SPECIAL CAMP XI
ARRIVAL OF OFFICERS
9th January 1946
 |
|
Stepping
off the train at Bridgend Railway Station
NOTE: General der Panzertruppe Heinrich Karl Alfons Willy Eberbach is behind Rundstedt's left shoulder (disfigured nose) |
 |
|
Rundstedt
Being Greeted By Captain Ted Lees
|
 |
|
Rundstedt
being escorted along the platform at Bridgend Railway Station by Sergeant
Strauss (interpreter) & Captain Robert Stanley Pickard (Royal Welch
Fusiliers )
|
 |
|
Captain
Ted Lees, Sergeant Strauss (interpreter) and Rundstedt Exiting Bridgend
Railway Station
|
 |
|
Captain
Ted Lees assisting Rundstedt into a transportation lorry
|
 |
|
Eberbach
assisting another POW on to a transportation lorry at Bridgend Railway
Station
|
The highest
ranking officers held at the camp were given better accommodation. Von
Rundstedt and the other Field Marshals had their own private rooms which usually
consisted of a sitting room and bedroom. Being unaccustomed to looking
after themselves, other prisoners acted as batmen.
Von Rundstedt's inability to perform even the most menial task was highlighted
when he was taken to London to be interrogated. The Welsh Guards who
accompanied him from Bridgend recalled how he was ordered to write out his
war experiences day by day. The monotony of the task meant that he soon
became bored so he asked if he could clean the boots of the soldier accompanying
him. Von Rundstedt did not know how to clean boots properly and had
to be shown how to do the job.