Christmas in German POW camp Stalag Luft 1

Christmas in German POW camp Stalag Luft 1

And in memory of Lt. Elroy Frank Wyman, murdered by a German guard.

The posts I most enjoy writing about are the ones I didn’t plan, but somehow found.

I’ve written about Christmas Eve in World War II before, including in 2014, Christmas 1944: The Battle of the Bulge. and a follow up with reader memories in 2015, Christmas Eve in the Ardennes 1944.

In searching for another story to tell this Christmas Eve, I stumbled upon memories of Christmas Eve 1943 at Stalag Luft 1, a POW camp for captured Allied airmen.

POWVETS.com provides this description of the camp:

Stalag Luft 1 was opened end 1941 as a British Officer POW camp and was closed in April 1942 with British Officers moved to other POW camps. Reopened in October 1942 with transfer of 200 RAF NCOs from Stalag Luft 3. In 1943 also American POWs came to the camp. By the time of liberation the camp held 7 700 American Officers and 1 400 British POWs.

Memories of survivors and family members are at Wartime Memories website. More details, including a schematic of the camp and an extensive collection of photos are at the 392nd Bomb Group and 303rd Bomb Group websites and also Memories Shop website.

By far the most detailed information is at Stalag Luft 1 Online has an enormous amount of material on the camp, including photos, testimonials, information on POWS and guards, and so much more.

And it was at Stalag Luft 1 Online that I found accounts of Christmas at the camp, including these personal accounts, among many others:

Perk Chumley’s memories of Christmas 1944 at Stalag Luft I:

“The day before Christmas was a cloudy day about 20 degrees Fahrenheit the camps glee club and string orchestra presented a program of Christmas carols and excerpts from “Handel’s Messiah”. At midnight the Catholic’s were permitted to have mass and the Protestant’s had their Christmas service at noon on Christmas day.  During the evening one of our room mates played an accordion that we got from somewhere and we sang a few of the old favorite songs.  It looked to us like Christmas would be just another day.

Christmas Day in “Kriegeland” a cold and cloudy day.  Roll call was a little later today.  For breakfast we had Vienna sausage and fried potatoes.  At 2:00 we had Protestant service.  It was a short service of prayers and Christmas carols.  This afternoon I cooked a soup using some of the tomato juice from my last parcel, a bouillon cube, dehydrated meat and rice and noodle soup mix.  It was really quite good.  The Christmas evening meal put the Thanksgiving meal in the back seat.  The menu was as follows: Turkey (very good), mashed potatoes and Pate gravy, boiled carrots, chocolate pie and coffee.  In addition to this the band put on a program, Chuck Wiest sang three songs and really did a good job, they had a Santa Claus and all.  It was a climax to a rather sad and lonesome Christmas Day.  As usual we had the Red Cross and the YMCA to thank for our pleasure.”

* * * *

Clair Cline and the prison camp violin:

“My most memorable moment was Christmas Eve. As my buddies brooded about home and families, I began playing “Silent Night.” As the notes drifted through the barracks a voice chimed in, then others. Amid the harmony I heard a different language.  “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht, alles schläft, Einsam wacht . . . ” An elderly white-haired guard stood in the shadows, his eyes wet with tears.”

He carved a violin out of rough hewn bed slats.   Click here to read [view a photo].

* * * *

Ken Williams of Murder , Inc. fame,  Christmas  1943 with the Commandant of Stalag Luft I

“On Christmas Eve, 1943, three German guards came to our room (about twenty men to a room) and said I was wanted by the German Commandant.  They took me to the German officer’s club.  It was decorated for Christmas with a Christmas tree and all the trimmings.  The Commandant was seated at a table with two other men.  He stood up, greeted me and shook hands.  He asked me to have a seat and offered me some wine.   I hesitated to drink the  wine thinking it might be drugged, but the Commandant assured me it was good German Rhine wine, so I did take a few sips.

The Commandant said the man seated across from him had come up from Berlin to talk to me.  The Commandant then stood up and said he had to leave, and he and the other officer left the table.

