We had stopped on the rise on our side of the valley together with several other civilian commercial vehicles. One or two Thunderbolts, having completed their work on the train, decided to turn their attention to this group of trucks, of which ours was one, and as soon as their intention was clear we got ourselves tucked behind some neighbouring trees whose three foot diameter trunks we thought would be a useful shield. From the apparent safety of our shelter we saw the nearby trucks hit and destroyed. Then we were left alone, to emerge to inspect the damage. In the cab of one truck there still sat the driver, his head burst open and his brains oozing from a shattered skull. Then we looked at the trees behind which we had sought security. Those which had been hit had been penetrated right through by the shells which had blasted them. They would have been no shield had any of those shells found a target in the trees behind which we had so confidently crouched. We walked down the last mile to our new prison camp in sombre mood. Nothing that happened immediately after that cheered me up, for I found myself in solitary confinement in a cell with bare walls, an iron-barred window and a single electric bulb which remained lit for as long as I was there. I could do no other than settle down on the hard single bed against one wall to await whatever my own interrogation would bring forth. We had been warned that the methods employed at Dulag Luft were not the most pleasant. Nothing happened. I was fed intermittently, not at all badly, for the camp had provisions sent in by the Red Cross, but I was not summoned for any interview. That lasted for four days. It was more than a little nervewracking and I did wonder if this was part of the treatment, meant to soften up the prisoners before they were even questioned. But it was not. The truth was that the advance of the Allied troops had been proceeding apace, and the American General Patton’s 3rd Army was moving speedily in the direction of Wetzlar and district, giving our German warders thoughts of pulling themselves back from that menacing front line. Montgomery actually crossed the Rhine on March 21st, and it was now March 20th. To our surprise and exceeding relief we were pulled out of our cells on the fourth day of our imprisonment and I again met my crew members in the daylight. We were then told – or somehow learned – that the Dulag Luft was to be evacuated and abandoned, and that we should be taken further eastwards into Germany before Patton and his Americans had time to overrun us. To prepare for what was planned to be a fairly long journey, we were to be issued with certain pieces of equipment from stores which had been furnished by the International Red Cross for use in the camp. I took over two blankets, one khaki and one of good blue wool; a couple of toilet rolls; a pair of heavy brown American GI boots; some pieces of soap; two American GI vests; and two pairs of RAF other ranks’ socks. This last item was interesting later on, for it was issued over the stores’ counter by a longer-serving RAF Squadron Leader prisoner who got me


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