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Parchim POW Camp
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Want to know more about Parchim POW Camp? There are:3 items tagged Parchim POW Camp available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have been held inParchim POW Camp during the Great War 1914-1918. - Astles Edgar. AB. 6th Howe Btn.
- Driver Frederick Charles. Pte. Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment
- Duxbury Thomas. Cpl. South Lancashire Regiment
- English Wilfrid. L/Cpl, Kings (Liverpool) Regiment
- Golding Alfred Charles. Pte.
- Grills George Moss. Pte. East Lancashire Regiment
- Grooby Albert. Pte. Lincolnshire Regiment
- Ingram John Leonard. Pte. West Surrey Regiment (Queens)
- Jeffrey H.. Rflmn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
- Jones Daniel. Pte Royal Welsh Fusiliers
- Mackirdy Mactaggart. Pte. Gordon Highlanders
- Moore Daniel Joseph. L/Cpl. Newfoundland Regiment
- Mullett Herbert Lesley. Sgt. Essex Regiment
- Niddrie Albert. Pte. 17th Battalion
- Oliver Albert George. Rfmn. London Regiment
- Parker John George. Rfl. Kings Royal Rifle Corps
- Pass Thomas Francis. Pte. Sherwood Foresters
- Rae Benjamin. Cpl. 19th Battalion
- Seymour Charles Thomas. Pte. Machine Gun Corps
- Stacey Francis F.. Pte. Kings Royal Rifle Corps
- Stewart John Armit . Pte. Black Watch
- Swann William. Pte. Royal Scots
- Thompson Arthur Minke. Pte. Essex Regiment
- Turner William. Pte. Chatham Btn.
- Wood Sydney Lancelot. Pte. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please.
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Records from Parchim POW Camp other sources.
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Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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264982 L/Cpl, Wilfrid English 1st/10th (Liverpool Scottish) Btn. Kings (Liverpool) Regiment (d.1st Jan 1919)  Wilfred English was a postal worker who volunteered early in 1916, training in Carnforth, Lancs before landing in France in April. He passed through Rouen and the battalion was stationed for a while near Amiens. By 19th April he wrote home to say they were under almost continuous fire and the star shells lit the sky like daylight.
On May 12th he was at rest after having "a rough time in the trenches". On June 10th "everything is clay and mud", and on 22nd there was "plenty of fireng at each others airoplanes" [sic].
By August Wilf was on the Somme. Fighting at Guillemont on 10th was a day he didn't want to describe but "will never forget". That night he volunteered to go out into No Man's Land to try to retrieve the wounded and the possessions of the dead. "Everywhere one looks he sees dead and injured". He believes he finds the body of his best friend (and cousin) but cannot be sure it is him in the darkness.
On 21st September he is wounded in the leg. Operated upon on 22nd he is repatriated in October to hospital in Birmingham, thence to Liverpool (the regimental HQ) before being discharged home to West Hartlepool.
In May 1917 he is back fighting, this time in Belgium, and having lost his L/Cpl rank (he may have been discharged during his convalescence and then volunteered again). The fighting is heavy "but not as bad as the Somme". Until he gets to Paschendaele where, on 19th, he writes home to say "I could tell you what we are going to do but it would be crossed out. Watch the papers". Perhaps as a result of all the losses among his regiment he is promoted to L/Cpl once again.
On 30th of November 1917 at Cambrai he is shot in the right hand and captured. Taken by the Germans first to Le Quesnoy, then on to PoW camp at Dulmen ("how dreary it is").
By March 1918 at the latest he is in PoW camp Parchim, where he is deployed working on a nearby farm. He starts to enjoy it. On August 11th "I am busy with the corn this month". Then "when I come home I am going to buy a farm (though where the cash will come from I don't know)". He tells his mother that by the time he gets home "You will find me an expert farmer".
He remained at Parchim until the Armistice and then awaited repatriation.
Spanish flu then swept through the barracks.
Wilf was taken to the Hut Hospital where he died at 9pm on New Year's Day 1919. He was 29.
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264972 Pte. Francis F. Stacey 12th Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps My Father, Francis Stacey was a machine gunner.
He was captured at Mesniers on 30th of November 1917.
At first he was in the Dulmen PoW camp to Parchim PoW Camp.
He got home in late 1919
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264072 Sgt. Herbert Lesley Mullett Essex Regiment  My grandfather, Herbert Mullett was captured on the morning of the Spring Offensive 21st of March 1918 on the Somme.
He was wounded and hospitalised then moved to Parchim. He was repatriated in early 1919. He was just 19 when he was captured. Over 500 of his mates, including his Captain, who he was alongside as he died, died that morning.
He was one of only 5 survivors, he was told later in hospital, all wounded.
