大象传媒

Taken from my father in laws Wartime Log. His personal experiences, written some time after the event, of being shot down and taken prisioner in Northern France.

I hit the deck about 陆 a mile away from where my A/C landed. The field where I landed was more like a cliff face so I did not make a very good landing as I fell back and hurt my back, however I was able top walk so I got up and hid everything and started to find my way out of the field but I seemed to be encircled with sheep wire about 8鈥� high and I could not get over it as I wasn鈥檛 feeling too good, after about half an hour I found a gate which led into another field but by this time my back was swollen up and I found I couldn鈥檛 walk very much also I discovered I was in a field almost surrounded by a road (a bend in the road and a river) and a German horse drawn convoy was or seemed to be passing all night, as I could not walk any more I sort of crawled back to where my chute was and rolled myself in it for the night.

I didn鈥檛 sleep any that night needless to say. Next morning at dawn 5 a.m. our own bombers and their escort came in big waves all going towards the beach head and I certainly did fell very depressed when I thought that in a few hours they would be back in Blighty. At around 8 a.m. an old Frenchman came into the field so I called to him and tried to make him understand I would like a drink of water. (I couldn鈥檛 walk now), Well he didn鈥檛 seem to friendly and went away in a few minutes and so far as I can gather he sent for the Gerries because they turned up in about an hours time and it was impossible for them to see me as I was pretty well hidden in the field yet they came right up to the spot where I was. I Felt pretty mad then as I knew that in a few days time I would be able to walk again. However the war was over for me for the time being at least and I couldn鈥檛 do anything as they were very well armed.

The first lot of 鈥� Gerries鈥� that arrived could not speak English but when they saw I couldn鈥檛 walk they sent for stretcher. In a very few minutes the news seemed to spread around and a big crowd of French people gathered only to be dispersed a few minutes later when a German officer turned up. He could speak very good English and asked me my name but I refused to tell him. However he proceeded to tell me that I was from the crashed A/C a very short distance away also to my surprise he told me the names of all the crew and the type of 鈥渒ite鈥�. Of course I thought he had picked up the other members or found some of them in the A/C but no, he said I was the first and that there were no bodies in the A/C also that he had found a 鈥渄ocument鈥� which had all the names of the crew on it. Just then he was looking over my 鈥淢ae West鈥� and discovered my name of course he was sure then that I was out of the A/C a few fields away.

I must say these men treated me pretty well as they carried me for miles on a stretcher, after a lot of rushing around I was put in a car and brought out to see my A/C, this although was not for my benefit because it seemed to be part of their job to check up on all the parts of the wreck that wasn鈥檛 burned. Well there wasn鈥檛 very much left to check up on and how they ever got a piece of paper out of it will always remain a mystery to me also they reckoned they had my cap with my name on it also another cap, about this I don鈥檛 know.

From here we went as far as Rouen and there a doctor had a look at me and said there was very little wrong with me although I couldn鈥檛 walk yet, from that time on they would not help me and I had to walk as best I could and it was very painful, however I was put in prison there and about 7 p.m. I had my first meal or at least something to eat is all can be said for it. In this prison they took all my particulars, which were nothing but my name, rank and number.

I was on my own from now on but after a few hours they brought in a few Yanks, they were a really good lot and they helped me all they could for the next few days. We stayed here for a few days (about three) and were then piled on a truck with two others, there were four of us and when we got on the truck there were six coffins on it also, well we thought the worst was about to come, but no, they drove around for about an hour and picked up a lot of other prisoners and took us to a prison outside Paris where we stayed for about four days. The food was pretty grim, this was the first time I had ever eaten raw potatoes and enjoyed them.

During my stay here I met a F/O Cullen who was very unfortunate to be there at all, he took over from the Yanks and helped me around from then until we parted. I was beginning to walk a bit then but still felt pretty weak.

