I had been working in a coal mine 1700 feet deep when the Germans decided that the Russian Army was getting too close for comfort. I was in a working party of around 300 POWs and the mine was near the south-west border of Poland, 10 miles south of Katowitz, near Dombravo. We lived on 1lb of bread and a bowl of soup per day, plus any food which came to us via the Red Cross parcels, which were not very often. Sometimes the civvies gave us some bread, but they were very little better off than we were.

The mine was closed on September 17th 1944 so that the Poles could go some 19 miles away to dig anti-tank trenches. Four months later, on the 17th January 1945 we were told to pack our bags and get ready to move out.
We assembled in the early morning with as much as we could carry, knowing that there was a long walk ahead of us. It was very cold, never more than -10° and ears and hands had to be covered to prevent frostbite. The telegraph poles glistened with frost, metal door handles were so cold that they felt sticky to hold. In fact it proved to be the coldest winter in the last hundred years in that part of the country. It started to snow as we set out and there were already 9-10" of snow on the ground.
We trudged on through the day. We must have looked more like refugees than soldiers, with our cases, bags and rucksacks. I had managed to make a small sledge to put a case and rucksack on. One has to bear in mind that it was an accumulation of things collected over five years and, in fact, my home.

We joined other parties in our column and by late afternoon we arrived at a POW camp, which had been occupied by Russian POWs. There were still a few of them there to welcome us as we were directed to the small wooden huts in the compound, with about thirty men to a hut. The huts had about twenty bunk beds to accommodate us. I managed to get a top bunk, but it only had four bed boards, which I struggled to arrange so that I would have something to lie on as I was there for the night. It was not 4 star accommodation; the window was broken and the door did not shut properly. The only heat was from our bodies. Breakfast was served up last week, so we went without! Not even a cup of coffee. The only light came from the moon and we had to get up and on parade for 6.30 am.
It was still dark and we stood around stamping our feet to try to keep warm until 9.OOam before we moved off. We could not get a wash as there were no facilities of any sort.

That day we tramped on with very few stops until we got to Gleiwitz. There we were directed to a sports pavilion in the middle of a sports field. The light was fading and I pushed my way up some stairs into a roof area, looking for a place to sit down. The roof came down to the floor at the sides so you could only stand up in the middle of the room. I do not know how so many men could get into that place, for others had joined us. Similar columns of men had been there before us.
I found a spot and sat down with my knees tucked up. That was all the space I had. During the night I managed to stretch out one leg and was leaning on someone else. I slept through sheer exhaustion. By morning nearly all the oxygen had been used up. Those who wanted to smoke found it impossible to light a match. Only by trying close to the floor under the eaves where a little air was coming in would a match burn, and they went out as soon as it was brought two feet into the room. Seeing this I started to make my way to the door to get outside. It was such a relief to get out into the air again. I found my little sleigh to my surprise, loaded it up and got ready for the day's march.
Again they forgot to come round with the coffee or any breakfast! There may have been toilet facilities there, but they were lost in the crowd.

It was just light when I set off again and we stopped at a small village school. It would have been about 4pm as it was getting dark. The crowd had thinned out and I found space in the school room where I could lie down, albeit a quarry tiled floor, but beggars cannot be choosers! The room had a fireplace and the boys soon had plans to light a fire in the morning, when it would be light enough to see what we were doing. I found a little bread in my baggage as there did not seem to be any signs of the Germans providing any food for us.
We settled down to sleep about 10pm but by midnight a lot of horses went galloping by on the cobbled street just outside. Then after a short pause another lot went by. It turned out to be the German Horse Artillery retreating. This went on until about 2am. The guard burst in and shouted at us to get up and get out quickly!! We had to move out quickly! When we got outside we could hear small arms fire, as well as field guns being fired in the distance. It was small wonder that the German Guard wanted us to be on the move.
We formed up in columns a short way down the road and there we stopped, standing out in the cold night and nobody knew why. I had managed a wash at that stop but nothing else. There we stayed until it was light, stamping our feet and throwing our arms across ourselves to try to keep warm, for it was very cold. We stood there for hours, apparently waiting for the Aussies who were in a barn close by and refusing to go out, until the guards turned their guns on them and started to fire warning shots over their heads. The Aussies took the hint and came out and joined us! Finally, we moved off in deep snow, no breakfast or even coffee walking on without a halt until 6pm. It was quite dark. We had few stops that day. If nature called you had to go to the edge of the marching column and join it later on. It was really very cold that day. I found out that we had done at least 42km, some 26 miles, under those conditions without food or drink. Apparently we had to get over the River Oder where the German Army was going to make a stand.

