung across the deck, and was guarded by men with large very long barrelled pistols in holsters on their thighs. One young guard, a particularly stern Nazi type was posted on the companion way ladder leading to the boat deck above. He never blinked an eye and had his tommy gun permanently trained on us in the manner of an automaton. In contrast another pleasant young officer showed us a dog with two puppies that we children were encouraged to play with. On the deck below we could look down onto a sheep and a goat and a few chickens lying on hay that had been captured from the Norwegian ship 鈥淎ust鈥�. The prison officer called for four volunteers from the men with a promise of smokes to do a small job. Fodder was required and this was carried in an after hold. Imagine their surprise when they removed the hatchboards to discover that the 鈥渉old鈥� was only 3 ft deep and was no deeper than the main deck . It was all part of the raiders disguise to pass herself off as a normal merchant ship. Nearby on the Port side stood a huge wooden cargo container with the word 鈥淒URBAN鈥� painted diagonally in large letters across it, which looked inoffensive but behind it nestled a 5.9inch gun. The same set up applied on the Starboard side. The steel deck around the guns was studded to create a non- slip surface. There was also a small side door cleverly concealed to allow the gun crew to sneak in quickly in case of her being challenged by a British warship as to her identity.. On the small space of deck were rails from which a searchlight could be run out from amidships. There was also a large ventilator which looked as if it had been cut in two vertically and was hinged, and it probably concealed an anti aircraft gun. The funnel too had a telescopic device for altering its height, possibly part of a scheme for varying the ship鈥檚 silhouette. Just aft of the bridge was a very large rangefinder, and as mentioned before, we could see above the man strapped on the top of the mast who was constantly rotating in his seat and viewing the horizon with his large binoculars. He claimed to be able to see smoke from a distance of 35 miles on the horizon. Amidships on either side were twin torpedo tubes, and astern there were facilities for minelaying. .

Below decks there was a first class hospital with a surgeon aboard who attended to the shrapnel wounds of Messrs Stewart and Walker. I was thankful that I had no need of his services, and had taken quick evasive action when the firing started. The following day the surgeon was in demand again, but this time to deliver a baby called Joseph Mok to a Chinese passenger! In this he was assisted by our Australian stewardess Mrs Gleason. A young 18 year old cadet from the 鈥淣ankin鈥�, an Australian called Crocker was also treated for a heart attack that he had suffered during the engagement. We were also informed that they had on board an excellent well equipped workshop to undertake routine repairs at sea.

Twice Captain Stratford was invited to the Wardroom to have drinks with the officers who were always courteous and showed no hatred whatsoever to the British, but they commented that they thought Churchill was a bad man working hand in glove with the Jews. They advised Stratford not to drink the tea, as it would probably make him ill, but it was the best they could get in Germany because of the British Blockade. They were all looking forward to getting the proper stuff, and other food supplies from the 鈥淣ankin鈥� when we met up again. He was questioned about some details of his ship, and these were entered on a form, but that was as far as any interrogation went.

On the 14th May we met up with the 鈥淩egensberg鈥� a large four masted Nord Deutsche Lloyd freighter of 11,000 tons which was being used as a prison and supply ship. We lay about 1/4 mile apart and women and children such as myself were lowered in the large wicker basket into a launch to be transported to our new home. All the other prisoners were ferried across during the course of the morning in a steady orderly fashion in large inflatable dinghies that were towed by the launch. The crew of the raider gave us an enthusiastic send off with a lot of cheering and jollity. I suppose they were quite glad to see the back of us for being a bother and distraction from their work of preparing for attacks on allied shipping, which would be difficult with all the women and children aboard. Whilst all this was taking place the 鈥淣ankin鈥� too was also lying about the same distance away, with steam raised and listing to starboard with a large patch on the port bow over the hole which had been damaged by the shell exploding..

Cont/鈥︹�� see A Child鈥檚 War Part Four

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