How I was Captured: The War Diary of Teddy Parker CBE

HOW I WAS CAPTURED THE WAR DIARY OF TEDDY PARKER CBE

Edited and transcribed by Allan F. Parker and Claudia F. Parker Design by Allan Parker assisted by Rapolas Rimeika Published by Pure Land Press, London 20l1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing from the publishers.

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“This book was written to you my dear, to try and give you some idea of what has happened to me since we were last in contact with each other.

The last free and unrestricted letter you had from me was about the middle of May 1941 when I was in Crete commanding the 42nd Field Company R.E., situated near Suda Bay. I will take up the thread from there. First the battle, how I was captured and then my movements as a prisoner.

After that I’ll describe the various camps, my activities, the people I met, how I lived and who wrote me letters. What I thought about during all these years is contained in my books of important letters, so I will leave that out of this book and stick to the facts.…” E.F.P ‘41

8

How I was Captured On the 19th May 1941 the British forces in Crete were trying desperately to organise themselves to face an imminent attack by the Germans. The forces on the Island were considerable, and consisted largely of troops who had fought in Greece, and had been evacuated from there to Crete and were in consequence short of arms, vehicles and equipment. Further, they had been beaten once already. On Crete they fought well but always in the backs of their minds was the possibility that they might have to clear out as they had done in Greece.

They were looking over their shoulder to see that the road behind them was clear, and that is not the spirit which wins battles.

Added to our difficulties of arms and equipment was the complete lack of any sort of air support. The German Luftwaffe were attacking with skill and daring, restricting movement, lowering morale and doing the most tremendous damage to shipping attempting to bring supplies into Suda Bay. No ships which came in after the 1st May (1941) ever went out again. At one time there were about 18 ships either sunk or burning in the harbour at Suda.

The Germans were expected to attack the aerodromes and ports first in order to gain a bridgehead to which they could bring reinforcements. Our forces were therefore disposed around the main port of Suda, the big aerodrome at Malame, the port and aerodrome at Heraklion and the centre of the Island, and the small port and landing strip of Rhethymnon halfway between Suda and Heraklion.

The 42nd Field Company was the only RE unit on the Island complete with all its equipment and in full fighting trim. There were plenty of other sappers but they were mostly disorganised units without their equipment who had been evacuated from Greece, or else base personnel. In consequence we were detailed as corp troops in operational reserve under direct control of Force HQ. Col. Steers OBE RE was the chief engineer. In him I had little confidence as he seemed to have no idea what was going on, and no plans ready to meet possible contingencies. I was seriously perturbed by the lack of an RE plan to meet a landing by air. Previous to the 19th of May I had together with Major Lawrence (his staff officer), tried to get him to agree to some plan for putting Mallame aerodrome out of commission if threatened, but he would not consider the subject at all. Further, he had removed the reserves of explosives from my 9

CRETE

immediate control and placed them under some ineffective stores organisation which he was feebly attempting to arrange.

The Company less two sections was situated on 42nd St—a byroad leading from the Causa Suda Road to the base of the high hills on the south of Cana Suda plain. HQ was up on the side of a high hill on the side of a little valley.

From nearby there was an excellent view down over the Causa Suda low lying strip, across to the high rocky Akrotiri peninsular; to the right one could see the whole of Suda Bay clearly and to the left Canea, the sea beyond and westwards along the coast to beyond Malame. For some time the company had gradually been detatching itself from administrative jobs which had engaged it for so long and was more or less ready for anything. No2 section was out near Kalives in case required on that flank, and No.1 section under Lt Furnish was detatched at Heraklion under command of the Brigadier commanding the Heraklion force.

I had visited it about 3 days previously, cleared them out of town where they were billeted and arranged their battle depositions.

20th may 1941 The Blitz on Crete started. From early morning there was heavy bombing and machine gunning all over the Suda Causa area with hundreds of German planes of all sorts. AA gun positions were the chief targets. Suddenly all the planes went away. There was silence for a time and then we heard a steady drone growing louder and louder.

Over the sea beyond Canea group after group of large transport planes appeared heading towards Malame. Planes in hundreds came skimming over the water spread out all across the horizon. By three, planes flew over Malame pouring out parachutes. More parachutists landed on the Akrotiri peninsular.

Near Canea at the monastery at St Johns Hill. Gliders came drifting down.

The battle was on.

I recalled No 2 section who came back in good order and sent Lt Alabaster to Force HQ as liason officer. The battle went on all day but there was nothing for us to do. By evening the glider crews had all been cleaned up and all the parachutists were got under control except a group at Malame who were established at the edge of the aerodrome. We learned that other attacks, similar in nature, had been made on Rhethymnon and Heraklion but in both places the parachutists, though holding out, had been isolated and surrounded.

12

21st May 1941 More parachutists at Malame. Battle continues. Much air activity. Enemy capture Malame. Gunfire at sea all night. Planes bomb and machine gun all roads, positions and installations throughout the day.

22nd May 1941 We learn enemy convoy completely destroyed at sea during the night. Troopcarriers land more men at Malame. Many troop carrying planes crash or are shot down but always more arrive. Heavy machine gunning and bombing from the air.

23rd, 24th, 25th May 1941 Blitz continues. More and more troops are landed by the enemy. We have nothing to do except keep roads clear after raids, dispose of dud bombs in the harbour, and do some odd jobs occasioned by the bombing. Lt Alabaster reports for orders everyday and visits forward units for confirmation but no calls on us.

We man a defensive position in the olive groves along 42nd St and up on the Malasa Hill above company HQ. We are in close touch with 21st Australian Field Company (Hay Torn) who are behind us. Meanwhile the force holds a line west of Canea and I watch the battle from my hilltop. The enemy have spread out from Malame and captured Galatas. Most of the AA guns now out of action.

Enemy planes fly round all the time as they please.

26th May 1941 Battle increases in intensity. The Germans advance nearer Canea. About 1pm C.O sends for me and I meet him near ‘Y’. He tells me there is a possibility of the force retreating South towards Sfakia and orders me to go and reconnoitre the road with a view to carrying out demolitions near Sfakia. I go with Major Lund RE who knows the road. We roughly made a plan how best to stop the enemy at the track from the end of the road (the road ends in the middle of nowhere about two miles from the sea) to Sfakia.

The whole road is a narrow twisting mountain road in minor valleys as far as Vryses and after that along the side of deep valleys through high hills. Greatly hindered by low flying attacks from aircraft but fortunately neither us nor truck damaged. Get back to 42nd St about 9.30pm and find the CE waiting for me. He tells me that the line has cracked and we are clearing out. The job is to get on demolitions straight away and start at Suda (the opposite end to the one he sent me to reconnoitre) I give 2 & 3 Sections a warning order and get ready a load of 13

explosives while I take CE up to my HQ and try to get a plan out of him.

He merely tells me that the position is a bloody shambles and I am to get cracking straight away and leaves it at that. I fail to get out of him what his line of retreat is, what is the order of march, who is to give the order to blow the charges, or anything else except that I am not to burn or blow up anything in my area or in Suda. I get some operational orders out 2 & 3 Secs move off soon after 10pm and HQ clears out at midnight after destroying what we can without burning or blowing. 2 & 3 Sections lay 6 charges between Suda and point ‘Y’ during the night. It is pitch dark, no recce has been made and road is crowded with troops who are ill-disciplined and obstruct work by pinching bits of equipment, kicking things and getting in the way. I have great difficulty finding the sappers owing to the milling crowd on the road and they keep on losing each other in the mob.

27th May 1941 By dawn the charges are laid somehow and sappers stand by ready to blow.

Company collects at Vryses. I send parties to improve charges between Suda and ‘Y’ prepare the bridge at Kalives and add another charge on that road, and also prepare the bridge at Vryses. Meanwhile I go in search of force HQ and try to find out what the hell is going on and what I am supposed to be doing.

Get very vague orders and when I ask if I can blow charges on road ‘Y’ (Kalives - Georgopoulos) as no-one is using this road and right flank is open, I am told on no account to do so as enemy is not to know we are going towards Sfakia.

Judging from actions of German aircraft, Germans have a very shrewd idea of which road we are using. I ask about right flank again and am told a Btn. of New Zealanders is guarding it. Go back to company and send out parties to prepare charges between Vryses and Askyfou, and between Imbros and Komitadiou.

Find sappers on Suda – ‘Y’ road and tell them to blow under orders from tank commander and no-one else. Give best orders I can to sappers around Kalives.

Much machine gunning on road delays my movements. During night 27/28th inspect charges being prepared and go forward to see what is going on.

