Chapter
6 – Labour Camps
The
First Labour Camp
The
prisoners were sent out from Lansdorf in small groups as work
parties to other areas. I was in E361 Work Party. We were wakened
up in the morning and detailed off into work parties. When we
walked out the main gate we were handed a couple of slices of
bread and we never knew where we were going. We were usually
taken to the railway station and could be travelling for five or
six hours, well off the main line, before we reached our
destination.
Sometimes we would be away from the main camp for months
at a time.
The
first Labour Camp was the worst of our six-year confinement. I
was sent out in November with a party of sixty-five to seventy
POWs, a day’s train journey into East Sudetenland,
Czechoslovakia, to the Petershofin coalmine. It was poor quality
coal, full of stones.
That
was my home for almost a year. The approach to the camp was a
scary experience because there were German paratroopers out on
night exercise landing all around us.
It
was an absolute hell of a camp and spirits very always very low.
We were accommodated in a hut at the pithead but it was far from
comfortable. It had been a wood drying shed and was far from
airtight.
The
food consisted of nothing but sauerkraut, or what they called
potato soup. Bread was scarce. We only had two thin slices per
day.
The
work was hard, either 12 hours of day work or a 12-hour night
shift working over a mile underground and that included Sunday.
Our
only dress was a pair of boots and a pair of overalls. The German
guards and mine workers were allowed to wear knee guards but the
POWs had to suffer without these items for protection
I
was detailed to work alongside an old German coalminer. He was in
his late fifties or nearly sixty. We got on well together and he
treated me well. He was issued with a better coffee flask and
would give me a drink from it when my coffee ran out. Sometimes
he gave me some of his drinking water and the occasional slice of
bread. During the break we would sit and talk and I soon learned
German. He often joked that we might be related because his name
was Bulmer.
We
would crawl about 300-400 yards to the coalface every morning.
The approach was about eighteen to twenty inches high but once
you got to the coalface there was room to stand up. I had to wear
a leather belt with a hook on each hip. That allowed me to trail
two twenty-four inch pit props roped together on each side. The
old German was always listening for the crack of the pit props
breaking and was very good at locating the fault. He always went
straight to the point, took a pit prop from me, hammered it into
position and then gave me the broken pit prop to drag out.
There
was an electrical supply at the coalface. That was used to drill
the shot holes when we wanted to blast the face for more coal.
There were also two pipes running through the coalmine. One
supplied water to reduce the stone and coal dust at the working
face. The other pipe supplied air for the pneumatic picks, the
‘Windy Picks’ at the coalface. The air supply pipes in the
coal mine also served as a form of communications. The miners
used a series of coded taps on the pipes for every event. For
example, before the coal left the face it had to go into the
‘Shakers’ where the stones and coal were separated. There
were signals telling us when to do this and other signals telling
us when they wanted either stones or coal loaded on the trucks.
On
many occasions this tapping system saved our lives. One night we
had just started to make our way to the coal face and we heard a
series of taps on the air pipes. We had to jump into a long metal
tool chest and lie there for the full shift. The signal told us
that there was gas circulating in the mine and the tool chest was
the safest place to be.
By
23 November 1941 I had been down the mine for over eight months
until I suffered from the effects of stone dust in my lungs. I
was taken out of the coal mine and returned to Stalag VIIIb until
I recovered. Some POWs stayed at the coal mine for the duration
of the war. If the Germans had a prisoner who worked away
steadily they tried to hold on to them.
The
German Military Hospital
The
POW camp I was incarcerated in was located close to Warsaw. There
was a large hospital complex nearby. I had occasion to attend
that hospital after suffering from a plague of boils. It was
determined by the doctors that I was malnourished and overworked
and this had caused the boils to erupt. The cure was a three-week
diet of charcoal and cows milk that I had to consume before I
left the hospital.
The
matron at the hospital was originally from Germany but had spent
most of her adult life in Australia. After she had trained as a
nurse she had been to almost every hospital in Northern Ireland
before returning to Australia. Just before the war started she
took a year out to visit her parents in Germany. But as the war
started she was not allowed to return to Australia.
Once
I was in the hospital for treatment the matron kept the guard
outside the door and both the matron and the nurse started
talking away to me. They wanted to know if I could get them any
soap. I let them know that I had access to plenty of soap,
chocolate and cigarettes. The nurse said, ‘I love soap’. I
replied that I could get her some soap if she really wanted it.
