Private E A Caine

2nd June 1942 – 10th May 1945 

(Kriegsgefangener 29598) 

Private E.A. Caine, Army Service Number 4391122, serving with the 5th Battalion Green Howards in the Western Desert.  Taken a prisoner of war by Rommel’s German Forces on June 1st 1942 Trigh Capuzzo, Gazala Line, Libyan Desert, part of 150 Brigade. 

Later we were handed over to the Italian Forces and in the following weeks we were detained in various temporary camps on the way to Tripoli.  Short stays in the following areas, Benghazi, El Agheila, Sirte, Misurata, Tarhuna and finally Tripoli. 

On July 3rd 1942 we sailed from Tripoli, locked in dark cargo holds for 3 days to Brindisi, Southern Italy.  We experienced being held for various lengths of time in several basic camps, Turturano PG68, Capua PG66, Benevento PG87.  Finally on October 26th 1942 we joined a permanent camp Calvari PG52 in the North of Italy arriving at Chiavari station and trudging for 14 kms through a fierce rainstorm to the new camp.  We dried out, as much as possible, in an empty dining hall, drinking tepid milk less, sugarless coffee.  The camp was well set up with regular washing facilities, a daily meal of skilly (thin soup) and sometimes pasta.  The huts were substantial, some with a 2nd floor.  The prisoners were mainly South Africans, New Zealanders, and a few Australians.  On arriving the British contingent outnumbered the existing inmates, we soon got into a fixed routine of regular rolls calls and weekly Red Cross parcels, one between two persons. 

On September 8th 1943 the Italians capitulated and ended their war with Germany, on September 9th German troops appeared and took over the camp. 

On September 18th 1943 we were taken back to the station where we had arrived and herded into cattle trucks again, 40 POWs to a truck and set off over five days eventually arriving at Annahof station, Silesia on the borders of Poland and Germany. 

This led us to Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf, a massive camp with large separate compounds, one for working parties, another just for RAF personal, another for personnel waiting repatriation and so on up to about eight different areas.  There were also two football pitches, (earth – no grass) where 8,000 to 10,000 POWs could watch Internationals (Wales versus Scotland), (England versus Ireland).  Quite a difference to anything we previously knew and organised with usual German efficiency.  The postal system for letters and parcels from the UK was very efficient. 

Towards the end of 1944 we heard regular bouts of warfare and Russian planes flew over the camp.  The sounds of warfare grew nearer.  On January 22nd 1945 the Germans started evacuating the camp and sending POWs out on the march.  Many lost their lives due to the primitive conditions.  Lack of food and accommodation from the cold at night – and from over zealous guards who would shoot anyone unable to keep up with the main body. 

My mate Georgie Lane and I were detailed to go on one march but as we stood in the queue at the camp gates it started to snow so we turned around and went back to our hut! 

We remained in the camp for another 7 or 8 weeks, now with only a small number of POWs until finally, with others, made to face an Army doctor and state our reason for not going on the march.  We were told definitely to be on the next group leaving, but unbelievably the camp was visited by a Red Cross deputation and because there were still lots of patients in the sick bay and the hospital the Germans were ordered to empty the camp immediately by rail.  Leaving behind the sounds of the Russian armies approaching on March 3rd 1945 we left Lamsdorf Stalag VIIIB Silesia (40 to a truck) and six days later arrived at Memmingem Stalag 7B, 30 kms from the Swiss Border.  We crossed the whole of Czechoslovakia and part of S.W. Germany, travelling in daylight without any problems from any marauding Allied planes. 

On April 26th 1945 we were liberated from Memmingem Stalag 7B by the American Forces, the German guards having fled. 

I had been away for just four years, none of my family knew I was back in England.  I arrived home in Filey on May 10th 1945 – my mother’s birthday! 

Shirley Cowdrill