WAR IS LOST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1943, Page 4

WAR IS LOST

OPINION IN GERMAN HOME FRONT ACCORDING TO REPATRIATED PRISONERS. MORALE AT LOW EBB. The German home front today knows that it is beaten, writes Peter Lyne, staff correspondent _of the “Christian Science Monitor,” from London. That is the almost unanimous conviction of some 4,000 British, Canadian, and a few American prisoners of war who have arrived in Britain from Germany.

As the last of three repatriation ships docked at Liverpool this morning, the attention of all Britain is focussed on one of the most dramatic episodes of the war —the first largescale home-coming of men who have spent the greater part of the war years behind German barbed wire.

Two American Dieppe captives — Private John Fleming, of Highland Park. Mich., and Sergeant Everett Oglesby, of Manila, Ark., arrived at Leith, Scotland. Twelve other Americans docked at Liverpool this morning. SCENES OF GREAT JOY.

Amid scenes of great joy, the repatriated prisoners came back home to Leith and to Liverpool singing just as they did when they left for France at the outbreak of the war. There were deeply moving scenes as wounded men were reunited with their countrymen. But they sang the same song they did when they went away to war —“Roll Out the Barrel.” Time seemed for the moment to have stood still. But then they told their experiences, which showed how remarkably times have changed since Dunkirk, Greece, Crete, and Libya. They “found Britain war-weary and war-scarred, perhaps, but vibrant with the expectancy of victory and of a new and better future. In contrast, they told of a Germany they had just left behind deep in despondency and fearful of retribution.

That impression of Germany today is indelibly marked on their consciousness. “The Germans can’t keep the news from seeping even into a prison camp,” said a repatriated Army chaplain. Besides, some of the returning prisoners travelled all through Germany on their way home. RAID DAMAGE. Others have had close-up views of British and American air attacks on Germany. They were called in afterward to help with the damage and casualties. Here is a summary of stories told by these repatriated prisoners—chaplains, commissioned officers, corporals, and privates. Some walked proudly ashore in tattered uniforms, others assisted by orderlies and Red Cross personnel: At first Nazi treatment of prisoners was hard, but today the Gormans are making an effort to redeem themselves. Even Russian prisoners are treated better now that Russia is winning victories. The Germans' great fear for the future is of Russian vengeance. But it seems most Germans will do nothing to force their leaders to surrender. Conditions in Germany are described by prisoners as steadily deteriorating, with coal mining, agriculture, industry, and communications increasingly disrupted and losing ground. FORTRESS RAID. Anglo-American bombing of Germany is described as terrible. It is held reshponsible for the change in the German home front and the changed attitude.to British and American prisoners. “Will it be our turn next?” is the ever-present query in German thoughts. Here is a story of an American Flying Fortress raid on Germany last month witnessed by Corp. William McLoughlan of Dundee: “We were working as medical orderlies in a camp near by. I was standing in the grounds of the hospital when I saw these great four-engined bombers —it was a marvellous sight —which came in formation of 20. I counted up to 96 of them. “The Germans ran like mad to their shelters. We stayed where we were, just fascinated. Then bombs began to fall. ONE SHED LEFT “In two or three minutes, the whole . of that factory—l give you my word for this —had been flattened. Not a building except one shed was standing when the Americans went away. “There was a French camp on the other side of the factory. It wasn’t touched. Every one of the bombs fell exactly inside the target area. “I say—and even a German who was wounded on an A A battery said to me afterward —it was perfection bombing. Most of the German flak guns never got going at all in time ar\d more than one of them were knocked out by bombs.”