Australian POWs by David Coombes

Author:David Coombes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922387776
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing

Keith Tamblyn also recalled the time he spent at Denain alongside POWs from England and Canada. Initially, he worked in a ‘colossal foundry, about a kilometre long and half-a-kilometre wide,’ manufacturing ‘anything from ploughshares to railway engines.’ Then came a stint in a storage depot. ‘I never worked, I didn’t want to work,’ Tamblyn said, ‘I didn’t want to help the cows [Germans].’ Instead his thought turned to ways of assisting ‘mates’ at the front. While others filled

machine-gun belts ... I used to just poke around and ... look around, and sit around. They’d take a bullet out and empty the powder out of the case. Put the bullet back in and stick it in. They’d do about four or five like that. See, put the powder in ... their pocket and take it away. I wouldn’t like to say how many machine-gun belts that they did like that. I used to watch them ...Well that went on for ... two or three weeks ... I was nosing around one day and I came across a lot of [captured] Lewis machine-guns. And I said to Roy, “God! He’s got a few Lewis guns in there.” ... “Oh,” he said, “we’ll fix them.” And there’s a little spring in the Lewis machine-gun called a pall spring. Once that’s out the gun is useless. So one or two of them had had a bit of experience. This one particular chap was a machine-gunner ... Anyhow, I kept my eyes out for him. He took all the pall springs out. There was about thirty or forty Lewis guns in there, all ready to go into the line. Took all those pall springs out ... and put them down the toilet. Those guns were made useless then.

Tamblyn’s satisfaction was evident. He commented that ‘we were doing a bit of good even there.’47

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