We were very tired when we stopped and were put into farm buildings for the night. It was too dark for the farmer to get any food for us, so we turned in and tried to make ourselves comfortable on the straw. As you can imagine we looked around to try and find anything that was edible, but even the spiders ran away and hid! Most of the barns in that area had wooden sides made from rough sawn timber with uneven sides. The boards did not butt up close but had gaps between, varying from ½" tO 3" so that plenty of air could pass through the walls. Our lodgings served only to keep some of the cold wind and snow from us. No fire was allowed in the barns, they just provided a shelter from the harsh winter. Most of us had one blanket, but that did not help much when the temperature dropped to -23° to -30° during the night. However, I did find a rotting swede which the farmer must have forgotten or the animals would not eat, but I thanked God for it. Apart from food, the only thought in our mind was that we were moving slowly westward and towards England, if only we could make it.

The following day we assembled a little later in the day and went on to stop in another barn at a village called Leobschitz, not as far as the previous day but plenty far enough the way we felt. Our morale was getting a bit low, the straw in the barn was wet and that made us even more miserable. They managed, however, to find a cauldron in which they made some soup. I cannot describe the taste, but to have a cup of warm food was so wonderful. I must have had some sleep that night but not much.

The following day about one hundred of us were moved about 3km to another barn in the next village where I managed to get a wash and the farmer's wife gave me some hot water in my mug so that I could get shaved, using my cutthroat razor out in the open when it was so very cold. A fire was lit in the yard and I tried to dry my socks by it. It was great not to have to walk too far.

The following day we moved on about 4km and considered it a day after rations came up! Four small packets of biscuits (1/4lb) and one tin of meat between two. Later on we got three hot potatoes per man. You could easily hold them in one hand. As the afternoon wore on I teamed up with two others as we felt that we could make a bed with one blanket under us and two on top. It would be warmer. So we slept on about 12" of straw on one blanket and put the other two on top of us. We were fully clothed of course. It was so very cold. I was lucky as I slept in the middle. Also I put my boots in the straw underneath my body to keep them from freezing, but it did not work, they still froze. Some boys slept in their boots and were frozen solid by morning and they could not get them off. It must have been painful. There was a small lantern in the barn but we had to turn in when it got dark at about 4.3Opm.
We got up when it got light only to find that the temperature had dropped to -28° that night. We stayed at that place all day, mostly outside and waiting and praying for food. When it came it was four packets of little biscuits as before and half a sausage, 3" long, and were told it was to last us for four days. It started to snow and it was very hard to keep warm. The fire, such as it was, had gone very, very low, with no more logs available.

