Liebenau Internment Camp, Germany: Part 15

Picture 15

Outside the guardroom. A batch of internees on their way home at last. First by horse transport to the nearest station and then by train to Ulm. During an air raid on the city we share an air raid shelter with the local German population. Insults and obscenities are shouted at Miss Froom a wizened little Jewess. After the all-clear on the Metz and then Paris which is crawling with the Wehrmacht. After that down towards the Spanish border touching the Bay of Biscay where we see German troops dug in to avert a possible sneak invasion on this sector of the coast. Extraordinary sight of troops with in camouflage crouching over machine guns. Madrid is the next stop, pockmarked with shell holes from the civil war. Our first experience of night illumination after three years of blackout. Exhilarating. Also oranges and bananas, which we had never seen before. On to Lisbon where our guards hand us over to the appropriate diplomatic authorities. Wait for three months for civil aircraft to fly us to Bristol. Previous flight met with Messerschmitt attack when Leslie Howard, the actor, was shot down being mistaken for Churchill.

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