He was unable to do military service in WW2, so volunteered, firstly as an ARP in charge of a stretcher party and then with the Red Cross. He was with the first contingent of the Red Cross sent into Bergen Belsen in April 1945, not that far from Parchim.
He had many stories of his time in the trenches but was very quiet about Bergen Belsen, more shocked by that experience than anything he experienced on the Somme.
I donated many of his artifacts to the Imperial War Museum, who displayed a watch he acquired in Bergen Belsen as part of their Holocaust collection.
Unbelievably, he was cheerful and positive right up to his death in 1965, from his exposure to being gassed in 1918. He told me, on his deathbed, that he had seen more dead bodies than I had had hot dinners.
I painted a portrait of him from a photograph taken of him to record his promotion to Sergeant in 1917.
He was based near Warminster, in Wiltshire, at the time.
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263664 Pte. William Swann 15th Btn Royal Scots William Swann, known as Billy, was my Great Great Aunt's stepson. He was one of the so called Manchester Scottish, members of the 15th Battalion, Royal Scots which was raised by the Lord Provost and City with half the men being recruited in Edinburgh and half in Manchester, hence the name Manchester Scottish.
My interest in him comes from two photographs I have passed through the family welcoming him home from the war after being in a POW in Germany. My research through the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross indicates that he was captured at Croiselles, France on the 23rd of March 1918 and was imprisoned at Parchim Camp in Germany. This was known as the Camp of Death possibly because of the high death rate from Spanish Flu.
William married in Annie Leah on 27th Dec 1927. I have not been able to trace any children. It was a later marriage, William was born in 1883, Annie in 1894 and both died in 1960.
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260623 Cpl. Benjamin Rae B Coy. 19th Battalion Ben Rae was injured in the Battle of Bullecourt, wounded in the back and captured on 3rd of May 1917. He was taken prisoner and interred at Parchim POW Camp. He was repatriated to England on 26th of December 1918. Returned to Australia as via H.T. Khyber, sailed from London to Australia on 3rd February 1919 and discharged from the Army in Sydney on 15th May 1919.
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259113 Pte. Thomas Francis Pass Sherwood Foresters Thomas Pass served with the Sherwood Foresters in WW1. He was captured by Germans at Bullecourt (28th of March 1918) during manoeuvres with the Sherwood Foresters and was registered at Parchim Camp on 24th of July 1918.
Although he hardly ever spoke at all about his wartime service, he indicated that he and other PoWs were not treated well by the Germans. He once (reluctantly) mentioned that there were hens nearby to the PoW hut and that some prisoners kept putting any crumbs of their meager meals through a hole in the hut wall to attract a hen. One day a hen ventured close enough to the hut for a prisoner to grab it. The way it was described was: "it's feet didn't touch the floor and the prisoners were soon eating a better meal!"
Most of time, if anyone mentioned the war, he became very withdrawn and tearful but wouldn't explain why. I wish we had more knowledge and a better understanding of what he went through.
Tom was fortunate to have survived the war and return to his home in the Midlands where he led an active life until his later years and died in 1971.
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256532 Pte. William Turner Chatham Btn. William Turner was born on the 12th of July 1887 in Adlestrop. Son of Reuben Sedgley Turner and Caroline Ann Reed.
He married Ada Absalom on the 30th of October 1913 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, the witnesses were Robert Absalom and Jane Rosa Sedgley Turner. He later married Elsie Frances Jones on the 21st of March 1925 in the Register Office, West Bromwich, Staffordshire.
He was a painter and decorator and a Trade Union organiser
From 1913 to 1916 he lived at 1A King's Head Yard, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
On 11th of December 1915 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, he enlisted as a private into the Chatham Battalion, joining B Company Royal Marine Light Infantry.
He had brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was 5'8''.
He was reported missing on the 31st of March 1918. He had been captured on the 24th of March 1918 at Bertrincourt, France, during the first battle of Bapaume. On 17th of June 1918 a message was sent to his mother, Caroline, to say that he had not been found.
However, on 24th of July 1918 it was confirmed that he had arrived at Parchim.
He appears on the electoral rolls for 1925, living at 34 Woodland Road, Handsworth, Birmingham with his sister Norah and her husband.
He appears on the 1939 Identity Card Register at Greenwood Avenue, Acocks Green, Birmingham.
He died in July 1971 at 127 Greenwood Avenue, Acocks Green, Birmingham.
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255550 AB. Edgar Astles 6th Howe Btn. Edgar Astles was in the Army Reserve on 30th of August 1916 and was posted to the RNVR on 6th of July 1917 and joined the 2nd Reserve Battalion at Blandford for training. The was posted to the Howe Battalion on 31st of December 1917. He was reported missing on 24th of March 1918 and then reported POW at Kriegagefangenenlager, Limburg Lahn 4th of June 1918.
