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Prisoner of war tells his story through diary which helped him stay alive
After the death of former Derbeian David Scott in 2004, his son, Craig, of Makeney, was intrigued to find, among his possessions, a detailed record of David’s experiences as a prisoner-of-war in Hitler’s Germany. Moved by what he read, Craig decided to create a website on which to reproduce the diary for posterity. Over the next few weeks, we will also be publishing extracts from the diary which give a flavour of what life was like for our PoWs. Lynne Brighouse reports.
Living from day-to-day, with no knowledge of how many years it would take for the war to end, or whether they would ever regain their freedom and see family and friends again, must have been a real test of prisoners’ endurance skills .
Some may have coped by dreaming of home, others by dreaming of escape but, for RAF flight engineer David Scott, it was a case of keeping up morale by documenting a detailed account of his experience.
To help preserve his sanity, David regularly wrote into a small diary, which he managed to bring home with him when the war was over.
He kept the manuscript private but safe over the years and, at one stage, it seems he painstakingly copied out the rapidly fading original by hand. It was only after David’s death in April 2004 that his son Craig came across it for the first time.
“I was extremely surprised when I discovered the diary among his things,” explained Craig.
“I knew my father had been a PoW at Stalagluft 7, Bankau, in Silesia, but he never mentioned writing a diary. In fact, he very rarely talked about his war experiences at all – although I’m told this is often the case for ex-combatants.”
It was only after reading his father’s words that Craig got a sense of what he must have been through and witnessed as a PoW. He also began to understand better his father’s anti-war views.
“As long as I can remember, my father was quite opposed to war and never glorified it in any way,” said Craig.
“In fact, he often remarked how he believed war was a form of madness promoted by politicians and generals.
“I think this attitude was partly brought about by seeing for himself the devastation and suffering caused by the Allied bombing crews, which included himself, to the German towns and cities.
“It’s not surprising, therefore, that right from the outset, he was vehemently against the war in Iraq and often spoke out against it.”
Towards the end of his life, David did share some of his wartime experiences with his son, many of which Craig recognised when he read through the diary.
They included some touching examples of the very best qualities of mankind, which emerged so forcefully during the conflict – often in the face of some of the very worst.
“For me, one of the most poignant aspects of my father’s accounts are his descriptions of the friendship and comradeship which existed between those he met along the way,” said Craig.
“The bonds of friendship went very deep between the crew members of the Lancaster bombers he worked on and flew in. Good team work was certainly necessary to get them through the many terrifying and relentless bombing missions over Germany but there was also a great deal of unsung heroism and loyalty among those men.”
David’s diary also describes how he and his friend, Denny, endured terrible deprivations, on what became known to the PoWs as the “Death March” across Lower Silesia (now Poland) and how they helped each other along the way.
The crew members of any aircraft involved in bombing raids during the Second World War knew that their life expectancy was short. They all accepted that they would be lucky to get through without being killed, injured or captured by the enemy.
For David Scott, his luck ran out on July 28, 1944, when his plane, en route to Hamburg, was shot down in flames at Stade in Germany.
He had only qualified as a flight engineer a few months earlier and had already been involved in many missions and several very close shaves.
On this occasion, though, it was clear that the plane wasn’t going to make it.
Another crewman managed to open a hatch in the bottom of the aircraft and bailed out. David followed him. After an awful delay, his parachute opened and carried him down into enemy territory, where he ended up hanging from some overhead wires that broke his fall.
He was quickly taken prisoner and spent the rest of the war in PoW camps and being force-marched by his German guards across Silesia, with the Russians at their heels.
David’s diary entries for that time poignantly show how his resolute heart, his natural resourcefulness, the support of fellow prisoners and his sense of humour sustained him.
“Following their liberation by the Russians in Berlin in April 1945, Dad and his fellow PoWs returned to Britain that June,” explained Craig
“He was sad to discover that everyone else on his plane had been killed and considered himself from then to the end of his life, a very lucky man.”
David later became a member of the Golden Caterpillar Club and the owner of a golden caterpillar badge. These were only awarded to the small band of people who escaped from aircraft after an unscheduled parachute jump.
He took a job working for BSAAC – British South American Airways Corporation – as a flight engineer.
By the end of 1948, he was on the “Berlin Run”, flying in supplies to West Berlin.
He later flew the first Comets for BOAC and, after meeting his future wife, Jean, from Derby, he settled in the city, living in Hartington Street and Cromwell Road before finally setting in Allestree.
“Since reading my father’s diaries, I feel I have come to understand and appreciate him better,” said Craig, who, last year, instigated the creation of a website dedicated to his father and his story.
“He was a very modest man and I don’t think he ever had any intention of publishing his journal but I wanted others to see it. I feel it offers a useful historical record of the realities of war as well as an insight and reminder of the horrors it can bring.
“I thought it may also be of interest to any existing family members of the mainly Canadian crew of the Lancaster bomber who died, as well as all the fellow prisoners-of-war he described and gave rank and home addresses for.
“There are also academic researchers and individuals who are fascinated by this period of history and aviation who, I hope, will find some of the detailed descriptions on the site informative,” he added.
“Above all, though, for me, it is the way that these extraordinary times are told in a straightforward and unassuming way, coupled with the portrayal of the many courageous young men who repeatedly took off in planes, not knowing if they would ever return home, which makes this story worth the telling.
“My hope is that, bearing all these reasons in mind, my father would not have minded me bringing to him this rather belated flourish of fame.”
Craig also remembers a story his dad told him some time ago about when he was working as a flight engineer on passenger planes.
An aircraft he was travelling in was losing oil and in danger of crashing. Fortunately for all, David realised what the problem was. He spent the next few hours in a contorted position in the belly of the plane, pouring bottle after bottle of oil into the pipework until the pilot was able to land safely.
Presumably, the passengers were blissfully unaware of their predicament. Craig feels this illustrates for him a number of his dad’s qualities, including his tenacious spirit and his pure iron resolve never to give up.
No doubt these are some of the qualities which helped David to survive his time as a PoW through one of Britain’s most troubled periods of history.
Extracts from David’s wartime diary will be published in the Evening Telegraph's Bygones section and on You and Yesterday over the next few weeks.
Pages linking here
- Americans were badly burned but glad to be alive
- Hundreds of PoWs fell in death march across Poland
- I was not welcome to sit on a train with the “super race”
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