大象传媒

Like many people who become interested in and later fascinated by the details of their family's involvement in the Second World War, I first heard about the war from my grandad, Eric Crosswaite (1920-2002).

Talking to him about his experiences in the Army, the people he served with and encountered, the places he visited willingly and without choice and the sheer good fortune which he believed to have had, deeply impressed me; not from the glorifying of conflict or the shock of the horror of war, but simply from the very human, personal and idiosyncratic circumstances he found himself in, and, of course, how that relates to the foundations of the family life, of which I am a existing benefactor.

JOINING UP

Grandad signed up in Sheffield 26th October 1938, aged 18 and when he was working as a mill hand (steel). He joined the http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/graphics/Learning/Archives+and+Museums/York+and+Lancaster+Regimental+Museum/ York and Lancaster Regiment (sadly no more, having been disbanded in 1968). Known as the York and Lancs, or the Young and Lovelies, their Regimental motif of an Indian Tiger with the white rose of Yorkshire was referred to as 'the Cat and Cabbage'.

He began his training with the 1st Battalion at the Depot at Pontefract, and was sent further north for exercises, but was drafted to Sudan with the 2nd Battalion in July 1939 where he found himself when the war began.

In January 1940, the unit moved through Egypt to Palestine, specifically to the now notoriously-troubled town of Jenin. Mid-March, after training and recuperation, the battalion were rather unhelpfully made to route-march from Jenin to Gedera where it became part of the 14th Infantry Brigade and continued in intensive combat training.

Italy joined the war on 10 June 1940, at which time arrangements were made for battle in the Western Desert. The Division was moved to Egypt where it was disintegrated and the 2nd Battalion was sent to defend Alexandria in the Mex sector, calling first at the Sidi Bishr camp.

CRETE

Tedious days in Mex were surpassed by the Italian invasion of Greece, and sudden fears for control of the Mediterranean meant that the battalion was the first to be dispatched to Crete aboard HMS Ajax (with a later contingent about the S.S. Brisbane Star). Embarked on 31st October, they arrived at Suda Bay, on the Northern coast, west end of the island during 2nd November. Eric was involved in the disembarkation.

Joined later by the 2nd Black Watch, the small unit of soldiers had the task of defending the island as the resident Greek forces were dispatched to aid the efforts on the Greek mainland.

Early in 1941, as German forces came to the assistance of the floundering Italian attack, the British troops in Greece were forced to evacuate, and many troops were landed in Crete, leaving heavy equipment, guns, transport and machinery behind them.

To the surprise of the battalion they and the 2nd Black Watch were moved by sea to the east, to the port of Heraklion, where they met the 1st Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment. Here they would stay, under the sectoral command of Brigadier until the Battle of Crete was over. In May 1941, the German forces undertook the largest parachute operation of the war thus far, Unternehmen Merkur (Operation Mercury) under the command of General Kurt Student. Beginning on the 20th May and preceded by heavy bombing, the battle has now become one of the most studied battles in the early part of the war, with over 9,500 airborne paratroops landed, and around 7,00 killed.

Despite defending their own sector with success, the cause of the defence of Crete as a whole had been fatally compromised by the lack of air cover for the island, and the somewhat confused communication amongst the various sectors, hindered further by the large numbers of troops evacuated from the Greek mainland without their equipment. The thousands of German troops then pouring onto the island necessitated another evacuation, by sea, to Alexandria.

This was effected in the Heraklion sector by Brigadier B.H. Chappel. Eric was amongst the last of the battalion to be embarked on the K-class destroyer HMS Kimberley [F50]. The convoy, listed below, was under the command of Rear Admiral H.B. Rawlings, and set sail early in the morning of 29th May, on what would be a costly evacuation, harried by German bombers. Eric manned a Bren gun during the air attacks on the way back.

HMS Orion (cruiser, Flagship)
HMS Dido (cruiser)

HMS Decoy (destroyer)
HMS Hereward (destroyer)
HMS Hotspur (destroyer)
HMS Imperial (destroyer)
HMS Jackal (destroyer)
HMA Kimberley (destroyer)

SYRIA

Back in Egypt, whilst at a rest camp in Qassasin, Eric managed to send a telegram home, on 10th June. Rested and restituted as the 14th Infantry Division with the 2nd Bn Black Watch and the 1st Bn Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiments, the troops came under the 6th division which was about to see action against the Vichy French outpost of Syria under General Henri Dentz. The Division, minus the 14th Brigade went in on 8th June 1941. The 14th followed on 10th July, arriving at Damascus. With resistance on the road to Beirut in the Jebel Mazar mountains, the 2nd Battalion was put under the 16th Infantry Brigade, but before further fighting occurred the Vichy forces agreed an armistice.

My grandad well remembered the occupational duties which followed. Granted four days leave in then cosmopolitan and wealthy city of Beirut (or the French name Beyrouth), photographs suggest the battalion, and particularly grandad's friends in the 14th and 15th platoons had a good time.