It was reported by Netherlands Legation in Brussels that he was a POW in hospital in Braine le Comte, Belgium on the 19th of July 1918 and was moved to Geflg Parchim 16th of August 1918. Edgar was repatriated on the 3rd of December 1918 via Dover and demobilised on the 10th of April 1919 at Prees Heath.
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253946 Pte. Arthur Minke Thompson 11th Btn. Essex Regiment Arthur Thompson was taken prisoner, not wounded, on the 22nd of March 1918 at Morchein. Hew as interned at Parchim and despatched from Berlin on the 15th of July 1918.
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252456 Pte. George Moss Grills 11th (Accrington) Battalion East Lancashire Regiment George Moss was taken as a Prisoner of War in the early part of 1918 in Arras. I have obtained a copy of his record from the Red Cross. He was first taken to Parchim I/Meckl and then to Friedrichsfeld.
I also have his war record. I believe he was made to stay at home in the first part of the war as he worked in essential services. He was born in 1880 so he was about 34 when the war broke out. He was not happy at having to remain at home whilst his contemporaries joined up. He did eventually join them though as he enlisted in the 11th East Lancashire Regiment, otherwise known as the Accrington Pals.
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252433 Pte. Alfred Charles Golding Alfred Golding was captured at Monchy, France on 3rd of May 1917 and interred at Parchim POW Camp.
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250322 Pte. Charles Thomas Seymour 192nd Company Machine Gun Corps Charles Seymour was captured on 21st of March 1918 in France and spent time at POW camps at Parchim and Friedrichsfeld in Germany. He was repatriated in December 1918, discharged on 26 March 1919. He re-enlisted on 27th March 1919 and continued to serve in the Army until 1921. He died in England in 1957.
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247355 Pte. Albert Grooby 1st Btn. Lincolnshire Regiment (d.4th Dec 1918) The Lincolnshire Standard 25 Jan 1919 :-
"News has been received of the death of Pte Albert Grooby, Lincolns, who was wounded and taken prisoner during the retreat from Mons. He was confined in Parchim camp (Germany) and whilst no official information has been received, a fellow prisoner who has returned states that Pte Grooby died in the middle of December. The last letter received from him was dated the day before the Armistice Day and he was then in apparently his usual good health. Much sympathy is felt for Mrs Grooby and her two children, and sad to relate the youngest child he has never seen."`
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247303 L/Cpl. Daniel Joseph Moore Newfoundland Regiment Daniel Joseph Moore of the Newfoundland Regiment, was captured in April 1917 and according to his record was at Limburg and then at Parchim.
There is some correspondence sent in his own handwriting to his battalion in London asking for food and clothing. He was first reported missing, but the Geneva Red Cross got word to London confirming he was a POW. The London Office shows records of 4 parcels sent to him over a 6 week period with a message they hope he receives them. There are records of what was sent, pants, vests, shoes, hats, gloves, towels, soap and food. He never did receive any of this.
I am his granddaughter and can vividly remember that he would only have a drink at Christmas, black rum, then he would talk of the war. He would tell of how he was worked and starved to death, of seeing his buddies drop due to the terrible conditions and were just left to die. Tears would come to his eyes. He did survive the war serving 4yrs. and 131 days before he came home to Canada.
He would always celebrate Remembrance Day and two of his 3 sons served in WW2. They also came home. Any reference made to German's in WW1 would release a flurry of cursing and swearing, which was not appreciated by my mother(his only daughter) in the presence of women or children, me being one of them. He held a lot in about the war but when he would talk, it was with such emotion that he would actually shake.
He worked as a steelworker until his retirement and had 4 children, 3 boys, 1 girl. He loved the outdoors and especially fishing and hunting. He was also a car enthusiast and I can remember him polishing the chrome on his vehicles. He was one of the lucky ones, he got to come home.
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247263 Pte. Albert Niddrie 17th Battalion Albert Niddrie was captured at Lagnicourt on the 15th of April, 1917 and was held in Wahn and then Parchim Camps in Germany.
Returned home in 1919 as an invalid but continued to be employed in clerical jobs. He got married in 1921 to Elizabeth Rose Truman and they had two daughters Elaine and Rita.
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247234 Pte. Mactaggart Mackirdy 8th/10th Btn. C Coy Gordon Highlanders MacTaggart Mackirdy is known to have been held in Parchim during WWI.
I have letters from Taggart to his mother dated 1st of August 1918 and 31st of October 1918. The address he gives for letters and parcels is,
Pte. Taggart Mackirdy No.3058 C Coy,
8/10th Gordon Highlanders, Stammlager Parchim.