The man from Berlin was wearing a sweater (so no military rank) and military riding pants and boots.  I believe he was a general from the way the Commandant, who was a colonel, had treated him.  He was a good-looking man and appeared to be about forty years of age.

He asked me about Christmas in the United States and at my home.  We wanted to know what I thought my parents would be doing at that time on Christmas Eve.  I told him about Christmas Eve at home, exchange of presents, Midnight Mass, and about my family.

He then showed me a Berlin newspaper with my picture on the front page, a front view and the back view with the “Murder Inc.” on the back of the jacket.  He said he had been sent up from Berlin to see if I were really a gangster.  He said it was obvious to him that I was not a gangster and he thought that I would probably hear no more about “Murder Inc.”  He wanted to know why we had given the plane this name.  I told him I did not name the plane and did not know why it was so named.

He gave me the newspaper and said he thought I might like to have it as a souvenir.  I have that very same paper in front of me now at my desk.”

To read the complete story of Murder, Inc. click here

As much as I had not been looking to write about Stalag Luft 1, I was not looking to write about 2nd Lt. Elroy F. Wyman.

The website provides eyewitness accounts:

Our worst fears were realized on 18 March when the 8th Air Force was in the Berlin area and a long air raid confinement took place.  About 45 minutes after the alert was given at 1030 hours a South African Air Force officer in the British compound, Lt. G. V. Whitehouse, forgetfully left his barracks with a basin full of kitchen refuse.  He was in the process of spreading this on his kitchen garden as a manure dressing when a walking guard shouted and fired at the same time.  The 7.92 mm bullet, fired at about 40 yards range, passed through Whitehouse’s body and two room walls in a barracks 60 yards distant.  The severely wounded Whitehouse dropped in his tracks to be retrieved by friends.  When finally rushed to the dispensary he was operated on immediately by Lt. Col. Townsend, in charge during Hankey’s absence. With the destruction of a kidney and serious internal hemorrhage, Townsend’s surgery undoubtedly saved Whitehouse’s life, although he was to remain a hospital case to the end of the war.

Around ten minutes later 2nd Lt. E. F. Wyman, who had been visiting friends in a barracks before the air raid alarm was given started to walk casually back to his billet.  Realizing too late that there were no other prisoners about, he turned and dashed back to the door he had just left.  As he reached it a bullet struck him in the head and he fell bleeding, half in and half out of the doorway.  Fellow prisoners dragged him into the hallway and did what they could.  The next problem was how to get a doctor and raise the alarm. Only by beating on the walls and shouting in crescendo was the attention of a tower guard attracted to call the authorities to investigate.  Twenty minutes passed before medical help arrived and with an armed guard  Wyman was removed to the hospital.  He was beyond medical help and died that afternoon.

*Col. Zemke’s description differs from Lt. Wyman’s barracks roommates in that he places Wyman in another barracks and his roommates place him in their barracks, but the basic facts remain the same. 

And this from the Allied War Crimes tribunal:

On or about 17 march 45, at 1130 hrs, 2nd Lt. Elroy Frank Wyman left his blockhouse and began to walk across the compound. When he had walked a short distance, he realized that an air alert was in progress. He turned around and retraced his steps at a slow trot. Just as he reached the entrance to his blockhouse, he was shot and killed, without warning by: Obegefreiter Emil Buhler, the German guard on duty at that time.

The case number of the UN war crimes commission is file 1628:case 11 of US vs Germany.

According to the website, this is likely Lt. Wyman’s funeral, mistakenly labeled as that of a British Officer.

And then, not having searched for Stalag Luft 1, or Lt. Wyman, I saw this account of Lt. Wyman’s shooting, by an American POW who the website noted, had been moved by the Germans to a barrack for Jewish POWs:

In January 1945 Paul [Canin] was moved by the Germans to the “Jewish Barracks” when they decided to segregate the Jewish men from the other men in the camp.  This is the note Paul received notifying him of Lt. Wyman’s death.

