World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
Each barracks had a center hall with a door at each end and rooms
along each side. There was also a washroom, a small kitchen and an
outdoor john. There was also a large outside John about a twenty
holer, in a separate building for daytime use. We slept triple bunks
and I was in the middle one. The mattress was made of wood shavings in
a burlap cover and was really just a pile of lumps. There were 12 men
to a room and at the and of the building there was a small room for
one or two where the ranking officers of that barracks lived. We had a
major in our barracks and the highest ranking officer in the camp was
a colonel. I had the same bunk for the eight months we were in this
camp and had the map that I made fastened to the wall in my bunk.
The compound next to ours was where 'The Great Escape' took place, the
one about which they later made a movie. Their tunnel came under our
compound and the ground had a dip in it where we used to walk around
the edge by the warning fence. We were told that they filled the
tunnel in with human manure so that it would never be used again and
the ground had settled over it. We were lucky in that these camps
contained only American and British airmen and the camp was run by the
German Luftwaffe. They had respect for any air force personnel and we
were treated much better than the army prisoners. I understand that
their camps were terrible and they were forced to work outside the
camps. After being at this camp awhile we gave up any hope of escape
as the security was very good.
Our camp was not full yet and every week another group of prisoners
was brought in. We would all run down to the main gate when they came
to see if there was anyone we knew. We had only been there a couple of
days when some new prisoners arrived, among them Neil Ullo. We found a
place for him in the room next to ours as our room was full. He had
quite a story to tell about his experiences. His plane was hit by
large shells, and either when he was hit or when he bailed out and his
chute opened, he broke his back. The pain was terrible and hence he
didn't really know how it happened. In that condition he was worried
about what it would do to his back when he hit the ground. He landed
in the woods and his parachute caught in the trees leaving him
swinging from the harness. He was only a few feet from the ground and
the branches bent to set him down on the ground light as a feather. I
don't remember how he was captured, but they took him to a Catholic
hospital in Berlin where he was kept for five months. He said he
received excellent care and treatment under adverse conditions. At
this time the Americans were bombing Berlin days and the British
bombing at night. Every time there was an air raid they strapped him
on a plank and carried him down to the air raid shelter. He was doing
okay when he arrived in camp, but his back was stiff and he bent
forward a little.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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