In the morning we were on the march again and went to the other side of Treppau in Germany. I was getting very hungry and felt that my emergency ration should be raided. I took my last tin of sardines out of my pack and put them in my trouser pocket. I knew they would be frozen, so I left them there all of the day. To me it felt like the last food I would ever eat. I opened the tin and the oil was still frozen. I ate them for it was the only food I had that day.
During the day we heard artillery fire again and passed by several German field guns waiting to go into action.
We ambled on and on. We had come over hills and now the country levelled out and our final stop was a factory at Lobenthal. I knew that several of our boys had dropped out and I could only pray that I would make it.
It was at Lobenthal that we joined other parties again and were crowded into a two storey factory. I thought that I had had it rough until I got there. We were packed in and each man had a space 18"x5ft. The only thing I can say was that it was a little warmer inside than out. There must have been 6,000 packed into that building. We slept on dirty wooden floors and there were only four toilets to each floor. To use them you had to climb onto the top of the door and operate from there. In the stairway empty suitcases were used as toilets. I have seen cleaner pigsties. I did manage to find space to do two or three haircuts and even a couple of shaves. It took my mind off my situation.
I went to a nearby house where they let me wash my hands and face and they gave me a bite to eat. In the factory itself water was hard to get three wash basins and very slow running water. The facilities were so totally inadequate. The guards tried to keep us inside but the stench was intolerable. It was like living in a cesspit, so many animals penned up for so long in such a confined space. It was an absolute nightmare. I figured that the factory would employ 50-100 men at most. We stayed here for two days and it was on the second day that food arrived. It was oats, soup powder, dry meat and a little lard, enough for one meal, but it was to last for four days with a little bread for two days.
The snow was still a foot deep everywhere and I had lost contact with most of the boys that I set out with from the coal mine. It was a case of every man for himself, with no privacy at all. After twelve days we had not removed any clothes apart from a greatcoat to use as a blanket and I changed by socks to dry them on one occasion. I was given the odd cigarette for cutting hair or giving shaves. It also passed the time away. I could walk about to keep warm but not much else, and morale was very low.

When we left that place we headed for the mountains again. Everywhere covered in deep snow and we were to spend the night in a barn. We had walked all day from 8pm to 5pm (20 miles). They managed to find means to cook the oats they had given us the day before, so we had supper!! We had to settle down on the farm the best we could, using cattle sheds and barns, anywhere where we could find shelter and there was very little straw about. It was so bitterly cold, but I could not find out what the temperature was that night. Fortunately, there were not so many of us there. We had been split up into slightly smaller groups again.

In the morning they gave us one thick slice of bread (rye bread) about the size of my hand. It made me want to weep. Off we went again and I was feeling so weak and rough after fourteen days of this life. I had not the strength to pull my little sleigh. I felt very sad. I struggled to put a few items into a smallish rucksack and onto my back. Somehow I had to keep going. I was going home and it was the only incentive to live. Somehow that day I managed to beg a little bread from one of the guards. It was very noble of him for they were not much better off than we were. To think that I had sunk so low as to ask for such a thing.

It was the sixteenth day of the march, February 5th, that I learnt that we had walked 187 miles, an average of 12 miles a day in midwinter, including two full days of rest. I felt a little better for getting rid of half my kit, but I could not throw away my barbering gear as it was a source of income should the economy improve. Cigarettes were money those days although most of them had gone.
At the end of that day I discovered we had got to Stomberg. We had been heading south west. It was a slightly better farm and we got a day's rest here. The farmer found some potatoes which he cooked in a big copper out in the yard. A handful of hot potato went down very well. I know now how birds feel when there is snow on the ground. As it was a day off I managed to earn two or three cigarettes, but I could not eat them. I had, however, a pipe in which I smoked all sorts of things from tea to oak leaves, in fact anything which would smoulder and burn slowly. I had long since run out of pipe tobacco and matches were getting very scarce. I had to beg a cigarette end to light my pipes if I smoked at all.

The following morning we set off early and found that our party was at the head of the column, a much better place to be. Every hour or so we would stop and have 5-15 minutes rest. When the rest of the column had caught up we marched on. Halfway down the column you missed out on most of the rests and had none at all if you were at the end.
We ended the day by being packed into a village haIl. Unlike many animals, I found it hard to go to sleep whilst standing up! The question arose again, where is the wc? So there was not a loo at this stop either!