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246282 Pte. John Leonard Ingram 10th (Battersea) Btn. West Surrey Regiment (Queens) My Grandfather Len Ingram, who I knew well, went missing between the 21st of March 1918 and 1st of April 1918 when he was taken prisoner and sent to Parchim POW camp and later to Friedrichsfeld POW camp near Wesel. He got back home to England sometime in January 1919.
I have a fascinating collection of his letters and post cards he sent to his mother during that time so the time line can be traced, also records of things that his mother tried to send to him in the way of receipts and his agonizingly slow trip back home to England after Armistice.
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246038 Cpl. Thomas Duxbury South Lancashire Regiment Corporal Thomas Duxbury was moved to Parchim POW camp after escaping Dulmen POW camp and living in a nearby field for a number of weeks.
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240088 Pte. John Armit Stewart 1/7th Btn. Black Watch John Stewart was captured near the village of Beugny, which lies between Cambrai and Bapaume, on day one of the Spring Offensive. Records show that he was not wounded at the time of capture and that he was sent to Parchim camp, although he may also have passed through Friedrichsfeld at some point. Until his death in 1966, he barely spoke about the war, although my father recalled him talking about gathering nettles to make soup.
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240043 Rfl. John George Parker Kings Royal Rifle Corps Rifleman John George Parker was mobilized in 1914 being sent to France, he was captured at Ypres in 1917 and spent the remainder of the war at Parchim Prisoner of War camp until Nov 1918.
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238613 Pte. Sydney Lancelot Wood 2/4th Btn., H Coy. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry  This information was sourced from the Red Cross website of POWs, CWG Commission and military documents that I own.
Sydney Wood served with the Colours
from the 26th June 1908 to 3rd August 1914 (6 years 2 months). He was in South Africa from the 1st January 1909 to 1st December 1910 (1 year 11 months).
In Hong Kongm 2nd December 1910 to 17th January 1913 (2 years 1 month) then in Singapore 22nd January 1913 to 14th January 1915 (2 years).
During War
he served with the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
from 4th August 1914 to 23rd March 1919 (4 years 8 months)
when he became Army Reserve Class B. He reenlisted on the 24th of March 1919 and served until 5th February 1920 (10 months)
He served in France from 15th January 1915 to 24th October 1915 (9 months)
in Egypt from 25th October 1915 to 30th November 1915 (1 month)
then in Salonica from 1st December 1915 to 18th August 1917 (1 year 9 months)
He returned to France on the 15th of March 1918. He was taken POW on the 27th March 1918 and held until to 30th November 1918 (8 months)
His POW card reads: A55516 Wood S. Pte 9757. KOYLI Missing 27th March 1918 France.
Rep. Mrs A Wood (mother) 34 Wodehouse St, Norwich, Norfolk, England
According to a letter send to the family dated 28th June 1918, he is a prisoner in Germany. PH 40751 15 November 1918 Wood Sidney 9757 Pte 2/4th KOYLI H Coy born 14th March 1888, Norwich taken 27th March 1918 Sommecourt, unwounded. Transferred from Parchim POW camp to Freidrichsfeld POW camp.
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238357 Pte. Frederick Charles Driver 7th Btn. Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment  The following transcription is of an oral interview recorded in 1972, in which Frederick Driver related to his Grandson Robert his experiences during the First World War, with the help of his wife Dorothy. Many thanks to his great-granddaughter Angela Scott for taking the time and trouble to listen to the tape and type out the following account into a readable document for future generations to read.
Track one: Joining Up
Dorothy: Tell him why you joined up.
Frederick: Why I joined up? I did, that's all.
Robert: Why did you volunteer?
Frederick: Just so we could go in the regiment of our choice, see.
Robert: Yeah.
Frederick: Then we get a choice of regiment, see.
Dorothy And your brother was in.
Frederick: If you waited later on, till 1916, you'd[ve] been forced to go. So you might just as well volunteer, you see. And I'd been used to horses and went on to the cavalry.
Robert: Surely you knew all about the people that were being killed in Flanders in '14 and '15.
Frederick: Yes. Well, we knew of course, of course you did. But you didn't know how many, did ya?
Robert: You didn't.
Frederick: No.
Robert: You thought it [was] just sort of a side-show,
Frederick: Pardon?
Dorothy: Well, you really, you really went in because Jack was in it, didn't you?
Robert: Yeah, yeah.
Dorothy: So he could get in the 5th Lancers.
Robert: Yeah, but you know, I've heard stories about women at the time, I mean, blokes who are walking around the streets without a uniform they were, er...
Frederick: Well, you're thinking about the white feather business.
Robert: That's it, yeah, the white feather.
Frederick: No, never see none of that.
Dorothy: Not in his time.
Robert: No?
Dorothy: No.
Robert: Yeah, but when conscription came in, that ended all that didn't it? I mean, you had to go anyway.
