Evening star., 1943-05-12
Nazi Prisoners Spirit
Declared Unbroken
By Their Defeat
Must Be Smashed on Many
More BottIefieIds Before
Germany Is Crushed
BY HAROLD V. BOYLE,

Associated Press War CORRESPONDENT
A PRISON CAMP IN NORTHERN
TUNISIA. May IL. - The Ger
man empire in Northern Tunisia to-
day consists of two prison camps in
a wheat field in which the Nazis still
are pinned behind barbed wire and
number of military cemeteries
where the Nazi soldier dead are laid
to rest.
The Wheatfields are aswarm with
/ thousands on thousands of troops
who once reigned supreme from Tu-
nisia to Egypt, but who now elbow
each other for space in which to
exercise.
Later they will be transferred to
larger camps better equipped to
handle them. For the present the
big problem is merely to feed and
water this largest prisoner herd ever
gathered on the field of action by an
American Army corps.
Still confident of an ultimate Ger
man victory, the prisoners say they
surrendered because of the over
Whelming force that confronted
them. They still think-or say they
think-that the fatherland is too
| strongly fortified over to be taken.
Their thoughts now are of the
everyday concerns of washing. eat
ing, sleeping and amusing them
selves in their temporarily camped
and confining quarters.
Spirit Far From Broken.
Watching them disabuses any one
of the idea that the spirit of this
restless and aggressive people is in
any real sense broken. They have
been smashed on one field, but they
must be smashed on many more be-
/ fore this tableau in Tunisia has It's
real finale in the crushing of Ger
| many itself.
Young, vigorous and healthy, they
lie bare chested in the warm spring
| sun. One plays an accordion-some
! Rhine song of a faraway, merry
/ time-While his comrades beat time
indolently
Another blows into an harmonica.
wheeling out tune which only he
seems to recognize as a melody.
One group plays a noisy card
game, sitting crosslegged on the
ground.
American soldiers who two days
ago were dOdglng their bullets fetch
/ the prisoners food and water.
One Nazi stretched full length
with an Italian sun helmet on his
head comfortably scans a copy of
| Yank. the soldiers magazine. and
/ tries to figure out what the lines un-
der the cartoons mean.
Drove Selves to Prison Camp.
An adjoining field is packed with
vehicles in which the Germans drove
themselves to the prison camp.
Six Italian prisoners spat on the
German equipment as they passed
by and made a motion as if they
wanted to cut the Germans throa ts,"
said Sergt Frank Morris of San
Francisco. who was on guard duty.
we have found lot of captured
British and American equipment
and food among the stuff the Ger
| man prisoners brought in" Sergt.
Morris added There were several
boxes of Argentine corned beef,
packed by a London firm. I don't
know where they captured what
they've got, but they sure use every
| thing they pick up
Among the prisoners was a ser
geant- ior of the italian navy
who said he had lived in New York
from 1929 to 1888
Il used to be steward in the fourth
class dining room on the liner Rex"
he said. Il know many people in
the United States and have an
uncle in Philadelphia. I wouldn't
mind being sent to America
Stopping his 2 2-ton Army truck TO
take picture of the crowded camp,
Corpl. Camille Brown of Stoneridge,
N. Y, said:
This looks like Coney Island.
only there isn't any sand"