28th May 1941 Tanks retire along Suda – ‘Y’ road in early hours. All six charges blown successfully. Charges at Kalives not blown as sappers hold off until Germans are past them and then it is too late. Soon after dawn I pick up all the sappers coming back from blowing first six except Lt/Cpl Belton and one other.

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I retire to Vryses. Heavy bombing of the village, two near misses on bridge although bridge does not go up. Get the road cleared with difficulty owing to blazing olive oil.

Am uneasy about right flank as have heard nothing of New Zealanders. Send patrol out who find no New Zealanders. Decide to blow bridge at Geogopoulos despite orders. Send out Sgt. Saunders alone to complete preparation of bridge, cover themselves and blow when ready. Contact Col Laycock Commando vanguard about blowing of Vryses Bridge, and chaps beyond. Send company back to collect at Timboo. About 9pm Sgt. Saunders returns having blown bridge.

They report some shots from enemy but no casualties. Tanks retreat over bridge at Vyses about midnight. I get order to blow and light fuse myself. While waiting for charge to go off I get a report that Sgt. Hill has blown the charge behind me thus cutting off our tanks. I wait for my charge to go off and nothing happens.

In desperation I go back under the bridge with Burwell and light a spare fuse.

It burns well so I leave and get into my truck and go back to see what the hell Sgt Hill has done. Find him with a beautiful hole in the road. Very abashed he tells me that he was ordered to blow by a Lt. Col. who said the Germans were just behind him and he must blow at once. Another sapper confirms the story so am forced to believe it. In the meantime I find that the Vryses bridge has not gone up. Presume a near miss by bombs must have loosened safety fuse on detonators. Fortunately can collect up a lot of sappers and set about filling in Sgt. Hills hole. This done in about three hours and arrange for worn out tank to block the road at this point. Send Sgt. Clements with a Greek lorry to Col. Laycock to transport commandos.

29th May 1941 Given strict instructions about other charges on Vryses – Askyfou road about blowing and get to Imbros soon after dawn. Get the company collected and sorted out and then report to Gen. Weston. Asked him where I shall prepare other charges and suggest on section Askyfou – Imbros where New Zealanders are holding out. Go with him to recce, after sending party to recce the road from Imbros – Komitade, the area round Koimitades and the track from Komitades – Sfakia. We recce towards forward troops near Askyfou but come to no decision so I suggest we use remaining explosive to put further charges in Imbros – Komitades section. Issue orders then come back and discuss time space movements with Gen Weston on Lt Alabasters report. Supervise charges being laid and fuse remaining six charges myself to avoid any misfire.

15

Agree with Gen Weston to get the order from the Major in 3rd Hussars, I or Major Alabaster will give the order to blow. When all charges are laid send sappers back to Komitades except those on charges and contact Major i/c tanks.

Alabaster and I to leap frog each other blowing the last charges.

Blow down some bits of wall myself with odd explosives in my truck to clear a field of fire for some Aussies.

30th May 1941 On the road just south of Imbros during the night waiting for something to happen. Alabaster with Tank Major in Imbros. Alabaster blows first charge near Imbros just before dawn. Next two go alright. Then I wait to blow. Our tanks come round bend in road and wait for me to blow. Meantime the enemy have got into position with road in full view. They open up with everything they’ve got. Tanks disappear round bend and a sapper lights fuse but it goes out. I light the other one and that burns alright. Then look round and find a machine gun cutting strips off the bank between me and my truck so no way out. Someone has the idea of waiting till the charge goes off and then running for it. I agree.

We go to ground in a drain only ten yards from the 800lb charge but cannot get further away. Charge goes off and the whole world rises into the air. Germans stop firing to see what has happened, meantime we are up and off through the dust and smoke. Buswell into his truck first (it starts first go of course—it always does: thank you Buswell) and 2 secs later we’re careering off at full speed.

Meantime rocks start to come down and crash onto us but only minor hits. By the time we reach corner at Hanclere the Germans have got their bearings again.

They open up with the machine gun which rips the bank beside us but we career round the corner—a few mortar bombs burst nearby and then we are away.

I pass Alabaster and go on to the last charge. He fires his soon after then goes away to Komitades to rejoin the company under Captain Malone. I have a long wait while the tanks and some Bren guns hold up the enemy for a long time at a rocky corner during which we got a certain amount of mortar fire but no damage. Then I fire the last charge well covered by the tanks this time and beat it back. I stop at the brigade HQ and give some advice about a roadblock then go to the end of the road, find a guide from the company and go to Force HQ to report. I tell the BGS what we’ve done and where the company is and ask for orders. He tells us to stay on the right flank behind Komitades and we will get our orders in due course. I find the HQ and 2 section alright but 3 Section are 18

lost. After sending out scouts I find them in the end and get the whole company together and sorted out by dusk. They are short of food for which I am angry with them as they had plenty on their trucks when they left Suda—seven days each—its five since they started on that. There is nothing to be done about it. I sleep during the night—the first proper sleep for some days.

During the afternoon tried to find out what was happening about evacuation but could find out nothing satisfactory. There is a big group of completely undisciplined troops milling about without their officers trying to find grub or get evacuated during the night. We have nothing to do with the rabble and pick up a few straggling sappers who attach themselves to us.

31st may 1941 In the morning we try to find out what is happening but can find out nothing, I am told there is supposed to be a batallion of commandos guarding our flank.

Send out patrols but can find nothing of them so take up defensive position ourselves. In the afternoon go to Force HQ but can find out nothing about anything. Tell them of the position I have taken up, ask about the dispositions of other troops and request ammunition and rations. I agree to send a carrying party at 0400 hrs to collect ammunition and rations which are expected during the night. Return and take up fresh positions. Find a platoon of marines commanded by a Lieutenant McLean armed and disciplined so take them under my command. At dusk what appears to be a German patrol arrives on our front.

Some shots are exchanged. Expect attack in the morning. At 0230 hrs I send Captain Malone with carrying party to get rations and ammunition. He returns at 0500 hrs to say that we are to surrender at dawn that morning, in accordance with written instructions left by General Weston.

On no account are any shots to be fired after first light. I am amazed and horrified. I call all the company together and ask them whether they want to surrender or make a dash for the hills in small parties each under an officer. They say they want to do whatever I think is best. By now the Germans are above us firing down on us and covering our way of escape so I am afraid if we all try to go we will be mown down and massacred without being able to fire back. A few could go but not 180. I tell them we will surrender. I stay with them and tell all the officers to beat it into the hills except Fred Malone who stays with me.

A German officer has appeared on a hill and is shouting instructions. We file out from our positions and go into Komitades village with our hands up.

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PRISONER’S PROGRESS (some scrappy notes from a diary kept at the time)

ist June 1941 – IMBROS, CRETE Orders left by Gen. Weston to surrender 42 Company with 7000 others surrender to Germans. March to village beyond Imbros. Very hard going: everyone exhausted. No food issued but Jock and I have ration of bully and potatoes.

2nd june 1941 – VRYSES - STYLOS, CRETE March to Vryses where we get a bath in the river and some bully. Italian prisoners now free. Arrived Stylos late and very exhausted. My shoes now gone.

3rd June 1941 – GALATAS, CRETE Arrived prison camp at hospital site on coast near Galatas after hellish march.

4th - 8th june 1941 Prison camp on old hospital site. Food very scarce. Everone scrounging. Very squalid lying about in the dirt. Men look very ragged and dirty. Everyone lethargic owing to lack of food and exhaustion from march. I get out to fix up water supply and go back to old mess. Nothing left. Fiddle with water supply for a bit but Germans not cooperative. Foul inadequate water and lack of latrines very serious.

9th June 1941 – MALARME - ATHENS - PIRAEUS Left camp for Malarme by truck. Flown to aerodrome near Athens in troop carrier. Truck to Piraeus. Food issued in station yard. Dried fish and 2 biscuits for two days. Leave by train in 3rd class carriages.

10th June 1941 – LARISSA Greeks very friendly and give cigarettes tho Germans hostile. Arrive railway station at 0200 hrs and march 25 miles to Larissa. Arrive 1400 hrs. Greeks friendly and give food on the way. Most exhausted. Shoes gone. Entrain for Salonica.

11th June 1941– LARISSA - SALONICA Greeks give food on way but guards shoot at them. Two officers wounded.

20

In cattle trucks all day. Some food scrounged. Arrive barracks Salonica after marching through town in rain. My feet packed up and I got a lift last mile in an ambulance. Greeks friendly but suppressed by Germans who march them off if they do “thumbs up”.

