captured.then a cup of water costs a wrist watch

[mxp4506]

during that first day each of us had red triangles painted on our battleddress.
on the knees at the front and in the middle of the back.
these would serve as targets for the guards if we tried to escape .
that night the prisoners were locked in.as they would be every night.
their only toilet a bucket of one end of the room.
next morning fred was among 15 prisoners who set of at 7am to march under armed guard to another factory were they were to work.it would become
a daily routine.
we marched in threes on the right -hand side of the road.we had to take turns to be the right-hand man in the front rank.
that was were you could pick up dog ends thrown away by the germans.
fred was put to work carrying sides of beef from a truck to a container.
sharing the task with a german called max .
neither could speak each others lauguage.of every six sides of beef.max moved five .but he did not seem to care,
towards the end of the day he cut a fillet steak from one side of beef and gave it to me.he then showed me how to wrap it around my body so it would not fall.when we marched back to our billet. i was shaking with fright all the way back in case it fell out .but we arrive back without mishap.
that night we managed to cook the fillet .
there was enough for thirty men and the german sentry.
givening food to the sentry had to be done because we could not hide the smell of cooking .it was a dangerous game for both ourselves and the sentry
but hunger will conquer all fear.
freds days with the man who gave him the steak .however were soon cut short .a few days later i was transferred to work with another german ,
i never saw what became of max again .
more to follow.

[Antipodean Andy]

Thanks for continuing to post the story, Mike.

[mxp4506]

first thank you for your comments. it is always nice to hear.sorry it a long story .but am telling it in freds own words. as he wanted me to.
trading meat for eggs hidden in womens underwear.
prisoners risk all.
fighting hunger was a constant priority.wherever and whenever they could and despite the close supervision of armed guards.fred walton and is prisoners
colleagues pilfered and plundered food to augment inadequate rations.
even during air raids on leizig .fred recalls food remained the prisoners .
priority.we sheltered in cellars where butter was stored behind a lattice -work gate .at first it seemed inpossible to get at,but with a long piece of wood with a nail protruding .the butter was dragged to the gate and thus disappeared.
when the prisoners were ordered to unload barrels of butter stock from the railway trucks .again there was a chance to boost illicit food stocks.
two of us were working in one truck watched by a german who had a swastika on his arm,with this nazi inattendance it seemed we were not going to be able to get the butter for ourselves.
we kept saying .i wish he would clear off.
then suddenly he said in perfect english .i know what you are saying ,you know.needless to say we got nothing that day.
but it was different later when one of the barrels was accidently dropped .
while hunger forced the prisoners to take all manner of risks ,
they also had to counter boredom .
in their factory billet they staged enterainment shows,
more to follow .
mike

[mxp4506]

though he had no previous experience .(and done nothing like it since.)
fred made his contribution.known thoughout his military service as joe.
he produced the shows.in the factory where he worked by day .he persuaded
fraulein mopser a german clerk to type a programme for a show staged on oct 1st 1944.
lager 103 presents variety on.sunday doors open 6.15 p.m.?
programme.
1. the last roundup.2. parson harry .the prisoners friend.3.the operating theatre.4.our bill.5.the soandal brothers.6.two cooks from coonland.7.cafe in cario.8.radio presents.
interval
9.chapel in the moonlight.10.mellow mouthorgan melodies .11.burglars night out.12.in burlington blondie.13, the registry office .14. facts of life.
15. memories.
produced by joe walton.
cannot read the next too blurred. it was by - - - - wally
lighting effects alex mac
stage manager jonny .mac. curly.
costumes steve. blondie.
we put on three shows in a large room .fred remembers .for some reason it had a piano .and we were allowed to use it.
nearly all the germans we worked with attended the shows.
though the prisoners had a good relationship with most of the sentries guarding them .and germans they worked with .
fred recalls they were lucky to survive an incident involving the dreaded nazi secret police. a gestapo party arrived to search where we were billeted
we had been forwarned .so there was nothing in our wooden boxes .
but there was a complete half-pig in the flases roof. we did not have time to remove it.and there was no other place to hide it.
the gestapo searched the preemises but found nothing and were leaving when one of them spotted the trap-door in the flase roof.he stood on te bed and looked in the roof .but only looked in three directions .he did not look where the pig was hidden .if he had .i might not be here now.
more to follow

