German prisoners of war

 

THE STORY

OF

HANS-GUNTER

PRUHS

 

Hans Pruhs

German prisoners captured in Europe during the Second World War of 1939-45 were shipped to camps throughout Britain and few areas in eastern England escaped their presence, particularly Lincolnshire. They were gainfully employed on various duties, mainly farming, and many met and married local girls and remained here at the war’s end rather than be repatriated.

Hanthorpe House, a late 18th century mansion near Bourne, was requisitioned by the War Office to accommodate them and with temporary huts built in the grounds, eventually housed over 100 prisoners. Among them was Hans-Gunter Pruhs, an 18-year-old from Hamburg who had been in the army for less than a year.

Hans was born at Hamburg on 15th August 1926 and after attending school, worked as as a mechanic before being called up for service with the German army on 7th January 1944. He became a private with an anti aircraft unit which was posted to Holland, surviving the Battle of Arnhem in September that year only to be captured by the advancing American troops at Eindhoven and was imprisoned after being injured by snipers with nine of his comrades while manning an AA battery but were overcome by enemy numbers. “We were trying to halt the American advance”, he said, “but there were just too many of them. Seven of our men were killed by snipers and the other two, including myself, wounded. I was lucky because I was only shot through the arm and I did not even realise that I had been hit until I saw the blood.

“We were taken to a military hospital in Eindhoven and that night there was a German aid raid and so we were all taken down into the cellars and it was here that I met an English soldier for the first time. My comrade who had also been wounded by the snipers died from his injuries that night in the cellar and so I was the only survivor from my battery. In some respects, my injury came as a relief because for me, the war was over. But these were just my deep and innermost feelings and I cannot describe exactly how I felt. It was impossible to put it into words.”

Hans spent the next two weeks in a POW camp in Holland before being transported to England by truck, ship and then train to London, surviving yet another German air raid, this time one of unmanned V2 rockets, known as flying bombs or doodlebugs, and after a spell of documentation and delousing, he was sent to a camp in South Wales and eventually to Hanthorpe.

Hanthorpe House was built in 1790 and  occupied for much of its history by the Parker family. During the Second World War, it was converted into accommodation for German prisoners of war and more than 100 were based here at any one time. Here is a group of prisoners pictured relaxing in the imposing doorway in 1947 but the house has since been demolished.

Hanthorpe House

The prisoners were soon provided with employment, working mainly for local farmers in the fields on a variety of tasks such as harvesting, but because of the mass of paper work and other arrangements required, there was no immediate repatriation when the war ended and it was to be several years before Hans was finally freed. By this time he was working for Wherry and Sons Limited, the Bourne firm of seed merchants, and on 15th January 1949 he was taken by a member of the staff to Spalding to be discharged and was given the chance of staying on in England or returning to Germany. “I chose to stay”, he said.

Hans had good reason to remain in this country, having met his future wife, Pearl Rodgers, who was working at the Woodland Nurseries, a greenhouse complex owned by the Moody family in what is now Exeter Street, and they were married later that year and went to live in Ancaster Road where they had four children, David, Lyn, Kevin and Mandy. He returned to Germany for the first time in the summer of 1954 with Pearl and three of his children for an emotional reunion in Hamburg with his parents, Frederick and Louise Pruhs. But the marriage did not last and they were divorced in 1965 although they remain firm friends and meet often.

Family reunion in Hamburg

Hans went home to Germany in 1954 for the first time since he had left home to go to war with his wife Pearl and three young children for a reunion with his parents, Frederick and Louise Pruhs and they are pictured here at their home in Hamburg with a welcome sign over the door. Frederick Pruhs is seated holding toddler Kevin and his wife is standing in the doorway (centre).

During his years in Bourne, Hans was a keen footballer, playing for the village teams at Twenty, Swinstead and Edenham during the 1950s. “There was some animosity towards those who had been prisoners of war”, he said, “but it came to nothing and eventually petered out. I never took a lot of notice, anyway. If people wanted to call me names then I let them get on with it. That was always my motto. At that time, the war was still fresh in the minds of the people but after a time they came to realise that we are all the same and just wanted a happy life. Now, it is never even mentioned or thought about.”

Hans moved to Peterborough then to Doddington in Cambridgeshire and eventually to Spain with his new partner, Rose Cole, but she died in 2005 and the following year he decided to return to Bourne, the town that holds so many memories, and lives comfortably at a small house in Baldwin Grove and his ex-wife Pearl lives just around the corner.

Now at the age of 80 he reflects on his life. “This is really the ideal place to be”, he said. “I am getting older and I can easily walk from here to the shops but I do feel happy and secure. I have been asked whether I made the right decision by staying in England all those years ago but who can say? We take decisions as and when they are required and we do so on what our circumstances are at the time. Germany in 1949 was in a poor state, still suffering from the aftermath of war, with shortages in every part of life, and so the prospect of remaining in England that I had got to know seemed better at the time. Whether this was the right decision for me and I might have done better in going home, I will never know but it is one I have never regretted.”

PRISONERS OF THE GREAT WAR AT RIPPINGALE

During the Great War of 1914-18, 56 German prisoners were sent to Rippingale, 28 living in the clubroom at the Bull Inn and the same number at Camp Farm in the nearby fen and all were employed on vital agricultural work. The war was practically over and so they were billeted in the village rather than imprisoned and were soon accepted by the local inhabitants, even taking part in village life by giving concerts. At Christmas 1918, villagers threw a party for them and presented each one with a silver sixpence with which they made trinkets such as brooches and rings that were hung on a Christmas tree. The photograph below shows some of the German prisoners at Rippingale Fen on 19th April 1919 shortly before they returned home together with a picture of their concert party which provided so much enjoyment for the village.

Photographed in 1919

Photographed in 1919

THE SECOND WORLD WAR OF 1939-45

A severe cold spell in early 2010 brought back memories of past winters during the Second World War of 1939-45 when German prisoners of war were again stationed in the locality. Jim Stubley of East Street, Rippingale, wrote two letters to the Stamford Mercury (January 15th & 29th) remembering that many were still here during the severe winter of 1947 and were called out to help clear drifting snow from the roads, particularly along Doctor's Lane in order that Dr Geoffrey Morris could get out to visit his patients. They also helped pull and top sugar beet, the arduous method of harvesting by hand before mechanisation, and pick potatoes, a similarly back-breaking task, and by this time they had all become well known and had even integrated in village life, an echo of similar circumstances thirty years before.
"In 1946, the Germans pulled and topped Mr Jessop's sugar beet at Rippingale", wrote Jim. "We managed to get all the beet carted off the fields before the snow started to fall. My job was to take a horse with an empty cart to the two men in the field to fill it with beet and then take it back full to be emptied at the roadside. I was only 14 at the time and two of the horses had only just been broke in by Mr East of Bourne.
"One of the Germans who also helped pick my Dad's potatoes in 1945 was nicknamed Sailor. He could speak good English and was a nice friendly man. He told me that he had joined the navy to see the world and did not want to fight."

NOTE: Hans-Gunter Pruhs died on Thursday 23rd August 2012, aged 86, and
was cremated at Peterborough on September 7th..

REVISED AUGUST 2012

See also   Hanthorpe House

Go to:     Main Index    Villages Index