12th - 22nd June 1941 – SALONICA In old Greek barracks Salonica. In very confined space—large barracks and little gardens. Food very scarce. Tea twice, 3/4 biscuit, one piece of bread, one ladle of stew (mostly barley) per day. Great trading with O.R.’s through wire for clothes and food against money. Drachmae changed into marks. Bed bugs rampant in barrack room beds. I get badly bitten and sleep in the gardens. Spend my time playing picquet with Gibbs, reading and doing nothing. Paid twice—18 Marks for 10 days. Some stuff from canteen including cigarettes. Food our chief worry but can usually buy one biscuit a day.

23rd June 1941 News that Russia and Germany are at war. Camp seethes with rumours, most of them incredibly optimistic.

24th June 1941 Spend time listening to rumours, discussing when the war will be over, frying biscuits in olive oil, and playing picquet. Feeling very well and just getting enough food to live on with addition of purchased biscuits.

25th June 1941 About 2000 troops move out bound for Germany. Mixed rumours about the war, but Germans apparently advancing.

26th june 1941 Dissatisfaction with the batmen who are pinching our food and being insubordinate. I head a committee to control their activities. No definite German claims of success yet so we begin to hope the Russians are doing some good.

Packed up to move but postponed.

27th June 1941 All packed up to move in the morning but no move and we come back again.

21

28th June 1941 I take over officer i/c cleaning and batmen— a thankless and arduous task.

Rumours that the Germans have taken Leningrad and scored great successes against the Russians. All rather depressing. I get some order into the Batmen after rows all round. Ration store broken into during night and Germans start a search.

29th june 1941 Kept on parade endlessly while Germans search our quarters for stolen rations.

30th June - 3rd July 1941 Rumours of various types mostly depressing. We start lectures. I give lecture on Dhow trip; Fred on ‘oil’. Play picquet and manage batmen. On short rations.

4th july 1941 Start language classes. I have German and advanced French and do some Hindustani conversation with syces. That with managing batmen, scrounged food prices committee and new messing system make a busy and interesting day. Very encouraging rumours that the Russians are doing well.

5th & 6th July 1941 Language classes in full swing. I learn German and French conversation also teach chemistry and play picquet. Food very scanty and we are not buying extra because we are holding out against a price ring. One officer died of typhoid. No water in camp. Great rumours of Russian success in Balkans but I place no belief in this. German papers claim great successes for their forces in the North.

9th - 11th July 1941 I suffer from diarrhoea and pains and feel pretty miserable. Camp restrictions increased. Life the same though everyone busy with language classes and lectures.

12TH July 1941 We were ordered to pack up and move at short notice. Most of the British troops moved out, but we instead were subjected to a rigorous search and put back in a different barracks which is extremely lousy, very dirty and lacking in shade. No chairs, beds or tables, just bare floors covered with bags.

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13TH July 1941 Life very uncomfortable in our new quarters. Food worse. Two goes of clear soup, one of coffee.

14TH July 1941 No change in our disgraceful conditions. Food very scanty and everyone hungry.

Hunger brings out the worst in some people who behave little better than animals and cheat and cadge quite shamelessly.

15th - 17th July Life in second lot of barracks very uncomfortable. One free issue of goodies taken from Yugoslavs in search. Messing slightly better but life very uncomfortable owing to lack of tables, chairs, beds and hot sticky weather.

RAF officer recently captured gives latest news which is not so encouraging as rumours but authentic and not catastrophic. Russians still holding out though not doing too well. German classes and lectures proceed languidly. French defeated by discomfort.

18th July 1941 Blowing a gale. Dust and bugs make life almost intolerable. Men of 42 company arrive from Crete less 19 who escaped and who are living in some comfort with their friends.

19th July 1941 Enormous issue of bread, tomatoes and melons from Greek Red Cross. very good bread—2/3 loaf each. Everyone has enough to eat for once. Very much improved atmosphere in camp. Some Palestinians tried to escape during night and there was a lot of shooting.

20th July 1941 One dead Palestinian lying in square. Excellent breakfast off the bread and tomatoes. Four shot in all last night and left lying on the wire to encourage the others. Finished all the Red Cross food with great satisfaction.

A lot of shooting at night.

21st July 1941 Pay 23

22ND July 1941 Warned to move. Paraded at 1300 hours. Given rations—2 tins meat, some bread and endless biscuits for five days. Kept hanging about in the sun. Moved off 1700 hrs to station. Hot but not unpleasant march. Good to see the outside world after 6 weeks. Put in cattle trucks, 36 to a truck. A very uncomfortable night.

23RD July 1941 – YUGOSLAVIA Very hot in truck. 1 or 2 are sick and one had diarrhoea. Difficulty in getting water from guards. Only let out twice for five minutes. Sat beside Sydney and played picquet. Tempers frayed and a lot of argument about feet at night.

Glimpses of Yugoslavia through ventilation give impression of pleasant smiling land.

24TH July 1941– BELGRADE Cool fresh morning. Let out early for five minute pee. Arrived outside Belgrade 1100 hrs. Allowed out to wash—very refreshing. Red Cross bring us water, biscuits and a tin of meat and cigarettes. Manage to keep doors open for some time. Move on about 1600hrs. Reasonably cool night. Syd’s birthday.

25th July 1941 A bloody day. Only three short periods of five minutes are we allowed out.

And hurried back before I have even time to shit. Despite this the train remains stationary for hours on end. The temperature inside is unbearable. Water is scarce—they give us one bucket for the wagon. Country very pleasant.

26th July 1941 – MARBURG We stop at Marburg and only get out twice. Once to get some water and a shit at Marburg and once for five minutes in the evening. Water problem very acute.

Austrian countryside lovely. Very hot day. Atmosphere hell.

27th July 1941 Travelling through Austria and Germany.

28th July 1941 Change into a different cattle truck which is a few feet larger. Marvellous feeling of space. We can stretch our feet out. My birthday.

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29th July 1941– Lübeck Arrive 0800 at Lübeck. March from station about 2 miles to camp where we are kept outside in a big garage, and called for in batches to be sent into the camp. In the afternoon we go through de-louser (I am very lousy) and passed into camp. Get beds with straw palliases really comfortable—and some rations, Sleep like a log but are disturbed by all being turned out in the night by some incomprehensible German shouting.

Lübeck – Oflag Xc 29th July - 7th Oct 1941 We were at Lubeck from the 29th July 1941—7th Oct 1941, Just over 2 months.

The camp was a series of well made huts fairly close together just beside a big permanent barracks which was unoccupied. The compound was only about 200 yards long by 100 yards wide and contained about 8 huts capable of housing 200 each (by German standards). The rest of the compound was mostly gravel paths and flower beds with one very small sports pitch big enough for basket ball. The huts were clean well-built with WC’s and washrooms attached to each.

The keynote of the Lübeck period was hunger so we did not want any exercise which was just as well as there was no room for anything. There was about 700 of us there—mostly all captured in Greece and Crete. We were unseasonably cold—we only had a few rags between us as we were captured in tropical kit as well as being more or less starving. The German rations were hopelessly inadequate and owing to dishonesty of German workhouse staff we did not even get all of them. Potatoes, cabbage soup and a fifth of a loaf of bread was the normal diet. All the talk was of food, of Red Cross parcels which some of the RAF boys had seen, of what we were going to eat after we got home.

There were always rumours that the Red Cross parcels were coming but they never came.

We got thinner and thinner and I think some of us would have died if we had not moved when we did. Some officers of 14 stone went down to 9 stone and looked like skeletons. There was a great deal of dishonesty and squabbling over food but it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. The Germans were on the whole unbending, unfeeling and brutal. The commandant was an old Prussian about 80 years old who said prisoners have no rights. If they don’t do what they are told they will be shot. There was some shooting and one old merchant seaman was hit in the thigh.

I was lucky enough to be in a large room with only four of us in it—George 25

Milne, Ken Wylie, Mervyn Bull and myself. We were the administrative staff for our hut. I was hut commander and spent a lot of time making out lists for the Germans arguing with them over things we ought to have had but didn’t get and passing on German orders to my hut.

We were about 2 miles from town and two and a half miles from the docks.

There was not much of a view. Some suburban dwellings, a field or two, the barracks and the spires of the town in the distance. Occasionally we heard a seagull or the hoot of a steamer on the river which brought back memories.

During the time we were there, there were about 17 air raids in the vicinity.

During one of them some incendiary bombs fell on the camp. One fell right through our roof and floor close to my bed. Another blew the door off our room. Tony Holden was in Hospital which was hit and subsequently he lost his leg. There were fires in the camp some of which we put out but stopped when the Germans started threatening us. The German officers’ mess and cook house were burned.

