LIFE ON THE ALTMARCK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 71, 21 February 1940, Page 9

LIFE ON THE ALTMARCK.

ILL-TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

(From Dnventry.)

An Australian and a New Zealander who were prisoners on the German auxiliary ship Altmarck last night broadcast their experiences from the time of their capture by the Admiral Graf Spee to their rescue by H.M.S. Cossack. Of particular interest was a comparison made between the hospitality of Captain Langsdorff, who was described as a gentleman, and that of. tile captain of the Altmarck, who became very bitter toward his prisoners after the scuttling of the Graf Spee. The Australian who broadcast is a ship’s steward from Sydney, and the New Zealander is William Wheeler, a youthful gunner from the Doric Star. They were told that Captain Langsdorff was killed in action, said the Australian, but they were informed of the full details of the scuttling of the Graf Spee and Captain Langsdorff’s suicide by a member of the German crew of the Altmarck, who was punished by being placed on bread and water for 24 days. After the Graf Spec scuttling the captain also became worse, and the treatment of the prisoners was harsh. They were all assembled on deck one day with riffles and machine-guns trained on them as a warning against mutiny. “The captain told us that he hated the British people, who were trving to make Germany into a slave State,” the Australian said. “They would never be able to do that, he said, and Germany was going to win the war. He also told us that we' need not ask for any privileges, as we would not get any.” The crew of the Altmarck tried to he friendly, but the captain blocked that. Prior to being placed on the Altmarck the Australian and others from vessels captured by the Graf Spee were quartered on the German battleship. They were well treated and had every admiration for Captain Langsdorff. DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS.

AYheeler, who said he had never previously been outside New Zealand waters, dealt with the meagre rations, the efforts of the men to relieve the tedium by making sets of chess, ludo and draughts for play, the trying living and sleeping conditions, and the almost complete lack of news. What news they did get, he said, was from purely German sources and was recounted to them by their guard. Some of it was so ridiculous that the prisoners could not but help chuckling, much to the embarrassment of the guard, who turned red as a beetroot. The deplorable conditions of the British captives in the Altmarck were also recounted by a 8.8. C. commentator, who met eight of the prisoners, of whom two were from Melbourne and another from Toronto.

‘,‘They were well but tired, and their nerves were shaken, which was not surprising,” Jie said. “I asked the Doric Star’s cook if he felt like a good rest ashore. He replied that he would like a rest for a day or two, but was very get a little back for what they had reanxious to get back to sea again and ceivcd. That goes for all the men.”