Dear Remy, Cisco Wyman was killed yesterday.  He didn’t know there was an air raid on and started out the front door.  He went about 2 or 3 steps then turned around.  Just as he got back to the door the guard walking the outside fence shot him through the head.  The range was about 100 yds.  The bullet entered the right temple and came out to the left and above his left eye. He was semi-conscious.  Doc Nichols* operated but he died right after the operation.  There isn’t much else news.  I have moved to room 5A.  Wade moved into 4.  This 4 man room is o.k.  The food is getting pretty short over here.  I hope to get a personal parcel soon. Andrews has had mail. Have you had any yet?  Well so long and be good.  I’ll be seeing you.

Mike Keesee

*Capt. W. Martin Nichols was a British POW who had been an eminent brain surgeon in England.  He had been a POW since 1940.

I emailed the contact address for Lt. Wyman’s family, but have not yet received any response.

The Find A Grave website provides this biographical account for Lt. Wyman:

And this heartbreaking piece of personal information:

Elroy never married but he was engaged in late 1942 while home on leave after joining the AAF in May. Elroy’s fiance, Irene Brewer, was the daughter of Scott and Clara Brewer of North Berwick.

This photo of Lt. Wyman’s grave is in what appears to be a family plot at Hillside Cemetery, North Berwick, Maine.

In early May 2015, Luft Stalag 1 was liberated by Russian troops. The POW VETS website provides this account of the liberation:

On April 30, 1945 the Senior American Officer (SAO) had several conferences with the Kommandant, who had orders to move Stalag Luft 1 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Russians. The SAO stated that POWs would not move unless force was used, and the Kommandant finally agreed to avoid bloodshed. Late that night the Germans turned out the lights and left the camp, leaving the POWs behind. On May 1 a first contact was made with advanced Russian troops.

Although the actual liberation was performed by the Russians, no effort was made by them to evacuate the POWs from the area. There was even serious concern that these men were to be marched off to Russia. On May 6, 1945 Colonel Byerly, the former SAO, left Stalag Luft 1 with 2 officers of a British airborne division and flew to England the next day. After reporting to 8th Air Force headquarters on the conditions at the camp, arrangements were made to evacuate the liberated POWs by air.

On May 13, 1945 forty-one B-17G’s were sent from Bassingbourn in the UK to a runway near Barth in order to evacuate part of the prisoners. From Barth they immediately flew back to Leon airport near Bordeaux in France, where the ex-POWs were loaded on buses for Camp Lucky Strike. This operation was repeated on May 14 and completed on May 15.

This video shows evacuation of the POWs on May 13, 1945:

A memorial stands at the location:

The story of how Luft Stalag 1 Online came to be is a lesson in itself:

During World War II approximately 8,939 Allied Airmen ( 7,588 American and 1,351 Royal Air Force ) were imprisoned by the Germans at Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany. All our lives we knew our father, Dick Williams, Jr. of Eufaula, Alabama, had been one of  those imprisoned at Stalag Luft I, but that was all we knew, until we decided to apply for his Prisoner of War Medal in September 1999.
	He never spoke of his combat experiences in the skies of Europe during World War II, and only rarely of his incarceration in a German prisoner of war camp. Our Dad died suddenly 36 years ago (June 10, 1979), taking his memories with him.   As adults our minds were full of questions we could no longer ask.   We turned to the Internet in search of our answers. We would like to share with you what we have learned, as part of our ongoing research, on Stalag Luft I and Prisoners of War in World War II Germany.   What started out as a small 3 page tribute to our father has now grown to over 220 pages.  We hope you will find something of interest to you.
This website is in remembrance of our Dad, James Richard (Dick) Williams, Jr., of Eufaula, Alabama. During World War II, as a young man, he flew with America’s Mighty 8th Air Force.  He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was sent for training as an aerial gunner to Drew Field in Tampa, Florida and Langley AFB in Virginia.  In July 1944 he was assigned to the 398th Bomb Group, 600th Bomb Squad stationed in Nuthampstead, England as a waist gunner on a B-17G.

God bless them all.

[Freatured Image via American Air Museum in Britain, http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/12561]

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