[mxp4506]

another example of the constant quest for food.fred remembers like this.
eggs reached the factory in crates .these were handled by female russian
prisoners .we would meet them later in the cellars and exchange meat for eggs.which they had hidden in their underwear.they showed no embarrassment when almost stripping to retrieve the eggs for us.
though heavey raids on leipez indicated that the allies were taking the air war deep into germany .for prisoners held in the city some raids merely increased hardship. one raid badly damaged the factory where we worked .
afterwards we had to carry salvaged material to part o the factory which was undamaged.it mostly consisted of 1 cwt barrels of butter and large sides of beef an pork.all very heavy when carried up and down flights of stairs.
to make matters worse a member of the hitler youth movement stood on every step with a stick.
i will not dwell on what happened .it is not a nice memory.
freds 18 months as a prisoner of leipzig left other unpleasent memories too.
at mealtimes where we worked .we were allowed to eat our food indoors .
russian prisoners were compelled to eat in the dust and dirt sitting on the road outside. one day a russian got up and started walking about looking for dog ends .the sentry called a few times for the russian to sit down .when he would not comply.the sentry shot and killed him.
part twelve to follow.
mike

[John]

Hi Mike
Thanks for your work in allowing us to share in his memories. Cannot wait for part 12

[mxp4506]

hi john .thanks for the thumb up.seems strange writing from freds memory.
i can follow is trail as i recount the story.
here is the next part.
another incident happened somewhere in germany.there were two large areas
surrounded by barb wire.russian prisoners were in one. british in the other.
armed guards in between.inthe russian compound was a large pit.
there must have been thousands of russians in this place .and all day long we
could see them taking the bodies of dead russian prisoners and tipping them into the pit.
on another day in leipez 15 of us were having our midday break .when the gestapo came. they took about seven of our men and marched them away.
two hours later the men returned looking very sick. they had been taken to a chapel and ordered to try and reassemble the body parts of air raid victims laid out on the floor.
during one heavy raid the factory where we were billeted received direct hits.
sheltering in the cellars .we could hear the bombs falling.suddenly there wea a large explosion right where we were . the blast was tremendous.
my ears felt as though they would burst.
when we were able to see though the rubble and dust. we found our exit blocked. after the raid some germans cleared away the rubble.so we was able to get out.after the air raid .we had to clear the rubble .later our days were spent chipping old cement off undamaged bricks.
we were doing this when we got news of D-DAY. not bad as prisoners in eastern germany to get the news just after noon on the day it happened.
we heard it from a german worker.in the months that followed the prisoners
worked as directed by their captors.hoping the allied advance would
eventually lead to their freedom.
one day when we returned from work .we were told to pack whatever bits
we had and be ready to move out. early next morning we were taken to
another part of leipez .where we joined other prisoners .most were russian .
some british and some american.
most of the british wore their khaki by then very theadbare. most of us had clogs .some still had army footwear.but not in good condition.
the clothing of the russians was indescribable.
fred walton and his fellow prisoners learned then that advancing american forces were drawing close.so the germans intended to march their prisoners
east towards the russian front .
they would cover twenty miles a day.
more to follow later.
mike