Dorothy: Yes, you had to go where they like to send ya. And them all in, in Ipswich and that, see, had to go in the Suffolk regiments.
Track two: Dublin Uprising
When we got down to the town, the middle of Dublin down Sackville street opposite the post office, the General post office they opened fire on us, see, rotten shots all they hit was three men and three horses and as soon as they opened fire the old captain says about turn and went back to barracks and he said we're going out as soon as we can dismounted so we went out as infantry more or less just with bandoleers full of ammunition rifles we went and routed them out of the post office in the morning see before dinner, and in the mean time artillery were ordered up from the Curraugh and they brought the guns into the dock at Sackville street right opposite the lawcourts, they were in the lawcourts as well these Sinn Fieners in the post office and the lawcourts, lawcourts were at the bottom of the Sackville street and they opened fire and knocked the lawcourts down the artillery from the Curraugh and in the meantime we went and took up positions some in the old Jacob's biscuit factory and and all the places they were likely to be in you see, took them over and simply rounded them up., And within a fortnight we'd got them all rounded up look and there they still carrying on we quieted them down in a fortnight.
: - Yeah.
Yeah then after the war was over cause they started again that's when they formed the black and tans they're volunteers you know from England the black and tans were. And they had to clear em up again in the meantime they're clamouring for home rule and they got it see cause Ireland was partitioned wasn't it the south from the north.
Track Three: The Western Front
Yeah, but when you, after you had joined up and that, I mean, what,
Robert: When did you first go over to France then?
Frederick: Umm. August 1916. August '16. We went over and we joined the Queens out there, you see, the Queens regiment. The 7th Queens. That was, the 55th Brigade. The 18th division we come up in.
Robert: What sort of ship did you go over in?
Frederick: Ooo, don't know, well, er, old freighter thing, you know.
Robert: Yeah?
Frederick: Yeah. From Folkstone we went, to Folkstone, to Boulogne.
Robert: And then you went up. Did you go straight to the front?
Frederick: And then we went...No, we had to go to...we stayed the night in Boulogne, up on the camp there. And the next day we had to go join the Queens. They were up, um, near Albert, place called Albert, out at rest at the time. Then we done some, done joined the battalion, you know. I was put on headquarters battalion, with Machine gun, headquarters machine gun. By going to headquarters They could put us anywhere, you know what I mean? To any company.
Robert: Yeah.
Frederick: See? A, B, C or D company. We could go anywhere. They could put us in the line, you see, or, which company was ever in the line you'd have to be with 'em, you see?
Robert: Can you, visualise now what it was like? I mean, can you visualise what it was like at that time?
Frederick: Well, plenty of shells dropping around. In as soon as you got in range, you know?
Robert: Yeah?
Dorothy: What about the time when you all pinched the bread from the bakers?
Frederick: Oh yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, we were going right up, right up into the, up in the front line, you see. We're going up right, going into the front line and we was way back at rest, and we was put in a billet, in an old bakery, you know? A bakery. One what was using, they were still in use; French bakery, see. And the old Baker he used to bake his bread, you know, during the night time, ready for sale the next day. And my brother, and another: an ol' Kelly, watched the old baker leave and then went and pinched his bread. We got the gun: we'd got gun limbers for Lewis gun, you know, and the guns had gone up on the horse limbers, you know? A horse wagon like. Our guns had gone up with them so our little gun carriages were empty. Two wheeler gun carriages, see, for a gun, carry the Lewis guns and ammunition see, plenty of ammunition. And they were empty. So what old, what my brother did, and the old Irishman, they stole the bread and went and put it in the trucks, empty trucks. They were all lined up beside a wall, you know, and they filled them up with bread. And the old Froggie come in daybreak and found his bread all gone. Played up merry Hell. French Police, he called the French Police up and our Police, you know; Military Police. Played up the Devil, he did. They looked everywhere. They searched our billet and everything. Packs - everything. Never found a loaf. And they were right in front of their noses, in the, in the gun trucks. Full of bread they were, yeah.
Robert: What did you do with all that bread then?
Frederick: We had a good feed. And the next day we got on the march up to the line, you know? And as soon as we got under shell fire the young captain he says, "Halt!", you know, "Fall out on the left of the road." And we opened up our gun trucks, you know, and out come the bread [laughs]. So, one of the boys picked up a loaf; "Would you like a piece, sir?", you know. We was all under shell fire then - only about two miles from the line. Yeah. And nothing was said about that. Never got into trouble over it at all, 'cause he never reported us, you see?
Dorothy: He asked, he asked where you got it from, didn't he?
Frederick: He knew. He knew, didn't he. All the officers knew, all the blokes knew, didn't they. But as soon as they was opened up it was a laugh. Everybody was eating the French toopang, you know, long loaves.
