28/05/2023
A one-hundred-and-one-year-old British Army World War Two veteran has been awarded a new honour from the Dutch for his notable service which saw him escaping two prisoner of war camps.
Lieutenant Colonel John Humphreys OBE DL, who is a Chelsea Pensioner, received the Thank You Liberators Medal from Lieutenant Colonel Richard Piso, Military Attaché from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The event was at a private reception held at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in recognition of his distinguished military service, and particularly in respect of his service to the Netherlands.
The Royal Hospital is a place of refuge for “those (soldiers) ravaged by age and war” in old terms. It was built for soldiers and not officers, and so any soldier who attained a commissioned rank within their military career must revert to their last substantive Army non-commissioned rank. In John's case this was Warrant Officer Class One.
Lt Col Humphreys served with the Royal Engineers and the Parachute Regiment between 1936 – 1977 during which time he escaped from two prisoner of war camps. He had initially hoped to be posted to France, but with the retreat of Dunkirk he found himself being posted to Africa in 1940 where he remained until 1942.
He spent time in the Western Desert, which was bombed three times a day, every day. During one of these bombing raids in Tobruk, Libya, he sustained a head injury.
"When I woke up, I was surrounded by Germans who looked down on me and said: 'For you Tommy, the War is over.' I can still see them now if I close my eyes, two big fellas, looking down on me," explained Lt Col Humphreys.
After receiving treatment for his injuries, he was transferred to a Prisoner of War camp in North-East Italy, which he describes as a “soul destroying experience." With daily rations of only a quarter of a pint of soup, and small pieces of bread and cheese - he was starving.
He managed to get hold of an Italian phrase book which he studied intensely, gaining a large vocabulary. He encouraged a bored sentry to converse with him, and after three months he had perfected his accent.
Lt Col Humphreys received a Greek Army uniform from the Red Cross, which was very similar to the Italian uniform. With some alterations it would pass for the Italian Army uniform worn at the camp.
One night after roll call, with his new uniform and near perfect upper-class Italian accent he marched his two good friends over to the sentry and stated that he was taking the prisoners for punishment. After being waved through he and his friends hid under the barrack block until it was dark.
They then climbed over the wall, made a break for it and were free at last. The group avoided Italian and German soldiers living off the land, before making it back to Allied Forces where he was de-briefed.
Freedom was short lived for Lt Col Humphreys, after he returned to the Army. After four days of intense fighting for the Rhine Bridge in 1944, he was captured again by the Germans but this time in Arnhem, Netherlands.
“The battle raged from Sunday evening until Wednesday. By the end we had no ammo and had to surrender,” explained Lt Col Humphreys.
“We were sat outside in the ruins and the school was on fire. I didn’t want to be a POW again so I said to what was left of my stick: ‘Shall we make a run for it?’ They all agreed. We crossed the road, dived into the cellars of a house and then proceeded to go over different garden walls. One bloke got stuck on some barbed wire on top of a wall. He shouted, ‘John help me I’m stuck.’ I put my hands on his equipment and pulled him towards me. There was a burst of machine gun fire. I pushed him back and carried on.
“Eventually, we ended up in a tram depot. I remember thinking – ‘all I need to do is jump this wall and I we will be on the Rhine.’ The tram depot was full of German soldiers. We all ended up hiding under a tram. A soldier came over and said in perfect English: ‘If you don’t come out, I will blow you out.’ So, we crawled out.”
He managed to conceal his Army issued Jack-knife in his trousers before his capture, and by the next day he was back in a Prisoner of War camp, but this time in Germany. Having already been a Prisoner of War he had no intention of staying and immediately set about planning his next escape.
Lt Col Humphreys took his opportunity and jammed the door of the cookhouse and using his Jack-knife he painstakingly and quietly chipped away at the cement holding the five bars in place. He mixed ash and water into a paste to conceal his efforts.
After doing this he told his friend that he was going to try to escape and asked if he wanted to join him, but he didn’t. He ended up recruiting two officers and two soldiers.
"We escaped through the cookhouse window. We then walked through the night until we were close to the Rhine,” said Lt Col Humphreys.
“As soon as it was dark again, we were on the barge looking for what we could find. There was a rowboat, we jumped in and shoved off and let the current take us down. We spent at least 12 hours in the boat and finished up in Nienhagen.”
Here the group of escapees re-joined the British Forces marking the end of an incredible period in their military lives.
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