After a medium walk on the following day I found myself with a group of forty- one. We stayed on a small farm where we were to have a day's rest. It was too small to find any food lying around, which you can imagine was our main object in life. The weather was a little better and we even saw the sun for a short time. I had time to sort out my things and relax a little. A guard asked me if I would cut his hair. What could I say? He was like the rest of us, except that he had a gun. When I had finished he thanked me and seemed very satisfied. He went away for a moment, then came back with a piece of bacon fat or what they called "Speck". It was about the size of my fist. I was very grateful. It was the first time I had been paid in food by one of the Germans. The question was how to eat it? I did not have any bread to go with it and I felt that if I ate it all in one go I would be sick, so I had a bite every now and then when no one was looking. It was not quite the thing to fraternise the Hun, even after five years.
I found a reasonable place to sleep and on the second day of rest I learnt that we were part of an army of POWs which numbered around 49,500 men, all moving across the country to the west.
The day was fine and sunny so I spread my clothes out to dry. It was a wonderful feeling. It is hard to imagine what it felt like after living outside through such a cold winter to feel a little warmth coming from the sun.

We were on a new farm which had electricity to all the barns, sheds, cow pens etc. but there was no power. It also explained the absence of cattle food lying around. Just like Jerry to put us into an empty farm for a day of rest. It was a Sunday, so I found out, and I did not get up until 8 o'clock. Rations arrived during the morning and were eventually handed out. We were given enough bread to last three days i.e.a kilo bread, some macaroni, a spoonful of honey and one square inch of margarine. A nice snack which they thought we could live on for three days. Having fed us so well, they thought we could march the following day, so we set off early to march 31 km or 19.5 miles with very few very short stops. No comfort stops - they did not know what they were.
According to the sign we past we went over the border into Protectorate Slovakia. It was a reasonably pleasant day. We were going through more interesting country now the snow was going and the walking was better than on packed snow and ice. The days were getting longer, which helped us a little. I would have loved to know where we were or how far we had walked. They avoided towns or villages wherever possible. Unfortunately I no longer had any means of recording events, having little contact with people and nothing to write on.
We stopped at quite a good barn, no mod cons of course, but the ciwies were very helpful and welcoming as far as they were allowed to be. They let us go into a hut where they gave us some hot soup and even a piece of bread to go with it!!
After a long walk they gave us an easy day, a matter of 5-8 kilometres. We just went into a small town and saw people who came to watch us walk by. There they gave us a bowl of soup, but I have no recollection of where I stayed that night. Life was getting so boring.

On the twenty-eighth day of the march, 16th February, we stopped at a modern farm, where we were allowed to rest for the day. We got a small bowl of soup here. It was very thin, but it was keeping us alive. They were not pushing us so hard now and the weather was getting better. I think that by now we were far enough from the Russians as they were heading towards Berlin and we were down south.
Rations arrived very late in the day so they were not issued until the following morning. We were sleeping in brick built outhouses, still on hard floors, no water to wash in or toilets. We were allowed a bread ration of seven loaves divided between eight men. I got the feeling that the army had allowed a loaf for each man and not a big loaf either. Somehow it was divided up and I was thankful for some food. Sorry to keep on about food, but we never stopped thinking about it.
That night a rifle shot rang out close to my building. It caused a lot of excitement. It transpired that one of the guards who was in charge of their ration divided them between his mates, went on his night shift (12-2am) and then shot himself. They were also having a hard time, walking all day with us and doing guard duty at night on very little food, as well as losing the war. This whole incident had an effect on our boys and the next day we were all very gloomy.
Several of our boys slipped away to try and find the American army that night. Perhaps they knew where to go, but it would not have been easy getting through the battle lines.

We only had a short walk the following day to get across the River Elbe. On the other side of the river we ran into a bad patch. The civvies were very different. We were less orderly and there seemed to be fewer guards when we stopped at midday. Some men made small fires to make a cup of tea, but the guards made us put them out because of complaints from the local people.
It transpired that we were following in the track of the "Stalag VIII B" mob. Stalag VIII B was our base camp back in Poland and we were using the same billets and barns etc.
We were being treated more like animals again and at night driven into ventilated barns where the guards could keep an eye on us. We learnt that the civvies had been forbidden to talk to us or give us food. At least we had shelter from the rain at night. Some of us managed to light a small fire in a milk tin and heat water for a hot drink or make a soup from some of the dried food we had been given.

Our next stop was at a barn that had not been used by POWs before and we were very thankful. It was to be a day of rest for us. It was like most barns, wide gaps between the wall boards, but it kept us dry. Some soup was made and served up at midday. One mug of thin soup was not much to build us up for the following day's march.

