大象传媒

Thousands of men, who had been trained to kill other men; to blow up bridges; to parachute from aeroplanes and jump out of gliders; suddenly found themselves in a strange type of society - a society without women and without money. We had no training which would prepare us for this kind of living.

But, some kind of organisation was needed, if thousands of men were to live in overcrowded conditions, and overcome the hardships of cold and poor food and general lack of amenities. I appreciated that the maintenance of morale was essential, if my men and I were to survive our period in captivity, and be fit to celebrate our eventual release and return to freedom.

I admit that there was not much incentive to jump out of your bunk in the morning to face another monotonous day. In Stalag XI B, the daily routine was as follows - rise and wash at 0700 hours; drag oneself up to the cook house for a mug of Ersatz coffee; parade for Roll Call at 0730 hours; clean bed area; exercise period 0800 hours to 0930 hours - when thousands of POWs performed the "Stalag Shuffle". Going round and round in a circle, with only the sight of the head and shoulders of the man in front of you as the view. Sometimes, I felt the urge to walk the other way and face the circle of men for a change. But I do not think that I ever did.

At 1100 hours there was an issue of Turnip Soup, sometimes with the addition of potato peelings. Another Roll Call at 1300 hours. More Ersatz coffee at 1330 hours. A more substantial meal was prepared from the contents of Red Cross parcels by
ourselves at about 1500 hours, and then the final Roll Call of the day at 1600 hours.

The Germans were obsessed by numbers, and the need to count and recount their captives. Sometimes, it was amusing to witness the difficulties they had in reconciling the numbers at each count, but of course the humour was tempered by the long wait on the cold parade ground. At around 1700 hours, we would make some form of tea meal, and if supplies allowed a light supper about 1930 hours.

Cleanliness was essential to the maintenance of morale. It was not easy with limited washing facilities, but I very much admired one Corporal, who, no matter the circumstances, turned out very smart every day. "Out of a bandbox", I commented.

But man does not live by bread alone. It was essential to keep one's brain active. This was done by talks, spelling quizzes and other stimulants to combat the lethargy to which one could easily succumb. My contribution to help overcome boredom was to give talks on the Red Army-"From Trotsky to Timoshenko". These talks were well received, even when the lighting in the huts failed.

When I later arrived at Stalag 357, this was a well organised camp from the P.O.W. viewpoint. There must have been quite a few long term prisoners, for various activities had been solidly established by then, before my comrades and I arrived.

I recall attending a meeting of the Toc H organisation in the camp, but the place which gave me the most delight was the Library. At first I could not believe my eyes, when I first saw shelf after shelf of books arranged in their respective categories. I used its facilities right away! I still have in front of me a piece of paper which shows that on Wednesday, 7th.March, 1945, I withdrew from the library a book called "The Meaning of Rousseau" by an author called Wright. The method of using the Library was as follows - one removed a book from the shelves, and put the form on the shelf in place of the book. When you replaced the book, the form was destroyed. I must have held on to this particular one, which is numbered 320.

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