Page 92 - Anthology

That first night we were kept in a room and slept on the floor. Then they put us in a civilian prison for two
or three nights. They gave us a little piece of bread; that is all I had for several days.

They put us on a train and took us to an interrogation center in Frankfurt, Germany. On the way, we had
stopped near Nancy, France. During that night the English dropped Christmas tree markers on our
building. First a green flare was dropped, a so-called "blind marker". Other British Mosquito airplanes
dropped their markers of various colors, lighting the target up.

Each flare or marker would slowly float down to the ground, each burning for about 3 to 7 minutes. These
lit markers were called "Christmas tree" by the Germans for their characteristic appearance. One of the
flares landed on the roof of the building near us and started a fire. About that time, they dropped a bomb.
After dropping the flares, the British planes dropped a bomb on our building. We could hear it coming
and it blew the glass out of the train windows. I was next to the window.

The shade wrapped around my face from the explosion. We could hear the shrapnel hitting the roof of
the train station. I was the last man out of the train. The Germans stopped me to help a man with a bad
foot and legs – he was injured during the bombing. About the time I was helping him, here come another
bomb; we hit the floor.

The Germans took us into an air raid shelter.

Once we made it to Frankfurt, they took me to a room and held me in solitary confinement before
interrogation. I was never mistreated anywhere. We were there just one night then boarded another train
for shipment to STALAG XVII-B. There must have been at least a hundred of us in what they called the
“bullpen.” We were two nights on that train. The train floor had straw – it was like a cattle car.

Sometime on the second day of the train trip to STALAG XVII-B they gave us a Red Cross package. It
was one package for two people. I think that was the first time we got anything but a piece of bread to
eat.

When we arrived in Krems, Austria, the train stopped down in the town. The Germans marched us about
three miles up a hill to STALAG XVII-B. When we were inside the compound; as they were taking us to
our barracks, this guy called out my name. It was C.V. Hill; we were raised about two miles of each other
in Union City, Kentucky. He was already at STALAG XVII-B when I got there. Three men from Madison
County were at STALAG XVII-B at the same time as me.

They took our picture and we had our dog tags. They had roll call every day, morning and evening. It
lasted 30 minutes to an hour. Once a month they did picture check. We would line up and one guy
would call your number and the next would check your picture. I can say it in German; 131. That was my
last three.

I can’t remember a lot of the details any more, but I remember the first “meal” we got was barley soup.
This guy down below me said: “Well we got meat in it today.” I started stirring mine; I didn’t see no meat.
The more I looked, I could see little black specks – it was bugs, and that was what he called meat. After
that day, I’d take my soup into the shadows, so I wouldn’t see the bugs. One day a guy was walking by
and he said I had a big bug in my soup; I just flicked it out and went on eating.

Red Cross packages had cigarettes, a candy bar, coffee, a tin of meat, a little stack of something like
graham crackers about 3 inches deep and margarine. Lot of the guys didn’t like the standard. I ate what
I got. Some would donate it to the barracks. A thing of margarine I traded for a certain kind of coffee I
liked. I would trade my cigarettes for coffee.

At night they had what they called a Butter Candle. They made a wick out of a t-shirt and it would heat
the butter just like coal oil to give off enough light at night to see.