205697 Sgt. Ronald Mayfield Cridge New Zealand Army No8 Coy. N Group 26th Battalion from:Christchurch, New Zealand My Father Ronald Mayfield Cridge enlisted 24/6/1940 in the No 8 Company N Group: initially as Prvte Cridge in Charge - then Batt Corporal, and Sergeant - 4 Service Chevrons as at 3.10.1944 & The Africa Star After enlisting, Ronald was sent to Burnham Camp for initial training before being sent with his friend Brownie Dann to Wellington with the 1st Section of the 4th Reinforcements on the evening of the 7th November on the “Rangitira”.
Embarking the following morning on the Polish ship the “Batory” sailing on the eve of the 8th Nov into a howling gale, they were acompanied by The “Achilles” & the “Maunganui”to Sydney. The troops had 2 ½ days leave then sailed in convoy with three larger ships full of Australian troops escorted by three Australian Cruisers to Fremantle.
The Batory was a liner of 14287 tons and Captained by Deyczakowski, but owned by the British and employed as a troop carrier during the war, also used to uplift the families from Singapore. The Convoy spent 5 days in Fremantle while the cruisers searched for a German Raider in the Indian Ocean. The convoy then departed for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where they had a days leave in Colombo. While on board Ronald was excused from many duties and lectures as he worked six evenings a week as film projectionist in the ship’s cinema. The Convoy reached Port Tewfik on the 16th Dec. where the New Zealanders disembarked and travelled by train to the Maadi Military Camp a few miles out of Cairo. Christmas Day was spent at Maadi. After further weeks of training and two weeks guarding Italian Prisoners of War, the reinforcements were finally moved to the Helwan Military Camp where they were drafted into different battalions and other support units. Ronald joined the 26th Battalion and Brownie Dann the 20th, separated after a long time sharing the same platoon, barracks and ships. 3rd March the Infantry Battalions moved to Amiriya, about 12 miles from Alexandria and camped. On the 6th March the NZ Division sailed from Alexandria, reaching Greece the following day. Some Convoys took several days due to a storm, therefore arriving in Greece about the 11th or 12th. All Infantry Brigades camped on the slopes of Mt. Hymettus on the outskirts of Athens before moving up to the Front. They were there for about a week.
Ronald was taken prisoner at Kalamata with some 1000 NZers and 1100 Australians and several thousand British. They were forced to marched to Corinth arriving on the 2nd May 1941 when he again met up with his friend Brownie Dann. From Corinth they were moved to Salonika arriving there on the 9th June. Two trainloads carrying most of the NZers left Salonika on the 11th & 12th June.
Ronald was on the train to Wolfsberg in Austria. The main camp for all the Allied Prisoners Of War was established at Wolfsberg, Stammlager XVIIIA, attached to Wolfsberg were dozens of different types of working camps all with their own quarters and guards. Ronald spent some 300 days in solitary confinement, generally for endeavouring to escape. He also had to wear a French Uniform as his had been removed from him which meant short trousers and as he had no leggings and only had the “clogs” (boots with a fabric top and a wooden sole, very hard to walk in and NOT waterproof) he suffered from the cold until at last the Red Cross supplied him with a new uniform and boots arrived from his parents.
Some Letters from my Father to his Family:
22nd July 1941: My Dear Folks, At last we have been given the opportunity to write something like a decent letter I do hope that you have received my numerous notes through the Red Cross. Well we have been captured some 3 months now and have seen more in that time than I ever imagined possible. The scenery through the Balkan States is marvellous, but I will tell you more about that at a later date. You may write as often as you like to the given addresss. We are allowed to receive parcels from home amounting to 10lbs per month. The Red Cross officials were around today, they have promised us parcels in the near future, my health is keeping up well so you have no need to worry,Your ever Loving Son Ron.
16th Aug. …Red Cross parcels, received 120 cigarettes this week something we haven’t had for months, a real luxury We are made to work outside the camp, then we are fed, long hours, hard work but at least we see some of the countryside. You’d laugh at their antiquated farming methods, really old fashioned, bullock ploughs, hay carts and the crops are cut by scythe, lots of women work in the fields who look very pretty in their gaudy and quaintly fashioned dresses. The men in short trousers made of leather and as they last up to 6 years are very short by the end. The “Jerry” ration is, 1 bowl of cabbage soup per day and 1 loaf of bread, normal size, among 8 men per day. Once a week, we get a piece of meat, but we don't starve, as some POW camps without parcels do.