We were up early and on the road and walked for 30 km (18 miles) ending up at a barn which had been used by POWs just two days before. As a result everywhere was out of bounds. We were wet and very tired when we arrived and glad of a rest We were given some bread made by a local baker late in the afternoon.
The next day we soon came across the Autobahn 4 to Dresden and went along this for quite a long way. I felt that I was getting nearer home and my hopes began to rise a little. At the next stop we had rations for six days - a 1 kilo loaf per man, no increase really. I reported sick with a very heavy cold, but it did not make any difference as I still had to walk another 30 km.

The last day of February saw us at a large granary on what was a very big farm. I think the whole column was there. The smoking situation was very low. The boys were gathering dry tea leaves and rolling them into cigarettes using newspaper, so I did not open my barber's shop as the currency had dried up and I had given up smoking rubbish. I noticed that a lot of the lads were letting themselves go. It made my feel very sad. They were not shaving, untidy clothes, slouching about etc.

The next march, or walk as it had now become, was much shorter, but very muddy and wet underfoot. Although it was better than the day we followed the Russian POWs, a party of 3,000 or so, who, through lack of food had eaten raw grain. It gave them all diarrhoea and as they could not leave the line of march by more than a yard or two you can imagine what it was like. I shall never forget the situation we were in just following them by an hour or so.
To more pleasant things.
I managed somehow to get hold of a postcard on a rest day and posted it "with faith" to Kay on 2nd March 1945. Our rest day was a fine sunny day. I had a wash and shave and even got my own hair cut and a delouse.
I made contact with the party of Aussies who had caught us up. The ones who made us stand out in the cold at the beginning of the march. They were a fine lot of lads.
It started to get cold again and windy and we came into snow, but not too deep. It made it harder to find fuel for our little fires which we lit in milk tins. We had learnt the art of making small fires with a few twigs using a Klim tin, which was about 3" diameter and a hand driven fan at the bottom to make a draught. On this a can of water could be boiled in 3 minutes for a brew of tea, Indian or lime, or cook a potato or whatever came to hand.
We were greatly encouraged when we saw our planes flying over, wave after wave, hundreds of them and we shouted for joy.

We moved on a few more miles and ended up in a place where three barns formed three sides of a square. The next day was a little warmer, but without bread or any food, not even on the black market. We were, however, given a tin of 50 cigarettes each, which rapidly became cash on the black market. We moved on again for another 32 km, followed by a short walk. This time I spent the night in a narrow loft. It made a change from sleeping on the ground. It was there I twisted my knee. I had had trouble before with it when I was in the coal mine, but now there wasn't any medical help and I could not strap it up. I was in agony. The next day I just did not know how to walk. My knee was the size of three. The only consolation was that I was allowed to put my valise, which I had made from an old blanket when working in the mine, on the small wagon which travelled with us to carry the guards' kit. I stopped at a cottage as I was some way behind the others and the owner gave me a drink of water,it made a short break, but a guard soon appeared and we walked on together, although very slowly. We had only just another four miles to go to the stopping place. I had managed to find a stick to help me along on a very painful walk.

It was now 8th March and we had snow again, which fell for three days, just to make life easier. We did, however, get a warm soup plus the now usual ration of a kilo of bread for three days plus a little honey, small piece of cheese, one 1" square of margarine with a drink of coffee. Oh! There was 1" length of sausage too. It all went into a small tin I had, in which I used to keep butter. I also managed to buy some bread with the cigarettes and together with a potato I had a "good feed".
I managed to find someone to report sick to. There were two or three doctors walking with us. The trouble was finding them among a party of over 1,500 men, all wearing the same set of clothes. It was arranged that I should travel on the guards' wagon. I thought this would be great, until it actually happened. The journey on the wagon was very cold and hard, no springs going over very rough roads, most uncomfortable and cramped.
By now it was 11th March. We had stopped and one of the doctors obtained a horse. I do not know how and I saw it walk by and out of sight. Half an hour later I heard that it had been killed and was being cut up to go into the "pot". We waited about for four hours, then we were given a cupful of meaty soup. I was prepared to eat anything. The wind was very cold and most of us turned in as a means of keeping warm. I changed my lice ridden shirt, which I had worn for six weeks. That was a relief.

