ĂŰŃż´«Ă˝

This story is taken from an interview with Walter Pancott, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Declan Ford, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
====
This is the story of a POW

[What happened after you spent 6 months in the barracks?]
We went to England, and then we went on to Palestine. We went out into Palestine.
And then we heard the war was going to be declared with the Germans, so we came back into Malta. We stayed in Malta there until 1943. The siege of Malta and the Blitz of Malta. That’s the most-bombed island in the world.
They got the George Cross, Malta. The George Cross. The most-bombed island, Jesus, they didn’t half bomb it!
It’s hard to get out of it, because if a door bangs you’re still inclined to jump!

We went into the Greek islands, then. We went into Rhodes island after that, 1943. And we didn’t get into Rhodes because the Germans were waiting for us, so we went to Koreleros.
And the Germans was on Rhodes there, nearly 12 miles away. And our nearest airport was Cairo. And I’m telling you, they gave us a quare hammering on that island.
The island collapsed, then. 4000 men we lost in that campaign. The Germans lost about 14000. I ended up in a POW camp in Germany. They kept us in a train for 14 days in the siding. And they’d come up an odd time and hook the engine onto it. It started up, it started away, they gave it a couple of shunts … then they’d take the engine off and leave you there.

You got a loaf of bread between 10 men. An auld brown bit of bread. And you didn’t get nothing else. Unless you had snowballs to suck. You weren’t allowed out of it. They gave you a bucket. There was about 50 men in a carriage - auld cattle-wagons. for a loo you’d an auld bucket -14 days we were in that. They called it “Hell’s train”.
Then we went into Germany, into the POW camp.

[Whereabouts into Germany was the POW camp?]
It was up near Berlin, and it was all horses stables. Converted into a POW camp. Big long stables were … Cavalry for a big shelf there as wide as this. Right down to the end. And another went that. And another went that. Built like bunk beds. When you loaded up with men there was a blanket around you. And you slept on straw.
The lice was just walking off you. We used to just pull them off and put them down.
And then there’s what they called “skin lice”, got under your skin. I never got them, but other boys got them that had rich blood. Got underneath your skin and sucked the blood. “skin lice”.

And all the men, we wouldn’t work for them. You see, we refused to work. And then they don’t feed you. All they give you is a cuppa soup a day. Turnip soup. A lot between 10 men. And say somebody died in your billet. You kept them as long as you can, and take them out on parade day. They’d count you in 5s — ein, zwei — they’d put you in 5s rather than 3s or 2s. But they’d put you in 5s, with another lot behind you in 5s, and they’d count you ein, zwei. You’d hold the dead boy up, and you’d get his ration. And then at they end you’d have to dump him. That’s what they done. That’s the truth.

[what did they expect you to work on?]
Down in the mines. You see, the sergeant told us that if we went into the mines, the salt mines, or into the factories, that would release the men there. They’d go out onto the battlefield and kill our comrades. So we didn’t work! But you’re looking to get fed.

And they tried to set up an Irish camp, a propaganda camp. Haw-haw and all, you know. But that sergeant we had from Belfast was very very sick, said “If any of youse join, you’ll get out. After the war you’ll be court-martialled and classed as a traitor.”
You had to do what you were told.

You got a Red Cross parcel, once a month. You never got more than one a week. From Canada or America. There was a big biscuit, a packet of coffee, a box of prunes in it,and a tin of powdered milk, 20 cigarettes and a bar of Chocolate.
The German guards, them was auld boys from the First War. You could trade with them. “You get me a bar of Chocolate and I’ll get ye a loaf”
So you could trade him with a bar of Chocolate for a loaf or a Packet of fags, if you didn’t smoke, for a loaf.
I mind this boy getting a loaf, he’s dead now. He was from Donaghadee or Strabane. He got this loaf. And we were sleeping in these auld things that I told you. He says “I don’t know where to hide it, because if they get it they’ll steal it on me.”
They’d steal anything. We were starving, we only got that cuppa soup every day. The other boys were dying. And he used it as a pillow! This is the truth. He slept on it. And he woke up in the morning, and the 2 lads had gone at it. They cut the 2 ends off it,while he slept.

