Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

62 miles in about three weeks, without adequate food or shelter of any kind--a long, long walk indeed. A common route was from the French coast to Trier in Germany. From there he was squeezed into standing room only cattle cars and transported by rail father east into Upper Silesia, now Poland. He eventually was imprisoned in Poland, in Stalag VIIIB. Crossing the border from France into Germany led to the first encounters with German civilians. Some offered water and bread to the prisoner. These gestures were often thwarted by the guards, knocking charitable offerings to the ground in front of the starving men. For many German civilians, the POWs were proof of the inferior enemy. Accounts of women and children and the elderly beating the prisoners with sticks, spitting at them and throwing stones were frequent. Reaction was mixed among the POWs, weakened in body and spirit from their capture and the march. Some prisoners could not help think that at some point in the future the demeaning acts of the Germans would see retribution. It is difficult to know how many men perished along the way from injury and sickness. While there was some alignment with the rules of war laid out in the Geneva Convention, the motivation to arrive at the POW camp with the full numbers of prisoners from Dunkirk was low. As the march continued, some rations of food were doled out. Soup was little more than water and left over peelings, rotten potatoes and sundry other dead or dying fodder. Stale and moldy bread provided most of the bulk. Those prisoners who were sick and injured generally got to the food station last, often missing out for yet another day. Some groups of prisoners marched all the way to their designated camp. Many reached aforementioned Trier in southwestern Germany, 250-300 miles from Dunkirk. Prisoners were loaded into cattle cars in the rail yards. Capacity was approximately 40 men. Usually, 80 were stuffed into the cars, standing room only. The cars were poorly ventilated. The men were filthy, lousy and most had intestinal problems. For thirty six to forty eight hours men endured the heat, filth and unbearable stench. There was no room to move, let alone lie down to