Although this was a hospital, the matron still wanted a bar of
good quality soap. The matron said that I would have to return
for follow up treatment in two days time.
As
soon as I returned to the POW camp I asked around for some soap
and within a short space of time I gathered a good supply.
I took two bars of soap with me for the next treatment
session. I then asked them if they liked chocolate and the nurses
eyes nearly popped out of her head. I then produced a bar of
chocolate that was consumed straight away. As I was leaving after
treatment the matron passed me a small wrapped parcel. When I
returned to the POW camp I found that it was half a loaf of
bread. The first white bread we had seen for a long time. It was
shared amongst the rest of the billet.
The
next time I went for treatment I took more chocolate and soap in
exchange for more white bread. That routine went on for the full
fortnight of my treatment. On one occasion I even got a cake.
As
soon as the matron was given soap or chocolate the first thing
they always done was to remove the wrappers, wrap them in paper
an give the origional wrappers back to us.
They did not want to be caught with anything belong to the
allies.
Hospital
Laundry Duties
On
one occasion in Poland two of us were detailed off to work on
hospital laundry duties. The soiled laundry would come down a
chute and we had to sort it out for washing. We had no protective
clothing such as facemasks or gloves and felt uncomfortable doing
this filthy task.
After
the second day two nurses came along and took a puzzled look at
us. They could not understand our language but soon worked out
that we were British. They asked us why we were working in the
laundry without wearing protective clothing.
We
thought that because we were POWs we were not allowed protective
clothing.
They
told us that the Russian POWs always did the job because that was
all they were good for.
We
were taken away and had to wash up before returning to our work
party.
The
Sternberg Timber Yard
After
my medical treatment had finished I was posted to my second
labour camp and it turned out to be the best camp I have ever
been to. Ten POWs, two senior NCOs and a Medical Orderly from the
Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) marched to the railway station
and boarded a passenger train.
Late
that evening we arrived at a place called Sternberg. After a
short march through the town we arrived at a large timber yard,
were ushered into large worker’s canteen to be greeted by our
future boss and his daughter. Both spoke English, the girl was a
schoolteacher and her father, the boss, had been a POW in England
from 1916-1918. He was very polite to us and understood how we
felt.
Our
room were a very pleasant surprise. Each room accommodated only
eight men and there was an oven. At the end of the hall there was
a washroom and toilet.
We were then taken back to canteen for a lovely meal of
potatoes, vegetables bread and butter, coffee or tea and music
was playing in the background.
We really enjoyed that meal.
Then it was back to our billets, good clean beds and a
good night’s sleep in comfort.
The
next morning we were divided into two working parties, a day
shift and a night shift in a factory producing self assemble huts
that had to be packed into large crates. Most of these huts were
made for the Red Cross. They were to be used to accommodate sick
and wounded soldiers or British POWs. Some of the huts were sent
to the rear of the German advance in Russia to be used in
hospitals and rest houses for battle fatigued soldiers.
The
work in the factory was clean and not too hard although it was
usually a 12 hour shift; Monday to Saturday with no work on a
Sunday.
We all hoped we would be able to stay there for the
remainder of war no matter how long or short it lasted but that
was not to be – the Germans had other ideas.
The
Traitor
There
was a Physical Training Instructor (PTI) in our billet at
Sternberg who became known as a traitor and was transferred to a
series of different camps for his own safety.
At
the time we had a Post Office engineer in our billet and we
managed to collect the material and put together three small
wireless sets. These sets kept us well informed on the progress
of the war.
The
PTI must have overheard someone talking about our radios because
one morning the Gestapo came into our huts and ripped up
floorboards and wall panels until they found two of the radios.
They did not find the radio that was in my room because I picked
it up and dropped it in a bucket of slops. I knew from experience
that the guards would never go near the slop buckets so the radio
was safe.
It
was one of the German guards who ‘spilled the beans’ on the
culprit. The guards knew we were getting news from somewhere but
did not bother trying to find the source.
In
general conversation with one of the British POWs he openly
accused the Corporal PTI. The PTI was shifted that evening. He
was taken to the coal mining camp at Gliwich where over 100
English POWs were accommodated. But one of the German guards who
escorted the PTI spoke with a POW Sergeant and told him that the
PTI was a traitor.