You could write a book on it. The fellow did write a book on it, John Cavanaugh. He went back to Malta again. John, he gets in touch with me all the time. And he’s away back to Malta. And he wrote a book about it, and he called the train “Hell’s Train”. Nobody would publish it — they thought it was all lies. It wasn’t lies at all. It was the truth!

In that POW camp too, the toilet was down on the ground. It was that height from the ground to the wall, and there was a big plank along there. And one there. When you went to the toilet you sat on that plank and then the Russian prisoners had to come along and empty that every so often. They had big long sticks with a bucket nailed on the end of it. And the horse and cart, and they’d just scoop it down into the cart.
The cart would go into the compound. You had no hot water or anything. You had running water outside in the compound.And that’s where you washed yourself.
It was all wired off, and there was outposts out, and then a tripwire. You weren’t allowed to step over the tripwire, or you’d be shot.

[Did you have any run-ins with the Gestapo?]
You had to do what you were told. Because you didn’t just have the rights. But what we used to do then, they took you out on the march, actually what they called the “delousing centre”. There was nothing killing the flies on you, the lice. The boy would have a wee bag, or a wee bit of paper. And we used to put the lice off ourselves, and given them to this boy. You know, certain fellows would have a wee bag.
And then when we were marching along, it was all planned. One would say “look up there”, you’d see, they’d start looking up, and the German guard walking beside us would look up — and throw all the lice over them! In their new uniform! That’s what they used to do.
Whenever you went to the delousing centre you had to tie your clothes up. Tie them in a bundle. And they turned on the water. You had no soap. And you rubbed yourself and they turned the water off, and you got the clothes back. The lice were still alive on them! It was no good to you.

[Were they treated badly by the Gestapo too?]
Yes, yes. They had to do what the SS and the Gestapo told them. They all had to do that.

I spent near 18 months there. And I could have been home, too, because I’d been slightly wounded in the leg. But I didn’t want too. I wanted to stay with the boys. And they said “the wounded can go home”. But if I had have gone home I would have gone back to the Front. And if you’re with the boys all that time, you want to stay with them.

[How would you have got home?]
Through the Red Cross.
Once in a while you got a letter. And it took them about a year to find out where you were before they could notify your family. A lot of fellows then, it’s hard to believe but a lot of fellows then, they never wanted to go home.
What they used to do is, they used to change the disk off a dead soldier. You had a disk on your neck, with your number on it and your regiment. So what they used to do, if they had trouble at home, just like fellers who joined the Foreign Legion, they changed over the disk and that was them finished. Maybe after years on the run they might just say “enough’s enough” and give themselves up again. There was a lot of them done that, changed over disks.

[Was there anyone from Omagh in the camp?]
Me and Paddy McCrystal, and wee Nigel Hackett, and Jim. There was a good lot. And they’re dead too. Just like a lot of men.

[When you watch the war movies, do you feel they romanticise the POW camps?]
I’ve watched a couple of POW camps. But maybe there was good ones. There was the Air Force, they got lovely clean clothes on them. We never got nothing like that. We lived in them auld beds, and every time you went to the toilet you had to tear a piece off your blanket. You finished up with a blanket maybe like a handkerchief. You had no newspapers or nothing. You had no fires. You washed your shirt outside, and it was stuck on the barbed wire. You were freezing, and you could see the lice on it. The nits. And yet whenever it thawed out after weeks they were still alive. It’s funny it didn’t kill them. That’s hard to believe.

[what about summertime?]
Aw Jesus, it was worse then! When we got released from that we went up into Brussels, with about 4 different rigs out of clothing at the time to wear. And they had to be taken off and burnt to get rid of them, because the nits was in it. In your hair and everything. Lice. From the straw. And that was so long, it breeds them.