We had a very busy programme of lectures and classes. I attended all sorts of things and had a programme of work and play which occupied the whole day.

We tried hard but hunger was always gnawing at us and our thoughts often turned to food.

Oct 7th - 8th 1941 – Lubeck - Warburg We marched down from the camp to the docks and entrained in cattle trucks.

Not so crowded as previous journey. It was cool and not unpleasant. During the night some officers cut their way out of the trucks and escaped. We arrived at Warburg in Westphalia (near Cassel) and marched up a hill on to a bleak moorland where we found a large and dingy looking camp. It was about 500 yards long in and 300 yards wide containing 30 different huts. Most of the huts were very badly made— the doors didn’t shut, windows didn’t fit and there were holes in the walls and floors. The sanitary arrangements were primitive— outside latrines in a bad state of repair, inadequate washrooms long distances from living quarters and one small shower room for the whole camp.

OFLAG VIB – WARBURG 8th Oct 1941 - 31st Aug 1942 Soon after we arrived, other contingents arrived from camps at Laufen, Biberach, Tetmoning, Spangenburg, until nearly all British officers in Germany (except some RAF) were collected at Warburg. There were about 2500 officers including 26

about 600 RAF. 700 of us from Crete and Greece and all those captured in France and Norway. Our ragged and starving appearance exacted pity from our brother officers who deluged us with food clothing and cigarettes in a most generous manner. Soon Red Cross food supplies were working reasonably and we were given double rations (2 parcels per week) until we had recovered our normal health. Accommodation was re-sorted when we were all in the camp.

There was a certain amount of old soldiering by the old hands and we found ourselves with some of the new boys in some very poor huts at the ‘slum end’.

I shared a room with George Milne, Ken Wylie, Mervyn Bull (my old friends) and Ian Bessell-Aurocaine (Australian), Max Mumford, Terence Whelan and Hugh Harold all TA gunners from Liverpool way. We were all majors and all captured in Crete. Our group (all University graduates) were the intelligensia and all made good use of our time. The other four were provincial town playboys of the fast car, cocktail bar and rugby club type. We got on well together though Hugh Harold was a bore. The latter moved into the next room to be hut commander.

Soon after our arrival mail started coming in. Then clothing parcels and later tobacco and food parcels from all over the place. While we were at Warburg we were never short of clothing, cigarettes, food and fuel. The weather was desperately cold. We stayed huddled in our room most of the time with 30-40 degrees of frost outside. The lowest we had was was about -18F or 50 degrees below freezing. There was very little water as everything was frozen and going to the latrines and washing was terrible. There was some skating.

In January most of the senior officers and older ones left for Spangenburg.

I took over Garrison enquiries and tried hard to get the camp onto a sanitary and liveable condition—very disheartening work arguing with the Germans, dealing with orderlies who were not under discipline and trying to get officers to volunteer for unpleasant jobs.

In the spring there was a tremendous outburst of escaping activity which continued all the summer. There were always hundreds of schemes afoot with tunnels going on left, right and centre and the Germans searched huts continuously in their efforts to find them.

As well as escaping there were many other activities going on all the time —classes, lectures, sport, discussion groups and the usual camp administrative work. There was always plenty to do. All through August there were threats of moves and at the end of August it finally came. Some of the older and more senior officers were detailed for Rotenburg, the RAF to an RAF camp and the 27

remainder to Eichstätt in Bavaria. I was in the Rotenburg party and we moved first.

The next night there was an assault on the wire. According to a carefully prepared plan the lights suddenly went out, special ladders were placed over the wire and some thirty officers were over and away before the Germans knew what was happening. 28 got away, 3 got back to England.

31st Aug 1942 – Warburg - Rotenburg We spent the night of 30th - 31st being searched and waiting in the communal buildings at Warburg. In the morning we marched to the station and entrained in 3rd Class carriages in which we travelled quite comfortably through Cassell to Rustenburg some 40 miles north of Cassell. We saw some bomb damage in Cassell but not much.

Rustenburg was a sleepy little town in a pleasant green valley of the Falda river.

We marched through the town up the valley for a mile and came to a big well built school building of 3 stories which was our camp.

Oflag IXa/z – Rotenburg 31st Aug 1942 - 6th Feb 1943 The building was well made, clean and comfortable but of course overcrowded.

There were about 350 officers and 100 orderlies. The officers were nearly all over 37 years old- some were very old indeed. 40 Indian officers were also of the party. Shortly after we arrived, all the able bodied English officers were sent to the nearby camp at Spangenburg and replaced by the “grand blessés” (wounded and sick officers due for repatriation). Our compliment was therefore old field officers, old staff officers and sick and wounded and Indian officers. I was kept by mistake as they thought I was some sort of colonial. They weren’t a very bright crowd being surly, old and grumpy, but life was not too bad. It was very clean after the unsanitary conditions of Warburg with its muddy surrounds, there was central messing, which enabled us to eat in a civilised way in a dining room instead of cooking and feeding in our rooms. Central heating, good baths and reasonable rooms to study in (though very crowded). The outdoor space was small. A gravelly courtyard about 50 yards square, which we walked round and round till we were dizzy. Occasionally we played basketball there too, the pond froze and for a few days we could skate on it. But exercise on the whole was difficult. We could never go outside for walks or for any other reason and 32

got very tired of our narrow pen. When it was cold or wet we never left the building. There was a gymnasium attached to it in which we could do P.T. or boxing but there were few young enough or fit enough to try.

I spent a lot of time looking after the Indian officers, settling their arguments, arranging their rations and trying to keep them amused with classes and games.

Life was difficult for them, as they have not got much mental resources to fall back on and are apt to pine away and quarrel if left to themselves. Also we were so cramped within the building that friction between the old officers and the Indians was inevitable and constantly needed smoothing out. Sales acted as accommodation officer and arranged which rooms people were to live in.

People were coming and going every day to and from various hospitals.

There was always plenty of criticism of my arrangements. Everybody has a grouse about something. I live in a little narrow room looking over the main road with 8 of us in it. Myself, George Milne, Mervyn Ball, Guy Londers, Nigel Cranage (a charming officer in 15/IGH, with a leg off – I knew him before in York) – Johnny King, an old Tank Corps officer (aged 50), Antoine, a very old Major from Jersey who never spoke at all, and Ian Bersel. Nigel, Johnny King and Ian Bersal did not mess with me and their places were taken by 3 young wounded Canadians who brightened things up a bit and made our mess of 8 quite a cheerful party.

When I was not busy with Indians or accommodation, I was writing in the corner of my room, reading up on yachting, and teaching maths and navigation two or three times a week. There were no domestic chores to be done at all so there was lots of time to work and I got a lot done.

Col Broomhall and I left together after a difference of opinion with the German authorities over the lieutenant of an Indian officer whom we considered disloyal and accordingly we were dismissed from the camp. I was very sorry to leave my friends, but glad of a change as it was rather a gloomy and depressing camp due mainly to a lot of old codgers who were trying to make out they were sicker than they really were in order to get repatriated.

5TH FEB 1943 – Rotenburg - Eichstät Left the camp at 0300 hrs having first collected a lot of mail, which included my medal ribbons, which I sewed on my tunic before leaving. (Had only worn my medals once before since I got the last one). The Commandant was there to see us off. With two sleepy guards we travelled slowly along changing 33

trains half a dozen times with a long wait at Warburg, which was spent in a NAAFI place drinking beer with the guards. All the stations were full of troops on their way to and from the eastern front and very gloomy indeed over the news of Stalingrad, which was continually booming over the radio. Changed at Jungoldstalt and Eichstaltman and arrived at Eichstaltman station about 2000 hrs. Walked on a pleasant first night about 1 mile to the camp where we were accommodated in the cells of a guardroom for the night. The guards tried their best to make us comfortable. It was like staying in a forth rate inn where they had not had a guest for years, were keen to do their best but didn’t really know what to do. Next morning we were marched into the camp and met old friends at every turn. The SBO (Major Higgins) gave us lunch and looked after us till a room was ready. Broomhall and I were put together into a room for two.

Oflag VII B - Eichstät 6th FEB 1943 - 14TH April 1945 The layout of the camp was something like this: (see next image overleaf) 1,2 and 3 were large two storey barrack blocks holding 280 officers each.

They were well built permanent buildings.

H was a hospital similar to blocks 1, 2 and 3.

S was a quartermaster’s store.

C was the administration building and contained kitchen, canteen, theatre, bakery, cobblers, tailor’s shops, officer etc. it was surmounted by a large clock tower.

