大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Matthew Smaldon on behalf of E B W (Ted) Johnson and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Johnson fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

'I joined the Army in September 1940. I had been at school in the Republic of Ireland and I travelled to Belfast to join the Royal Ulster Rifles. My training took place at Ballymena in County Antrim. We were a young soldiers squad, a reinforcing battalion which was meant for home service only. I was selected for officer training, and put into a potential officers squad, which meant even more training.

My Officer Cadet Training Unit was sent to Droitwich, then on to Morecombe. I was commissioned in June 1941. I was sent to the Ulster Rifles depot, then on to the Second Battalion, London Irish Rifles. We were in Arundel, in theory defending the beaches from German invasion. But the defences were really only a stretch of barbed wire, and 1 gun per platoon 鈥� the rest were dummy guns to give the impression we were heavily defended. In the winter of 1941 we were moved to Chichester when we were formed into the 38th Irish Brigade with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers and 6th Battalion Enniskillen Fusiliers. We were sent to Norfolk for further training as a Brigade.

There had been heavy casualties in North Africa, so we were sent to the Middle East. 40 of us were sent, from various regiments 鈥� two officers were selected from each regiment. I was a 2nd Lieutenant at this time. We travelled to Egypt, via the Cape. It was a 6 week cruise 鈥� there were some alerts, but no major problems. When you travelled by troop ship, you had to pay your mess bill at the end of the voyage. I paid by cheque which would be cashed when the ship, SS Oronsay, returned to England. The cheque was never cashed though, as she was torpedoed outside Freetown on the return trip. There were civilians on board then.

In September 1942, I was selected with other Irish soldiers to be sent to Malta to reinforce the Royal Irish Fusiliers who had been there for a long time. Transport was very difficult, so much so that we did not arrive in Malta until February 1943. We were in Cairo waiting for passage for a long time. After the siege was broken in October 1942 it became easier. We travelled by cargo ship from Port Said, then on to Malta. It was carrying bombs, petrol and sugar 鈥� all highly flammable. We were very short of rations, and were bombed every day 鈥� it was a war zone compared to the peace of our transit camp in Cairo!

We were deployed as Coastal Defence in Malta. Efforts were being made to relieve the troops who had been in Malta since the start of the war. We were there until June 1943, when we were relieved and returned to Egypt by troopship. We left late evening for Port Said, via Tripoli. We picked up alongside another troopship, which was torpedoed that night. I鈥檓 convinced that torpedo was meant for us. The torpedo passed in front of our ship, missing us. The ship that was hit was carrying troops who were going home on leave, and on convalescence. Our ship contained a full Brigade Group of fighting troops 鈥� we were an obvious target. The ship sank in 6 minutes. Many men were later picked up, but we couldn鈥檛 stop as the U-boat was still in the area. We got through without any further incident. The security in Malta was very poor. Everyone knew when ships were going 鈥� the dockers would inform the troops that they would be leaving.

I was given two weeks local leave in Cairo and Alexandria, and then we started training for an operation into the Dodecanese. Churchill wanted to go through the Greek Islands into mainland Greece. We were doing well in Italy by this stage, but Eisenhower refused to allow any ships to be spared, as he did not want to jeopardise the Italian campaign. So we had to make do with what was available.

We were taken by the Royal Navy to three Greek islands. The 1st Durham Light Infantry were to take Kos, the 2nd Regiment of the West Kents were to take Samos, and 234 Brigade (Ex-Malta) of the Royal Irish Fusiliers were sent to take Leros. I was in the latter group, C Company, Battalion HQ. We were on HMS Intrepid. The Italians had surrendered by now, but we didn鈥檛 know what sort of reception we would get. We were quite surprised by the complete lack of reaction 鈥� we had expected a scrap. The Greeks has disappeared, and the remaining Italians were co-operative. They were gunners, who were manning the coastal defences. Because of the shallow water, we had to get our 6 Bofors brought in strapped to submarines 鈥� it was the only way to get them into port. Ammunition was dropped at night by Dakotas 鈥� that was how we were supplied. I was on Leros from the 19th September until the 11th November. During that time we were constantly being bombed by the Luftwaffe 鈥� JU 87s and JU 88s. As we were so far north, and the Germans had air superiority. The Royal Navy stopped the German invading fleet once, sinking many ships. This was disastrous for the Royal Navy 鈥� many ships were lost unnecessarily. 4 submarines and 6 destroyers were sunk, and the cruiser HMS Carlisle was very badly damaged. The Germans attempted to invade the islands a second time, and this time they succeeded. We were fighting for 6 days, but we had no air support and were completely outnumbered. There were lots of casualties in this fighting, and from the aerial attacks.

My own company had been decimated, and I was meant to assist another company to make an attack on the Germans. We were penned in by the Germans, who were at the bottom of the hill. We had come of the top of the hill at 8am to take up this position, but it was a stony outcrop with little cover, so our position was not too hot. We were down to five men - three soldiers, another officer and myself. We realised there was no point carrying on. We had no ammunition and no grenades left, so we destroyed our weapons, and walked down the hill with our arms up. I have to say it was the most shameful moment of my life. The Germans were decent fighting soldiers 鈥� they were an elite unit of the regular army. The commanding officer said to us in English 鈥楬ard luck, good fight. Come and have a cup of coffee鈥�. They treated us correctly.
On the 16th November the Brigade Commander capitulated, and all the remaining British troops on the island surrendered.

