Pte Alfred James Passfield, MM

Service number WX862
Final Rank Private
Unit 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion
Places
Crete
Stalag VIII-B
Stalag 344
Stalag VII-A
Stalag XVII-B
Stalag XVII-A
Hospital Kokinia
Addlestone, Scotland
Conflict/Operation Second World War, 1939-1945

The Escape Artist by Alfred James Passfield [Perth: Artlook Books, 1988]. Alfred Passfield was an infantry soldier captured in Crete. Alfred Passfield's love of the bush compelled him to keep escaping from the Germans. He tried to escape 8 times and each time he was recaptured. He met up with Russian POWs at Stalag Luft 111. The Germans tried to cause mischief between the British and Russians. Passfield was able to negate most of the mischief making.... and for his sins he was billeted with the Russians.... He says: “The cells were not at all bad, compared with what I had been in. They measured about eight feet by ten feet. Most of the space was taken up by a wooden bench for sleeping on – a bench, because more often than not there were several prisoners in one cell. I had one all to myself, but in the next cell to mine were five Russians together.........”

"The grub in these cells was rotten. I was on full rations, and not bread and water, because I had not received my sentence. The soup was brought from the Russian cookhouse and consisted mainly of chopped-up mangles of or turnips with a few rotten potatoes thrown in. the tops and roots were left on the mangles, as was the dirt and skins on the spuds. We got that at midday, and the only other victuals were a sixth of a loaf of bread and about one ounce of cheese; you pleased yourself whether you ate that for tea or breakfast. I always had it for breakfast, to give me a bit of a start for the day. I reckoned I would sooner sleep on an empty stomach than have one all the morning."

"During January a trainload of Russian prisoners arrived at Moosburg. Two hundred and fifty were either dead on arrival or died within a few days. It was pitiful to see them, just human skeletons, the stronger ones supporting the weaker. I have seen two in the one overcoat, and with it buttoned up too. They had had noting to eat for days, and even in the Stalag they we kept practically on starvation diet. Often at night they tried to climb the fence from their own compound into ours, where they knew we would feed them. A few managed to make it, but some were shot halfway over, or else managed to scramble back when a fusillade of bullets greeted them."

"It was amazing how some of the Russians, hardly able to get about themselves, tried to keep some other poor fellows alive. They would hold them up under the compulsory shower, to save them from just being thrown in, possibly to drown. Quite a few did not come out of the shower-room alive. More often than not, when the patient finally died, his mate would conceal him for a day or two, so as to be able to draw the bread ration for himself and his dead comrade."

"The hearse, an outsize box mounted on wheels and drawn by two horses, would pull in daily, and two Russians orderlies would throw the bodies into the hearse, just as one would sacks of coal. Can you picture it? The top of the box was six or seven feet of the ground, and one orderly at each end of the completely naked body would give a swing and a heave, and the body would land in the box with a sickening thud. I have seen as many as half a dozen or more at a time thrown into the hearse. They would then be dumped in a mass grave, but the hole was never filled in, as there would be more the following day. Quicklime was thrown on the bodies from time to time, to check disease."

• Unit 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion
• Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
• Rank Private
• London Gazette 14 February 1947 on page 750 at position 1
• Commonwealth Gazette 06 March 1947 on page 745 at position 1
• Source: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10138376

PASSFIELD, ALFRED JAMES. Service Australian Army. Service Number WX862. Date of Birth 10 Apr 1916. Place of Birth KENT, ENGLAND. Date of Enlistment 11 Nov 1939. Locality on Enlistment QUALEUP. Place of Enlistment NORTHAM, WA. Next of Kin PASSFIELD, WALTER. Date of Discharge 12 Nov 1945. Rank Private. Posting at Discharge 2/11 6 Australian Division. WW2 Honours and Gallantry Military Medal. Prisoner of War Yes.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C87900