FORBIDDEN LANDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23260, 23 July 1945, Page 6

FORBIDDEN LANDS

Where Nazi Armies Are Demobilised '6.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 21. In British-occupied Germany there are two large zones which are forbidden lands to all but a few authorised British officers. There the remnants of the German Army who surrendered to the British are being sorted out. For the last month, at the rate of thousands a day, German soldiers have been leaving these areas under the "barleycorn” scheme to bring in what looks like proving to be a bumper German harvest, says a correspondent, but hundreds of thousands of German soldiers are still left in the zones. The roads into them are sealed off and British soldiers keep guard at what are known as frontier posts—the frontier between the victorious and the defeated armies. Other natural barriers help to seal off the German forces. A string of lakes buttons up the landward side of one zone, and the Baltic is the other barrier. In their own zones the German soldiers live a routine military life under their own officers. From time to time British officers go into them on tours of nspection escorted by armed guards and fighting vehicles. They inspect the German army camps much as they would inspect their own British establishments investigating all matters which affect the well-being of the soldier. The German officers and men take great interest in these visits. Life at the road barriers where Britis hsoldiers keep guard on this strangest of frontiers is fascinating. The British soldier has the war’s attitude toward the German, and is firmly resolved not to take any chances. Rumours from inside come trickling down to the British guards and one was from a camp for German air force pilots who were saying with glee that they were to be allowed to join the R.A.F. to fight the Japanese.