Stalag 18A

For most of the details of Stalag 18A, I am indebted to three ex-inmates: Eric Fearnside, Ken Willmott and Ken O'Kennedy. Eric was a driver in the Royal Engineers who got away from Greece at the small port of Navplion, but was later captured in Crete.

Eric's book contains a lot of detail of the day-to-day life in the camp, in particular the concerts and other entertainments.

Sadly, Eric died in 1998.

Ken Willmott was in the Fourth Hussars and was captured at Kalamata. He was a musician and, like Eric, was heavily involved with camp entertainment.

Ken O'Kennedy was a Signalman. He was captured in Crete, spent 2 years in Work Camp 1107/L before returning to Stalag 18A. He was heavily involved with the Theatre.

Whether a soldier was captured in Greece or Crete, the next few weeks had a grim similarity. On foot, by road, rail or sea, he would eventually be taken to a temporary camp in Salonika. From there, he would be packed into a railway wagon designed for carrying cattle, with fifty other prisoners of war. There followed days of hunger, thirst and lack of sleep as the train made its slow way up through Yugoslavia to southern Austria and the final destination of Stalag 18A at Wolfsberg. (For some, the journey ended at Stalag 18D in Marburg. When this camp closed, most POWs were transferred to Stalag 18A.)

(For a detailed account of the journey from the POW camp at Corinth in Greece to Stalag 18A, click on The Road to Wolfsberg.)

A prisoner did not usually stay long in Stalag 18A, as it was a clearing camp for scores of working camps throughout Austria. Within a few days he would be assigned to a Work Party (Arbeitskommando), normally of 15 to 20 men, and sent on. The 'lucky' ones would be assigned to farm work, where there was a least a chance of adequate food. The less fortunate might be sent to an iron mine, a quarry or a timber mill, where the hours were long and the work hard.

Red Cross Report

Sections

So what made Stalag different from a working camp? Well, ARBEIT, of course. But Senior NCO’s and WO’s didn’t have to work according to the Geneva Convention. Officers too; their camps were much more security-minded than those for the ranks. It was most probably a German belief that officers were much more intelligent and therefore more able to plan sophisticated disguises, tunnels etc.

In Wolfsberg there were quite a lot of people hanging around. Some of them didn’t exist; their names had been removed from an index by (allegedly) the Phantom (believed to be a certain Joe Gretton), foolishly entrusted with this job The so-called Inner Circle was responsible for giving the Germans a sufficient supply for the working camps, but they were also capable of ensuring that valuable labour was kept in Stalag; for example for the theatre – musicians, actors of all kinds, electricians, art designers, tailors, carpenters, writers and for the care of the sick – medical orderlies, doctor’s assistants.

What to do to pass the time? Sport? Well, soccer was taken very seriously from a regional point of view. Interminable running round the area known as the sport field. But the greatest game of all was Australian in origin – no, not cricket or rugby. There was always a ring of people somewhere uttering strange cabalistic noises, such as- ‘ten he heads ‘em, get set on the side, come in spinner!’ TWO-UP, they called it. So what do you gamble with? On the working camps, men were paid “Lager Geld” of RM18.20 per month, blissfully ignorant that after the war they would be redeemed at face value.

And talking about face value…trading laws were necessary. Economists declare that money must adhere to at least three rules – acceptability, divisibility and limited in quantity. Lager Geld was OK for some, but certainly not to the French, etc. Cigarettes filled the bill. So by international agreement the day’s rates were pinned up on a barrack wall for all to see.

To facilitate communication a language was devised – Lager Deutsch – not only for trading. e.g. "Du kommen round miney barrack, ik gibben du shockolade – du habben Cigaretten??" It was even understood by some Germans. An example: from time to time German security officers wandered round the camp. One of these was a Sonderfuehrer with the unfortunate last name of LAUSE. Allegedly he was in civilian life a university professor who spoke faultless English.

Scene – an interview with a middle-aged Londoner who had served in WW1, Darky Marsh by name.

Lause: “Why cannot we be civil to each other, Mr. Marsh? I see from your jacket that you have medals from the Great War. As you see from my uniform, I too have the medals which show that I was there too.

Marsh (unwilling to share the moment and the language, after a pause for consideration)

Religion? There were of course no church parades, no line-up in column of threes followed by “Fall out the other denominations”. There were however three interesting Ministers: Father Juneau, an S.J. Roman Catholic, Rev. Hobling a very nice man reminiscent of a village curate, who was killed in the December 1944 bombing, and “Padre” John Ledgerwood of the YMCA, often to be seen in the theatre and also in the Two-up ring. All of them conducted services of a sort in the theatre with a modest following.

So was 18A like a Butlin’s Holiday Camp? Well, compared with the working camps and their long working hours laying roads, breaking stones with 3-kilo hammers, perhaps.

For some however it was the boredom, the waiting for Red Cross Parcels and news from home that affected their minds. But most of us got back, to be told “War’s not over yet. Get retrained for Far East!!!”