His
treachery had caused the German guards as much bother as it had
caused us so they were out to make his life a misery.
He had to be moved again otherwise he would have been hung
on the barbed wire that night. We lost track of him after that.
He was English and a very good PTI but a traitor.
Mental
Problems
We
had to jump on a young Scotsman who tried to burn down the
factory. On another night he destroyed as many dynamos as
possible in the factory so that the electrical system failed.
Then one night I couldn’t find him. One soldier came to me and
took me to where the young Scotsman was. ‘Jock’ had gone to
the timber yard and had lain down on the rollers just below the
pendulum saw. He had manoeuvred himself so that when he released
the saw it would cut his head off.
I
asked him what the problem was. He replied that he wanted to get
home so he was going to cut his head off.
We told him he was stupid because they would not send him
home without his head attached. This was the young man that had
built us or illicit radio sets only a few months before.
We
talked him out of releasing the saw blade that night. It was not
long after that incident I was woken up late one night and asked
to go to the timber yard. ‘Jock’ was lying on the rollers and
was about to pull the rope that released the saw blade. We
managed to save him again but this time we informed the German
guard. ‘Jock’ ended up in hospital and before we knew it he
was back in Scotland in a psychiatric hospital.
Not
soon after that episode the Sergeant in charge of our billet
received a very nasty letter from ‘Jock’s’ sister. She
wanted know why we had allowed all this to happen.
The
Railway
At
one time we moved to a railway located in the northeast of Warsaw
where we had to lay two miles of track into Warsaw. There was a
canal beside the line and every time a train came along the track
we had to stand in the canal.
The
next posting took us to the south of Warsaw. That was right in
Germany and it was a hellhole. It was commanded by a person we
called ‘The Mad Major’. On our first day there we were all
kept standing outside our billets. When we were eventually
allowed into the billets we were told to expect an early call.
Just as soon as we were in bed, we were roused at 3am and had to
stand outside for an hour regardless of the weather. After that
muster we were allowed back into the billet until we were raised
to go to work. That was the daily routine. The work was not bad
but the Mad Major treated us very badly. Our next posting was
less severe. We were tasked to clean out a canal.
Canal
Cleaning
We
had to clean the canal of debris and other rubbish. There was a
young Cockney Corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals with us. He
could speak fluent French and German although the Germans did not
know he spoke their language. He was a trained medic and spent
most of his time in the Hospital. He built up a friendship with a
French girl from a nearby female prison camp. He decided to see
more of her. One morning he asked us to watch out for a signal
from the women’s camp, he was expecting something to be hung on
the fence and we all looked out for it. He said, ‘I want to get
into that camp so when they hang up the signal, I want you all to
develop diarrhoea or something to distract the guards’. We all
agreed and as soon as the signal came we all started to distract
the guards because some of us developed a ‘dose of the runs’,
we all made a dash to the bank of railway.
The
Lance Corporal swam across and dashed over to the female prison
camp, at another arranged signal he would dash to bank and he
swam back again. But this time, a number of men fell into the
canal, so as to cover for Lance Corporal, the guard never saw
what happened but a number often went sick next day to make it
look as if we were really sick because the guard’s had reported
our sickness.
The
guards never suspected anything and the Corporal tried the same
escapade a couple of days later. This time we threw a couple of
men into the canal to create a distraction at one end of the
canal while the corporal swam across the canal further up. That
was the last time the Corporal tried that escapade, as the guards
would have caught him out.
We
stayed on the canal for over four months and then we were sent
back into Germany again I was sent back to main camp again for a
short time at Stalag VIIIB and then on to Stalag IIIA near
Potsdam.
Back
to Germany
After
a period of time once again another move this time into Germany
to a large work camp an absolute hell of a place, little food,
very unpleasant huts, cramped conditions, hardly any toilet
facilities.
The German major in charge was a proper Nazi madman. He
enjoyed getting everybody out of bed about 3am in all kinds of
weather. You were forced to stand to attention for an hour or
more depending on what mood he was in. After some rest you had to
be out of bed again by 5am to go to work.
The
work at that location involved clearing the canal for military
transport and also laying a new railway track. That was a
twelve-hour day no matter what weather was.
The
Polish Swimming Pool
On
one occasion we were sent to work on the railway track in Poland.
