Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Life

By Cecil McFarlane – Ex POW

1939-1945 World War 2

In 1937 I was about seventeen years old. At the time in the same year a military platoon was formed in the town of Wentworth, where I was born.

I joined up although I was only seventeen. I was Cadet until I reached the age of eighteen then I became a Private, I attended parades and the yearly camps. The when I reached the age of nineteen, when at camp, they brought a form for joining the Permanent forces to go to Darwin. That was in 1938, around about October of that year.

You had to apply to get into the permanent forces. They only accepted servicemen from the military forces. After the camp and we had returned back to our own homes, we waited for an answer to our application. I was accepted, one of seven, to get in.

Later on I had to go down to Victoria Barracks for a medical test, after which I was accepted into the Permanent forces. I had to return a rifle and equipment, and my uniform to the Drill Hall before going away. That was 1938. At the age of 19 with a rail warrant I went down to Melbourne, again to Victoria Barracks. We had to wait for the Western Australians and the South Australians to arrive by train and then all the others who were waiting in Melbourne to join the train which took us into Liverpool, NSW.

In Liverpool the whole unit trained, then finally we traveled to Darwin. We were there nearly three months after the training, we were issued tailor made uniforms. K.D.S (Khaki Dress Service?) with drill (?corps) cadet red hat bands, artillery badges of blue and red. Peak caps, black shoes, long stocking blue and red flashes.

After training in Liverpool there was a march through Sydney, then down to the docks to board the Mantra, bound for Darwin. Our first stop was at Brisbane and a march through the city, then on the next day along the Queensland coast, until we got to Thursday Island, after some hours there walking & looking at the sights, then it was on to Darwin.

We arrived in Darwin at the end of march 1939. From the ship at the Port, we marched up to the town. On the edge of the town the Garrison Artillery Unit was formed up. We halted facing each other, we presented arms to each unit. There were inspections then we marched through town out to our barracks.

I remember marching that day we all were wearing our high black shoes, I could fee the heat through the soles of the shoes. Off the tarmac sealed roads led by some Pipers and their drums. Our barracks were temporary, at an old Western Meat Works. They had her closed down for years, that was our home from the end of march 1939 until may 1940.

Getting back to 1939, we were marching back to our barracks. On the way grass was about 6ft tall, the old works had railway lines and platforms; when Western Meat Works was working back in the thirties, the rail was busy pulling the meat wagons away to be loaded onto ships, which was then shipped after arriving at the old works.

We turned into our barracks and sleeping quarters, beds were made up every day - steel sheds with mosquito nets. All of the beds were in rows, the meat hooks hanging over our heads to hold the mosquito nets; steel lockers for the rifles and equipment, and the clothing and boxes at the foot of the beds.

In spite of having the nets to keep the mosquitoes away we got Dengue fever. It was the life of having an attack of flu, it really knocked us, the sand flies were bad in the evenings, especially during guard duty. We had to wear long K.D.S & longs socks. A lot of us went to town for entertainment, to the picture shows. We could wear civilian clothes on leave before the outbreak of war.

It was showering every day. We got prickly heat and Tinia and had to dry our feet well, to see that Tinia did not get a hold of our feet; it was an offence to go bare footed, we could have caught ringworm and other things. The prickly heat used to sting when showering, putting powder on it used to help.

With the outbreak of war in 1939, all of our civilian clothes disappeared. We were issued new uniforms of the A.I.F. The buttons were plastic, which cut out any polishing of them. Before the war there were some parades in town, on Anzac Day. A few military exercises through the town. When the war started I was 20 years old and in early 1940 I applied to go into the AIF. Not being 21 then I had to get permission from my mother and being in the Permanent Forces I was able to go into the AIF quite easily. The pay was a drop from fifteen shillings a day to five shillings a day.

After some training in the AIF a small unit gets sailed away from Darwin to go South after thirteen months there. The trip took us past Thursday Island along the Queensland coast to Brisbane. It was our first stop. On board the ship was a agent who was arrested and was handed over to the Authorities near Brisbane. After that then it was on to Sydney, tied up at the docks for about three days and then on to Melbourne.

We disembarked at a camp in the middle of winter. I nearly ended up in hospital with a very bad cold that was about the end of June 1940.

