James Crouch Page 13

James Crouch, while on a working party in a nearby village, managed to trade a radio. The radio was smuggled back into camp by James and it was secreted in a hole under one of the huts.

The men had removed floor boards from the hut,  excavated a hole four feet by four feet and six feet deep,  it could accommodate up to four men.  Boards were placed over the excavation and covered in dirt. The hut floorboards were then replaced.

The radio was never discovered despite the prisoners conversing on the latest stages of the war.  Guards would often ask the prisoners how the war was going never believing their own propaganda on events.

Many of the guards had seen service in WW1  the experience of that war leaving them with no enthusiasm for their present circumstance.  Many were deemed only fit for prison camp guard duty.

One of the guards was from New York,  he was conscripted while on a visit back to the homeland to visit family,  his American accent was mimicked and used in some of the theatre productions.

Sydney Barthorpe related this story about James Crouch.   One evening after the camp had been locked down,  James dressed as a woman left his hut and stood waiting for a camp searchlight to pick him up,  he stood in the full glare then ran.  A bullet was fired at him as he dodged back into the darkness.  The alarms were sounded and the whole camp ordered out to parade.  The commandant ordered the camp to be searched for the woman,  the search took almost all night.  The camp was turned upside down to catcalls from the men suggesting that hut four/seven etc had been missed.
As dawn broke the woman had still not been found and the order was given to dismiss the parade.
The puzzled guards were mystified when the parade stood firm,  they were even more puzzled when James Crouch now back in uniform, marched smartly to the front, about turned and to great cheers and applause took a bow.
The men were all agreed that it was the best wind up so far and was well worth losing a nights sleep.

This flyer, distributed to all camps. courtesy J Crouch.