Kiwi Kriegie

A New Zealand Airman remembers
his experiences as a POW in World War 2

60 Years ago today!

I awoke in the early morning.
The thought  of where I was
and what now lay before me
hit me like a tidal wave.

    After breakfast they found a loose black jacket
which could button up to the neck over my battledress blouse
and a cloth cap in not very good repair.

Two of the men escorted me beyond the little settlement
and indicated that I should travel in a south easterly direction.
After about two kilometers over the fields in slightly rolling country,
I came upon a small farmhouse standing on its own
in the middle of a large field.

There was a woman hoeing some vegetables.
I approached her and explained that I was an aviatur Anglaise
who had tombe pas St Brieuc and could she help me.
She explained that the Patron was not here as he was a prisoner of the salle Boche
but I was welcome to rest up at her house for a while.

She took me inside and put me to bed in an alcove.
I went immediately to sleep and didn't wake up until evening.

                                                                                Galbraith Hyde

The last day I saw my Father alive
a letter had arrived for him from France.

It was from the son of that women
who had helped him that day.
He had been there at the house that morning
a young boy getting ready to go to school.

He had tracked dad down 50 years later!

He wanted to know what had happened to him
after he left the farmhouse.

When I read the letter out to dad he smiled,
perhaps because he knew
he wasn't the one who was going to tell this story

Timothy Hyde

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This page created - November 13 2002

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