It would be very difficult to find the culprits in a camp this size, more so because we had distributed the meat among friends and it was cooked and eaten.
The carcasses were disposed of and the beautiful meat was eaten. But once again we were thwarted in the shape of dysentery.
We were told by one of our friends that the meat should have been hung for awhile. We felt like hanging him.
Can you imagine the pole at the swamp with a line of miserable looking blokes squatting on it looking like a flock of parrots dribbling while waiting for the signal to fly south for the summer.
The poor farmer as promised, was shot. We felt a bit guilty about it but had we opened our mouths we could have perished. This gives an insight as to how cheap life had become.
A little food was trickling into the camp by now, but after listening to some of the broadcasts from England and hearing the squabbles of the Russians and Yanks we felt like the pig in the middle and some rumours had us down as Russian Prisoners already.
On another of my forages I came to a small village and there was a water pump like any one might find in any old English village. There was also a pretty girl Russian soldier who was pumping water into the big bucket.
On seeing me she bid me advance and pump the water to fill her bucket, but I walked past ignoring her. She quickly let go the pump handle and whipped up the Tommy gun that was slung over one shoulder and she leveled it at me. Suddenly I had the pump handle moving like an electric bell hammer and water over flowed the bucket.
About a fortnight later I saw her again and she burst out laughing and spoke to her friends who had a good laugh.
Another incident was when a lorry was traveling along a causeway that did not look wide enough for two and another lorry came from the opposite direction at speed.
I held my breath as the two sped together and one was forced off the road.
The speeding one did not stop, but the irate driver of the one now in the ditch jumped out and fired burst after burst from his Tommy gun after the fleeing lorry.
***