The main road called the Lagerstrasse ran past the front of Blocks 1, 2 and 3.

All the buildings on the Lagerstrasse were barracks for our infantry battalion and were built before the last war. On the south side of the lagerstrasse there was a steep bank about 20 ft high which led to the lower field.

All of this was on the same level and below the Lagerstrasse. These roads went down ramps and connected the Lagerstrasse with the lower camp.

At the east end of the lower camp there were a few large huts recently (and badly) built which housed about 150 officers each.

These blocks were known as ‘the garden city’. The rest of the field was sports ground and garden. There was 5-aside hockey, 3 tennis courts, 2 rolling ball pitches, a softball (basketball) diamond a basketball pitch and a football field with a running track round. All along the south side of the camp were two rows of 34

lime trees which made a shady walk. Outside on the south side, the ground fell away again in a steep bank down to the river.

When Broomhall and I arrived there were about 1700 officers in the camp and 250 orderlies. All the Canadian and some British officers were in Block 1, where they were kept handcuffed all day and segregated from the rest. They had the football field for their exercise ground. We lived in a small room in Block 2, (the rooms in the Lagerstrasse had from 2 to 30 officers each. Most had 1220 with a few small rooms in each building. Ours was about 14 ft x 9 ft and contained 2 beds, table, stools, cupboard and stove etc. We cooked, slept and lived in it.

There was considerable friction between the Germans and ourselves. We were always being marched, paraded and shouted at. The garden city buildings were in bad repair. The lights were shocking, the roof leaked, the buildings were damp and there were no roads anywhere in the town camp. The whole place was mud.

From the time of our arrival conditions steadily improved. The attitude of the Germans became more reasonable, a new commandant of a more stable temper arrived. Handcuffing degenerated into a farce (nobody ever wore them except on parade and everybody could open them) and finally was abolished and with it, the segregation of Block 1 and the embargo on the football field disappeared.

By the autumn of 1943 the camp had been improved into as reasonable a state as was possible. Lights, roofs and buildings were improved, roads were made (I did a lot of work on these points) we were left alone to live in peace.

Sports facilities improved, walks were started (I went on the first walk which was a reward for the road makers for all their hard work and soon developed into general walks for all).

Life in the camp from then on was as reasonable as it is ever likely to be in prison.

We had enough food, a Red X parcel a week, plenty of clothes, sports facilities enough, fuel (Sydney Morse was fuel director and made a very good job of it).

Most of the fuel was wood from tree stumps which a party of our own officers took out and split) and were not interfered with unduly.

There were a few classrooms and a study room. Many people worked hard, others played games all day: some acted, some wrote, some played musical instruments. There were sports meetings, concerts, musical shows, theatricals and every sort of amusement we could dream up for ourselves.

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In the autumn of 1943 a gentleman called Herr von Feffer arrived from the foreign office to improve relations between the prisoners and the Germans. By listening to our grievances and attempting to resolve them he did his job and relations steadily improved. There were occasional upsets with accompanying stoppages of walks and other privileges whenever there was any escaping activity but they were not usually of long duration.

I lived with Broomhall for 3 months and got very tired of him. He was unhouseworthy and lazy and wouldn’t leave me in peace to work nor would he do anything himself. His American Colonel called Gershenow lived with us for about a month then he was moved elsewhere. Shortly afterwards Broomhall tried to escape disguised as a German general. He was caught and sent to another camp. I was left living with Col. Jaspersson, a Canadian lawyer who was quiet sensible and not troublesome but very soon after Mr Williams, another Canadian came in to make it three.

I spent my time on a variety of things. Working as camp engineer and preparing a paper on India first, then researching yachting between activities, then ‘Touchstone’. Teaching maths, English, navigation: learning about art and furniture as well as playing games reading and gossiping. I spent a large part of my time as cook too and at least an hour every day was spent in preparing mash for the room.

The summer of 1944 was a period of great expectations. From the beginning of the invasion in June our hopes of home by Christmas rose steadily till excitement reached fever pitch with the breakthroughs in September. As October came in, the leaves began to fall and things still remained static on the German eastern frontier. The realisation gradually dawned on us that we were behind the wire for the winter once more. Sadly we dug ourselves in to be as comfortable as possible. Still with Jasperson and Williams I settled down as best I could. During August I gave up ‘Touchstone’ and handed it over to Elliott Vaizey.

Iawasn’t feeling too well and further I thought I had brought it along as far as I could while someone else might perhaps make something better of it.

For the first time I found myself without any other duties at all, nor any projects of work on hand. I busied myself with reading history but it was not very long before I found myself busy again.

As soon as winter started I took over the debating society and busily tried to get it going once more and organised into something worthwhile. By Christmas I was 44

busy running public debates, the orderlies’ Christmas dinner and various other things. The winter on the whole was fairly miserable. We were on half parcels, food was as a result fairly short, fuel was very short and tempers were even shorter still. Our room of three was by no means a happy family, Williams was stupid, Jasperson was selfish and I was miserable. My neck was giving me a lot of trouble and in the cold weather made me feel very low. In January the Germans had a fit and took away our mattresses and chairs. The loss of my mattress was the final blow to my neck. I retired into hospital and stayed there three weeks.

When I came out at the beginning of February things gradually improved. I got some ointment for my neck.

The weather warmed up and best of all the war started moving and hope rose again. In March the Colonel retired into hospital and when he came out he moved into another room. Left alone with Williams, I felt better and made a more determined effort to get on with him and though he was never likely to be a bosom friend, we managed to get along. The news started becoming exciting as the armies crossed the Rhine and we lived from day to day in a state of unsettled excitement.

The early part of April was one of intense excitement. Would the Americans come? – we could hear the guns. Would we be moved? The Americans were held about 40 miles away and the issue became one of whether we should stay or go. All the other POWs in Germany seemed to be on the move and odd ones dropped in to our camp who had been dropped off from various columns of marching prisoners. On 13th April the blow fell. We were to move tomorrow.

14th April 1945 – Eichstät - MOOSBERG I was on the transport party and paraded at the hospital at 0700. The party was about 150 strong made up of those not fit to walk. The remainder of the camp was ready to march with little handcarts of all sorts of enormous loads of baggage. About 0900 hrs we waited for our transport and the main column started to march out.

When the head of the column was less than a mile from the camp some American Thunderbolts came over and started to strafe the area in general and the column in particular. The boys lying in the open by the roadside took the hell of a hammering. The planes gave them burst after burst and accounted for 8 killed and 45 wounded. The party broke up in disarray, some made off into the woods but the majority came back into the camp.

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I was inside a building during the raid then had a very busy time sorting out the people coming back. Later I was called on to mark the camp ‘POW’ all over the place. In the afternoon, fresh orders came out. The transport party to move tonight after dark by lorry, the road party to start tomorrow night and march by night. We are alleged to be going to Moosberg about 50 miles away.

The transport party started off all right after the usual frightful delays. I was on one of the leading lorries which made good progress. We started about 10pm and drove fairly steadily except for a long wait in Inglestadt where the stupid Klöpfer insisted on standing still on the Danube bridge during an air raid despite all exhortations by both the British and the Germans to move to a safer place.

We arrived at Moosberg just before dawn.

Sun 15th April 1945 – MOOSBERG After an interminable wait at the gate, we were at last let in and searched. After the search during which there were a lot of the usual arguments, we arrived tired and weary in a small duty compound inhabited by curious looking Russians, a few Poles, Czechs, and so on. Our detatchment lay there on the ground all morning where I, in my capacity as adjutant to the party bustled round trying to get the Germans to do something. At last we got some soup, were taken out, given a bath and taken to our compound. We found we were landed in one large barrack room with 5 tier beds in blocks of 12 where all 200 of us (we had added on various Austrians we found here and there) from colonels to privates were herded in together. We sunk wearily onto our bunks to get the first sleep for nearly 48 hours. Running round as Col’s adjutant I was completely exhausted and went out like a light as soon as I hit the bed.

Mon 16th April – 23rd April 1945 Housed in terrible barracks with shortage of washing facilities, no cooking arrangements at all and beds in one room in blocks of 12, all three bunks high.

Around us are American officers and corps in tents. There are about 8000 officers all huddled together in unbearable squalor.

Everyone is remarkably cheerful despite it all and I am busier than I have been for years. I am thoroughly enjoying myself arranging things like mad. We started off as a group 200 strong, grew to 1000 then the main party from Eichstätt 1300 strong poured in on top of us so I am now trying to organise a group of about 2000 as Col. Jasperson’s staff officer. All sorts of rumours about moving, about the arrival of Americans who are not far off, about the end of the war and about 46

everything else one can think of. One thing is certain; the end of the war is a matter of weeks or perhaps days.