Well one fine morning we were all kicked out about 5 a.m. and crowded on a bus on our way to Brussels, this journey took about sixteen hours and was very uneventful apart from the fact that our guard threatened to shoot us every few moments. When at last we arrived there we were thrown into separate cells where we remained for a week. If I live to be a hundred I never want to experience anything like that again, the food was terrible and very little of it and being all on your own didn鈥檛 help a lot. After a few days here I could walk petty good so I decided to make a 鈥渂reak鈥� for it if ever I got a chance, I could get out of my cell O.K. but could not get past the guard, so I had to give up the idea as I didn鈥檛 want a bullet in the back. I had my first interrogation her after about four days. Needless to say my interrogator and myself did not get along to well so I was led to believe I would be there for a long time, however after exactly a week I was informed that I was on my way to Germany. The very morning I was to leave a guard came round with some books, well I had spent all that time in solitary without anything to read and I knew I was on my way in a few hours, so I told him what he could do with his books. In a very short time I was lined up in a passage with a lot of other P.O.W.s mostly yanks, however they brought out a lot of chaps in civilian clothing who we were very suspicious of as they all had English names and seemed to know all about Blighty also there was a Polish F/O in uniform who needed watching. We were all piled on a train en route for the infamous Dulap Luft when we eventually got on the train I found myself with four of the civvies and the Pole. (F/O Cullen and my Yank friends had gone a few days ago) During the course of our conversation one of them seemed to be 鈥渟ounding鈥� me for information (my suspicious mind) he made a few 鈥渂oobes鈥� so far as things I really knew too well was concerned so I decided to give him 鈥渢he works鈥� at the first opportunity, (I thought I had my time anyhow). However these chaps turned out O.K. and some of them are now my room mates, they had been shot down earlier and had tried to escape, they did manage to get civilian clothes but were later picked up by the Gestapo and had a pretty rough time.

In the course of our journey we saw the result of the Air Forces train busting effort and boy was it good to see, it is something you have to see to believe, at some places there was as many as two hundred railway engines wrecked and only one line through the stations. We reached Aachen in about six hours, here we saw the result of the R.A.F. heavies and what a sight, you could 鈥渟tand on a chair and look all over the city鈥� I got the impression that there wasn鈥檛 one building standing there. From there we got as far as Dusseldorf here to there was nothing but rain and we had to spend the night in an Air Raid Shelter but the raid was not very heavy, thank heavens, I should hate to be on the receiving end of one of those raids. We got on our way early next morning and reached Cologne in the evening, well this place has received a lot of attention from the R.A.F. but I didn鈥檛 imagine any big city could be badly hammered around. The station was very badly damaged and the now famous Cologne Cathedral which stands right up against the main station (50 yds.) certainly has not been hit although it seems to have suffered a bit from blast and fire from neighbouring buildings. Once again we spent the night in an air raid shelter but there didn鈥檛 seem to be very much air activity and an attack did not develop. We got under way next morning and reached Frankfurt about midday here again was nothing but devastation and I must say the people here were very hostile this was the only time I was thankful for a guard, they certainly treated the civilian population very rough, but we didn鈥檛 mind that. One of the civvies actually did hit a Yank with an umbrella. In a few hours we reached the famous R.A.F. interrogation centre Wetzlan or as it is more commonly known Dulap Luft. Here again we were searched, photographed, fingerprinted and pushed around in general and of course once again put into solitary. Before this I thought the food was bad but this was the last straw, two slices of the most horrible bread and a small bowl of watery porridge, at least it looked like porridge but I鈥檓 afraid it would be very hard to say what it was, also a cup of tea without milk or sugar, I should imagine they added about half a spoonful of tea top a gallon of water as the water was just about coloured. All this time (15 days) I didn鈥檛 have a wash or shave and boy did I look grim and felt it, however I didn鈥檛 worry too much about that as I had gone past caring about anything.

Next day I went for my interrogation which was not very successful but after being interrogated three times that day and my interrogator telling a lot of things which he wanted me to tell him I was allowed out and managed to get myself a shave.

After all this confinement it was a gift from heaven to get out into the open and amongst the boys again there was about fifty of us in this compound and as you did not know who or what they were conversation was very guarded for a while. However things went O.K. and next day we left for a transit camp.

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