Jack Collins P.O.W. life 1940 - 45 Part5 (Stalag XXB)

PART 5 Jack Collins P.O.W. Life 1940-45
THIS NEXT YEAR IS VICTORY YEAR
1st January 1944 — Went to Borhau good night heard English news.
2nd January — wrote letters home.
4th January — Sent 91 marks home.
5th January — Lofty to hospital with jaundice will be back in one month.
6th January - Working in woods, snowing all day.
11th January - Went for Red Cross parcels 4 Canadian 4 English.
12th January — Russians coming through quickly.
13th January — Went to Bortsch with Johan good day (9 K there and back)
14th January - English news corresponds with German bar for figures.
18th January — New Guard ‘Specky’ brought wireless with him.
19th January - Heard English news for first time.
26th January - Got earphones.
27th January — English news again corresponds with German.
31st January — Blondie and Ginger gone to hospital in Stalzenberg.
4th February — Heard Blondie and Lofty are back.
5th February — Heard swing music from Stockholm, girl singing in English.
6th February — Heard news again Russia doing well — Italy not so good.
9th February — News again — Nikopol has surrendered.
10 th February — English news from 8-30 till 11-30. Dance band and service.
11th Februery — ‘Specky’ gone new guard also has radio and speakers.
12th February — Eric’s birthday party ‘Specky’ came back and was the life and soul of the party. Good job Hitler didn’t know or he would have been shot.
14th February — Wireless still going strong.
15th February — Guard scared to put wireless on for the news.
16th February - Luga taken by Russia.
18th February — Bitterly cold good fun sliding on the ice.
19th February — Staraja taken by Russia.
20th February Good music on wireless —‘Jealousy etc’.
26th February — Party at another farm ‘Specky’ was there with wireless — best swing program I have heard — Mill Brothers etc. all English tunes.
27th February — Heard service from Edinburgh —‘The Day Thou Gavest Lord is Ended.’
2nd March - Long working hours are back — no vespers, no friestuck.
6th March — Big Russian break through on the Ukrain front.
12th March — Sent £30 home.
14th March — Russia taken most of Ukrain.
17th March — Cherson fallen on Black Sea.
20th March — Finland refused armistice terms.
21st March — Fighting at Brodzig they are over1940 Polish border.
22nd March — Air warnings on radio 2-3 times each day.
23rd March - Bomben uber alle Duetchland.
26th March — Churchill gave speech.
29th March — Charlie received word his wife had had a child 10 months ago.
30th March — Guard gone on leave — no wireless.
8th April — Russians now in Checkoslovakia, had party at night.Got wireless back.
9th April — Easter Sunday - Went to Fitzhau good blokes there — brought an accordion and dartboard back.
11th April — Heard Harry Lauder and his band at night.
20th April — Heard Billy Tennant late night dance music.
24th April — No news heard for a week.
May 1944 — Little news in diary very little work , weather poor ,no wireless.
5th June — Heard Rome had been taken with very little struggle.
6th June — At last invasion of France, our troops going strong, 40 kilometre front, at Le Havre, Cherbourg,got English news at night.
7th June — Bayeux fallen.
8th June — Churchill says only 1 in a series of landings.
10th June - ‘Lofty’ bought a new valve for the radio, cost 300 cigarettes well worth it.
16th June — New weapon against England called Rocket Bomb, Germans call it V1.
21st June - Cherbourg besieged.
22 June — Russia big offensive started at Vitesk.
1st July Russia — Russia 200 miles from East Prussia.
4th July — Toppers birthday had a bit of a party.
16th July — Old guard gone — no wireless now - it is hellish.
18th July — New guard came not too bad.
21st July — Attempted assassination of Hitler. Pity it hadn’t come off. Visited dentist again to-day she was anti German and pro British and encouraged visits so she could keep us up to date with news and propaganda.
22nd July — Rumour of revolution in Munich. Olive and Bill got married to-day.
29th July — Guard came back to camp with his wireless — thank goodness.
1st August — Americans have reached Dinar and Renees.
2nd August — Warsaw surrounded over the Wiechsel.
3rd August — Turkey broke off relations with Germany.
4th August — At dentists again.
5th August — Almost whole of Brest peninsular taken .
11th August — Last visit at dentist can’t prolong it anymore.
14th August — Orlean reached by the Americans.
15th August — New landing between Toulon and Cannes.
16th August - According to the guard East Prussians prisoners moved to the middle of Germany.Wonder if our turn will come.
19th August — Germans in mass disorder in France .
21st August — Toulouse taken by Partisans in France.
23rd August — Paris taken by French interior army , speech by Montgomery.
24th August — All Germans out of Paris , French troops in occupation DeGaulle in charge
25th August — Romania capitulated and declared war on Germany.
26th August — German news - heavy fighting in the streets of Paris — 50 tanks destroyed.
27th August — Plocsti oil fields taken by Russians.
28th August — Rouen evacuated.
1st September — 5 years to-day since war broke out.
2nd September — 1mile in front of the Maginot line ,Finland accepted peace terms to be carried out by the 15th.51st Division is in St.Valerie. Sedan has fallen,
3rd September — No further mention of V1 bombs is it finished?
9th September — 8 miles from Achen 600,000 dead or prisoners in France.
13th September — Fighting on the Siegfried line.
18th September — New landing in Holland ,by Arnhiem.
8th October — Rumour we will be getting 2 parcels a week from now.
10th October — Romour of moving Stalag 20B because of approaching Russians.
16th October — Wireless broken again so no further news.
No Diary available from now until March so this was documented from memory of some things which occurred during that period.Germans moving political prisoners along road , these prisoners were in a terrible state and I recall one being shot in our barn as he tried to make an escape. He was buried the next day and was only a young boy.
At Xmas we were getting a lot of Red Cross parcels loaded with stuff as we had bartered with the locals — we got meat , chicken etc from the civilians. Also Wine schnapps and beer. Wilhelm the guard was overwhelmed by the feast. We had the table set ready to eat when a great big car pulled up and 2 German officers got out to do an inspection of the camp. The Guard saluted and took them into his room so we immediately did a vanishing trick with all the food so there was nothing to be seen. So when the guard came in for the inspection he couldn’t believe that there was only bare tables. Half an hour after the inspection the food was back on the tables and the guard joined us for our Xmas dinner.
There was another occasion when an SS officer came into the camp and the guard was unaware that he had entered the camp and was talking to the prisoners. Upon his return he ordered the SS Officer out of the camp as he was military command post and had no right to be in a POW camp. When he had gone the guard came to us and said don’t let those people anywhere near you they are vermin and are a disgrace to the German nation.

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