24th – 28TH April 1945 Having organised one little job, a new job turned up. I was put on the staff of ‘Supreme Allied HQ’, Col. Jasperson, Col Alto and I formed the administrative branch of the HQ and set about creating an organisation which could control and administer the 30,000 prisoners in the camp en masse and the numerous parties outside. For three days we were as busy as men could be for 14 hours a day. By the end of that time we had produced a workable organisation. We have installed ourselves in the end of one of the huts in which the three of us sleep and live. The work is carried out in the adjoining rooms with about 14 additional staff. Constant conferences with British HQ, US HQ, visits to the Germans at the Konin and arguments over the Russians, French, Poles etc and masses of organising, arranging and discussing. Just my job, I haven’t been so busy or so happy for five years. I feel sorry for the mass of the population lying about on the ground, packed in the huts, and huddled over smoking fires with nothing to do except consider when the end is coming. It certainly can’t be long now. Berlin has practically gone, the Allies have linked up, Gen. Patton’s forces are all around us and the Germans soldiers have sunk into lethargy and despair. There are very few of them left, the Kommandanten is deserted, and the guards at about half strength have little control left. Last night we had to put our British and US guards on as well as the Germans to keep order. I wish they could go away completely and let us take over. I want to see if our organisation copes when it is in full control! I hope the Americans don’t arrive and take over completely before we have a chance to try it out.

One of the best stories of yesterday was of a gunman sentry who sold his sentry box over the wire as firewood for 20 cigarettes. He broke it up and threw it over himself. Everything is being broken up slowly as unless the Germans hand over soon, instead of gradually trailing off to nothingness, we will drift into chaos.

Night of 28th April 1945 Group Captain Willetts and SHO went to the Kommandanter and later went out with the Kommandant to try and contact American forces to arrange for Moosberg as a neutral area. The G.C. in SHO met the American General who would not accept the proposal. He said the attack would go forward at 0900 in the morning unless he got complete surrender.

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A lot of coming and going during the night with messages from the officers in the Kommandanten.

Sun 29TH April 1945 Allied HQ assembled in the morning but no orders. The battle started up all round us: guns, HG’s, rifles, planes overhead. Tremendous excitement then the Group Captain assembled his staff and put us in the picture about last night and assured us that the Germans are very thin on the ground, the American spearhead is strongly supported and the battle won’t last long.

Meantime the administration goes on and the office hums. Some bullets came zipping into the camp, guns fired over us, planes swooped down, then the battle died away. Through it all we dashed about setting up our organisation to take over the camp. Then there was a tremendous cheer as an American jeep was sighted at the entrance. A few minutes later the Stars and Stripes went up over the Kommandanten and for us captivity was at last over. We had scarcely time to notice as Col. Callo, Col Jasperson and myself rushed about putting into effect the organisation on which we had been working for the last few days. As we got to the Kommandanten we found our late captors, being lined up as prisoners.

I felt quite sorry for them as they were marched off. We took over the Kommandanten, established our offices, got orders out and had the administration of our 30,000 prisoners ticking over somehow. Odd foreign workers came dribbling in, large columns of prisoners from elsewhere marched up to the gates, there were difficulties with supply, power, light and the accommodation of Russians. All these problems loomed up and were dealt with.

We worked at a tremendous pace and got to sleep somehow or other in a room we had fixed up near the office.

Mon 30th April – Wed 2nd May 1945 Three days seem like as many months, so much has happened. We have been working at tremendous pressure. I have been living in the German officers quarters and busy with the administration. It has taken some organisation to put into effect an administrative dept of the size of Force HQ at Jerusalem right from scratch, but we have managed it and it is working. Allied HQ is a mix of British and American I find it rather fun working with the Yanks.

The Field Forces and people coming in from SHAPE HQ seem amazed at the way we have got things going here. I must say it has worked out fairly well. High speed organisation is my strong point so I have been revelling in it. Two pretty 48

girls strolled in last night – the first I’ve seen, one French and one English—they were looking after the rehabilitation of the field forces—they looked very smart and fashionable and I enjoyed my chat with them.

3RD May 1945 We got the first party away this morning 1500 Americans—there are 1500 British to go next. They were in terrific form, well lined up and disciplined. We loaded the trucks and they moved out on schedule to the airport. Evacuation has definitely started. Later I went off to the airport and found nothing happening there at all. The field was deserted, there were no planes, it was raining hard and the people for evacuation were billeted rather miserably in the buildings round about. Whether it is bad weather or bad organisation is hard to say. Another busy afternoon in the office trying to get the personnel and documentation lined up. Dinner in the station billet.

4TH May 1945 There is an air of despondency and gloom all around. Everyone was keyed up to go home but nothing happened. They felt badly let down with the miserable conditions. Somebody ought to do something about it is the general cry. I have started feeling miserably tired. The continuous work and strain of the last few days has been a hard knock after a long period of poor food and bad conditions.

Some Americans have at last started taking over the running of the camp from us. They are men from a field unit and find all the complicated organisation rather baffling but they are making a real effort to get things straightened out.

In the evening things had slackened off and I found myself gradually drifting out of the picture. I went off down to the town with Lt Turney to dine with him in his billet at the printing works. We had an excellent dinner served on a clean white table cloth with good plates, glass and linen—and a bottle of pleasant wine.

I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and the peace and the remoteness from the mad hustle and constant perplexing problems of the camp. The German Hausfrau served us, then Dichelmeyer the printer and Deputy Mayor of the town came by and conversed. After diner, all the family came came in and had a pleasant chat about homes, wives and families. I would not be much good in an army of occupation, fraternisation there is definitely frowned on, so I feel sure I would not set a good example to the troops.

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5TH MAY 1945 Another wet and gloomy day with no aircraft coming to the airfield and unrest and disquiet in the camp. We have practically handed over the office to the incoming Americans and are hanging around to help them out when they get stuck.

6TH MAY 1945 A dull and gloomy day to start with and I felt a little lost as I was gradually organised out of a job, still having the worries but not being able to make decisions. It was decided to send some officers to outlying troops who had been discovered so I volunteered to go. Without any warning we got a message to send 10,500 men off at 0600 next morning and have another 6500 standing by ready. A hectic night rushing round like mad. I concerned myself primarily with delousing and with the help of Captain Wolfe the U.S. doctor, we got 10,000 men deloused after dark somehow or other but not without both losing our tempers with everyone. Bed at 2.30. Up at 5.00.

7TH MAY 1945 – Oberaichbach Embussing of the 10,500 went off more or less according to plan – then another de-lousing bee with more short tempers—after that an arrangement to move out to take over a group of 4500 British O.R.’s billetted at various villages in the country. Got out there in the afternoon and took over the group. The men were really pleased to see me and grateful that I should have come—well worth the small sacrifice of staying behind for a few days.

I was delighted to be on a regular military command again with full powers and no ambiguity about it. A lovely summer day with beautiful green countryside and so peaceful. A bit of hectic organising in my HQ in the local village guest house, then a walk through the quiet village to my bed — a lovely soft feather one with clean sheets—in a comfortable billet. The war is now officially over, it certainly does seem like peace is here.

8th May 1945 Drove out to one or two of the farms to see the parade at 8.00, then busy with office work. At 11.00am a convoy of lorries arrived brought 500 Indians whom I had undertaken to take under my wing. I billeted them and shipped off 450 Frenchmen in the lorries. The Indians were pleased to be in British hands again.

After lunch Captain Wolfe turned up with his de-lousers.

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We got through the whole 5000 in a couple of hours. A change from Moosburg due to a single command and good organisation. Wolfe was delighted. He said if he had 100,000 guns and a million barrels of powder he would undertake to delouse Europe if I would organise it for him. We were hoping to go off tomorrow so we had a hectic evening getting forces together. No news by 11.00am so I sent a truck into Moosburg but he came back at 0200 to say that no move was laid on for tomorrow. I was secretly pleased as I was flogged and could do with a days light work before going home. We had a dinner in the guesthouse for all the W.O.’s and Sgts in my HQ attended. It was an excellent dinner but not a very lively function as we were all tired. Old Kuages refuse to get excited. The party warmed up at two in the morning with the production of some bottles of wine. To bed at three with a bit under my belt and a pleasant feeling.

