From Fire to Faith and Freedom

Another ritual at the camp was the prisoner count which was held every morning. A simple procedure - but not when the prisoners had their way. There were about 1,000 of them and every day they had to line up in columns. The Germans' job was to ensure there was the correct number at every roll call. The prisoners for their part tried to make it as difficult and frustrating as possible for them. They achieved their goal by calling on the services of one of the shorter of their number. Jimmy explained: "We tried to make it so the daily count was no easy ride for them. Our short chap would time it so that he could run between the lines of prisoners and be included in the count again or make it so that he could duck down and be missed. We tried to be as troublesome as possible:' Jimmy also remembered one incident which raised a huge laugh although the Germans didn't see the funny side of it. It came when the German in charge of the count marched up to give the figures to the commandant, came to attention before him and fell flat on his back.

"Naturally there was lots of laughter from us and as a result we were told to stay where we were. It was cold but it was worth it:' Life in the camp was very much what they made it and any entertainment they had to make up and work out for themselves. They could walk around and chat and for the more adventurous there was rugby- arranged in a triangular tournament between the Australians, the New Zealanders and the British. And what it lacked in basic equipment it certainly didn't lack in enthusiasm. In addition to the rugby they formed a Welsh male voice choir. "We had a piano and an accompanist who was from Yorkshire. If he didn't know the tunes we would hum them to him. We used to sing things like Men of Harlech. It wasn't perfect but quite successful:' They also had a conductor by the name of Noel Davies who conducted the Pontardulais Male Voice Choir. He also had the distinction of conducting 1,000 voices from 16 massed choirs at Truro Cathedral. Jimmy recalled: "It wasn't too good I must admit but we enjoyed it. The ball, for example, was a load of caps tied together:'

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