Evening star., 1945-02-22

an EngliSh-speaktng COON private
sneered, When our artillery comes
from the Russian front wen push
your comrades back into the sea-
How can you spare anything
from the Russian front?" I asked
He couldn't answer that one.
Outside Rome in q kind Of cal
barn the goons assembled over Q
hundred United States officers and
enlisted men and trucked us to the
Coliseum. There they lined us up
In columns Of fives and marched
us OH across the city along streets
jammed with curious but undemon-
strative crowds.
Believe 1t or not, but some of ths
Italians furtively gave us the "V'
sign. Some Of us sang, .Heigh Ho
Methusaleh," to keep up our spir.
its and we named the whole thing
"Our Victory"
On the other side the German.
reloaded us in trucks and of W.
went to spend seven weeks in {
modern black hole-a stinkinf
prison camp at Laterina south O
Florence.
Weak From insufficient Food.
The camp had no water suppl,
of its own and what we. used wa!
carted in unpurif1ed from an oper
stream nearby. Lice and f1eas
abounded. Many prisoners suffered
dysentery. Our daily ration con.
sister of ersatz tea or coffee un.
sweetened in the morning, small
chunk of bread and watery sour
and dab of margerine at noon
and the same thin soup at S pm
Sundays we got nothing at all iI
the afternoon.
All of us got so weak it was di-
ficult to walk around. At two roll
calls daily there were always a num-
ber of prisoners who tainted. Any
sudden physical movement made the
brain whirl and the effect was like
a blackout.
Our senior officer was British
major who protested continually to
Germans over camp conditions, but
there, was no improvement. Al last
they loaded us in boxcars, Is pris-
oners and guards in each, and
shifted us to Moosberg, Bavaria
They took away our shoes and belts
to prevent attempts to escape and
furnished us. only a small loai 81
bread, less than pound of canned
beef and one portion Of soup pei
man for the entire journey.
At Moosberg we were deloused and
handed our first Red Cross pack
age. 1t was like Christmas. In
fact, thereafter the weekly issuance
of the Red Cross package always was
referred to as Christmas Day"
Another month and they shipped
us off to camp at Szubin once used
for the Raj.
Got Letter in Six Months.
Six months from the time I'was
captured I got my first letter from
home. 1t was from my mother. Mrs
Mabel G. Dimling. She always was
a very faithful writer.
Prison camp, even in the best cir
cumstances, is hard on morale But
our senior officer, Col. Thomas D.
Drake of the 168th Infantry, was q
fine leader and all of us tried to fol-
low his example in keeping our
chins up. Because of illness he
finally was repatriated.
AS ''Kriegies" we made up our own
slang. "Bleater' was a habitual
complainer.. Hitting the sack or
getting your flying time" was to
stay in bed and save your energy to
keep warm when our badly-heated
barracks were at their coldest.
"Sakologist" was an expert at this
maneuver.
"Bashing" meant to wolf down the
contents of your Red Cross parcel
"Big-time operator" was a prisoner
who traded various items until he
finished with more than he started
with.
When the men from the Nor
mandy invasion started arriving we
dubbed them ''hedgerow boys" be-
cause of their tales of the fighting
in that type of French countryside
The new arrivals got smile out
of the signs posted in the barracks
mo baloney, we've all been through
it,"
Red Cross Parcels Stopped.
The worst time at the Szubir
camp-Oflag 64-was the seven
weeks stretch late last autumn when
Red Cross parcels stopped coming
Our German ration, which was less
than subsistence level, wasn't in
creased during this time. I lost IL
or 20 pounds and bigger men lost
even more.
We could tell when big Allied OF
Russian attacks started because the
Germans would shut down on news
We heard no German radio broad
casts for two days after Normandy
'D-day.
The Germans harassed us with
extra roll calls and searches and
made petty, obnoxious rules such as
ordering us to open our tin Rec
Cross cans of food Immediately
upon receipt so we couldn't spread
out the period of consumption.
In October after our commander
refused to assist the Germans they
took away by force about 10 pei
cent of our clothes-things like COM
bat jackets, pants, shirts and caps
The winter was difficult. Water
pipes froze and coal was extremely
scarce. Most of us had chilblains
A few days after we learned the
Russian offensive had started the
Germans gave us "a hours notice or
January 20 that our camp would be
marched afoot into Germany.
Marched In Bitter Cold.
made pack from a woolen un
dershirt, and loaded into it my Ret
Cross food. Most of the others di,
the same. We looked at the las
issue of our camp newspaper, whes'
slogan was "Freiheit and Weiss