On the following day there came a great surprise. The British Red Cross had found us and we were given seven food parcels between ten men, plus a tin of 50 cigarettes. That meant about three tins of food like a tin of baked beans, a tin of meat and possibly a packet of biscuits, and if lucky some other small item.

Then we marched for two days without food or water when we stopped. We had potatoes, peas and some Red Cross food which was left over. By this time I was feeling like a zombie, not caring very much happened, just waiting for the whole nightmare to end.
With regard to cooking, potatoes were just emptied from a sack into a copper boiler and boiled in the dirty water until the skins split, then they were fished out and handed to us. We would get two each, or three if they were small. There was a rumour that one of the medical officers had complained about the food and we did get a little more after that.
With a small income in cigarettes from haircuts I felt quite well off, for there was always a chance that I could trade a few cigs for a piece of bread. There was little else to think about.

The following day the Red Cross gave us two food parcels to be shared between five men and some French biscuits, but the German ration was still very poor. When we did come across water, it was terrible, but water is water in those conditions.

Life was many times beyond belief. I did come across one soldier who I had met when in the Depot back in England, but it was not easy to stay with people. Everyone was looking out for himself in a crowd like that. I remember on the 52nd day of the walk we were given a kilo loaf to be divided between ten men.
Sometimes we found that we could light a fire and get a drink of hot tea. On the 57th day we were put into a small place, 130 of us, and while fires were forbidden, I managed to get the use of one. It was quite an art to boil a tin of water (½ pint) on a handful of twigs.
The following day I was called by a German to cut his hair for which I received a piece of soap and his fat ration, which amounted to 3 grams of lard, or something like that.
As it was getting a bit warmer, I sold my gloves for some potatoes. Life had to go on. There will always be trade if there is something to trade.
Day 61 was a rest day! That is all I can remember. Life was so grim. The following day we were in a village and able to wander around a little. There did not seem to be so many guards about now. I think that some of them had lived in this area and had just gone home. I had been given a pair of German boots a little while back as my boots were worn out. They were ill-fitting and gave me blisters on my foot.
Once again we were split into smaller parties and they gave us some soup. While we were there I found a bucket and some water. As it was now better weather, I was able to strip off and get a wash. Outside in a bucket!! I found some clogs, but I could not go on the march in them. I just used them as "bedroom slippers", anything to get out of my German boots.

On day 63 we only went 5 km and a party of fifty or so had some soup on the way. We ended up in a barn, staying there for a day's rest.
Life was changing a little. We were given one USA and one Canadian food parcel to be divided between four men. They were much the same as British Red Cross parcels except that it was not British food. However, it was very welcome. That night we had German rations as well - ¼ of a 1 kilo loaf and 2" of German sausage.
At 4 am the next day we were turned out to march 4 km to the railway station at Weiden. We were crowded into open coal trucks, standing room or squatting room only, and no facilities in a coal wagon! There were fifty-five men in my wagon. The train finally got away at 10 am. Some of the lads wanted to sit on the sides to be able to see where we were going, but were soon shouted at and told to get down. The guards did not want the civvies to see a coal train with a human cargo, especially as we were now in Germany. I found out that some wagons were even more crowded than mine, heaven help. them! The train rumbled on and on until we arrived on the third day, without a stop of more than a few minutes at a signal or two, in Regensburg. Oh! I forgot, there was not a diner on that train. Nothing to eat or drink!