We trained until August, after my final leave at my home town, we sailed from Port Melbourne on 13-8-1940 for overseas. After about 3 weeks in Bombay, we all boarded a train for a trip out to the country for another three weeks.

It was back to Bombay by train again then down to the docks. We boarded a French ship then sailed through the Red Sea. Some of the ships sailed into Port Sudan Imolia(n?). Troops disembarked there, they were attacked there by bombers of the Italian Air Force, before they came to, the Arabs and their goats were all running away. The aircraft dropped the bombs that hit the wharf and in the water, there were dead fish afterwards.

Later on in the night , we sailed through the night towards the Canal, in the ship we used to have meals down below. Our mess tables were down there with our blankets. Most nights we could sleep up on the decks, however one night when the ship was on the way we were attacked in the middle of the night by the Italians again, we were woken and ordered down below.

While passing the Gulf of Arabia a large convoy joined our convoy. We finally reached the Suez Canal. It was something to see, ships sailing through the descent and passing after ships day and night, finally reaching the other end of the Canal at Port Said. We disembarked to go on the train along the Canal to cross into the Port then another train for Palestine.

After some miles into Palestine and disembarking off the train, we all marched fifteen miles to a camp miles from anywhere, nothing but Arabs.

After about three weeks there, we marched late at night to the rail station, boarded a troop train for the Canal again, and crossed over it in the punt. We got on to another train to Egypt(!), headed to another camp out side of Alexandra.

Just as we arrived at he camp by trucks from the rail station there was an air raid on the Alexandra harbor. The target was naval ships. We were receiving some shrapnel from the Ack-Ack Guns around the harbor, a lot of the shells were missing the aircraft and coming over to where the camp was. That was our introduction to the Camp.

As soon as we arrived there everyone was running to the Airraid Shelters. Finally we were detailed to our quarters in tents, our beds were dug down three feet; four men to a tent, trench dug down two men on one side with an earth wall between us. The other men were in the trench where there beds were.

After leave in Cairo and Alexandra and getting towards Christmas 1940, we all moved up to the Libyan border then into action near Christmas. After two days battle they we won the day with thousands of Prisoners of War that were put into a large barb wired camp. The din of the noise was like being at a football match from the voices of seventy thousand prisoners.

After the fall of Bardia in the desert it was mostly sand getting into everything. Some times it was so bad you couldn’t see, sometimes you had to stop driving when it got so bad.

There was a heavy dew at night, in the desert. Some times there were herds of donkeys and gazelles, all were roaming around between the lines at Trobuck and the ancient caves in the desert. The troops used ladders to get down into them, they played two up or cards for money.

The Italian masonry was superb on the roads and bridges. The Italian government set up a colony of farms and houses, all the houses were made of stone and all painted white, the houses all in line. All the farms had the same amount of land, all the same size.

When Bardia fell after two days of battle, Trobuck was next, after several days of action they fell to the Allies. Derma was after that; the fall of Derma was a lull and the next few days were leave in Benghazi.

With a lot of others the Regiment fell back to near the sea for nearly a fortnight, then it was leaving Libya to go into Egypt. We camped outside of Alexandria, the next morning down we went to the docks to load our guns and the vehicles on to the ships to go to Greece.

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-up the mountains, passing down to some flat country near Janiza(?) then again up in some other mountains and passes; getting close to Yugoslavia.

When the A.I.F. first landed in Greece, there was no war between Greece and Germany at the time, in fact the German Consul was on the railway station to see some of our troops going up to north by rail.

After we landed in Greece, for a while there was a lull travelling up into the country, it was like spring weather.

Up and down the mountain roads. There were flowers growing in the fields, the people in the towns and villages were cheering, some gave us flowers. Things were quite good for a while, until the German Luftwaffe arrived on the scene. Then began the bombing and the strafing, started making more wrecks of the convoys.

The German forces were much larger than ours. We would hold them would hold them until we couldn’t hold them any longer in the hills, then withdraw back to another position & hold them until we could no longer any longer.

Finally we had the abandoned vehicles, which were put on bridges, then blew the bridges and the vehicles together. Finally we started marching to the coast, to hide out day time.