Dorothy: See, didn't you get some cheese from somewhere for them?
Frederick: Pardon?
Dorothy: Didn't you get some cheese?
Frederick: Cheese?
Dorothy: Yeah.
Frederick: Oh, we had plenty o' cheese. Half the blokes wouldn't eat the cheese, you know. It used to lay about in the billets.
Robert: Where did you first go into action, then?
Frederick: Erm. When?
Robert: Where.
Frederick: Up at Thiepval. Thiepval on the ridge, at Thiepval.
Thiepval, Mericourt, Grandcourt.
Robert: You was in all them places were you?
Frederick: Lotacourt. In front too,
Frederick: Yes, in front of that, we were cause.
Robert: Yes.
Frederick: 'Cause, April, when they went over, the Vimy Ridge, see, we was in front of that. Yeah.
Robert: What did you do in the line?
Frederick: Well, we just had to hold the line, you see - go in t' the front line. Plenty o' shellin' an' all that business, you know? On our way up he was dropping shells, gas shells of one sort or another. You know, all sorts.
Frederick: Several times we laid out in the shell hole, you know, with the old gun, between the two lines. Didn't mind it, and used to like it because the shells were going right over us, like that, see?
Robert: Yeah?
Frederick: All the heavy stuff, and light stuff an' all, goin' right over. If you was in No Man's Land you was the best off. Through that winter, anyhow.
Frederick: If you laid quiet a German patrol would pass you, perhaps. Bullets would be whizzing over the top of your heads. Zip, zip, zip, zip, you know. Just lay doggo for the night. Bloomin' cold though, frozen.
Dorothy: Jack got wounded?
Frederick: Oh yes he did, and a night or two before that.
Dorothy: Yes.
Frederick: When we were laying in support a shell came over: A whizz-bang. And we were in a fairly big trench, and... Both together in the front line, look, and a whizz-bang came over. What they call a whizz-bang - that was their light artillery. Good guns they were, similar to our twenty five pounder. And a shell - I could hear it coming. It hit the top of the parapet and burst. It blew my rifle right out of my hand. My brother got a bullet, behind his ear here in the neck.
Robert: Yeah?
Frederick: Yeah. Got back to Blighty with that. I took him back to the end of the trench. The old Sergeant Major, they were in the dugout there, I said, "Well, I'll take him back." He say, "You won't. You won't.", he say. "You'll stop in the front line" [laughs] So, he got back to Blighty, look. Another few days after that, then, I was captured.
Robert: You were captured in 1916 then?
Frederick: No, '17.
vRobert: When?
Frederick: 1917. February 1917. February '17.
Robert: Yeah?
Frederick: And that was a place called, er, Irles. I.R.L.E.S, Irles and that was too...we was... See, which I tell you what was happening: The Germans were falling back at that time, which they used to do. They'd pulled back on to better ground and that, you see - leave you in the muck and mire and shell, you see [laughs]. And (pause) Oh, a dawn patrol. When they were falling back, see; "Any volunteers for a dawn patrol?", so we all volunteered, with the old gun, you know, and just a rifleman or two, see, to go out before dawn, an hour before dawn. We was to go up the communication trench into Gerries front line; a village. And part right along the front of the village, a place called Irles, I.R.L.E.S., and went past the front of it and up his communication trench for about a mile, see. Never saw, never saw anything of them. They kept doggo, you know, they laid quiet, they let us come. And and all of a sudden they jumped. Some of them jumped out the trench, and we let the old, I let the old Lewis gun let 'em have it, you know, as they ran way. Then the old gun blocked, you know, which they would do, a Lewis. They used to jam. Two bullets used to. A couple of cartridges used to try to get in the [barrel at once], and that'd block, you see. Tried to get up the barrel. So when the old, stopped, and we were in their communications trench he simply come round us, you know, they come up from other trenches, 'cause they knew the trenches better than we did, you see. We was in their communications trench, therefore they got, they got, surrounded us, and just cut us down in the trenches as we were...see? They could get right, they could get forward or to the side of us or behind us - which they did do. Got right behind us, because we was through their lines, see. through their front line about two miles.
Frederick: ...A funny thing, where you used to talk about what would, what would happen to us. When we was in support, or quiet, or back at rest, used to think about what would happen to us. Somebody would say, "I shall get killed, I know I shall.", see, and they used to too... I said, I thought I wasn't. Something told me. Well, I didn't know what was going to happen, you know. What I mean, I wasn't going to get killed but I couldn't fathom out what was going to happen to me. But I was nearly a deader mate, I was nearly gone.
Dorothy: They saved his life.
Frederick: Yeah. Germans saved me life.
Robert: Yeah?
