Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

68 imminent. The 16th of April was ‘a lovely morning. Peter and I spent the afternoon on sports field sunbaking. Boy it was lovely!’ ‘Another nice day’ followed, along with ‘a Rumour that Yanks are 12 miles SW of JUTERBOG’, itself a similar distance from Luckenwalde. With the ‘Allies and Russians all around us now, am very hopeful,’ wrote Keith. There was ‘no fighter opposition’ to day-long air raids on 18 April; over ‘200 American bombers’ flew over the camp on 19 April; and on 20 April, ‘Russians seem to be close.’ On 21 April the long-awaited moment arrived: ‘Goons walk out at 1200 hrs and we take over camp … a RED letter day indeed … lots of excitement and speculation – no sign of our Armies yet!! Boy I hope they get here quick and make things safer!’ Unexplained ‘firing over camp’, which had the ‘boys tumbling in and out of pits’, did nothing to reassure him. But the next day, beneath a large asterisk-bordered heading, ‘**RUSKIES ARRIVE**’, he described a tank bursting through the barbed wire, followed by ‘more TANKS, a lorry, guns etc.’ The Russians weren’t the preferred rescuers but they still ‘received quite a reception’. Soon Keith could observe: ‘the Russian food rations are an improvement – they are bleeding the town for us.’ And after receiving a Canadian food parcel he was relaxed enough to contemplate cricket: ‘Peter and I have bat and ball, so have practice.’ They continued to do so for several days, including a duly noted Anzac Day on 25 April. Three days later, as Keith ‘wandered around’ with a previously unmentioned Squadron Leader Buddon to ‘pick out a cricket field’, the arrival of 50 Soviet trucks changed his plans. They brought more food and ‘a repatriation staff of 5 officers, 200 men and 30 girls.’ Although only ‘time will tell what the girls are for’, he was temporarily delighted there was now supposed to be ‘enough food for a month with more to come’. New radios in the camp were ‘grand’. Delight was short-lived. Within two days he saw ‘no immediate prospect of repatriation.’ On 1 May, with ‘big battles going on all around’, fragments of ‘a Monster Shell landed on our air raid shelter– nobody hurt as it was a dull wet day – nobody was around’. By now rations had deteriorated and ‘we are very restless’. After ‘day of depression’ marked two successive dates in his ‘Log’, his hopes were raised on 5 May: Red Cross (USA) lorries arrived to take sick to a hospital south of MAGDEBERG. We are told we are going to HILDERSHEIM tomorrow – 240 miles where we fly home in a C-46 – 26 to a kite. Expect to be there in 48 hrs – should be in ENGLAND on Prisoner of War