We were taken off by lighters then on to bigger ships - some of us were taken by destroyers. Many of us we were taken to the Island of Crete; we landed there with all most nothing, all the heavy weapons were left behind, only light weapons were allowed to be brought with us. A lot of equipment was left behind like cooking pots and a lot of stuff belonging to the kitchen, all the vehicles were left behind as well.

We were preparing for an invasion from the sea and then the air by the paratroops. The sea invasion was stopped by the naval forces, but the invasion from the air came after heavy casualties.

It was almost touch and go to which side would give in. The Germans got the upper hand, with the strength of their air force. With the capitulating of Crete many thousands of prisoners of war, British, Australian, New Zealanders and the Greek Egyptians, we all were ready marched from near Candia to the other side of the Island to get off loaded.

By this time we were getting very hungry and thirsty, we had visions of getting hot drinks and something to eat, on board the ship that was taking us away. We were hoping to be rescued, not to be on ships that were loaded by us soldiers. We had to get away before day light, before the German airforce came to bomb us.

On the eve of capitulation the first of June 1941 thousands became prisoners of war and were told by the Germans that the war was over for us; there were loads of us, our weapons, and other weapons and equipment.

After capitalization we were marched into the middle of the Island which was an Italian Prisoner Of War camp, captured in Albania and held on Crete by the Greeks. We had to feed ourselves the best we could by scrounging for anything like vegetables where the growing near the working parties.

The only washing and water was just outside in front of the camp. While that was going on the German guards that were guarding us were singing marching songs in the hills near by. It was not long before these troops were sent to the front line in Russia and other troops took their place.

One day we were sent down to Candia to board small fishing vessels to go to Greece. These small vessels were captured from the Greeks, we were cramped down in the holds hoping to be rescued by the Royal Navy; but it did not eventuate. We ended up in Athens, the Capital of Greece. We were then put on trucks, when we were on them they had to zigzag through Athens, we lost our way then.

Coming back towards the City, we were put up in some buildings for the night. The next day we were taken to an old school which was turned into barracks. While we were there, we witnessed some Greek great coats issued to the Germans taken up. They took all of them so that the Italians went without.

We took over the barracks & while we were there the Doctors injected against infectious diseases. It was not long we were all shifted to the north of Greece to Salonika. There we were put into some old barracks, used as a Prisoner of War camp, we were there for eight weeks.

The camp had no proper sleeping quarters, so we first slept on the floor with some of the blankets or what ever we had; the old barracks were full of lice, so were all of our uniforms we were wearing - we slept in them & wore them every day. We were lousy all the time, there wasn’t any soap so the only washing we could do was in the horse troughs.

For food some times a hard biscuit with mint tea, sometimes the midday meal - the meat was cooked in big steel pots; all kinds of meat, even some horse flesh.

We were so hungry we ate everything; after all the meat stew was issued to each man some of the men would fight like animals over the last scraps left over in the bottom of the pot. It was pitiful to see grown men fighting over the last scraps in pots.

Outside the prisoner of war camp at Salonika(See Picture) the Germans had stabling for horses and mules. Everyday there would be work parties to work in the stables; they would leave the camp in the morning and return in the evening. They would have cigarettes and all sorts of things to trade with in the camp. Cigarettes for a hard biscuit.

In the mornings there would be bread issued by the Germans. It was German bread; every morning they would be cutting off the last loaf into nine pieces. There had to be the same amount of bread for each prisoner, if one of the prisoners thought one of the others got more than he did, there would be trouble - sometimes fighting.

We were guarded by day and night, around the camp there was a double barb wire fence with machine gun posts and search lights. One of the New Zealanders was shot from the machine gun towers, he was walking from the barracks to the latrines. The next day there was a German truck with Nazi wreaths – a firing party. Some of the prisoners attended the funeral service.

Another time there was an attempted break out from Salonika prisoner of war camp. Among the prisoners in the camp were Egyptians who could speak Greek, they discovered that by getting through sewer pipes they could escape, however the stench down in the sewage pipes overcame one if the Egyptians; he fainted and died down there. That meant the some of the prisoners could not get through and those in front of him would have to go right to the end. When the rest of the camp decided to have a go getting through but there were too many around the man hole, it was just like a brick wall. They were playing two up around the hole. It was obvious something was going on, those who got through the pipes to the end were met by armed German guards, it was all for nothing.

