Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind (34 page)

Yet there were greater dangers than getting lost amid the peaks. Spain was under the government of General Franco, whose victory in the Spanish Civil War had been facilitated with the assistance of the Nazis, who had used Spain as a testing ground for the same military tactics that had brought Poland and France to their knees. Though neutral, Spain was not guaranteed to give a safe passage to soldiers attempting to reach Gibraltar.

Some evaders headed directly to the nearest big city, Barcelona, where they hoped to retain their anonymity in the cosmopolitan crowds of the port. Like Marseilles, Barcelona was another port city famed for having a vast underworld in which fugitives could take refuge. As a city in a neutral country, Barcelona offered another incentive. Upon reaching the British consul, the escaping soldiers were able to acquire civilian documentation and continue towards Gibraltar. By December 1941 the consul in Barcelona had assisted forty-six soldiers from the BEF who had reached his office without being apprehended. Initially these evaders were sent to Madrid by train; however, this practice was stopped after the Spanish authorities began searching trains between the towns. As a result the consul thought it simpler to deliver the men using his own car, which had diplomatic immunity.

Many of those who escaped over the mountains soon encountered patrols of the Civil Guard. Showing a distinct lack of understanding of the situation in Spain, when apprehended, some of the soldiers even asked Spanish policemen to direct them to the nearest British consulate. It did not take long for them to realize such assistance would not be forthcoming. Taken into custody, the soldiers soon found themselves crammed into the filthy cells of local police stations. Under Spanish law they should have been arrested and committed to court under a warrant of arrest for ‘crossing the frontier clandestinely’.
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Those carrying foreign currency could also be charged under regulations prohibiting the importation of currency to Spain. In reality, few were ever actually charged. Between August and November 1940, the British consulate in Barcelona recorded that a total of seventy-three British soldiers had been detained upon entry to Spain. It was reported that a large proportion of them were men who had slipped through the enemy lines at St Valery.

Some arrived in prison to find fellow Britons they knew from Marseilles who had been captured earlier. The threadbare clothing, matted hair and filthy skin of these men soon warned them there was little hope of a swift return home. The cells were seldom big enough to accommodate the ragged gangs of soldiers. The diet was inadequate. One cabbage provided soup for fifty. The cells were unlit and the latrine buckets overflowed. Some were housed in prisons that were already crowded with political prisoners from the Spanish Civil War. One such prison had been constructed to house two hundred men but actually held over a thousand. At the Prison Habilitada Palacio Misiones in Barcelona British prisoners shared the facilities with thousands of Spanish citizens who were opponents of Franco. While held there the British soldiers heard the executions of Spanish prisoners who seemed to have been picked out at random. In another prison it was noted that some Republican prisoners were men who had been wounded during the Civil War, including amputees whose wounds had not yet fully healed.

One good point about Spain was that, despite Franco’s victory in the Civil War, the nation’s political loyalties were still divided and the country was gripped by an economic malaise that had caused widespread poverty. Thus not only were escaping British soldiers able to count on a measure of assistance from sympathetic civilians but they could also bribe their way out of trouble. One officer, who found himself and his men held in a gaol where the guards even allowed a whore to ply her trade among the prisoners, was able to bribe a guard to make contact with the British consul.

Eventually many of the interned soldiers were transferred to the concentration camps at Miranda del Ebro and Cervera. Covering eight acres and situated to the south of Bilbao, the camp at Miranda had become notorious following the defeat of the Republican forces in the Civil War. Often arriving with their hands chained together, the incoming prisoners had their heads shaved and were given filthy prison uniforms of rough cotton tunic and trousers. Within the concentration camp the British soldiers discovered men of all nationalities, some left over from the Civil War but most soldiers of Europe’s defeated nations who were planning to reach safety to continue their fight against the Germans. There were even a number of German deserters housed within the camp.

