|
|||
|
February
1945. We
were up early on the Thursday morning endeavouring to get a fire
going for a hot drink and also to wash under the one tap available
to the entire crowd in the cowshed. Our Polish friend brought
us cooked potatoes and by delving into our stocks we managed
to produce quite a good meal which was enlivened by the announcement
that we were to rest for the day. The Germans made a very small
issue of bread and great efforts were tried to bribe the guards
and farm people for more bread but it was very scarce; however
our group was lucky enough to contact the farmer's wife or sister
who provided a variety of food in exchange for a tin of Nescafe
which she greatly coveted. During the night four officers made a break and we were anxious about them for many weeks as nothing was heard of them but eventually we learned that they were all caught soon after escape and taken South to Nuremburg with the sick. At the parade on Friday morning the Americans were separated from us and marched off about 4 kilometres to Muskau where they en-trained for Nuremberg. The remainder, mainly RAF but including representatives from many different countries followed the Americans into Muskau where we were told that our march was to continue. By now the snow had disappeared so that all sledges were abandoned and everything had to be carried on our backs. A halt of about half an hour was made in the main square of Muskan where considerable interest was shown by the population but absolutely no hostility was shown. About midday we left Muskau at the start of our most difficult march as the Germans would not allow hourly rests but forced us on in warm weather to reach our destination before dusk. This was a village called Graustein where we arrived in rather bad shape after a long day carrying our kit 24 kilometres; on this occasion we were split up into groups of 100 and sent to different farms where most of us had plenty of room in good barns with lots of straw. Our group was provided with hot water for drinks and after a rough meal of bread and bully beef we soon fell asleep. By this time my feet were very painful with blisters and my back was causing a lot of trouble but I knew that we only had 7 kilometres to do on Saturday so I thought I could do it. I did complete the journey but it was the hardest effort of all to get through the two hours to Spremberg which we reached about midday. There we were taken to a big Panzer barracks, where we joined the East Camp prisoners from Sagan who had followed a different route and where we were given barley stew which was the first decent food provided by the Germans since leaving Belaria. In the afternoon the now large column slowly wended its way through the town to the station and although the march was over we realised that the train journey would be no picnic. We were packed 45 to each cattle truck so that no one could get really stretched out and we were locked into the trucks about 4pm; the train did not pull out until 8pm and we crawled slowly through the night and all next day to Luckenwalde, a journey of 160 kilometres which took 24 hours. We de-trained at the sidings and marched to Stalag III A in the darkness with our guards too listless to bother much about us but by this time we too were in a low state so that no attempt was made to escape. After a weary wait and a search we eventually found beds in disgusting barracks which really horrified us but that is another story and the great march was over. |
|||
|
|||
|