Colditz by Ben Macintyre.

Most of us have heard the Colditz story, a story dominated by the experiences of Pat Reid (Major P. R. Reid. M.B.E, M. C.).  Reid ensured the story of the castle was not forgotten, it was also a story written in his image and not one that found favour with all the other prisoners.  Ben Macintyre attempts to reveal a more in-depth tale of life in the castle prison.  Less daring-do and more realism of the young, fit men, forced into captivity, with many desperate for a variety of reasons to escape.

The author has researched the many books, letters, reports and files that are available for Colditz and its occupants, both allied and German.  These do not always agree, and do not always agree with Pat Reid in particular.  What does come out is the attitudes of the day, and the personalities of those forced on both sides into such confinement.

German troops placed into POW camps were mostly of the elder sort.  Many had experience of the previous was, indeed one of the major names in the book, Leutnant Reinhold Eggers, one of the main men ordered to keep the POWs inside, was far from being a Nazi.  He was however, a man who had been at the Somme and Ypres and left the war with a bullet wound in his leg.  A proud German, like most, but also like most he was not keen on Adolf.  Doesn't it amaze you when men will support their nation even though the leaders are corrupt and despotic?  You wonder why they do not rebel?  Apart from being shot of course.

We quickly learn from this book of the rampant snobbery among England's cultured elite.  Those who had attended Eton looked down on other officers who went to lesser public schools.  You can imagine the attitudes to their Batmen!  Douglas Bader, built up by propaganda as a great war hero, was in fact an obnoxious snob who treated his Batman contemptuously at all times.  Even some of the other officers rebuked him.  In this book, as we have heard elsewhere, he was a mere snob looking down on others, in spite of the charitable work he managed to do after the war.  This book holds no punches on him.  An Indian officer, Birendranath Mazumdar, a surgeon, also entered the camp.  The English snobbery naturally saw him as 'unclean' and a rebel Indian, one wishing to end the Raj.  I was with him all through here.  He suffered terribly from this racist attitude.

Escape adventures were of course common.  The French, the Dutch, the Poles and the Americans who all at one time were placed here all immediately began to search for ways of escape.  The castle itself aided this.  Having been around since 1043 and constantly rebuilt according to requirements or the wishes of the owner many bricked up walls hid possible escape routes.  Soon tunnels were being dug everywhere, walls broken, false walls built, escape routes out found, some from hiding after exercise or sport, one from jumping the fence.  Most failed, occasionally someone would disappear for a while then return, jaded, tired and not best pleased.  In the last year a rather desperate attempt was prepared, by creating a glider in the attic.  This was not used as an escape, rescue came first, but after the war it was flown and did indeed reach the planned landing area safely!

Guards constantly interrupted the prisoners, day and night, if they suspected escape escapades were under way.  So many were attempting escape each had to be authorised by the commanding officer, to ensure the more absurd were halted.  Occasionally one would succeed and a man would make it to Switzerland, indeed Pat Reid was one of the first to do so.  

Serving up to five years in a POW camp is demeaning and depressing.  The longer time is served the more a man struggles to forget his experience.  Some of course never could forget.  

The book covers the Colditz story in depth, and in a readable depth at that.  It only took a few days for me to reach the end, including feeling the depression of the POWs, and the relief that rescue was close.

The individuals are reveals as real men, not the ones from Black and White war movies, real men with all their flaws and indeed courage and integrity also.  Only one prisoner was shot, and that accidental for the most part, both sides agreed to follow the Geneva convention, and while competent for the most part Eggers and his men treated the POWs as well as was possible.  As time passed they too suffered from lack of resources and war fears.  

I recommend this book.