The area we were working in contained a large swimming pool built
by the poles. When the Germans invaded Poland they confiscated
the pool and the Poles were only allowed to use it once every
week. We all thought this was unfair so we sabotaged the pool
quite regularly. When no Germans were about we would soil the
pool in the evenings to the disgust of the Germans. They always
blamed the Poles for that bit of dirty work.
The
Germans then had to open the sluice gates to empty the pool. The
water was allowed to flow through the pool for two days before
the sluice gates were closed again.
Czechoslovakia
Some
of the POWs at Stalag VIIIb had observed some terrible scenes in
Czechoslovakia. One day a sick parade was escorted to hospital
and they had to pass three Czechs hung by the Germans. The German
guards told them that they had been hanging there for three days
and would hang there for another five days. They had been hung to
teach the remainder a lesson because there was a lot of sabotage
going on in the immediate area including the derailment of
ammunition trains.
The
hangings had little effect on the sabotage as it continued. We
would lie in our billets at night listening to the explosions of
the tracks being destroyed. These attacks kept our German guards
on edge all the time.
Lidice
One
day there was a heavy concentration of German troops and SS men
so we were very curious about that. The Czech POWs in our
accommodation were able to tell us that the Germans had destroyed
the town of Lidice and murdered the occupants. We were informed
that there were only about 200 – 250 people in that small
farming village.
One
girl who worked in the camp kitchens had been away on holiday but
returned to the POW camp after only three days. She had spent
part of her holiday in Lidice and left the village to visit
friends in a nearby village. When she returned to Lidice she was
dropped off one mile away at the crossroads and all she saw were
green fields where the village had been. The tactic did not
discourage the Czechs because the goods and ammunition trains
suffered after that.
We
were working in a German factory at that time and we ignored the
Germans for a long time after the Lidice incident. The Germans
could not understand what caused us to turn on them because news
like that was always kept from them. They wondered why we never
said ‘Good Morning’ or ’Good Evening’ and they could see
the hatred in our eyes.
The
British Free Corps
We
were interrogated in great depth in 1943 when the Germans were
trying to form the British Free Corps. The group promised
potential recruits many inducements to join the Corps. They
promised everything under the sun including wine, women and song
and easy tasks such as guard duties at railway installations.
They failed to recruit in our camp.
They
asked a load of silly questions but I was never interrogated. At
the time I was sitting beside a middle-aged Irish Guards Sergeant
called McNamara. When he walked into the room there was a row of
officers sitting at a long table getting ready to question us.
Sergeant McNamara walked up to the table and said to one of the
traitors who was about the same age as he was, ‘I knew you.’
He replied, ‘How do you know me?’ The sergeant said, ‘ I
knew you when you were in Dublin, your name is…’ The traitor
panicked and denied the identification. The Sergeant reached
across the table for the traitor and said, ‘If ever I meet you
again in Dublin after this war is over I will swing for you.’
The pair of us were bundled out of the room and I missed the
interrogation session. The whole process had to be halted for an
hour until everyone calmed down.
Camp
Amusements
There
were no entertainment facilities available at the work camps. The
main camp was well organised for sports as well as variety shows
to keep you amused. The sports included lice races, cockroach
races, such as football and track events and card games. Some of
the card games lasted from the morning to the following morning.
The
first cockroach to cross a white line was the winner. All these
sports ended up in fights because we used cigarettes for stake
money and these were expensive items to be fought and cheated
for. If you were caught fighting part of the punishment was a
restriction of food to bread and water.
At
one time we ran out of cigarette papers so we used the pages from
a Holy Bible instead. Luckily my grandmother had presented me
with a New Testament when I left Ballymoney but I left it in my
suitcase in Chatham. It was the only item left in my suitcase
when I returned to England after my liberation.
The
most innocent form of entertainment and pastime in the main camp
was walking. You would walk and walk around the camp as long as
you could.
Shows
were kept running all the time in the main camps. A specific
number of huts were allocated to watch the shows at a specific
time. The variety shows were organised by the prisoners
themselves. The most popular sketches were those that mocked the
Germans, even the Germans enjoyed them. There was one group that
travelled around all the camps and sometimes the smaller camps.
The Royal Marine officer, Lieutenant Scott, was in one of the
entertainment troupes. That was the officer we had pronounced
dead back at Calais in 1939. Although he was badly wounded he was
well cared for by the Germans and survived.