[mxp4506]

long march on the road to freedom then.
HOME AT LAST.
it was 1945 and american forces were appoaching leipzig.nearly three years
after his capture .fred walton was among british .american and russian .
prisoners who were marched eastwards by their german captors.
the russian front was quiet at that time.we marched in a long column .
covering 20 miles a day.fortunately the weather was good and the pace fairly
slow.our biggest danger was american fighter aircraft.they were often overhead buzzing us. but none of them attacked. perhaps they could tell we were prisoners of war.whenever we halted .we put out anything we could on the ground to spell p.o.w. so it could be seen from the air. we had been
marching a few days when we heard heavy gunfire ahead. the russian front had opened up again.so the german officer in charge ordered the guards to
turn us round .so we started back again.two days later we were on a long straight road leading to a village .when we were a quarter of a mile away.
american troops emerged from the village. they spead out with wicked -looking fire arms trained on us.the german officer shouted that he had prisoners of war. the americans then disarmed the gemans.throwing the rifles to the prisoners.they told us to shout the germans if we wished.
the sentries had done us no harm so none of us took advantage of the offer.
so for fre walton and his colleagues.the struggle for survival as prisoners of
the nazis was finally over.in that moment their emotions were a mixture of
elation.relief and bewilderment.they were free but what would happen next?
the american troops had no transport for the men.they had freed. as they were going forward to meet advancing russian forces.so the newly-released
prisoners were advised to contine their march to leipzig.americans had occupied the city and they would be cared their.
within ten minutes all russian prisoners had vanished.fred recalls. am not sure where they went. over two days the rest of us marched 40 miles back to leizig.when we got there we learned the war with germany was over.
that it was V.E.DAY.and bonfires were burning all over britain.some-one
suggested we should have our own bonfire.so we gathered all the were we had selpt at the factory and set fire to them.
what a blaze .
we were singing .with arms round each other.with food and cigarettes .the americans looked after us very well indeed.
but the question was .how was we to get home.

[mxp4506]

eventually fred and his colleagues were taken to a nearby airfied and flown to rheims in france. soon afterwards we were put on a lancaster bombers.
as a corporal. i had to record the names and address of of all passengers.and call their names to board.each one was given a life jacket.their was one short . so i did not get one.as a recompense the canadian crew allowed me to sit in the nose of the plane near the pilot.during the flight the pilot asked me how long had i been abroad. i told him five years.he said.if you look though those clouds you will see what you have been waiting to see all these
years. THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER.
their was tears then.it was very emotional.
when we landed in buckinghamshire and stepped of the plane. at last we relised we were free and home.fred walton was among thousands of men returning from prison camps.of germany. some had reached home earlier after managing to escape. thoughts of escape luurked within most men thoughout their captivity.as fred recalls. the question of escape was always in our minds .at times it would have been easy to walk away.
against that at night we were under lock and key in the same building as the sentries. plus we had clogs on our feet .not the best thing to escape in .plus we had red triangles on our clothing.in 1945 however all thoughts of escape belonged to the past as fred plane landed. like others he was issued with a telegram. arrived england,see you soon.and was allowed to add signature and a address. then on a train to head to selby .yorkshire.
the train did not stop in selby.so got off in doncaster.and caught the bus.
in selby with legs like jelly .i walked home towards abbots road. wondering what i would find.the house was all decorated .their was a notice saying
WELCOME HOME FRED.
i stood outside for a long time full of emotion.eventually went in .their was only person inside .five years away i did not recognise him.and asked who he was . he said . i am your brother george.he said the family were waiting at selby station.shortly afterwards my mother and all the family arrived .
hugs and kisses all round .annd tears. mother very worried .as i was all
gaunt and thin.
born in rotherham august 1st 1916.two years before his father was killed in world war one.
this brings freds story to a close. i do hope i have managed to bring a glimpse of what thousands of men and women went though in these
dark days.
thank you for putting up with me.
micheal.

[mxp4506]

hi just a quick note.rang fred tonight. he well as can be for nearing 92 years .
old.tells me a gentleman from the war museum .name toby brooks. afraid i do not know him. his comming to see him . in goole.yorkshire. will be intrested to see how he gets on. will have to wait till next tuesday to find out.
mike