V.C. AS PRISONER

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 March 1943, Page 3

V.C. AS PRISONER

DELIGHT AT GRAMOPHONE LONDON, December 4. The simple pleasures of life in a German naval prisoner-of-war camp are vividly described in letters sent to his wife by Lt.-Cmdr. S. H. Beattie, who won the V.C. in the combined raid on St. Nazaire in March. The letters are written in diary form. The first entry, dated April 28, records: “We are settling down well, mid while away our time learning Gorman and various other things.” On May 1 he writes: “I am with an awful nice lot of chaps here, and life would be very pleasant if it were not for barbed wire.” 'T happen to be second officer here,” he writes later, “not that it entails any privileges, except that I mess with the Colonel, who is a damn fine chap, a man called Newman, for whom I have a great _ admiration.” [The reference is to Lt.-Col. A. C. Newman, who commanded the .military forces in Ihe St. Nazaire raid.] On June 6 the diary states: “My chaps have formed -a naval brass band and play in the evenings. All sorts of home-made instruments have been invented; there is only one mouth-organ, but that is only what you might call ‘outside influence.’ ” Joy comes to the camp with the arrival of a gramophone. “We are in high spirits. It hasn’t stopped since it arrived this morning.”

On Sept. 29 he writes: “Great news. My first parcel has arrived.” ' Writing of “our own little service every Sunday,” he states: “We have a Prayer Book and a New Testament, but no hymn book, so we have to try to remember the hymns. Everyone can remember the first line or two out of dozens of hymns, but the rest is difficult.” The above extracts are taken from the 'Christmas number of the Red Cross magazine, The Prisoner of War.

I Lt. Cmdr. Beattie commanded the i destroyer Campbeltown in the St. 1 Nazaire raid. With its bows filled [ with five tons of explosives the desi troyer rammed the dock gate at _2O ' knots. The subsequent explosion put out of action for many months the biggest dry dock on the French Atlantic coast.