大象传媒

12b - [continued]

I was in Germany actually on VE night, I think I mentioned 鈥�

Neville Usher: What was the atmosphere like there?

Dr. Michael Coigley: Well you see in September 鈥�44, I had a motorbike, there鈥檚 a story with that because we had Canadian military police billeted on the golf club near to our digs down in Surrey where we were evacuated to, and one of the officers approached us one day, my pal and I, and he said well I went into Guildford last weekend, he caught an unmentionable disease, and he wanted some help with this. So we directed him in the right direction, up to the hospital in the day that the VD specialist came down from London etc. you see, and some time later he said to me, what do you run that thing on you see, this is my little motorbike. I said well I get my petrol ration and a bit I can 鈥� well he said where do you park it? I said well digs, well he said it鈥檚 not much of a walk is it? I said no. Well he said I think it鈥檚 safer to park it just behind this Nissan hut here he said. It was full of best Canadian army petrol every time I went to look at it after that, for the rest of the war down there, I had a full tank of petrol whenever I wanted it.

But in September I was playing a rugger match, I drove up to London and left my bike securely at St. Thomas鈥檚 and something made me go down to the medical unit notice board, and it was very quiet, it was Saturday, and a notice had been put up asking for volunteers to go with the Red Cross to the Low Countries on famine relief. When we got there, because we hadn鈥檛 quite got there and this must have been 鈥�, I think it was September but before the battle of Arnhem which was the 17th when it all started, and so I thought oh well it will be a jaunt, so I shoved my name down, I was the top, the first name down on this list funnily enough.

Nothing happened, nothing happened, of course when we got there it was discovered that the Dutch and the Belgians had duped the Germans actually so well that they weren鈥檛 in the awful state of starvation which we thought they would be, so we forgot about it.

And then on 鈥�, about 鈥�, because Belsen was relieved on the 15th of April 鈥�45, and because the local German general noted it and he gave safe passage for our troops to go through the front line and have a look and see if they could help, and so they sent out all these chaps who had signed up to go to the Low Countries, and suddenly phoned up and 鈥渃an you be at British Red Cross Headquarters in Grosvenor Crescent by 2 o鈥檆lock this afternoon鈥�? And I got this message, and I got on my motorbike with a pal I was playing golf with who was also one of the batch, dropped him at Guildford to collect a few things where he lived, and he managed to get up and I drove on round, and we found ourselves kitted out; we didn鈥檛 know what we were going to do at all. And I think it was Lady Limerick, I can鈥檛 鈥�, I always thought it was Lady Reading, but they tell me at Red Cross now that it was Lady Limerick who was there, and told us we were going to Belsen, and we thought 鈥�, oh, we didn鈥檛 know much about it except by that time we had heard of concentration camps, and so we were shoved on a train, got on at Kemble Station in the Cotswolds here, and went to Rover Camp for the night, and I was trying to find out 鈥�, the War Office and I was on to them during this week, they can鈥檛 tell me where Rover Camp was, it was near Cirencester, and I want to go back and look at the actual site. And we were there for a night, and going to be flown from Northfleet or 鈥淏agwash鈥� 鈥� or one of the aerodromes, and believe it or not, that was on the 26th/27th of April, oh 25th I think of April, and believe it or not there was an enormous snow storm that night out there, one of the latest they have ever had, and the flying was stopped so we spent 3 nights on a concrete floor with greatcoats in the snow, but at that age what does it matter to you, you know.

And then we got off and we flew with a drunken Canadian crew, by that time been waiting for the 鈥�, to fly because of the snow, terrifying actually they really were quite tight, and anyhow we took off alright, and they had sobered up by the time we got over Germany, thank goodness, because we landed at Celle, Lutfwaffe aerodrome, Lutwaffe still in charge, and they had dug trenches across the landing strip to stop us landing, but they hadn鈥檛 had time to fill in, because 鈥�, they had filled some of them in, but the Dakota in front of us with about, what do they carry 18 I think students, went nose up into one of these things, they were all alive, and we just stopped in time, of course our chap saw what happened, and it was quite bizarre really because they knew the war was over, you know and everything was finished, and we were taken up to the camp in Luftwaffe trucks all arranged, and got there and most of them had gone of course, the SS had gone and everything, and there were 鈥�, had been (they had been clearing it up, our chaps very, very well), and there had been about 15,000 unburied bodies when we got there originally, and there were still, I don鈥檛 know, a lot, and our job was to take a hut or two each, and sort of sort it out, get the poor people out through 鈥� Good old Brits you know, I mean, improvisation, the engineers fitted up what we called the human laundry in no time, with spray jets and soap and everything, and all the ones who could walk at all, clothes off, shaved of course, lice where all over them, typhus was raging, and through the laundry clean clothes into what had been the SS barracks, which was used as a sort of hospital there.
And I have never wanted to go near the place again, but suddenly with all this business of Auschwitz this year you know, I said well I think I will retrace my steps,
and I have been in London in the week, been to Red Cross headquarters, and I want to go to Rover Camp, and then we鈥檙e flying into Hanover, 26th of April and I shall go to Celle and see if the aerodrome is still there, and then I shall go to Belsen the 28th, just, you know, to see what鈥檚 what.

So that鈥檚, you know apart from various other experiences. And I shall go to Arnhem 鈥�, I am going to Arnhem later in the year because my brother was killed at Arnhem, battle of Arnhem, and I go pretty regularly there, I have got a lot of Dutch friends, but I don鈥檛 think we will have time. I am going back in September, the anniversary of the battle, I am going just to visit the military cemetery there, so we should 鈥� that鈥檚 all.

And I have now been in Stratford in March, I started work in Stratford on the 15th of March 鈥�54, the Ides of March.

Neville Usher Ah, beware!

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