Double Dealing with Local History

Amazon

An excellent book!  Well worth a read.  I was given this a couple of ears ago and was put off reading it because I had ploughed my way through Max Hastings book 'The Secret War.'  That book, while interesting, takes a lot more reading than this one does.
Outside of the MI5 & MI6 government individuals mentioned the main stars are the intriguing, if not unbalanced, personnel who put their lives on the line as double crossing agents during the Second World War.  A Peruvian lass who liked to gamble, a Pole who wished to rule, a French woman who almost blew it when her dog was killed and a Spanish chicken farmer and a Serbian who like the woman.  All these turned into excellent double agents.  Many Germans who came into the country as spies had no intentions of wearing a uniform and getting bullied, pushed around and shot, spying was an easy out.  A few who landed were not up to the double agent game and were jailed, some too pro Nazi were executed, these few however played a big part in the final victory especially their work concerning D-Day 1944.
The agents completely fooled the German intelligence services.  Not only were they believed long after the war by some but medals were awarded by the Reich and an Iron Cross or two, and large amounts of cash, reached the spies in the UK.  Wars are won and lost on intelligence, and as we all now 'Military Intelligence' is often questioned by the troops at the sharp end.   
This is a fast moving book,well written with many details on the contacts between spies and their masters both at home and abroad.  The details are clear, the stories intriguing and by the end the biggest lie of all, that General Patton was going to land an army at the Pas de Calais, succeeded in forcing all the enemy generals to keep that area well protected for over a month, during which time the real invasion at Normandy has successfully taken place and began the move up north.  his lie went right to the top of the Reich with Adolf himself satisfied with his successful spies, even after the invasion was under way.
The war over they returned to he real world.  Some more successfully and happily than others.  Their tales are told here.  This is a book well worth a read, especially if you wish to take up spying, allowing for the fact that amongst the operatives aiding the lies to the Germans were men who were also sending all the information into Mr Stalin at the Kremlin.  It is often easier to find foreign spies than those amongst you.

Muscle aches tomorrow.  For no good reason I suddenly rose and cleaned the fridge this afternoon. This is one of the many 'to do' jobs that ought to be ignored.  Instead I got up and did it!  I think the strain of Lock Down is having an affect.

Indeed in these past few days the strain has shown.  My mind was very dull, confusion as to what to do, lack of ability to enjoy anything, and little of interest in anything available was becoming the norm.  Then this morning I came across this picture I took some time ago.  
Edward and Eliza Wicks have lain in the graveyard behind the Congregational Church in Bocking End for 140 years without troubling anyone.  I just thought this morning I might have a look to see if they were important.    It appears he may not have been important but he would have been known in the town, he was an Inland Revenue Officer.   Moving from London, being born in Holborn, he made his way to Castle Hedingham for a while and then moved into Braintree, not far from here.  There again at that time everything was not far from here.
In spite of being born in 1812 he was not 'Baptised' into the Holborn Church until 1836 when he would have been 24.  I wonder if he had found a woman and wished to marry her there?  Certainly he had a first born only three years later and that is Staffordshire where he must have moved to gain the money to keep the wife.  Two other children followed there before coming into the large village of Castle Hedingham and what a place that would be for a child to grow up at that time!  Of course schooling would be forced upon them, and that would spoil the fun but it would enable them to benefit greatly as the Victorian economy grew in the middle of the century.  Braintree may have appeared 'bustling' in comparison with previous homes but it would still be suitable for the kids.

Living in this small two up and two down house, with no piped water until 1861 and then only if you could afford the 1/6d weekly, and with five children most of the time makes you wonder how they survived.  Consider the females fussing, consider the young child, there is always one, consider the washing, consider the vast dresses filling the room, consider marrying the girls off to the first tender approach.  That however did not appear to work.  Still four of them with the parents in 1871.
The wife Eliza dies in 1875, Edward follows in 1878 aged 66.  Being buried in this graveyard indicates they attending this rebellious fellowship regularly rather than St Michaels the Anglican Parish Church.  Indeed I think that was in rather a poor state at this time, Essex rebels remember their loyalty to Parliament under Cromwell and may even in the 19th century have avoided the church.
The Wicks story is not going to make news, they may have made friends, maybe not if the girls were still unmarried in their 20's.  We will never know.  The name is common in Essex, I would trace the family but really canny be bothered now, and I am thinking of visiting Tesco for bread.  However, this little study refreshed my stale mind wonderfully.  I needed it if you didn't.