[Were you released?]
Whenever they came near us, the Germans stuck us on the march. Taking us away from them. And we would end up in a big farmyard or something like that. And then they were getting near again, and we were taken away again, and this morning we got up out of the farmyard and there was no Germans about. They had run and left us there. And the boys then started killing hens and everything. Eating this and eating that. And a lot of them died then of dysentery and everything.
Then we were taken away and cleaned, different clothes. It was the same auld clothes on us all the time we were captured. The same clothes. So you can guess what it was like. No baths. Always shower, but you didn’t get the dirt off yourself.
I couldn’t go through it again, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It’s a great … it’s the best thing ever happened to you, because at least you realise the value of food, and this and that. Now, when I came out, it’s hard to say it but when I came out to the farm and got married and all, and there were 6 in the family, boys and girls and all, I never tell you, we were at our dinner and I’d be saying “don’t be leaving that now”.
“We don’t want it, and we don’t want this”.
“Well Jesus, let me tell you! When I was in the —“
“Aw Jesus, ma, here he goes again” — and up went all the fingers into the ears.
You see, I couldn’t get it out of me. I’m not as bad now, but I hate to see food wasted. Because when you’re in that camp … you see, you can be as hungry, but you don’t know what hunger is. You don’t know what hunger is, til you’re really hungry. Because all you do is you lay and you think all the time of food. “When I get out of here I’m going to get a tin of stuff. I’d like to go up to Carrick there, and have a big steak.”
And someone says “what about a big blonde?”
Women didn’t come into your mind. It was all food, food, food. It’s funny how you appreciate it now. We used to go down to the German cook-house, and you had that cuppa soup a day. Turnip soup. And you got 2 peas in it, you maybe got 1 pea. And whenever they washed out the floor, I could prove this with Paddy McCrystal if Paddy had have been with me tonight. The stuff that came out of the grating, we used to lift it. That’s how hungry we were. Maybe a couple of auld peas, a couple of bits of skin of turnips, and ate it. Take it over to the water tub, wash it and ate it. All you thought about, day and night, was food. Food, food, food.
It was great to get a Red Cross parcel now and again. It was great.
I hate to see food wasted. It’s funny. It’s something that’s in you that’s beat you. It’s beat into you.

[After the war, what did you do?]
I went back into Liverpool. I was deloused again. They kept delousing you all the time. The wee dolly bag, they called it a dolly bag. There were biscuits in it and sweets in it, to build you up. And then we were sent home on 8 weeks leave. And the pay that time was only about 14 shillings a week. That’s all you were getting.

[did the locals understand what you had been through?]
No, not at all. They never knew nothing. I used to hear, when I came home, that whenever there was an air-raid or something they used to go out to the quarries, out to Mount Road. They never suffered with food or nothing. Of course, there was rationing. But at least they had food.

[Did you find you’d missed that life?]
You were glad to be home, certainly. But the minute you got home, you wanted to go back. You missed the boys. The Belfast fellers, the Derry boys, all over. Everybody was … All for one and one for all. You hit one of them boys, the whole battalion would have gone out and beat the head off you, for hitting one of their boys.
Not because the army I was in, it’s a different army now altogether. Them’s only cowboys now. The full-time army was the best.
You could say we were the forgotten army.
You only walked around the compound all the time. That’s all you had. And pulling lice off yourself. Made me think about the boys we lost. It was terrible. When you’re just talking to a fellow, and the next minute he’s blown to bits. It’s hard to believe.
That sergeant we had was sergeant Caldwell. And whenever they got near us, he got up with the gun over the side of the sandpit, and there he went. And that left me and a man named John McMaster, and a wee triangle. And they were invading the islands then by parachute, bringing in the gliders, with Germans on them. Letting them crash. The wee island was only 9 miles by 3. And we were put on it. We had nothing. We had nothing. Our own navy came in and shelled us, bejeezus. Called it “friendly fire”. We didn’t call it “friendly fire”. Shelled us! By mistake. We were all mixed up.
John McMaster then, was saying “the Germans are going to land now.”
Says I, “look you out that way, and I’ll look this.”
And we’re standing like that, back to back. And the next thing, right over, I was laying on the ground, McMaster was laying beside me, no stomach near him. The mortar bombs, they threw over the mortar bombs. They knew we were in there, and they came over. Right enough. Instead of landing at my feet they went over, landed at his feet. He took the full blast, I got swept off my feet. John McMaster. Nice fellow, too. And he says “Walter, tell my Ma I can’t come home.”

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.