Frederick: You know, by binding up, you know. The blood was coming out in a stream like that out of my stomach here. They simply got my doings, you know, bound me up tight and that. And still the blood was coming through. So he took the...
Dorothy: Off another...
Frederick: Yeah. Another fella who was shot beside me, he weren't...he's right next to me. Right there, in the temple. And they took the bandages of his, you know, bound me up double lot, you know, really bound me up tight.
Dorothy: Didn't they put a stone in to stop it?
Frederick: No, not a stone. No, no. They bound it down solid, you know. That stopped the bleeding. And they... I wondered what the Devil they were going to do with me, you know. They took me out [of] the trench, lugged me out the trench, and they put me [on a] couple of oil sheets, laid a couple of oil sheets down and laid me in it, and they brought the sheets together, you know, at the top, and laced them through, and then put a pole through. That's how they carried me back, Germans. Good idea that, was no waiting for the stretcher bearers. They were smart in the trenches... They'd all had medical [training] and all that, they know exactly what to do. We lost a lot of lives through that you know, because our chaps didn't know what to do, you know. They'd all been trained in medical [first aid] you see, and I, I, pretty thirsty, I kept asking for water. They, they, you know what they done? Got a bit of bandage and dipped it in their coffee, you know. They'd coffee in their, they used to carry coffee instead of water in the water bottle. They dipped the bandage in the coffee and let me suck it. They wouldn't give me a drink you know, it would've been fatal, see. Although I'd lost a lot of blood, must o' done, 'cause I was sinking, you know. Felt I was.
Robert: You was wounded with a bullet?
Frederick: Pardon?
Robert: You was wounded with a bullet?
Frederick: Yeah, yeah. Bullet, yeah.
Robert: When you was surrounded, didn't you surrender or anything then?
Dorothy: Well, you didn't know, did you?
Frederick: No need mate, no need. No, no need to put your hands up or anything. Just taken over. You're, ain't it, you're finished, you know that, and the Gerry knows it too.
Frederick: Well, if you get into their lines anything could happen. Same thing would happen with a German patrol. They was pinched as well, just the same and that. That was only done so that each side should know where the others are, that's what they wanted to know
Dorothy: That was nothing for you to be up to your waist in water and mud was it?
Frederick: Cor, if you slipped off the duck board you was in it, you know. ..My feet were swollen so much they cut the boots off, and the trousers. They were rotten in blood, you know. They just tore that off, leggin's too, yeah.
Frederick: ou know that took us some a day and two nights to dig a bloke out.
Robert: Yeah?
Frederick: Yeah. To dig him out! The more you kept digging the deeper he kept sinking, you know. The water and the mud, we kept throwing it out. Dig behind him, we used to dig down behind him and put a blanket under the backside when you got him over. So you pull him back and lift him out with this blanket, see, 'cause the old mud and ooze and stuff was all...it used to hold you like glue. Just like glue.
Track Four: Prisoner of war
Frederick: They took me into a dressing station you know, the Gerries did and that, and then into a horse ambulance, you know, course they were nearly all horses in them days see. And then we went up an old disused railway, you know, that had been cleared away and that. Was in a sunken, sunken road for about three or four miles up towards Cambrai. They took the rails up and used that as a road, see. And that un and that was deep, about as deep as this house perhaps, you know.
Robert: Mmm.
Frederick: Between two banks they used to use that for ambulances to go up and down, see, from the front line up to Cambrai. And even then they went, they took me from Cambrai up to Mons by train, you know.
Robert: Mmm.
Frederick: And their hospital there, what they call reserve hospital. Prisoners and Germans all went into the same hospital, see, in the clearing station like. Big clearing station; Mons. I remember I was operated on in that same evening. I laid there for a day or two before they moved me right up north to Munster, in an old Monastry that was supposed to be a hospital. We had our beds, was three boards with a straw mattrass on it. Bag o' straw, that was hospital, look [laughs].
Robert: What did you do there?
Frederick: I was in there several weeks. They kept the wound open for weeks. They used a bandage, you know, a sterilised bandage, used to tuck in, like that cause that was septic.
Dorothy: Did that turn septic?
Frederick: I reckon it did because I..., weeks and weeks they were poking this, these bandages in every day, see.
Dorothy: Yes.
Robert: Where did you go to prison camp, then? Where was you a prisoner of war?
Frederick: Pardon?
Robert: Where was you a P.O.W. then?
Frederick: All over, in different camps, you know. Er, from...Parsham was the name of one. Frankfurt, Franfforter, Maine. The, all different places, you know. Doblemann was another camp. And I used to volunteer to go out on the... It wouldn't do to stop in camp, you know, to, no. Volunteer to go out on working parties, see, on the farms or anywhere else.
Dorothy: What about the time you went where there was some ducks?