9th May 1945 Up at 7.00 to take some of the parades of the different groups. They have smartened up no end. All paraded properly in their own platoon with a proper roll call and only one man of the 5000 missing. They have stopped being gypsies and got back on the line of being soldiers again. Fortunately they are nearly all regular NCO’s. Some of my own men from the 42nd Group are here. I was delighted to see them again and had a long chat. In my billet in the school house are two refugee wives with several children each. Their husbands are dead, one has a child missing left in a hospital somewhere that has since been destroyed, they have no idea where their relatives are, no homes and no property. One of them wept all over me and asked me what to do. The other a pretty woman with two lovely children of 4 and 6 is delightful with a cheerful and friendly manner. She bursts into jolly laughter at the slightest provocation and appears very sensible and practical besides.

Their problem is not unique: every family in Germany is split up and scattered and has its toll of dead and missing as well as its property destroyed. It will take years and years to sort out. I am a bad hater and feel terribly sorry for them. I had a weeping Polish woman in the office this morning: she was in a jam too. The Frenchmen were satisfied customers and went off happy but I found a further 1100 last night who haven’t been tracked down and organised yet. It is a lovely sunny day, warm and pleasant with all the beautiful green countryside looking its best. The children are playing outside and the people smile at me as I go by.

All the frightfulness is over and I hope and pray that peace has come to stay.

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In the afternoon a message came to say that we were not likely to move for one or two days. We fixed up rations, got everyone organised and got out some orders for tomorrow. With that done by 0900 I was free and looking forward to a good night and a peaceful sleep and a quiet day on the morrow. I went back to my billet in the school and was furthering my acquaintance with the refugee woman (though badly cut out by L/Cpl Turnbull and his South African friend Pete McLean) when I was told there was a captain who had just arrived to see me. I went back to the office where I found we were due to move tomorrow.

A busy couple of hours getting out orders and planning movements of lorries and men and then to bed at 12.00.

10th May 1945 Up at 0500 all ready for the move to the aerodrome. The plan was changed of course. Half went off at 1100 after various alarms and indecisions, the second half were loaded and away at about two. The whole morning was spent hanging about waiting. While we were waiting the HQ billet which was a Gasthaus gradually took on an unreal and quite fantastic atmosphere. The whole effect was cinematic with rapidly changing angles of approach. At one minute it was a busy military HQ later it was an organisation for the relief of distressed foreigners and finally it turned into a cosmopolitan restaurant scene. All the refugee girls in the village came drifting in to get odd bits of food which the Sergeant Major was giving away. They stayed on and were given cups of tea. Someone started playing the piano—a Czech woman from Prague—very smooth and cosmopolitan. Somebody else got out some drums, a certain amount of singing and conversation in various languages.

At last the second wave of transport arrived and the convoy moved out in good order. I stopped any destruction of goods and had all the surplus food, clothing, typewriters, bicycles and motor cars which we had collected over to the burgomaster for distribution. All the village collected to see us go and we were very sorry to see the last of it. As I took my seat in the car of the American officer in charge of the convoy ready to drive off all the women and children rushed up shouting “here is the dear Herr Major!” and shook me warmly by the hand with prayers for my return. I felt pretty shifty as the American officer had just been letting off about the trouble he was having enforcing the nonfraternisation order. I was very sorry to leave Oberaichbach. It was a lovely village, the people were friendly, I felt like somebody nice again. One of the refugee women—from Reinhardt with two charming little girls—was the sort of 54

person you and I would really like to have as a friend anywhere.

We arrived at the aerodrome with our 50 odd lorry loads of bodies at 0415.

A few aircraft took off but no start even made on our lot. We camped all over the aerodrome where we sat. Everyone was tired and my well disciplined group relapsed into prisoners of war once more, becoming tiresome and irresponsible. I think it was the surroundings that did it, being herded together sitting down in a group just waiting with nobody knowing what was happening next, eating where they sat, lying down in the mess was straight POW stuff. I went to bed in a hangar very tired. Fortunately Lt/Cpl Turnbull is still looking after me well.

11th May 1945 Everybody felt better after a good sleep and were more amenable. Everything was sorted out by 0900 but still no plans, so we went on sitting about.

Nothing happened all day and everyone got hot and limp, then about 0400 in the afternoon planes started coming in. The troops were slow about getting organised and I got rather exasperated, but got them off without a hitch until it was too late to fly any more out. We got 60 planes with 25 each away leaving ten loads for the morning. The heat and the infernal American K rations got me down. I retired to bed feeling very cheap.

12th May 1945 Woke up with a bad tummy and feeling pretty low. Aircraft started coming in soon after 0900 and our last group including me emplaned about 1000 and flew off. Once in the plane my responsibility ended. I was just another POW being taken home. All the countryside we flew over was undamaged, fair and fruitful, but all the bridges I saw were destroyed and one or two towns I had a glimpse of on the Rhineland were utterly destroyed. We landed at Brussels about 0100 and were driven in lorries for about half an hour to a report centre in the town.

There we filled in various forms and were taken off in lorries to our billets. The billets were lease hotels with clean beds bars and restaurants attached.

They were staffed by neat and pretty Belgian volunteer girls who were full of smiles and vivacity. A bath, a good meal and a rest put me in much better form.

In the evening I went off with Peter Lambeth to the Allied officers club—very grand and very civilized, rather like the Gazia club in Cairo. We drank there for a bit and then went to another allied club called ‘The Rendezvous’ where I 55

fell in with a couple of sappers and drank with them and also had a dance with a Canadian ATS. Peter and I finished up in a low class café drinking with some trollops and retired to bed rather the worse for wear.

13th May 1945 Got up and had a good breakfast despite a slight hangover then walked around to 21st Army Group Rear HQ where I called on General Tickell. He was very glad to see me and I had a long and interesting talk. I told him about the state of Germany while he showed me all the maps of Europe, the plan for Military Government army of occupation and all sorts of other things. I met Tony Hammond just as I was leaving and fixed lunch with him at 1.00. I then had a drink in the Allied Club where I met Brian, (Crete and Berkenhau), a contemporary of mine. When I got back to meet Tony Hammond I found we were for off. He turned up and had a ten minute chat, then I got my kit and piled into the lorry to take me to the aerodrome without my lunch and we were soon loaded into C47’s and took off about 3.00pm.

Arrived about 3.00 at Wing in Buckinghamshire, Very pleasantly received in the Langham with tea, buns and a band. Then taken to lunch at the officer’s reception camp. Rang up Bea after dinner and contacted her at 52 Marlborough Place.

14th May 1945 Put through the reception camp mill—pay, records, forms etc. very expeditiously, then taken to a station where I entrained for town and arrived 52 Marlborough Place to meet Veronica and Bea at two in the afternoon.

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BIOGRAPHY Edward (Teddy) Forrester Parker was born on 28th July 1909 in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland. He was educated in Northern Ireland and Emmanuel College Cambridge, where he received a degree in Engineering.

He met Beatrice (Bea) Phoebe Kaye on a ship to Bombay in 1937 while she was on her way to visit her sister Erica, who was teaching PE in a girls school in Calcutta. After her return to England she moved into a house on the green at Walberswick in Suffolk, with her youngest sister Fi. Some months later she received a telegram from Teddy asking her to marry him. She crossed Europe on her own after the outbreak of war and they were married in Haifa, Palestine on the 13th of December 1939, two and a half months after Hitler had invaded Poland. Along with other military wives and civillians, Bea was evacuated from Palestine to South Africa. They were not to see each other again for five years.

Bea made part of her journey on this plane. She bought the postcard at the airport in Trieste. ‘Ala Littoria’ was the national airline of Fascist Italy under Mussolini.

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My movements: 3rd Sept 1939 On Haifa Baghdad road, stationed in Haifa Palestine 1st Feb 1940

S.O.R.E. Force HQ, Jerusalem

26th Jan 1940 D.C.R.E. Sarafand, Palestine 20th June 1940 O.C. 42’ Held by Musa Harmal, Egypt 1st Nov 1940 With 42’ Field Company to Crete 1st June 1941 Captured by Germans in Crete 9th June 1941 Arrived Athens as prisoner 11th June 1941 Arrived Salonika as prisoner 29th July 1941 Arrived Oflag XC Lübek, Germany 8th Oct 1941 Arrived Oflag VI B Warburg, Germany 31st Aug 1942 Arrived Oflag IXa/z Rotenburg, Germany 6th Feb 1943 Arrived Oflag VIIB Eichstät, Bavaria 14th April 1945 Left Eichstät to Moosburg, Bavaria 29th April 1945 Stalag VII A Moosburg captured by US troops 7th May 1945 Arrived Oberaichbach released prisoners!