At the end of this occupational duty around mid-October, they left Syria for a staging camp near Alexandria, en route, by sea, to relieve the besieged Australian 9th Infantry Division at Tobruk (in fact not all of the Australian forces were withdrawn, with the hardy 2/13 th Bn missing the boat and seeing through the breakout).

Confusing the enemy is often seen as a means of attack, if this is the case, then defending Tobruk was always something of an offensive action, for as the relief of the Australian troops went underway, the 6th Division was cunningly renamed the 70th Division, and given a new commander, Major-General R. Scobie.

The relief was something of a grand operation in itself, in conjunction with the Royal Navy, it consisted of three waves named 'Treacle',
'Supercharge' and 'Cultivate', beginning on the 19th August and concluding on 25th October.

TOBRUK

The defences of Tobruk were considerable. They began around nine miles from the town and wreck-strewn harbour itself, with a semi-circular defence perimeter known as "the Red line". This line, built by the Italians, consisted of 128 concrete defence posts in two rows stretching 16 miles across, with both flanks ending in deep wadis; Wadi Sehel in the west, and in the east, Wadis Zeitum and Belgassem.

The front posts, each with three linked gun pits, covered a radius of 90 yards and were interspaced with minefields. In front of them were two lines of barbed wire 5ft high, and an anti-tank ditch.

All the posts were numbered, and had communication links to an underground HQ. The numbering began from the west and had the prefix 'S', 'R' or 'Z' reflecting the location; 'S' covered the Wadi Sehel side as far as Ras El Medauur; 'R' from there to the Bardia Road, and 'Z' from the road to the east coast. The garrison's breakout, when it came, would be in the East, between posts R60 and R80.

Further back from the Red line, was another, the Blue line consolidated by General Morshed earlier in the year. The Blue line, where the 2nd Battalion spent most of its time followed the curve of the Red, but was 2 miles closer to the town. By the time the 70th Div. had arrived almost the entire zone between the two lines had been set with mines. Further back still there was a nominal Green line, though this was a fall-back position. Against them, at various points around the defences were enemy posts, and further afield, airfields. In his excellent history of the siege, Frank Harrison points out that,

' In any attack against such an elongated defence line the advantage must lie with the attacker; he is able to assemble his spearhead at a single point (...) - the schwerpunkt beloved of German commanders. (...) The defending commander must organise those troops not actually manning the defensive perimeter and who are to some extent mobile, into an aggressive reserve whose role is the limiting of any penetration of the line, and the restoring of the original positions by counter-attack.' ('Tobruk - The Great Siege Reassessed', p.32)

Early in November the Tobruk garrison (TOBFORCE) was informed of the important role it was to play in the 8th Army's forthcoming desert offensive against the German and Italian forces surrounding the fortress, Operation Crusader.

It was during this operation, in particular the Tobruk 'break-out' to join the advancing allied (largely commonwealth) forces, that Eric was left in an isolated slit trench in the desert, and his section were amongst the unfortunate Prisoners of War taken by Rommel's forces as he retreated back across Libya after the daring of his 'dash to the wire'.

To go from the active service of a regular soldier to the passive reactivity of a POW is something which takes a hard toll on many soldiers, and grandad certainly experienced the sick feeling, the self-distaste and general forlorn spirit of many POW as they were 'kicked around the desert' in late November and the early days of December.

From Derna to Benghazi, the story of my grandad's war from hereon in would be one of survival in captivity, and hope of escape. I'll briefly summarise it:

8th December, boarded POW ship, the Sebastiano Venier(o) (Jason), bound supposedly for Italy ladened with over 2000 PoWs, but before it could get there it was torpedoed by a British submarine, HMS Porpoise, and although the principal Italian crew had already scarped, a mysterious German bosun stood firm to run her aground off the Greek coast at Point Methoni, near Pilos.

Eric spent Deadly Winter 1941/2 in terrible conditions in Akhaia, and later Patras. Eric remembers being cooped up with up to 400 ANZAC troops in what later became known as 'Dysentery Acre'.

Early 1942, they moved to Italy, via Brindisi and Bari. Eric remembered vegetables being thrown at a line of POWs by fascist Italians.

PG Campo 65 (cf. Italian 'prigioniero di guerra')
was the 'campo' at Gravina which was a dismal general camp where Eric stayed until the chance to move to better conditions came along.

From mid-1942 until the Italian armistice in September 1943 Grandad found himself at PG 21 in Chieti - it was in fact an officers' camp, and Eric had been sent there in a contingent of about twenty men to serve British officers there, cleaning etc. Instead, he seems to have rather distained many of them, going 'on strike' as he put it and beng allocated the delightful job of delousing clothes.