One night the Germans discovered the Egyptians were down the hole, you could head them groaning - that was the end of that. We were immersed in an everlasting supply of dishwashing. There were no bathing facilities, no soap. Living in the same clothes day in day out even standing on parade the lice would be seen crawling all over everybody.

After eight weeks at the camp at Salonika we were shifted in two thousand lots to Germany, from Greece though Yugoslavia, Hungry and Austria. We were put in box wagons thirty or so, so we just sat around the walls. We were given one loaf of bread and two tons of meat to last the journey. I fainted a couple of times and there were others in the same boat. When you are starving you get some sort of pain in the head with the lack of food. We sat for hours on and against the walls of the rail wagon. We would try to stand up to stretch our legs, you would faint, and find yourself on somebody’s lap.

The train journeyed through all those countries. When we reached Hamburg German Prisoner of War Camp, the first meal we were given was a meal of gruel; it was so rich that in spite of some being starving some could not eat it. Getting off that train in Germany left us very weak and weary.

Outside the main camp of Hamburg was a small camp of marquees. The straw on the floor was full of lice. We all thought we were hard enough off but after a night in there, it was terrible.

The next day we were deloused and the clothing after wearing our uniforms day in day out, after the delousing we were put in the camp proper with double wire barbs. It was much better.

We were issued with clean new uniforms that were taken in France + Belgium by the Germans. There were Belgian, French, also British uniforms with britches. The Belgian uniforms were buttoned with collars and pantaloon trousers. A lot of our boots were worn out, so a big mound of wooden sandals were issued; a pair each with pieces of rag to be wound around our feet. It took a bit of getting use to, wearing them. There was no give in them. We could hear clip-clop all over the place.

Some of us were moved out to a small work party at a place called Haltberg or some name like that. We were billeted in a skiing lodge building, we had to dig drains to lay pipes for drainage. It was on a farm lot belonging to a farm which belonged to a village way down in the valley. We had to march everyday to the work place.

The guards would come around in the morning with rubber pieces of hose to hit the prisoners if they did not get up in time. One prisoner was hit in the private parts. I know for a fact the pain still effects him.

Everyday the villagers would come from the village to work in their fields, they would bring pieces of bread for their lunches, then before leaving the fields in the afternoon they would leave excess bread to the prisoners working there in the fields. I would once cry to see grown men fighting over the pieces.

Sometimes we could smell the cooking coming from the village down below. After working there for some weeks, some of us were told we might be moved to work somewhere else. One morning we were woken early and put on a truck, then taken to a bigger town to change on to a train which was going into the country, to Rothausen which was a fair sized town.

Our headquarters were there and a number of Prisoners were working there, but some of us went to a village, about nine of us ended up there. In Rothausen I was allotted to a German farmer named Henerich. There was Alma, Hilda the eldest daughter and only the Henerich’s old mother, they had a fairly large house with tiled roof and the ham & cow sheds.

There were about 15 cows, and some calves and horses, pigs and some rabbits for eating. I never slept on the farm premises, we used a disused farm house. It had a cellar, and upstairs to the attic. We had bunks which were used by the workers on the farm, the farmer who we worked for had to supply the bedding and fire wood. Each morning we got up early and made our beds, then walked through the village to our work on the farm.

The farmers had to supply the meals for our breakfast lunch and tea at night. They had to draw extra cards for you every Sunday, one of us had to go to the barracks to clean and wash it out.

All our mail and food parcels would come from Hommemebbeng to our village. It had all come [from] Switzerland through the red cross. We had our rooms and beds to sleep in, and there was one guard who had his own room to sleep in and a place for the food cartons to be kept.

In the winter time we had no fire going. Each house had a fire place with the fire started in the kitchen. There was a water tank with hot water above the fire box and the rest of the fire place went through the wall. The other half went into the front room with a flue that warmed the whole room. It had small glazed tiles in the sides and the front.

On the weekends we should have had off we went to work by having breakfast, helped feed the cows and clean the stalls out, and put fresh straw in the stalls and having Sunday afternoon off the would not start work until Monday morning. We always had Sunday dinner there before we would dress up in uniform with boots polished.

