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Wednesday,
May 23 1945.
(at Halle) Towards the end of last week the situation was one
of miserable stagnation and there is little to report of any
note except, incredible as it may seem, a dance was held on Saturday
night. None of us attended but during that evening the news for
which we had been waiting desperately came completely out of
the blue. An announcement from the SBO said that an agreement
had been reached between American and Russian Officers regarding
exchange of prisoners and that we were to leave on the following
day - Sunday,
May 20.
We went to bed that night excited but a little anxious as we
had been disappointed so often. However about 10 o'clock next morning, Russian lorries rolled in and the camp siren was sounded as a signal for everyone to prepare for departure. We had no time to put the workshop in good order before leaving so that it was not in a good state when we handed it over to six Dutchmen; it had been a comfortable billet for three weeks but we had no regrets at leaving. Latterly I had been going out on joinery jobs with Ted and Ray as a very unskilled carpenter's mate and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Soon we were all loaded on to the lorries, about 90 of them with 25 men to each lorry - it was all American transport - and included were a few civilian refugees who claimed British nationality under our protection. Three RAF men were left behind having married women refugees and were not allowed to travel with us - to most of us it appeared a foolish business having been done without consent of the SBO and no doubt their arrival home would be much delayed. As usual it took a long time to get going but by two o'clock all the lorries were heading West through Freuenbritzen, much was damaged, and on to the Halle autobahn. Our journey was eventful to say the least as the Germans had blown up many bridges over and under the autobahn so that frequently a lengthy detour had to be made through woods; this was rough treatment for the lorries which in any case were handled far from gently by the Russian drivers. About seven o'clock we reached the River Elbe at Coswig near Dessau and were very relieved to see American soldiers waiting on the other side; the bridge was destroyed so we crossed on foot over a pontoon bridge to board American lorries. We were still in Russian territory for a few miles and it was a great joy to us all when we crossed a little river with an American sentry on the far side. Most of us do not trust the Russians and certainly they have not reciprocated in any way to the enthusiastic welcome which we extended to them on their first arrival; there have been some cases of theft at gunpoint from Allied POW of watches and other valuables. Perhaps their unfriendliness is partly based on the Russian attitude to their own people who are taken prisoner and looked upon as having committed a shameful act. There were no road blocks on the American side and we speeded along a magnificent road to Halle, noticing all the way how much more cheerful the civilians looked than those in Russian territory. We arrived late at night in a big army camp and airfield and since then we have been waiting for the next stage by air but the weather is holding us up. Our quarters are good and the food, after POW diet, is splendid but, apart from a cinema, there is little to occupy us and time passes slowly - we are used to that by now and this time home really does seem to be close. |
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