Petty Officer James Cook

From: Peter Cook. 21/11/2024
My father James Cook, RN was a prisoner at Stalag VIIIB from ’41 till he escaped in ’44.

He was in Working Party: E323 Waldseidel (a sawmill) and E574 Ziegenhals (a cigar box factory)

Attached are a some pictures from the camp, and a story written about his escape (the writer managed to get a number of facts wrong).

In 1937, at the age of 17½, James went off to sea and joined the Royal Navy. He was trained as a telegraphist (telegraph operator) and in July 1939 after his training, he was posted as an Ordinary Telegraphist to HMS York, a heavy cruiser and the command ship of the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the America and West Indies Station stationed in Bermuda.
On the 3rd of September 1939, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. HMS York was in Bermuda at the time and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. The convoys began immediately and the York was an escort for the first convoy to sail from there, HX 1, on Sept 16th.
Over the next two years HMS York participated in a number of different engagements, continuing with convoy duty during the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, the abortive invasion of Norway in April/May of 1940 and the defense of Crete in 1941.
Jimmy had a number of different assignments on the York as well regular Telegraphist duties. Such as flying off the York in a Walrus reconnaissance plane as the telegraphist. Interestingly, in the late ‘50s, after Jimmy had immigrated to Canada, he was working for the pharmaceutical company Merck, Sharpe and Dohme as a salesman. On one of his travels, he was sitting in the waiting room of Gander Airport in Newfoundland when who should come along but the pilot of the plane in which he flew. “Mitch” had also immigrated to Canada and joined the RCAF and was stationed at Gander. He took Jim up in a fighter jet and he said that it was not the life for him anymore. As a telegraphist, he was also involved in landing or evacuating troops and other “special” tasks, in the Norway invasion and in the Mediterranean. During the last of these assignments, an invasion barge he was on was sunk. Their commanding officer had ordered them to fire on a plane flying overhead. Being at night, this allowed the enemy to locate, attack and sink them. Jimmy and his comrades were machine gunned in the water.
On March 26th, 1941, the York was badly damaged by an Italian explosive motorboat and beached in Suda Bay, Crete to prevent it sinking. But after further attacks in April and May, it was damaged beyond repair and blown up on May 22nd, Jimmy remained on Crete until his capture when he was picked up in the Aegean Sea on or about 5th June 1941, with shrapnel in his leg. He never mentioned anything of the sinking of the York or what he did until his capture. In total, Jimmy had three vessels sunk under him and only one small fragment of the last one was ever recorded about the details of their sinking, as previously mentioned. He also gave no details as to how he was captured, we have only the record from the Red Cross listing him as a prisoner of war and his repatriation report, that stated he was pickup up in the Aegean. Jimmy was taken to the Transit Camp in Salonika. It was a hard journey on foot with the wounded on donkeys. He later said that he swore he would never walk anywhere again if he could avoid it and as long as I knew him, he kept to his word. The conditions at Salonika were hard and during that time he contracted Diphtheria. Eventually, he was shipped by cattle car to Stalag VIIIB in Silesia (now in Poland) where Stabs. Feldwebel (Petty Officer) James Cook arrived on August 22nd, 1941, as noted by the Red Cross.
Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, was a notorious German Army prisoner of war camp located near the small town of Lamsdorf (Lambinowice) in what was then known as Upper Silesia near the Czechoslovakian border. Many of the men held in Stalag VIIIB were not in the main camp but in smaller work camps known as “arbeits commandos”. He was initially in E323 Waldsiedel, a sawmill and then E574 Zeigenhals (Głuchołazy) a Cigar box factory.
There were never many comments on life in the prison camp from Jimmy. Other than it was mostly boring. There was little food and he picked up the habit of eating extremely quickly. The prisoners were given incredibly smelly cheese from time to time and he said many wouldn’t/couldn’t eat it, but since he had no problem with it, it helped his diet. My father always said that most of the guards were just regular guys trying to keep their heads down… and that mostly they didn’t get any better food than the prisoners. When the prisoners received Red Cross parcels, they traded goodies with the guards for items that they needed. And celebrated when they could. We have a menu from Christmas dinner, 1942, in workcamp E323, signed by all the participants including J.Cook PO Tel RN., his comment “Happy days ahead” reflecting the attitude I would associate with him. Other histories of the camp indicate that conditions were pretty horrible at times, but Jimmy didn’t dwell on them. Jimmy had a great affinity for picking up languages and learned German in the camp. By the end of the war, he would be fluent. Generally, he didn’t seem to harbour any ill feeling for the German guards. In the work camps, they had opportunities to interact with locals workers who would also trade or give articles to the men. As a Petty Officer he was in charge of a group of prisoners in a work camp. Although he did mention a guard who stabbed him in the hand with a bayonet for preventing his work detail from doing work that wasn’t allowed. The story was told matter of fact as part of a story regarding what they had to do, just a part of everyday life in the camp.
Beginning in January of 1945 with the Russians approaching, the Germans decided to march all the prisoners west, in what became to be known as the Long March. Small groups of prisoners would follow various routes. Jimmys group left E574 in February 1945. But plans were being made and after a few failures, on 16th April 1945, Jimmy, an Australian (J.P. Mahar) and some other men escaped through a window and down a rope from the Schwartzer Guest House in Grulich (Králíky in Czech). The group split up and some went one way while Jimmy and the others went another. Jimmy’s only comment regarding this was that the other group did not get away, tersely delivered. Using an improvised compass, they traveled due west and managed to evade capture. They had several narrow escapes. Once they had to dive into a stream to evade a German patrol. Finally, they passed some children one day who spoke a language none of the party could understand. They were near Řepníky, Czechoslovakia. Jimmy related “I called at an inn and when I spoke German I got a very hostile reception. I then said in English…Is there anyone here who can speak English? … And a little chap at the back said… Yes, I do… I knew then that we were among friends. He took us to his farmhouse and we had chicken soup and lots of other things. It was the first food we had tasted for two weeks apart from some bread. Later, the people at the farm got a bit scared and so we moved on to another farm where we were told lived a partisan who was looking after escaped prisoners. We went to the farm and she fitted us out in civilian clothes, turned her daughters out of their beds and let us sleep between real sheets.”
The family was named Czernik and one of the daughters was named Marie, to whom Jimmy became attached. “While we were staying at the house a German officer and his men came to the place and Marie told them that I was her brother.” Jimmy stayed with them for a month. Eventually, even though they did not want them to leave, they had to go. They continued on their journey and eventually arrived at the American lines and contacted an American patrol car. Again the details of this journey are lost to time.
After his initial interrogation by the Americans and because of his knowledge of German, Jimmy was asked to help the 5th Counter Intelligence Corps as an interpreter. Always willing to do his bit, he helped interrogate members of the Gestapo and others. The Americans fitted Jimmy out in an American Army Air Forces uniform, the jacket of which I eventually inherited, and gave him a pistol as a souvenir, see the letter telling whom it may concern about this souvenir. The author of the letter, Woodford W Dinning, became a lawyer in Demopolis, Alabama until his death in 1998. Eventually, the Americans arranged for a plane and Jimmy returned to England in June 1945. When Jimmy first contacted the Americans he was only 95 lbs but after five months he put on an additional 70lbs. At this point his time with the navy came to an end. He was released from service in November. While serving, Jimmy had been wounded a number of times. He had had a toe shot off, had shrapnel wounds in his stomach and thigh, and had a scar on his hand where he had been stabbed by the prison camp guard.
Back at home, he settled in at the Regents Arms with his father. In 1947, Jimmy arranged for Marie Czernikova to come to London for a two month visit, the story of which can be read in the newspaper article.