211477 Flt/Eng. Ronald S. Fermor Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from:Havant, Hampshire I am researching Havant, Hampshire, in WW2 and came across this harrowing account in the Hampshire Telegraph, dated 20 April 1945.
A Havant airman, who was one of 1,000 prisoners forced to take part in a march of 500 miles across Germany, has returned home after being freed by the Americans. W/O Ronald Fermor RAFVR, of Staunton Road Havant, was for two-and-a-half years a prisoner at Stalag 344. On January 26th, 1,000 men were marched away from the camp. They were given one Red Cross parcel to last for ten days and the contents were frozen in the tins. They had no food all the way and were given only one small black loaf to seven men.
Fermor saw nine men shot for stealing mangolds from a clump by the roadside. He himself sold his shirt to a German woman for a small piece of bread. They lived on mangolds, potato peelings and grass and once took corn out of a manger to eat. For three months they withstood terrible conditions of starvation and cold, their boots frozen to their feet, sleeping in the snow with no covering but their coats. Hundreds dropped down, unable to continue. By mid-March 40 of the remaining 180, including Fermor, were too ill and weak to walk further. These were left at a Stalag with French prisoners and for nearly three weeks they lay on wooden forms, too weak to move. When the Americans arrived on March 30th to tell them they were free, some of them cried like children.
As soon as they were strong enough they were flown home. W.O. Fermor reached home on April 11th for thirty days leave before returning to hospital.
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