BARBARIC TREK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 4

BARBARIC TREK

FIVE HUNDRED MILE MARCH AIRMEN PRISONERS’ ORDEAL (R.JfcZ.A.F. Official News Service) LONDON, May 18. No food. No sympathy. Old men spa’t at them and women shook their fists. That is the story being told by many of the New Zealand airmen who have reached England after being prisoners of war in Germany. They are footsore and weary from marching, for during the past two months most of them have travelled 500 miles on their feet. It is a sad story. An R.A.F. Dakota touches down on an airfield in France, and waiting groups of airmen are stimulated by emotional excitement. Half running, half tumbling, they haul their new kit bags and bundles across the dusty soil without waiting for the aircraft to stop. When the Dakota takes ipff, the next stop will be England. It is hard for them to realise. Snow Deep on Ground

When the Russian advances became dangerous to Germany’s security, the prisoners were shown no sympathy. The food problem was acute. Those imprisoned south of Berlin were told that they would be shifting. In the cold, dreary month of January, with the snow deep on the ground, the prisoners started on their long trek. The authorities gave them enough rations for two days, and the Red Cross gave them a parcel. The men trudged on. The guards knocked them often to make them move faster. In each village they received the same cold stare of contempt. Old men spat at them, and women shook their clenched fists. At night the prisoners were crammed into small huts. The air was so foul it was impossible to sleep. Then Allied bombers would pass over in thousands, and the tired and weary men were herded into tin shelters which would not have saved one man. The marching was resumed in the early morning and continued until it was too dark to move. Sometimes a convoy would sweep past so suddenly that there was hardly time to get off the road. Six soldiers were killed by passing convoys. During one period no rations at all were received. The only way to live was to sneak into a fowlhcuse on a farm and get some eggs. Then the eggs had to be eaten raw. Occasionally .on the road Russian slave labourers were passed, and the prisoners would exchange some article of clothing for a portion of black bread. Harsh Civilian Guards There was a stay of one week in a .small town. Civilian guards took over. They were more cruel and harsh. It was nothing for them to make the hungry, weary men stand and face a wall for hours on end and give them a brutal knock if they dared to move.

The seemingly endless trek was started again. Many of the men became sick and could go no further. They were left in camp, and for beds they had sacks strewn on the floor. One hospital orderly was in attendance.

It was in a little village outside Frankfurt two months after the trek started that prisoners saw some peasants waving white flags. They heard the rumble of tanks. Americans were entering the town. The prisoners were almost free, but they were too dazed to- realise that after long, bitter years liberation was at hand. The captors became the captured. The guards were marched away, surrounded bv United States military police. The Americans gave the prisoners food and plenty of comforts. Later they were fitted out by the British authorities. What is more, within a short space of eight hours they were back in England, where they received special medical treatment in quiet rest homes. When they are well enough arrangements for sending them home will be put into effect by a special staff at R.N.Z.A.F. headquarters.