FIRST GERMAN PRISONER

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25243, 23 July 1947, Page 9

FIRST GERMAN PRISONER

FIELD MARSHAL’S EXPLOIT

An amusing story of how he captured his first German prisoner was related by Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery to the large crowd of returned servicemen and women who gathered in the Wentworth Hall to express a welcome yesterday. The field-marshal first told how popular the New Zealand Army grey jerseys were with him, and said that no doubt New Zealanders had seen many pictures of him wearing a jersey, which went from Normandy to Berlin. In some photographs, he added, he had been seen witn an umbrella. “An umbrella is a good article of military equipment,” he continued. I can never understand why soldiers don’t have umbrellas. They are . far more sensible than some of the things we had. “During World War I in England we had a mobilisation scheme, and one of the things in my battalion, in which I was a subaltern, was that officers had to send their swords to the armourers for sharpening and cleaning. “Off we went to the war. It started like the last war, with a series of disasters. That is how we always start our wars. At an early battle into which I was launched, I drew my sword, waved it around my head, and said to my platoon: ‘Follow me.’ We charged towards the Germans, but in doing so I took a most frightful toss ever a turnip, and got my sword all dirty. I wiped it clean and on we ran to the Germans. I saw a trench full of them. I had been taught how to kill Germans with a bayonet, but no one had ever taught me how to kill a German with a sword. I was running very hard, wondering what was the next thing to do. I hurled myself at my German, and kicked him as hard as I could in his stomach. He was astonished, and pained, and surrendered.

“That was my first prisoner. On May 5 a couple of years ago, I took 2,000,000 prisoners.”