Former POW recalls 'misery' of wartime

BUT ERIC, NOW AGED 104, CAN STILL SPEAK GERMAN

- By ISOBEL WILLIAMS AND IMOGEN HOWSE @SurreyLive

A 104-YEAR-OLD veteran can still speak German after learning the language as a prisoner of war - more than 80 years ago.

Eric Reeves, from Godstone, joined the Territorial Army at 16 and became a Lance Corporal with the Queen's Royal Regiment by the age of 20.

But, on May 20, 1940, he was captured by German forces in France.

He and members of his regiment were marched to Doullens, Amiens and Cambrai, before being transported to a prison camp in Szubin, Poland.

Eric was assigned number 3479 at the prison where he spent the remainder of the war.

He said: "My first experience being captured was that I was angry.

"When you have got a man pointing a rifle at you saying something in German that you didn't understand, at the time it makes you feel angry.

"We arrived on a Sunday, and everyone was on their way to church. As we trudged through, they threw stuff at us.

"The prisoners were in fortresses under the ground. There were hundreds of us, so I wasn't scared, we all kept each other up. We mostly mocked the Germans.