Throughout this time he tried to stay physically active, having been particularly marked by the sight of a big comrade's complete mental collaspe and resignation. He took an active part in sporting events, including softball and football. Many famous sportsmen and performers had found their way to Chieti. Cricketers such as Freddie Brown (1910-1991, later MBE) of Surrey and England; Harold Beaumont (1916- ) and Bill Bowes (1908-87, cf. his book 'Express Deliveries', 1949) both of Yorkshire; Alf and Billy Stevens, later a Leeds footballer; Eddie Wenstob, the Canadian boxer, and performers like 'Chunky' Morgan, a clarinet player and Tommy Sampson and his band - see: http://nfo.net/brit/bs.html#Sampson

Eric picked up quite a bit of Italian during his time there, still summoning up the odd phrase in conversation half a century later. He remembered particularly the young camp guards, one sent off into the desert where Eric had been captured.

An uncertain 'imbroglio' following Marshal Badoglio's secret talks for peace in June 1943, and the later publication of the Armistice terms on 8th September, left a great deal of confusion as to what would happen to the remaining POWs in Italian hands. It represented a unique opportunity for many POWs to escape as their Italian guards abandoned their posts. Such was the case at Chieti. Indeed, on old Italian, a friend of Eric had asked him to go with him before the Germans came. Going to seek permission from the Camp Commander, he was told that they were in a state of Martial Law and should remain where they were. The actions of the senior officer later drew much criticism from the POWs present, not least Larry Allen, an Associated Press correspondent captured from HMS Sikh in Sept 1942. According to M.R.D. Foot and J.M. Langley's 'MI9 Escape and Evasion 1939-1945', the AP correspondent:

'protested when he got back to the U.S. that Colonel Marshall, the senior British officer in the huge camp PG 21 at Chieti had been too strict and that the War Office's orders had been too inflexible' (pp.161-2).

No sooner had the Italians left, than the Germans rushed to fill the vacuum, surrounding the camp early one morning. Rapidly Chieti was emptied to a smaller camp at Sulmona (PG 78), from where the Germans sent trainloads of POWs up into the Greater Reich through the Brenner pass, via Munich.

Eric was assigned to the huge POW camp Stalag VIIB at Lamsdorf (now Lambinowice, Poland). The enumeration of the numerous camps in the German system was based on the Wehrkreis - the War Districts into which the greater Reich was divided. VII being the Breslaw (now Wroclaw) district.
(see: http://home.clara.net/percy/wehrkreis.htm for more information)

Later, after reorganization, the camp became known as no.344.

For a breakdown of camps in each wehrkreis, follow the link below:

http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=3603

1943-1945

Eric was sent from the main camp to various transit camps and onto the arbeitskommandos - work camps where POW labour was used to further the German war effort (or not if the PoWs could help it). Tracking details of an individual arbeitskommando is not easy, though the National Archives has some references to a few of them (usually prefixed with an E).

Eric was sent to a work camp Blechammer E.3 (now Blachownia Slaska, Poland); although from Hoyland in the South Yorkshire coalfield, he didn't take kindly to being an enforced miner; further camps included an unnamed Polish sandpit, a railway goods yards where he tried to skive, and a German forest where he cut down the wrong trees.

Eventually Eric was sent to a camp at Grulich (E.487 or 489, now Kraliky in the Czech Republic), part of the Sudetenland of Munich Crisis fame.

Although precise dates are hard to come by, Eric spent Christmas 1944 there - a fellow PoW's little Christmas card attesting to the fact - and was part of a work party at a factory building a wall when news of the D-Day landings filtered through, causing the cocky young prisoners to push their freshly-mortared wall down again.

A particularly sad part of my grand's recollections relates to his assignment to a builder (Arbik Ubner?) with a brick yard in Grulich, a job which involved deliveries and which took him to the town of Auschwitz (now O艣wi臋cim, in Poland).

They were also sent to towns grandad called Weiswasser and Lichtwasser, to the FAMO military factory in Breslau - a former I.G. Farben dyes site.

With the war fast-turning against the German forces, the mood in the camp changed and there was increasing talk of escape, or at least liberation.

In May 1945 with the Soviets getting ever closer and the guards of the camp somewhat disinterested, Eric and a fellow inmate, George Unsworth (a Bolton-born able seaman submariner from the HMS Tempest, captured whilst on patrol at Taranto, 13th February 1942) managed to get out of the camp and away to a nearby farm, where, early one morning, they were intercepted by an advancing Soviet tank crew.

Moved on to Prague, it was unclear what would happen to the pair, and so Eric made good his escape from a house in the capital and by a bizarre turn of fate encountered a former camp worker, a barber from Grulich (we still have his Nazi eagle stamped Ausweis photo). He introduced Eric to some Czech partisans who were eager to defend their city and attack all enemies. Seeking his help with an abandoned fixed gun they were disappointed to be told the firing pin had been removed.

His new friends conveyed him safely to allied lines, taking him to Pilzen and then Regensberg where he found the US Third Army on the advance. They gave him his first decent meal for quite a few years, before being flown to Reims in Northern France, and finally taking a Lancaster bomber over the channel to the airfield at RAF Wing in Buckinghamshire.

His war was over, and he saw England again for the first time since 1939.

Phew, that's enough for now!