The regime was harsh, bordering on vicious. British officers complained of being lashed with thorns, while others recalled beatings with leather thongs and sticks. Inmates were flogged for minor offences and one favoured punishment was to force offenders to march around the camp carrying a stone-filled sack. The British embassy reported that many inmates, who did not appear to be slacking in their work, required treatment for weals after being attacked by whip-wielding guards. Some inmates were also employed to break stones used for road building, although the British were usually put to work peeling the endless piles of potatoes that were served to them at mealtimes.

At night the men slept in two layers, the first in two lines on the floor and the second on a wooden shelf running along the walls. Blankets were shared one between two and many of the men slept naked to avoid the lice that inhabited their prison uniforms. If a man wished to use the latrines at night he had to remove any clothes and wrap a blanket around himself when he left the hut. When one Scottish sergeant attempted to leave the hut without removing his trousers he was beaten with a rifle-butt and kicked repeatedly as he lay on the floor. Each morning the guards arrived with whips to raise the inmates from their beds, striking any man who did not move swiftly enough. Life within the camp soon took its toll on the mental and physical well-being of the inmates. Their bodies became marked with open sores where they had scratched incessantly at insect bites. Some suffered nervous breakdowns, while dysentery and scabies became widespread.

While conditions at Miranda were awful, at least the inmates were able to exercise in the open air. After incarceration in cramped, stuffy cells, simply to be out in the clear mountain air was thought glorious. They might have been surviving on pitifully meagre rations but just to be able to see the sky and taste the crisp air seemed a bonus. Meanwhile the British embassy was reporting back to London that the men at Miranda were living in conditions a great deal better than in the provincial prisons. They would have found little comfort in the ambassador’s words: ‘I have no reason to believe British prisoners have been treated any worse than Spaniards. The treatment of any prisoners in Spain is harsh; the Spaniard is naturally insensitive and cruel.’
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At the concentration camp in Cervera conditions were not so oppressive. The food was adequate and each man received a bottle of wine per day. Another bonus was that none of the British prisoners was required to work. The camp commandant stressed to the British consul that the soldiers were only delaying their eventual release by their constant escape attempts, tearing up bedding to make rope ladders. This information was passed on to the senior British NCO and he gave his word no further escape attempts would be made.

On 12 September 1940 Lieutenant Hogg, Royal Engineers, sent a telegram from Spain to London: ‘Stuck here with five others – Embassy very slow – can you help – Hotel Peninsula Gerona.’
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Claims that embassy staff and consuls were slow to assist the men interned in Spain were refuted by the Foreign Office. Indeed, as it was pointed out, the British officers in the Hotel Peninsula were having all their bills paid directly by the consulate. The ambassador’s official line was that there was little they could do to force the Spanish to release the men. Instead they preferred to press for ensuring all interned British soldiers were transferred to Miranda as soon as possible in order to be able to focus relief efforts. The diplomats were well aware of the pressure faced by the Spanish authorities to enter the war on the German side. They also understood that the Germans were putting pressure on Spain not to allow the release of the British internees. This made the situation tricky for the British ambassador.

Rather than putting direct pressure on the Spanish, some thought it better to influence them indirectly. A letter from the vice-consul in Gerona requested that effort be made to publicize the sufferings of the prisoners in Spain. He requested that the embassy use British and American journalists based in Madrid to raise the subject. He wrote: ‘If the public in England got wind of the manner in which British officers and men are being treated . . . there would be a fine shindy. Their only crime is that, after a 900-kilometre journey, facing every kind of hardship in an effort to get back and continue to fight for their country, they crossed into a neutral land without papers. There they find hardships equal to those of their long trek, without the stimulation of risk and danger.’
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Eventually, British inmates were released from the squalid hell of Miranda. The British military attaché in Madrid was able to visit the prisoners and negotiate their release in groups, according to how long they had been interned. However, some soldiers noted how the system for allowing the British to leave Miranda seemed to follow no discernible pattern. Some men left after just a few days while others remained in the concentration camp for weeks. In April 1941 the father of one man held at Miranda wrote to the Foreign Office asking for assistance. His son had arrived at the camp together with other soldiers with whom he had escaped from France. However, some of those men had already been released and had reached England. Another was in Gibraltar awaiting transport home. Despite their releases, the man’s son was still languishing in the concentration camp.

