Abundance of Valor by Will Irwin

Author:Will Irwin [Irwin, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-51908-5
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

* Brinkgreve, Olmsted, Austin, Cor, Daan, Gerard, Toon, Klaas, Coos, Marie, Ank, and Riek.

* William Joyce, or Lord Haw Haw, made his final broadcast for the Germans on April 30, 1945, a day before British forces seized Radio Hamburg’s studios. After his capture and arrest by British forces at Flensburg, near the Danish border, Joyce was returned to England, where he was tried for treason, convicted, and hanged at Wandsworth Prison on January 3, 1946.

TWENTY-ONE

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

At the Oberursel prisoner of war camp, Allan Todd had served his week in solitary confinement. He also had undergone a second round of questioning. On Sunday, October 15, 1944, he was taken back before the interrogation officer for a third time. Once again, the German demanded to know what Todd’s duties had been with the British, explaining that he simply needed to confirm the American’s status as a prisoner of war rather than a spy. Todd’s name, alleged the German, had been found on some documents captured in France the previous winter.

Though Todd could not be certain of what the Germans did know, he held his ground, laughing it off, accusing the German of bluffing. He continued to refuse to explain his connection with the British paratroopers. Furious, the German officer pounded the desk and informed Todd that he would soon be visited by a “special investigator.” The American was returned to his solitary cell, but he did not sleep that night. Thoughts of his luck having run out kept him awake.1

A Luftwaffe colonel made an inspection through the facility on the seventeenth, and found Todd in solitary confinement. He asked Todd why he was there. When Todd explained that he had been in solitary for nearly nine days for not answering the question about his duties, the colonel had him moved upstairs to a regular cell. The German also saw to it that Todd received medical attention for his ear and eyes and was given a bowl of turnip soup. Then the colonel gave Todd a cigarette and informed him that he would be interrogated again that afternoon and would probably be shipped out to a permanent camp later that night.

At about five that afternoon, Todd was taken before another interrogator, a Luftwaffe officer. He answered routine questions at first, and then, again, he refused to answer the “duties with the British” question. Surprisingly, this time the German suggested that they simply put “liaison officer” on the form. They needed some answer, the interrogator explained, or he would never be allowed to move on to a permanent camp. Todd agreed.

At eight o’clock that night, he and a number of others who had just gone through interrogation were taken to a building where they were allowed to mingle and talk. All of the men had come from several days in solitary confinement, staring at four bare walls with no one to talk to. Now they chatted until dawn.

The following morning, October 18, Todd and the small group of other prisoners boarded a train that took them about thirty miles north to another compound, a branch of the Dulag Luft camp.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.