10th May 1945 Oberaichbach to Straubing Airfield

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People who wrote to me My Wife

Once or twice!

Daddy Every month with his usual news letter sometimes oftener.

Fi She was sweet and went to endless trouble to acknowledge all my letters, arrange things for me and do all manner of business. Her letters were always interesting and often amusing.

Boy Finch (Lieut. R.E.H. Finch RE) A respectful formal letter to his boss. He is a good boy and it was good of him to write. (He was one of my section subalterns who was detached at Heraklion and got back with his section).

Mrs C. Clark (Godwell, Bloxham, Banbury) Audrey Clark – a great friend of Basil’s when we were in East Lothian in Scotland. I had almost forgotten what she looked like but she insisted she was a great friend and wrote regularly, but I was not very interested.

Miss P.M. Johnson Need I describe one of PMJ’s letters! She wrote three or four times.

Aunty B. She wrote several very nice letters, she’s a dear Lady Goldsmith She wrote me several charming letters abounding with nice sentiments, amusing irrelevancies and odd bits of news. Her eldest daughter Naus wrote too.

Frank Cundell A few odd notes from Frank containing the minimum possible information and showing clearly the difficulty he was experiencing in filling in the bare minimum of half a page—good old Frank Mrs R.A. Coulay A dullish letter—but it amused me to think that the dull country life was going on the same in the same house. when was it we were there—Dec ’36?

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Mrs. H. Barker (283 Peshawar Rd) Was Tammy Dudley-Matthews, daughter of Mrs. D.M. who accompanied trainer Capt Bernard round the India Racecourses. Pindi brought up with the smell of stables around her she loved racing horses. I met her at all the race meetings and quite liked her but did no more than say good day. She married a Major Barker RE a most unhorseworthy man.

Mrs. A.M. Cumberland (Mousehole, Cornwall) The dear old trout who sails round the British Isles in her yacht and who has known me since I was so high. (of cigaette box fame) W.D. Gibbon (3 Deramore Drive, Belfast) My late headmaster and a very worthy man indeed. I hope to take you to meet him some day.

Boy Normanton Two scrappy notes but he never was a letter writer. I was glad he hadn’t forgotten me Major F Arnold (c/o Glyn Mills, Rutland House, Whitehall SW) A dentist who lived in Miss Christie’s at Lahore. A good chap whom I only remember vaguely.

Major F.E. Buckland RMYC (St. Anne’s Lodge, Chertsey Surrey) Dear old Frank. He used to live at Miss Christies but was away when you were in Lahore. He was always in and around our training gang. A shocking horseman but keen as mustard. A good shot. Believe he has married a rich sporting wife.

Wrote several amusing letters.

Basil Davey (10 The Crescent, Ripon) Basil remained a staunch friend and wrote when ever he could.

Kathleen (sister) She wrote about 3 times and each one of them gave me a pain in the neck.

Helen Goldsmith (Sisters Mess, RN Hosp, Woolton, Liverpool) The youngest of the Goldsmith girls and the nicest. Trained as a nurse during the war Often wrote me naïve, amusing letters about her training, odd bits of sailing, boyfriends and horses.

Mrs J.T. Hunt (5 Norham Gardens, Oxford) Poor Mrs Hunt with Father Hunt. gone she lives largely in the past and wrote brave but pathetic letters of the fun we used to have in Scotland.

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E.W. Petersen (3 Dean’s Yard, Westminster) The Secretary of the RORC who sails with the indecently rich Gore Lloyds. You may have met him at Burnham. He wrote often and gave me all the RORC news as well as sending me great fids of cigarettes from the club.

D. Frazer Hurst (12 San Soucie Park, Belfast) The Presbyterian minister when daddy used to play the organ. Dull and repetitious.

Bennet Fisher Ben wrote often – very amusingly and cheerfully. I haven’t seen him since we were at Cambridge in ’32 but can still remember him well and a first class chap.

Monica Hedgecock One or two witty and charming letters as would expect from her.

R.S.Vidal-Hall (17 Market Street, Hoylake Cheshire) He wrote a couple of times and faded out. His wife Rachael wrote from America where she had taken the kids. I am afraid I have drifted right away from Dick and it’s a struggle to keep in touch.

Ursula McCoy (Roanmore,Waterford) Vallis McCoy was a great friend at school. He is now in the Indian Cavalry. His sisters had bad luck. They were flat broke when their father died and instead of being cheerful country girls having a decent future they now run a tie shop in Framore. They were unmarried though they were damned attractive. Daddy went to see them and they wrote to me twice and sent me some chocolate.

Fred Steinhardt (Yale Club N.Y., 25 Broadway N.Y) A Cambridge sailing friend. Repulsively ugly but very good hearted. More serious than Ben—a social reformer, financier and politician. Hunts and sails with enthusiasm but not naturally gifted. He wrote nicely.

Col. A. Austrather R.E. (c/o Cox & Kings) A sapper with whom I’ve sailed. A good chap. Wrote me an encouraging letter which was good coming from him as he was in an exalted position in the W.O. Mrs. K. McDonald (5 Norham Gardens Oxford) (Kath Hunt) You know all about her. She sent me two of my favourite sailing books which have been a great standby.

Mrs. S. H. Beattie (Springtown, Cottage, Londonderry) My first serious girl friend at Chatham in 1929. Have not seen her since ’32 but have 61

corresponded. Her husband is in the Navy and got the V.C at St. Nazaire. She wrote to me several times but when her man became a POW himself, I think her letters went elsewhere. She ‘s a dear—very honest, straightforward and kind.

Miss E.M.C. Brownslow (11 Campden Road, Croydon) Mother’s sister—a typical suburban maiden aunt.. Very small K. Pennington (Michael House) I was very glad to get an outside account of you.

Chris Birdwood Chris wrote a couple of kind letters. He’s not a chap of great consequence but I like him and hope we meet again.

R. St.J Peverley (21 Hough Green, Chester) An American who lives in England and a keen sailor with a large yacht. I crewed with him back in ’31 and he thought I was a hell of a good sailor. He wrote me a lot of yachting news and sent a glowing account of me to Herb Stone of ‘Yachting’.

A friend of the Hunts.

Mrs C.R. Tuckey (The Pond House, Durston, Northampton) Muriel wrote often and always cheerfully. I must say I like her enormously. She has asked us to spend the next Xmas after the war with her.

Mrs. J. de Sales La Terriere (Brompton Grange, Richmond, Yorks) The nicest woman in Yorkshire (when you are not there). Always looks as if she has just stepped out of a Bond Street shop yet will tackle anything from Mount Everest to a 32” pig. Goes like hell out hunting. Chatters delightfully all the time and keeps a charming house. Wrote frequently and seems really keen to see me (and you) again which pleases me a lot.

Md Zamar Khan (c/o Major S Stevenson RA, 1 Luck Road, Quetta) My old head aya. A very likeable character.

Yug (Erica Kaye) Wrote nicely several times Peg (sister) & John Moore Peg wrote fairly often tho’ not as often as she might. I think she has had a very dull war poor thing.

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Chris Bocorow One of the subalterns in the 55 Cpy at Catterick. Wrote me an amusing account of a job he did in West Africa.

Barbara Ann Helliwell Quite a good letter for a little girl. I think she is bright.

Linette Eichenberger (333 Sehwargh Strasse, Zurich) Used to look after Katherine’s kids. Daddy subsequently stayed with her family serveral times. She wrote several kind letters offering help. My letters never seemed to arrive tho!

Joany (from Turkey) Wrote several times but not much news. Communication with her was unreliable and difficult. My letters I think did not arrive.

Col. Prynne Father of a sapper Mike Prynne. He wrote me some yachting news.

Jemadan Durit Khan (‘Mohammed’ Khan, KGO, Bengal, SM) One of my charges at 9A/2. Worked under me in India. A fine type of Indian Officer.

Robert Clark Yacht designer and one of the key men of ocean racing. Wrote ocean racing news and spoke highly of my skill Auntie May Mrs. F.F. Parker. Wrote a lot of nonsense as she would but she is good hearted.

Barbara Ann Helliwell Quite a good letter for a little girl. I think she is bright.

Raymond Tuckey M’s husband, a sapper, a tennis player.

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Abbreviations in the text

HQ Lt. Cpl Sgt Lt Col O.R.’s SORE DCRE SHAPE WO BGS

Headquaters Lieutenant Corporal Sergeant Lieutenant Colonel Other Ranks Special Operations Regional Engagement Deputy Commander Royal Engineers Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Warrant Officer Battle Group Support

Syce

Servant or soldier employed to look after horses or vehicles, esp. in India.

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