Those fortunate enough to be released from Spanish camps were taken to Madrid and passed into the care of the British embassy. There they were bathed and fed with light meals, their weakened bodies being unable to cope with anything other than plain food. They were then given new clothes and most were housed in a hotel close by the embassy. In November 1941 the embassy reported they had twenty-two evaders actually living within the embassy. Such was the overcrowding within the building that plans were drawn up for the erection of an extension to be used to house soldiers passing through on their way to Gibraltar. From Madrid they were sent by lorry to Gibraltar, sometimes accompanied by other men who had managed to reach the embassy without being detected by the Spanish and therefore had to be hidden in the lorries for the journey. Once safely in Gibraltar, the soldiers were fully assessed by military doctors, allowing those in need of further treatment to enter hospital. All were given sulphur baths to kill lice and prevent the spread of scabies. Once fully recovered, the men were able to board ships and return to the UK to continue the war.

While most of the internees preferred to attempt to reach Gibraltar via Spain, others attempted a more ambitious route, taking advantage of Marseilles’ vigorous underworld networks. Through contact with a Hungarian civilian living in Marseilles, two British officers were able to purchase documents stating they were Romanians who had been serving as pioneers in the French Army and been demobilized. Using these papers, they were able to travel to North Africa. Upon reaching Casablanca the two men went to the American consulate and were issued with emergency British documentation. At the British Club in the city they made contact with civilians who were able to arrange visas for them to travel to Portugal, still using the Romanian ID papers. They later arrived safely in Portugal and were able to return home. One British soldier, Sergeant Wilson of the 13th CCS, had an even longer trip home. Having arrived in North Africa he travelled down the coast, finally arriving in Sierra Leone, where he reported to the first British base he could find.

John Christie also decided to make the trip across the Mediterranean. Having befriended a corporal in the French Foreign Legion, Christie decided he and Arthur would attach themselves to the Legion, which was due to be transferred by ship to North Africa. Wearing borrowed uniforms, the two internees slipped out of the fort and boarded the ship waiting in the harbour. Following a three-day journey, the ship docked in Oran. Christie and his mate joined the legionnaires as they marched from the port, then left the column. Quickly changing into civilian clothes, they made their way to the Polish consul, who helped them to take a train to Casablanca, where they sought the assistance of the Americans and received a temporary passport from the local consulate.

Having taken possession of their passports the two men arranged a passage on a ship heading to Portugal. Safely at sea, John Christie looked to the horizon and noticed something that soon took his attention: ‘We spotted a wisp of smoke . . . Looking back, there wasn’t a question in our minds about friend or foe . . . we knew that in this sector Britannia really did rule the waves! . . . The wisp of smoke soon materialized into the shape of a destroyer . . . as it moved round I could see the gun turrets rotate to “keep us in their sights”. Next came the launch of their long-boat, crewed by four seamen with an officer in charge.’
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They were swiftly transferred to the destroyer, HMS
Kelvin
, which then steamed for Gibraltar. The crew of the
Kelvin
believed the Britons they had picked up were survivors from a merchant ship sunk by a U-boat and were astounded to discover they were actually the last remnants of the BEF. Once on board, Christie received the one thing he had craved for months: ‘a cup of piping hot good old British tea!’
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These evaders were not the only soldiers left behind in 1940 who were able to complete the journey home before war’s end. As the war progressed, increasing numbers of sick and wounded prisoners of war were finally repatriated to the UK. Under the Geneva Convention both the seriously wounded soldiers and the medical staff who cared for them should have been returned promptly. Article 68 of the convention stated: ‘Belligerents shall be required to send back to their own country without regard to rank or numbers, after rendering them in a fit condition for transport, prisoners of war who are seriously ill or wounded.’