Jerry

While in the prisoner of war camp, Bill had some interesting, and often humorous experiences with his German captors, whom he regularly referred to as “Jerry”.  For the most part, he and his fellow prisoners did all they could to make their guard’s jobs difficult, which included causing disruptions at daily roll call:

It is not our practice to be on parade for roll call on time, but to keep Jerry waiting as long as we can.  This morning ‘Blondie’ alias Under Officer Schroder endeavoured to put a stop to it… he separated [the] stragglers and dismissed the rest… the remainder were lined up in the middle of the compound and extra guards were brought in.  They were kept on parade until 9am, but they had a lot of fun.  They sang every song they knew including the Red Flag and Land of Hope and Glory.  Some of the boys from the hut took brews out to Blondie and were turned away with a haughty air.  One even took a box out for him to sit on.  Yesterday a small booklet called the A.B.C. of German language was issued by the Y.M.C.A.  In it are all sorts of phrases in English and German.  This came in very useful.  Such things as “I would like a biscuit” and “Excuse me for once please” were shouted at Blondie who couldn’t hold back a grin.  When he did let them go he was nearly knocked down in the rush.

– Bill Smith, diary, 3 May 1944 1999/195.14aj

Many prisoners took to bribing German guards in order to obtain extra luxury items not available via Red Cross parcels or any other means.  This form of trade was known as “racketeering”, and of course was forbidden:

Most of the guards today have been racketeers. They brought pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste, candles, cigarette papers and a general assortment of stuff.  Most of them want cigarettes as an exchange but some want soap.  The majority of them are as nervous as kittens when making the exchange, and have a good look around before digging deep into their pockets.

- Bill Smith, diary, 11 May 1944 1999/195.14aj

There was also the odd occasion when Allied prisoners would realise that some of the German guards were not all that different from themselves in terms of their aspirations for the future.  Bill describes a surprising encounter with a German guard while he was on hut fire watch with fellow “T” for Tommy crew member Denny Naylor:

In the early hours of the morning it was freezing hard, so we decided to make a brew.  We built up the fire and were huddled around it when a Jerry guard walked in on his tour of duty.  We let him pass through and on his way back I stopped him and asked him if he would like a drink.  He was as cold as a frog, so we found a seat for him and gave him a cigarette as well.  Neither of us could speak German so asked him if he could speak French.  He said “un peu”, so between us we managed to carry on the conversation.  He was 32, married with a son aged 6.  His home was in Essen, but had been destroyed by the R.A.F.  His mother and father had been killed by the R.A.F. too.  All he wanted was the war to finish and get back to his wife and son.

– Bill Smith, diary, 18 Feb 1944 1999/195.14aj

Next section: Barbara.