I read this on pages 157-158 of The Fifth British Division 1939 to 1945. Just thought I'd post it as I found it quite thought provoking. Not really wanting to start a thread on bombing just found it interesting. On 1st November , near Cantalupo , 2 WILTS found a German motor cyclist dispatch rider hiding in a ditch - his bike well camoflaged. Apparently he had broken down , had mended his machine , and was waiting for darkness to get him back to his own troops. One of his captors was referring to him in no uncertain terms as one of the adjectival persons of unknown descent who had knocked hell out of Coventry, when to his surprise , came the quick retort in very good English: " I happen to live in Hamburg." The war diary for that day doesn't mention capturing any PoWs. but they were in this area, 41° 31' 38'' N 14° 23' 01'' E - Cantalupo nel Sannio
After the intensive artillery fire of the Scheldt battles and Reichswald Forest, German POW's escorted back though the line were asking to see the British + Canadian AUTOMATIC 25Pdrs. Rob
What did the German prisoner say? As the war in Italy came to an end my mob shot off to Austria and started a POW camp for an ex-SS Cavalry unit and I got to talk to them: At any one time there were only four men on actual guard around the perimeter, one patrolling the railway embankment, one the river bank, and the other two each other side of the cage. The Germans had their own internal guard to keep things in order within the cage itself and it was quite common for the British and German guards to patrol together, each on his own side of the wire. On one occasion, in the early hours of the morning, I was chatting in German to my counterpart on the other side. I told him I was Jewish, to which I got the almost automatic response: "Ich habe so viel Freunden Juden!", ( I have so many Jewish friends!) and I asked him as a matter of academic interest what would have happened if some weeks earlier I had the misfortune to be captured by his own unit and they discovered I was Jewish. He considered the matter for a moment and then told me that if I had been one of a large group of prisoners, then no attempt would have been made to segregate me, and I would have just been sent to the rear with the others. If, however, I had been captured separately and if his own officer said to him "shoot him" then he would simply have shot me, for as he quite cheerfully pointed out to me: "If I don't shoot you, then he shoots me!" At the time, it all seemed perfectly logical to both of us and I have often been glad that events had never put the matter to the test. On another occasion I was on the river bank duty and was being observed by a bunch of young Jerries. It was fairly obvious that they were amused by something and I asked them what they were laughing at. The ringleader said: "It's because you are only armed with a pistol!" (as tank crew this was standard issue and worn in a belt holster). I pointed out to him that if he personally attempted to slip through the wire and swim the river, the pistol was more than sufficient to stop him, if on the other hand the whole 4OOO of them were to decide to make a run for it, then all the armoured cars in the village would probably have difficulty in stopping them. He saw the logic of it and shared it with his friends. Occasionally we would lose some prisoners who would scoot up the railway embankment and make for the hills, and we used to send out patrols in the early hours to see if they were hiding in the local farms. To everyone's embarrassment we sometimes found our own troops having a liaison with the local "talent." Full story here: BBC - WW2 People's War - The War Ends in Italy, 2nd May 1945 If you do read this, then scroll down to the comments and read Peter G's conclusions regarding which SS Div we had actually captured . I had previously asked him to try and identify them.
