The Boys of WWII: POW

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The Boys of WWII: POW

The wait is long, they search your bag,
You're slowly getting vexed then mad,
You've been searched ten times before
"Verboten" things they find galore.

You queue for soup, and wait for stores
Meanwhile the pang of hunger grows
To see a show, you queue again
This waiting's sending us insane.

The water fails, you queue again
We really must be near insane
Labouriously seeds you sow
We're waiting yet to see them grow.

You are lucky to find a "stone thrown" free
10 to 1 you'll wait for a P.
To aid Fritz count, again you stand
This fresh air treatment is simply grand.

Each day brings fresh invasion clues
Some ruddy fool has all the news
Meanwhile relax -- don't speculate
They also serve who stand and wait.

Sincerest fond wishes, Jim, now and always,
"British Petrol" 6-2-45

Marlag and Milag Nord was apparently a dual-purpose German prison camp: the Marlag side imprisoned Royal Navy personnel while the Milag side was for merchant seamen.

LINK

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“Their job was to steam on and on and on, which they did through thick and thin, to their eternal credit and our sincerest admiration”
Anonymous British Naval Officer

Despite being officially classed as non-combatants and hence not liable to capture, the German authorities created a special camp for Allied merchant seamen and their civilian passengers. At first Milag (a Marine Internment Lager) was merely a barbed wire compound (Stalag XB) inside the Sandbostel concentration camp. Eventually, as a result of protests by the Protecting Powers, the seamen were marched away to Westertimke where they had to build their own huts and fence themselves in.

Some 4,500 merchant seamen from the British Empire, the USA and from all over the world, spent up to 5 years in captivity in this camp.

LINK