READY TO LEAVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1945, Page 8

READY TO LEAVE

PRISONERS IN AUSTRIA

WELLINGTON MAN'S FINE WORK

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) AUSTRIA, May 20,

While the war in Europe moved towards its close a small group of Allied prisoners of war worked with efficiency and enterprise to ensure that when peace came thousands of their fellows in the prison camps, m Austria and Yugoslavia would be repatriated with the greatest possible speed. The results have been little short 01 amazing. The work of the repatriation officials who landed here shortly after the German collapse has been greatly simplified by the presence of men with a thorough knowledge of the German language and of the Stalags, who are willing and able to assist in the location of British and Dominions personnel hidden away in the remotest parts of Axis territory. One of the most valuable of these is Sergeant-Major J. A. Murphy, of Wellington, who was captured at Minquar' Qaim while serving with Divisional Signals. Long qefore the German surrender he circulated about the country, locating and organising our men. His movements were facilitated by the scarcity of radio and X-ray technicians in Austria. The German authorities used1 his services extensively in the maintenance of X-ray apparatus and of other electrical equipment. His knowledge was also put to good use m the construction and repair of many illegal radio sets which our men had concealed about the Stalags, and with which they were able to keep track of the latest developments. SURPRISE FOR OFFICIALS. He succeeded in organising British and Dominions prisoners of war into groups of 20 or 30. When they landed 6n the Klagenfurt aerodrome the repatriation officials were amazed to find hundreds of ex-prisoners already awaiting embarkation. So thoroughly had the job been done that planes which landed at 1 p.m. unloaded their stores and passengers and were able to take off at 4 p.m. for Italy with 300 ex-prisoners. Sergeant-Major Murphy did not go with the others. He decided to see the job through to the end, and he has continued to do invaluable work with the repatriation UINow that the main stream of exprisoners has gone through, the main task is to locate groups of our men far back in Yugoslav and Russian-held territory. Often these are men who escaped some weeks ago and who are being held and looked after by partisans, in places which are inaccessible to our troops. Sergeant-Major Murphy was travelling on a Divisional Signals truck during the break-out from Minquar Qaim when the New Zealanders confounded military strategists by crashing right through the ring of panzer formations to retreat and fight again at Alamem. The truck stopped to attempt to remove wounded from a burning ambulance. Enemy tanks were firing into the column at point-bank range. The driver was killed, and the chance of escape was lost. The crew of the truck destroyed valuable codes by throwing them into the burning, ambulance, and waited for capture. So SergeantMajor Murphy was present throughout a little-known sequel to the break-out. In the morning the New Zealand officer prisoners were taken away, and he was left in charge of about a hundred New Zealanders. SS OFFICER'S RAGE. At first the Germans treated them well, but presently a big SS officer appeared. He ordered the men into line and addressed them thus: "You have broken all the usages of civilised warfare. You have behaved with the greatest savagery, bayoneting our wounded and our dead." Almost frantic with rage, he turned to the Germans and repeated the accusations. He then told the Kiwis that they would be shot, and ordered up a detachment of tommy-gunners, who covered the New Zealanders. There was not a man there who was not convinced that the next few minutes would be his last; but the line never wavered. Thus they were held for three hours, while the Germans stripped them of all but their shirts, shorts, boots, and socks. The officer's tirade had turned the Germans completely against the New Zealanders, and they thronged around, jeering, and drinking water ostentatiously before the thirsty prisoners, and pouring the contents of the New Zealanders' water-bottles on the sand. English prisoners, who were not included in the proscription, were not allowed to approach the line. The Kiwis stuck it out, unwounded ones supporting the others, until finally they were herded on to trucks for Tobruk. Subsequently Sergeant-Major Murphy spent a year in an Italian prison camp near Udine, before being taken to Austria.