All the villager’s houses and their barns & cow stalls, some had horse stables for those who had hordes, all formed a village with their church and community bake house. The lots of land were separated, potato’s growing up in the north of the village and oats growing in the south. Something growing in the east and in the west.

All the villages were in the same position, some strips of land grew fruit trees growing on them. There we no fences between plots of land, just pegs at each end to mark between the spot. When the harvest was on we had to cut the crass with a scythe so we didn’t tread on a neighbors’ land next to your own.

They grew apples, pears and walnuts on the strips, also cherries. The Germans from the cities came for food, vegetables and fruits. All the manure had to be catered to the fields in a four wheeled wagon with high sides, and patted down with a piece of wood shaped like a cricket bat. If anything was dropped when eating out in the fields, they would be fined.

There was a bent fork for pulling up manure off the wagon in heaps, every ten foot or so there would be row after row. Later we would bring a pitch fork with us to spread the manure to be plowed into the land, and liquid manure would be pumped into the fields. We would hold the horses reins with one hand and pull the plug, with the other one then jump out of the way of the liquid that would spread up and down the land, all of which would be plowed in.

All year round there was the potato plaiting, maize, wheat, barley, some cabbages and other vegetables. Out in the forest there was tree felling and cutting and tree plating, each village had an allotted part of the black forest to them for fire wood. For planting new trees the whole village would be out in the forest, replanting and cutting all the trees. When felled, it was done by hand then cut into neat piles, later on it would be carted to the village to be cut into short lengths for the stoves would be stacked in the sheds. If there wasn’t room at home it would be stacked at the edge of the forest and the faggots were used for the Community bake house.

All the bread and small (goads?) were baked. Once a year all the farmers made their yearly supply of beer, every house in the village had cellars; the potatoes were stored there with the barrels for the beer. All the barrels were sent down to the community beer house. The cooper would repair the barrels and clean them out.

Two people would be making the beer. They would spend a couple of days there making the beer from all the ingredients. They mixed it in with pieces of wood like round oars, later on the beer would be poured into a cooling tank to cool down.

By the time the all the barrels of the two farmers concerned were filled, the barrels in the homes down the cellars were filled with big wooden funnels. Down at the brewery the beer was divided up between each party with a container on strapped on their backs, holding about 9 gallons of beer they backed up to a ramp, pour the beet into the containers then walk down stairs in the houses to the cellars. Each person filled up a barrel at a time.

While the fires were going the people made toast, that was the only time I saw toast being made. I never saw any being made in the houses the entire time I was a Prisoner of War.

In the village were I worked some villagers made their own schnapps and crushed peas and apples. The meals where the bread and coffee for breakfast, midday meal meat and potato sometimes. Sauerkraut cabbage came with every meal, which consisted of bread, black pudding with beer pickled cucumber. Different guards with us also had their meals there.

After three and a half years at Rothausen we all were shifted about, early in March 1945 to Kennunghaurser. One day 3 or 4 of us had a trip by rail to get some wine bottles from a Catholic Priest. After a few days five more of us marched to another village, there were already some prisoners there.

The building which housed us, was built next to a big house which had a court-way and a church at one end of the yard. Under the church was an underground tunnel which was used as a storage for cabbages. There was a foul smell where the cabbages when gone. There was a dormitory for the land girls, as the farm had many cows & horses, fowls and a large pig sty; there was plenty of work there.

We were not long there, the Americans armored spearheads were heading our way, we had been ordered to get ready to march. We ended up at a brick kiln before marching all over Germany. The guards decided to take off, there was a forest at the back of the brick kiln, the kiln was turned into a camp. Some of the prisoners when counted were put back into the camp after a dressing down and others got away.

Soon early one morning we all were on the highway marching, we would march twenty miles a day and sleep in the barns at night. We were issued with some bread and potatoes per day. We could trade our woolen scarves for food and other woolen items. We were given a spell on Sunday; we started at the beginning of April in 1945.

One of General Patton’s armored divisions was at a village named Mossberg, there was like eighty thousand prisoners of war there while we were marching around Germany, the war was still going on. Bombers and fighters, American aircraft were flying everywhere, some times in the open ground the smaller bombers would fly over us and saluted, the guards in their grey uniforms would slip between us because our uniforms were khaki.