We were taken to mainland Greece, battened down in the hold of a German destroyer. During the voyage we were concerned about the possibility of surface attack, but we arrived safely in Athens. The officers and men were separated in Athens, and I was sent with the other officers on a long train journey. We travelled through Salonika, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Austria (Vienna), on to Stalag VII-A at Moosberg. The trip was 14 days in a cattle truck. We were all cold, as we were still in our tropical uniforms, and it was winter in northern Europe. Food and drink consisted of loaves of bread chucked into the trucks, and ersatz coffee. In Moosberg we met prisoners from all over the world, but it was only a transit camp for us. We were soon taken on to Luckenwald Straflager. We arrived on Christmas Day 1943. I was put in solitary confinement for 14 days with no interrogation. I was eventually taken from my cell in the middle of the night. The interrogator knew more than I did about why we were there. They thought it was a ridiculous operation.

After the interrogation I was taken to Oflag VIII-F at Mahrisch-Trubau, in Czechoslovakia. The camp contained 2000 officers, mostly captured in North Africa. The majority were British, but there were some Greeks, French and Americans too. Food was scarce in the camp, but the heating wasn鈥檛 too bad that first winter. The Red Cross were tremendous 鈥� we were meant to receive a Red Cross parcel once a week, but this didn鈥檛 always occur due to the bombing.

Escape attempts were going on all the time. There were a few home runs from Oflag VIII-F. We managed to hear the 大象传媒 news every day. It was known as 鈥楾he Canary鈥�. Chaps would quietly discuss what they鈥檇 heard on 鈥楾he Canary鈥�. There would be readings in huts every evening. This was organised by the long-term prisoners. There would always be some men acting as the 鈥榚yes鈥� and 鈥榚ars鈥�, watching out for the Germans. Only a handful of people controlled the radio. No one else knew where it was hidden. I didn鈥檛 know. The Germans knew we were getting the news though.

When a new prisoner arrived, he was sometimes treated with suspicion. There was the concern that he may be a possible stool pigeon. They would be vetted by the other prisoners - asked questions relating to home and things like that. Some were caught. They were mostly Germans who had been educated in Britain. There were cases in other camps of these people being killed, but not in my camps (to my knowledge).

In June or July 1944, we were moved from Mahrisch-Trubau. The Russians were advancing, so we were put into cattle trucks for a 3 day journey to Oflag 79 at Brunswick. At the beginning of the journey we were handcuffed. The handcuffs were hopeless and archaic, so were easy to remove. At the end of the journey we handed them to our escort 鈥� he was not amused. The guards at Oflag 79 were mostly elderly and down graded. There were guards who only had one arm, and those who only had one eye. They were very old, and their clothes were poor quality. Well felt sorry for them, especially during the winter of 1944/45, which was very cold.

The camp was bombed by the Yanks, who managed to knock out the heating facilities and the windows of the huts. There was also a shortage of food, so it really wasn鈥檛 very comfortable. The Yanks used to bomb by day, and they hit us. The RAF bombed at night, and didn鈥檛. In April 1945 we could hear the fighting approaching. A stick of bombs fell on the camp, causing some casualties, mostly German. There were legitimate targets roundabouts the camp. We were liberated in April 1945 by the US 9th Army. One jeep with three soldiers drove up to the gates. The guards were packed and ready to go. There was a fantastic atmosphere when we were librated. I went out in search of food, and came back with a loaf of bread and a Luger pistol. I ate the whole loaf in one go. I had hell of a belly ache. Some of the other camps nearby were in a very bad state. As officers, we didn鈥檛 have to work. The troops did, and these chaps who were in a bad state were the priority for repatriation. We spent another week in the camp before it was our turn.

The prisoners didn鈥檛 take revenge on the German guards. The Commandant was told by OKW (the German High Command) to take out the officers. He refused. He was an honourable chap. The old guards were hopefully just sent home. There were one or two officers who were awkward and were probably questioned. One we called 鈥楾he Japanese鈥� 鈥� he was the security officer.

I didn鈥檛 attempt to escape. The escape committee in the camp vetted all plans. If you had a cast iron plan and a good reason, then you would be approved. Some escapes were only for intelligence, so it could be sent back to the War Office. Before the Italian armistice, things were a bit looser, and some people tried to escape with the approval of the escape committee.

I was flown to Brussels in a Dakota, decontaminated (in case of lice)and given a new set of clothes. We didn鈥檛 have such a bad problem with lice in the officer鈥檚 camp, as we had access to running water. From Brussels I was flown to near Aylesbury, then taken to Waddesdon Manor where I was debriefed. I was given leave, which was extended until I was told to come back. I ended up writing to the War Office saying that I needed some money 鈥� could I come back? I was sent on a European POW resettlement course in Dunbar. While I was on the course, the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. After this I was sent back to my old battalion, which was reforming, and was then sent to Palestine.

I was promoted in the field on Leros, to Captain. However, the submarine carrying the confirmation back to Beirut was sunk in the Aegean. I wasn鈥檛 aware of this until I was released, and discovered that I was only being paid as a Lieutenant, so I was receiving less money than I thought I was!'

Note: Mr Johnson is the author of 鈥淚sland Prize鈥� published by Kemble Press, 1992.

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