Cpl. Arthur David "Yec" Yexley
British Army 9th (The Rangers) Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps
from:West Ham, London
Taken prisoner in Crete, Arthur Yexley my dad, was first sent to Stalag IIID, located at Freigeghlen near Berlin. He later transferred to Stalag 383 where he spent the remainder of his incarceration.
He told a few stories of the good times but only occasionally talked about the bad days. Like most camps, cigarettes were currency, for both prisoners and guards alike. Dad said that whilst they were reasonably fed (although often hungry), the Russian prisoners in the next camp along were in a very poor state. As the British went out on work parties, driving past the Russian camp, they would throw cigarettes over the fence. Dad swore that, on occasions, the Russian prisoners would grab whatever was thrown in and simply push it straight in their mouths and eat. That memory stayed with him always.
Whilst they didn't have it "cushy", he did love to talk about the long bridge tournaments in which he played; of the Gilbert and Sullivan productions (some photos of which he also had) and the fact that, far from digging tunnels, towards the end of the conflict, the guards would collude in prisoner escapes for the right amount of tobacco. He did not attempt an escape, always saying that life under the Nazis was preferable to my other!
