U-BOAT PRISONERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1939, Page 11

U-BOAT PRISONERS

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE. Five British soldiers were observed travelling in reserved first class carriages with 13 Nazi U-boat men, taking them to join more than 50 compatriots who are in a gaunt five-storey cotton mill with a thousand windows, patrolled by veteran guards of the National Defence Companies, with fixed bayonets, states the “Daily Express,” London. Some of the men. whose average age is about 23, had slight wounds. Their hands were soft and swollen with being in sea water. The youngest is only 16. A number of them had been in a submarine which was blown to the surface by depth charges from a destroyer. To the armed guards who escorted them they said, “We are lucky to be alive.”

They had been brought south to pe interrogated before being taken to internment. Their officers had been sent to another prison camp. On the journey the soldiers handed their cigarettes to the Germans and shared their bread-and-cheese sandwiches. One of the prisoners glanced at an English newspaper, smiled when he saw pictures of the King and Queen. “0.K..” he said.

Some of the men had more than a month’s growth of beard. “Their hair was like a poet’s, it was so long,” an onlooker said later. The majority were wearing trousers of a material like chamois leather. Their train steamed into a siding near the mill. The prisoners marched smartly to a reception room, stood at attention when addressed by r the officers. Some gave a half-hearted Nazi salute. They marched between a double barrier of 10ft barbed wire entanglements encircling the mill. They seemed surprised at the way they were received by British officers and n.c.o.’s. Each was given a pair of grey fian-

nel trousers, with light-coloured circular cloth patches on the knees and at the back for identification purposes. They also had a blue jersey, sports coat, with patch, and white “pumps.” A crowd of women and children walked to the copse flanking the mill to watch the prisoners play football on the flat mill roof.

But officers denied stories that they were having a luxury diet of eggs and bacon .steak and chips. Their food is similar to that of soldiers.

They do fatigue under armed guards and are allowed to smoke. Their tobacco comes from the soldiers, because when the third batch of 13 prisoners arrived they had only 20 marks among them. Later they will be taken to quiel spots for exercise. They r work as many hours as soldiers on ordinary

duty, filling sandbags, sawing timber, making A.R.P. shelters. “They work well,” a guard said, “and seem decent sorts.”