We were put into barns, cowsheds and outhouses on a farm. At least I was in what I think was a cowshed and it had brick walls and straw, One and half inches thick on the floor.
By now my foot was swelling up with an abscess under my right big toe nail. It was getting so terribly painful that I could not bear to put it on the ground. I was hopping around on one leg with a stick. I asked one of the lads to try and find a doctor who would lance it. Thank God, he did. After a couple of hours one came and I begged him to cut it to take the pressure off a little. But no! He had to go away to find something to deaden the pain while he cut it. I was in so much agony that I would have used a razor and cut it myself, but it was not very easy to get at. I was getting very worried as a red line was running up my leg and just past my knee when the doctor returned. I told him to cut it as it could not be any more painful. He took his scalpel and made an incision. I got relief immediately. I was so glad to see all that poison coming away and the red line fading. I could get about again and was able to go and get ¼ litre of very watery soup. Apparently it was the railway people who organised the food for us, ¼ litre of their soup and 225 grams of bread. We had now been attached to Stalag XIIIA no.6 lager, which must have been near Nuremburg.

We were now moving into a bombing area and heard six or seven raids a day in the district. We were not far from Regensburg and working parties from our camp were taken there to help clear up the debris after the bombing of the railway marshalling yard. We must have stayed in this barn for about a week, long enough to paint POW in white on the roof of our barn. Things had got so bad for the guards at the last stop. We heard that they were having to steal food and we were curious that their numbers had gone down.

While I was there we were given a few potatoes most days to be made up with dandelion leaves which we found around the barn. I kept myself fairly busy cutting hair and crocheting woollen hats, Glengarry type, from the wool of old pullovers. They earned a few "tatties". I also earned some "sauerkraut", a form of pickled cabbage eaten in Germany. You could only eat two or three mouthfuls at a time, but it helped.
My foot was still very sore, but I could hobble about with the aid of my stick, but not walk with the others. Some Red Cross food reached us but not very much. More Klim tin fires were coming into use, which meant we could cook the odd raw potato or make a brew of tea, not always Indian. There was a tap close by and sometimes we could get water to have a shave.
One day one of our boys thought he could get into what remained of a potato clamp just outside the barn. He jumped into the bottom of it and started digging with hands towards the potatoes when the guard, quite an old man, came round the end of the barn, saw the lad, took his rifle off his shoulder and tried to load it to shoot at the thief. Several of our lads cheered him on while warning our lad to get back into the barn. Our cheering and laughter made the guard so nervous that he could not load up and aim, let alone shoot his rifle.

Another afternoon, when the American planes were bombing Regensburg, there was an enormous explosion. The big sliding barn doors were lifted through 75° and banged down, shaking the barn, dust and dirt flying everywhere. The Yanks had hit an ammunition dump, four miles away. Fortunately, our boys were not out filling bomb holes that day. Also, to cheer us up a little, a Spitfire flew tow over us and dipped his wing. That was wonderful. It gave us a lot of hope!
On the Monday we were called on parade and the "fit" boys were marched off. About four or five who were unable to walk or were ill were put in the charge of a guard who walked us gently to a small hut about a mile away. It was divided into small rooms and we were to stay there with several others. We slept three to a room with plenty of space to lie down. The guard went for a walk, a long walk! We were quite happy here. We got some food from the locals. One lad went to a farm just down the road and came back with a bowl full of eggs, but no bacon!! I was given about 10lbs of rice which I put in a pillowcase and boiled it in a cauldron which I found, after lighting a fire under it and cooked it. It went very well. There was plenty to eat for a small party. I wished that I had washed what I thought was a clean starched pillowcase because it made the rice taste a bit starchy. There was a washroom in our hut so that we could clean ourselves up and make ourselves more respectable. We spent a week or so there and the weather was fine. We contacted the US Army and got some food and they put a fresh dressing on my foot.

We were, to all intents and purposes, free men. Our days of slavery were over. It only remained for us to make our way back to England. This I did by getting a lift in an army lorry to Nuremburg. There I went to an American supply depot where I managed to get a lift with three US officers who were going to Paris for a short holiday. They dropped me off in Luxemburg. I contacted the Red Cross who arranged a meal and transport in a Wellington bomber back to England on the 4th May 1945, 104 days after leaving the coal mine.

Submitted by Fred Gilbert of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
He was shot and wounded in the ear when he was taken prisoner.