WW2 Canadian POWS meet in London

Hello People,

I spotted this story in Canoe this morning:

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandR...f-1233386.html

Not complaining
Second World War PoWs gather in London and, as 50 years ago, they look to the future.
By IAN GILLESPIE, Free Press Columnist
Not complaining
Pat Mills, of London, who flew a bomber during the Second World War, holds up the prisoner of war dog-tags he soldered together after the war. (Mike Hensen, LFP)

Pat Mills pulls the piece of steel from the plastic sheath hanging from his neck. Although the lettering is hard to decipher, Mills recites it aloud without hesitation: ST VI J 7064.

The "ST" stands for Stalag. The "VI" is the Roman numeral for six.

"Stalag six" was just one of the German prison camps in which the London man was held after the Halifax bomber he was piloting was shot down after returning from a raid on Berlin in March 1944.

The dog tag has a slot in its centre and looks like a two-sided ticket: Mills explains that if he'd died in prison, German authorities would've sent one side of the identity tag to Red Cross headquarters in Switzerland; the other half would've been nailed on his coffin.

Of course, he didn't die. The Saskatchewan native settled in Woodstock, married, raised a family and taught public school.

"I've had some hardships, just like you, just like everyone else," he says. "I'm not complaining."

And now, 51 years later, that tattered tag is the reason he's sitting in the lobby of this Ramada Inn in south London. As one of Canada's few remaining Second World War PoWs, Mills is here for this weekend's annual general meeting of the National PoW Association of Canada.

At 83, Mills says it may be his last chance to attend one of these events.

It may well be the last chance for anyone.

At its peak, the National PoW Association boasted hundreds of members and successfully lobbied for increased pensions for veterans and their widows.

But now, most of the members are in their 80s. Many are sick, slow, frail and dying. The Alberta chapter folded this year; the one in Ottawa closed down last year. The Toronto chapter ceased operating more than 10 years ago.

Londoner John Callingham is the group's national president. He says he expects only about 13 former PoWs to attend this year's gathering.

"The main item of discussion is, 'What's going to become of the organization?'" he says. "Is it time to pack it in?"

Callingham stares at the floor, lost in thought.

"We've lived our useful life, I think," he finally says.

Although yesterday's meet-and-greet was to get underway at 2 p.m., by 3:30 only two former PoWs had arrived at the hotel: Mills and Callingham. Strangely, both men flew in Halifax bombers, both were interred in German prison camps and both now live in London -- but until yesterday, they'd never met.

When pressed about their wartime memories, both men answer slowly, their words framed by swatches of silence.

"I was never beaten, I'll put it that way," says Mills.

When asked how the war affected his life, he shrugs. He says a lot of guys had it worse than him.

Then he brightens. After the war, he says, he could never bring himself to swallow the vegetable that, as a PoW, he ate three times a day for 18 months.

"I've never eaten a turnip since," he says.

"Never will."

Mills's wife died earlier this year. He says it only takes him a few minutes to walk from his east-end house to the cemetery where she is buried.

"I've got everything there -- except my exit date," he says.

Now also 83, Callingham spent eight months in a German prison camp after his Halifax was knocked from the sky by anti-aircraft fire in September 1944.

After parachuting into a plowed field, the bomb-aimer was captured.

Like Mills, he says the menu was mainly turnips. Like Mills, he downplays the deprivation. When pressed, he concedes only that his time as a PoW was "unpleasant."

"Our main activity, I guess, was just walking around the compound," he says.

"We played softball. I learned to play bridge."

He recalls one prisoner being shot after running out a barracks door before the "all-clear" had been declared after an air raid. He remembers another being shot while trying to escape.

"I kind of, not forget, but disregard the worst things and remember the happier times," says Callingham.

"It makes it livable."

Sadly, most of the living is now behind these two men and their comrades. But somehow, I don't think you'll hear them complaining.

[Murray]

I just finished an update to Tommys Log.

I've added the logbook of George Shaker. As a Merchant Navy POW, George kept a daily diary that gives a good look at camp life. Part two is the transcript of a talk given by the camp doctor regarding the conditions in POW camps throughout Germany at the end of WWII.Tommys Log

Thanks for that link Murray