GRAPHIC STORY

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21042, 19 February 1940, Page 7

GRAPHIC STORY

CAPTIVES ON ALTMARCK

RELIEF OF BOREDOM TO RETAIN SANITY (United Press Assn-—Elec. TeL Copyrlg-hl) LONDON, Feb. 18 How the British captives on board the Altmarck beguiled their three months’ imprisonment in confined quarters was told by the master of one of the Graf Spee’s victims on his arrivel at Leith. “Although we were prisoners it was necessary for us to have some kind of discipline among ourselves and also to organise some kind of amusement to relieve boredom,” he said. “There was not much that we could do, but we did the best we could with a few packs of cards, and we made others. You should have seen seme of the cards toward the end! Some were held together with cigarette paper and some we had to remark. There were contract bridge schools and auction bridge schools, and some men played rummy. We could not do much for exercise, but leapfrog was popular. “We developed a barter system for the 'exchange of comforts, but toward the end prices got high. Tobacco was exchanged at £1 for a pound of tobacco and matches were sixpence a box. Some of the men were reduced to trying to make the best of dried tea leaves for smoking. Spread of News “It was extraordinary how news spread, although we were prisoners in an enemy ship. We knew all about the Graf Spee the day before we were supposed to. When it was learned that the Graf Spee had been scuttled and that a search was being made for the Altmarck, all hands, including the ship’s doctor, were put to work painting the ship grey to resemble a British ship. “I mention the doctor because if there ever was a white man it was that ship’s doctor. He looked after our men as well as he looked after the ship’s crew. When we were leaving we looked around for him to thank him, but we could not find him. “We were a sort of separate crew on board, and we organised watches. Navigating officers managed to rig up a crude sextant. We took observations each day when the sun shone through a grating, and with these and the stars we could see through the grating we were able to plot our position on a chart of the North and South Atlantic, which someone had smuggled aboard. We reached the Norwegian coast within a few hours of when we expected to be there.” Another ex-prisoner said: “Life was a continuous, months-long struggle in warding off the point at which our minds would break.” “The Navy’s Here” Telling of the rescue of the Altmarck’s prisoners by the destroyer Cossack, a member of the crew of the Tairoa, John Quigley, said the first they knew of their rescue was when a voice shouted: “Any Englishmen here?” The prisoners replied: “Yes!” upon which the voice answered: “Well, boys, the Navy’s here!” and they all cheered madly. A man from the Newton Beech gave a spirited account of the rescue. “We were riding between rocks in pitch blackness and the ice on top ot the water was crackling when the British destroyer raced through,” he said. “The German skipper swung over the helm and tried to ram the Cossack. Sprang a Booby Trap “Suddenly an officer of the Cossack’s boarding party leaped eight feet to the Altmarck’s lower deck and raced for the captain’s cabin. As he opened the door he sprang a booby trap—a revolver set to go off when the door handle was turned—and received a wound in an arm. “The German guards took fright as the British sailors stormed on board, and some jumped overboard.” An account of the efforts of the imprisoned British seamen to attract the attention of a Norwegian party that boarded the Altmarck at Bergen was given by one of the rescued men. He said: “We bored a hole through a hatch to see what was going on on deck. When the Norwegians came aboard one of our officers said: ‘Come on, boys, this is where we will get out.’ He used an iron bar to try to smash the door, and we were blowing whistles and shouting and battering on the hatches with anything we could get. “The Germans turned two hoses on us and ran the steam winches full belt to drown the noise we were making, and so our efforts failed.”

Other British sailors described how the prisoners, with the help of a German carpenter, who provided some soldering materials, fashioned an airtight container with a small flag on top, which was thrown overboard in the hope that it would attract help. The German captain discovered the plan and put those involved on bread and water for three days and gaoled the German carpenter for three weeks.