POW-WOW

The British & Commonwealth POWs in Stalag 18A printed a newsletter, POW WOW. This is the first edition, printed in December 1941. It was brought home by L/Bdr Tom Watson, Northumberland Hussars.

Stalag 18A Photographs

Large Groups


Latrine call (PE)	Char (PE)	Church Service (DF)	Home Brew (DF)

Hut interior	Hut interior	Hut interior

ANZAC Day 1943 (JG)	2/7 Inf. Bn. AIF Group (SF)	George Fraser Group (SF)	The Secret Still

Vic Beardow	Michael Farrington	'Sherry' Cooper Group	Joseph Conn aka J. Orr

Frank Morris on right	Yves Fontaine	Denis Powell	Tom Carpenter

James Rennie group	Eric Fernside, Eric Curtis	Percival Greig group	William Eastwood group

Tommy Oldfield	Tommy Oldfield group	Lionel Bigmore & Bill Perry	J. O'Connor & Unknown

Jack Swinnerton	Jack Swinnerton group	Dick Bushby	Dykes, Hale, Doolan, Wishart

Unknown	Henry Hillier	Stan Peters group	William Wells

French POWs (PE)	John Gibb	John Gibb Group	T.D. Jones Group

F.W. Maclaren	F.W. Maclaren group	Hut interior 1	Hut interior 2

Vic Beardow Group	(Phil McWilliams)	James Rennie group	James Fall group

James Fall	Unknown group	106 RHA group	Liverpool group

Unknown pair	Dick Rimmer	Les Hudson	Les Hudson & Unknown

Stanley Peters group	Capt. Crowe group	Charles Cleves group	James Shaw group

Capt. Crowe, M.O.	Capt. Crowe group	Crowe, Juneau, Unknown	Juneau + unknowns

Dick Horan group 1	Dick Horan group 2	Dick Horan group 3	4 Fld. Amb. NZMC group

Stan Peters group

Officers group (inc. Capt. Beattie)	View of hospital from Hut 3	Ken Faulkner group 1	Ken Faulkner group 2

(Phil McWilliams)	Jean Siviere group (French)	Eric Curtis group 1	Eric Curtis group 2

Bill Pinder	Fred Kenney on right	Finlay Campbell	Eric Evans group

Arthur Green on right	Charles Cleves	Doug Arthur group	Les Hudson group 1

Les Hudson group 2	Keith Newport group 1	Keith Newport group 2	Keith Newport group 3

Albert Phelps group 1	Albert Phelps group 2	Albert Phelps group 3	Albert Phelps group 4 (Two-up)

Albert Phelps group 5	Albert Phelps group 6

Claude Cooper

SSM Cooper, RAC, was Camp Leader at Stalag 18A. He can be seen in most of the large group photos shown above. The following photos were sent by Vel Edwards-Hier, his daughter. The German officer in the third photo is probably Oberstleutnant von Reckow.

Sport

Stuart Fraser of Australia has sent the following set of photographs, brought back by his father, CQMS George McKenzie Fraser, 2/7 Inf. Bn. They appear to show a Boxing and Wrestling Tournament with contestants from the British and French camps. The event probably took place in April 1943 (although the dedication on one photo is dated 2.10.43).

The score cards from two Test Matches: Australia v England and Australia v New Zealand, played in September 1943, along with the ball used. Supplied by Ian Davey, grandson of John Davey.

Other Sports pictures from Stalag 18A

Often the German guards would know that a particular Shadow man was in the camp and warn him if the Gestapo were about to conduct a search with dogs. Next to the Delousing Hut was a small hut known as the 'LZ' that housed ill and disabled POWs. Underneath this hut was an escape tunnel where the Shadow men could hide until the search was over.

At the working camps news was scarce; perhaps one or two larger camps may have cobbled together a radio, but mostly all that was heard was from local work gaffers who insisted – until about summer 1944 – that they were clearly winning the war.

THE NEWS - At first a squad wandered round each barrack with a brief report summarized from the hidden radio. Later however, the presentation was given in the theatre rivalling today’s BBC’s Peter Snow explaining election trends. The peripatetic version was maintained by a Kiwi sergeant, Hec Myers whose version was from the same source, though sometimes we wondered; viz: “Last night many fires were started in Hamburg after the RAF dropped insanitary bombs.”

‘Hauptmann Schaefer (the Security boss) has asked the SS to take over the camp.’ Never noticed it.

‘The Americans are only ten miles away’- the Long March contradicted that one.

There were also the German loudspeakers that from time to time would give their versions of air battles in Britain:


Group 11	Group 13	Group 14	Group 15

Group 16	Group 17	Group 19	Group 20

Group 21	Group 22


Stan Huitson	J. Vernon	Unknown

Nipper Smith	Jim Miller	Albert Drew

John Moore	Thomas Cameron	Stanley Young

'Bomber'	Percy Shaw	Henri le Grand



Tournament 1	Tournament 2	Tournament 3




Robert Dickson group	Herbert Hook group

NZ Rugby Team	Edgar Miller group

Les Hudson group 1	Les Hudson group 2