Photo POW Camp Austria 18 .1 .1942 Front Row: S. Whittel, T Newton, B. Oldham, D. Duggan. Ron Cridge, R. Jahmeton Back Row: G. Quirk, Q Gray, R. Woods G. McKay, G. Bissel, F. McCallum, S. Ryans, G. Herring 12th July, all in the pink, just received a parcel of winter clothes from NZ .. A scottish chap and I have put together an Act to entertain the guys, had no mail for a while…we do a fair bit of gambling mainly two up or “Swy” and by the way our stakes are cigarettes which hold high esteem in our little circle, mail is very slow lately. We had some reinforcements this week, some more NZers received some news too, big changes in N.Z, keep those Ruddy Japs out is the Big Thing… Moved - part of Work Camp in Klagenfurt 2nd Jan. 1943…Christmas & New Year over, very good, got a bit of a spark up too.
Received your Aug. parcel with Boots, grand !! Received some more smokes, they burned down our Concert Hall, but we still carry on, Best of Love Ron
Winter is on the wane, thank god, there’s a Blasted parade on for something may be Armistice ?? am keeping well, short of smokes & food, don’t think it’ll last much longer than 12 months now, my job at present is cutting ice which is a foot thick, just had a “pep” talk from the Officers, been Bad Boys !! no need for concern, I’m OK.. 21st Feb 1943.. have changed my address to Stalag, quite a nice change to see all my Christchurch friends, spring is fast approaching and things in general are brightening up, except the mail which has slowed again, the last one I got was sent in Nov. I came back to the Stalag with more clothes than I ever carried in my life, a great asset here, great to meet up with the old friends, Cranny Hearn & others. I am looking forward to a change. There are about 1000 men here in Stalag with a big percentage of New Zealanders. Hoping to start operating a film & organising a concert soon which is more interesting than pick & shovel especially with the food shortage, we survive on the parcels. Attending lectures mostly on episodes of different chaps lives here. ..
5th April, Mail is infrequent a shortage of sorters here in Stalag, weather is becoming warm yesterday we had an International Boxing & Wrestling match, the French man won after a hard fight, we get some news from the boys working outside when they return, we also have a very good chap as Padre here name of Ledgerwood. My Kit Bag with personal articles & souvenirs may be had on request from the Military Authorities. I hear the NZ Division is keeping up to it’s name, I wonder how many of my (26th) Battallion are left?? Please thank the NZ Patriots Soc I received 200 cigs today. Cranny Hearn broke the 1000 metre Record today 3mins 2.5secs.
11th July 1943 – yesterday we had a Christchurch reunion a few personalities, Vic MacDonald, Maurice Collins, Lance Rankin 26 in all a truly grand afternoon, news is good, but nothing can happen quickly enough for us.
22nd Nov. 1943, I have been moved out of Stalag to this terrible godforsaken hole Luzon , we in Germany are entitled the “Toothless Terrors”, there are exactly 104 but 12 went through, they are doing time in the local “Boob”, there have been more “Captains” here dishing out orders than I have ever seen before even in the front line. by the late Eric Fearnside “At four o'clock in the morning, we heard the cries, "Raus! Raus!" and we were tumbled out of bed for what was to become the last time at Stalag XVIIIA at Wolfsberg. Bewildered and shivering with the cold on the parade ground, we were told by the Commandant that we were being evacuated to a safer area. Taking only the bare essentials, we marched off into the unknown. At first, the going was easy, but as we reached the mountains, it became more tiring. After twenty miles we lay down where we were. Most of our clothes were not warm enough and our shoes were not for marching in, a lot of us had sore feet and blisters. A chap in the engineer's shed at the camp had invented a little stove made from two tin cans soldered together, so it wasn't long before the darkness was lit by little stoves brewing up tea and warming our hands. We scrambled over the Tauern Pass which was 1740 mtrs above sea level, it was bitterly cold walking through snow; we were covering twenty miles every day for eleven days, it was hard going. We finally arrived at Stalag XVIIIC Markt-Pongau prison camp, where the German guards offered us their rifles. The date was the 10th of May, 1945. The war had been over for two days, we could not believe it, we were at last going home."
28th May 1945 – Margate England N.Z.E.F. Dear folks, Reception in this Country wonderful, received cable & letters, I don’t expect to be back in NZ for some time about Xmas I guess. Everything is mighty expensive here, my friend Maurice and I are arranging a flat in Londons West End I shall look up Des Scott and see if he is interested. I landed in England with practically nothing, just ever so relieved. We had a wonderful trip over by “Lancaster” Bombers, boy what a kite. We were with the Yanks in Germany for 3 weeks they gave us a most marvellous time, they’ll do me. Today we are busy getting re equipped, we are almost finished. Just received a ‘tenner” mighty queer to handle real money again. I shall write again shortly . Cheerio, love to all Yours Ron.
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