One day while marching outside there was news that there was a whole swarm of B-17s. They flew over a hidden Ack Ack post, they were like crows trying to dodge the Ack Ack shells. There were something like seventy aircraft. We were all outside of Regenburg when some American bombers bombed a small arms dump.

After marching across Germany for 4 weeks, on the 28th of April in 1945, we were finally released. Our little group was billeted in the back of a barn.

On the way to Mossberg the American tanks picked up the German stragglers, all the Prisoners were put in a school, a two story one. SS troops and the other German troops were there, and our guard who came all the way with us.

Just before the Americans arrived German cavalry came through the village with horses. Some where leading for or five riderless horses. The next day in the little village a group of us got up early and went out on the road to start finding out about getting back to the way home. Of course the war was still going on there were convoys of troops still going to the front and rail traffic with tanks and guns and other equipment.

Some approached an American Officer about getting back home, there was no transport available because they were busy. Finally we got a lift with a Jeep, by this time the Allies set Government Offices up in the towns that were taken. We slept at one of these stations for a night.

We got on a train outside of Wenzburg, the main rail station was in a mess, it looked as if a giant had grabbed the carriages and thrown them into a big heap. Wenzberg Hospital were coping as much as possible. After hours of walking on the rail, waiting for other trains to come.

We finally arrived at Mazent(?) on the Rhine river. We ended up at Naney(?) in France. There the American Army people has us put on a rail car to Paris to their American Army Base there.

We were fitted out with new uniforms and left the old clothing there, after living and wearing them for months on end. In Paris we were billeted there for two days, then transported by Army trucks to the coast of France, to (?).

There was a small camp at the Airport, we lived in tents for final days. The aircraft were coming and going all the time, at the end of a week we were transported by air to England, we landed somewhere in the South of England. We were given a welcome by the Red Cross, then transported to an Army Camp, then by rail up north east on the Coast. There the Australian Army had taken a block building which included medical, pay, mess, and quartermaster store.

We were issued with new A.I.F uniforms and given leave to go to South Shields to see some of our lot who had been in Germany in the save village. (Unable to decipher) I was on (?) time from England and had been out in Australia for twenty years, his married sister used to write to us when we were in Germany asking us to go and see them when we were released.

While we were marching through Germany (the little group which was at Rothausen) we were shifted to another village for a little while until the Americans crossed over the Rhine and headed our way.

When we were ordered to get ready for the march which lasted for four weeks, as I said before. The little group we were walking with and separated from. I have met 2 or 3 since that time, those who where in the march, that were at the end of the march.

After working and living for over three and a half years I felt at a loss at the camp. In the north east of England I obtained leave to go up to South Shields on the Coast. After a fortnight up there a train trip to London, stopped there for one night then on to Durban(?). There a train ride to the station, then to town - walking up Roman road, I arrived at the door.

Miss Walker answered the door, I explained who I was, there I was at home for a fortnight. I was taken crawling down coal mines, taken everywhere.

Eventually when we arrived back a few days before the V.E. Day. After arriving back to Camp on the notice board there was a ship bound for New Zealand and Australia, it was one of the Castle Line ships called the "Arundel Castle".

The ship was leaving Liverpool on the western side of England, we were on the eastern side. Most of the personnel on board were ex POWs from New Zealand and Australia. There were other personnel on board as well.

There were guns on board and (?) had their own (?) were guns amongst the ex POW so there (?) the ship over gunners(?) there was (?) about seven LL(?CC) Boats unaccounted for they kept a wary eye about them just in case, we arrived at the Panama Canal at (?) the was up from the Port to the City, all on G(?). All the boys had a good time, entertained at the night spots then it was to get (? ?) back on the ship, a bit of a job.

Finally, a lot got back to the ship, and a lot were arrested for disturbing the peace. They were fined in the courts and brought back to the ship the next morning.

Going through the Panama Canal the ship was taken over all the way through the Canal. Ack Ack guns were stationed on both sides. It was very hot too, we came upon a lake that was connected to the Canal and a lot of us had a swim in it. It was very nice.

We eventually came to the end of the Canal at Panama City, then it was 14 days from there to New Zealand. We struck the tale end of a Cyclone which made the ship toss about.

The final page of this story is missing. However, it is known that the SS (HMT?) Arundel Castle made Sydney on 07-06-1945.