Frederick: Oh yeah, yeah. On a big farm we had, they had four ducks there. We managed to get them.
Dorothy: You was with... You was with Russians, weren't ya?
Frederick: We used to live in a big room, in a lock up, you know. Big room with a big old stove in, with twenty or thirty prisoners. [Among] twenty [of us there] might have been only four Englishmen and a few Frenchies, you know, and Russians, chiefly Russians. And Poles, yeah. So, two Englishmen, they took the, they took the bars apart, you know, from the window, and went out and got, pinched these ducks off the pond. They were locked up in a duck house on the pond, big pond, you know. And they went round the field so they shouldn't follow the feathers. and that, you know. Got 'em in a sack and brought 'em home. This old sentry had gone out, Saturday night it was. He'd gone down the town to have a drink, see, only one sentry. And we got a bucket and cooked these ducks, you know. Drawn, plucked 'em and put them in a bucket and boiled 'em up.
Dorothy: Ah. but how did you get rid of the innards?
Frederick: Ay?
Dorothy: You burnt all the innards.
Frederick: Buried the feathers and stomach and that, you know. Buried them.
Robert: How did you get on with the Germans in general then, at that time?
Frederick: Pretty well, you know. Yeah.
Dorothy: Bar once when you couldn't eat the potato soup.
Frederick: Oh yeah, yeah. That was on one job, couldn't drink the soup. It'd got maggots floating about on it. Potato soup, and a little bit o' meat here and there, but maggots. Seventeen Englishmen on that job, and we none of us, us Englishmen, wouldn't touch it, you know, wouldn't look at it. And so the old Sergeant Major what was in charge, German Sergeant Major, you know, he say, "You won't drink it?" "No, we're not going to have that!". He lined up seventeen sentries [and] he lined up us seventeen, here. He said, "If you don't, if you don't have the soup I'll shoot yer." See? One man: [One] sentry, we knew he doesn't do that, not on a big job like that, you know. We was, "No!" He stood, lined us up, he lined us the post, his sentries up, you know, and seventeen against seventeen. We stood there about half an hour. He got fed up. Thought what he would do I suppose, "You'll all get punishment. You'll all be confined to ground for twenty four hours." No blanket or nothing see. They had some underground, er, sort of barrack, you know what I mean? Purpose [built] for the job. So they put us down there for twenty-four hours. Just a drink of water. Coo.
Dorothy: And you had to go on sleepers, didn't yer?
Frederick: Ay?
Dorothy: Railway sleepers?
Frederick: Oh yes. Sent us up on the, sent us up on a job on railway sleepers, you know, iron sleepers they were.
Frederick: Pick them up beside the railway, about a foot of snow. As you picked them up so the blinkin' skin come off yer hand, frozen, you know what I mean? Sort of pulled the skin off your hands. Another rotten job, that was. But on the farm it was decent. The German people themselves hadn't got nothing to eat. That was all sent to the front line, see. They were actually starving beginning 1917, they were. The cows weren't getting any food, they couldn't give much milk. British people didn't know that, no. Nor did the troops at the front. If they.. .All the stuff used to go to them, see. The civilians weren't getting much. Children were as thin as rakes, all with rickets, you know. Then they wouldn't give in, see, not even right up to 1918 they wouldn't.
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226763 Rflmn. H. Jeffrey King's Royal Rifle Corps Rifleman Jeffrey was a prisoner in Parchim POW Camp.
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222574 Pte Daniel Jones 9th Battalion, C Coy. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.28th Jun 1918) Daniel Jones died through starvation in a Prisoner of War Camp in Parchim, Germany. He was my uncle.
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219675 Rfmn. Albert George Oliver 20th Btn. London Regiment My Grandfather Albert Oliver was born in 1896 in Deptford, South London. He served with the 20th London Regiment. My family have limited information on his joining up as we have been informed that his records were destroyed in the blitz in WW2, what we do have is a letter from LRB Regimental Care Committee on 8/6/1918 informing his family that he is a POW in Germany, also with this letter is a list of items that can be sent, normal items, boots, socks, personal care, etc but interestingly money by money orders, sheet music, chess,and draughts, educational books only. each POW was sent six food parcels every four weeks costing £3/1/06 and the families asked what amount they were able to contribute, all interesting reading. We don't know were he was held but we know he made numerous attempts to escape finally ending in him being shot and wounded, ending in any further chances of escape
Lastly I have two photos, one is a named group by Joyce of Warminster of the 20th London Regt mentioning CSM A.E Dawes awarded DSM in London Gazette 26th July 1927, the other is a rare picture showing my Grandfather with two other soldiers from different regiments taken at the POW camp. He returned and married Harriett Harris at Greenwich in 1920 had five children and passed away in 1974 aged 78.
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