The words of a World War II prisoner of war from Normal show a grim situation filled with privation, guard brutality, and occasional diversions. This comes from Robert S. Hall’s wartime journal, recently donated to the McLean County Museum of History.
Hall was born and raised in Normal, and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. McLean County Museum of History librarian and archivist Bill Kemp said it’s not clear why he went to Canada to serve.
He was sent to Europe and on May 27, 1944, as a second pilot on a British Halifax heavy bomber, Hall was shot down over Belgium. A resistance group sheltered Hall for a few days, but he eventually was captured and sent to Stalag Luft 7, a POW camp in southern Poland. He spent nearly a year as a prisoner of war.
“Robert’s journal was issued to prisoners of war. It's a YMCA journal for British soldiers,” said Kemp. “He spends time in an Allied prison camp, but it's mostly airmen connected with the British Air Force.
The entry for Sunday, Oct. 8 detailed excitement over an air raid that began about 7 in the evening.
“All the camp lights went out and the planes were passing over for fully one hour and a half,” wrote Hall. "It was quite colorful: parachute flares, fighter flares, target indicators, bomb flashes, and the deep whoomph as the ‘cookies,’ or heavy bombs as we call them, were dropped. The targets weren't very close, but close enough to shake the huts. And that's close enough.
"Near the end of the raid, one of our kites was hit. At first the sky was a deep red as the kite’s gas tank exploded and the rest of it was in flames. We could see one parachute illuminated by the flash. The kite went into a steep dive and then at about 1,000 feet there was another large explosion and parts of the kite flew out in all directions. Soon after, another explosion and then seconds later it hit the ground and the bombs went off with a large whoomph. The all-clear sounded at about 8:30. A very large raid.”
Other entries chronicle a shoot-first mentality among the guards.
Two days ago, the Huns sent our ration of meat. The Hun medical officer said it was okay. But both our butcher as well as the German butcher said it was unfit for human consumption. The Hun gave it to the Russians.”Robert S. Hall
“December 27: Air raid this noon. A boy from 8th division stepped outside his hut and was at once shot down by one of the guards. The chap died 15 minutes later. The Jerry guard didn't give him a chance. He shot him to kill, not to warn. Just another black mark down in the book,” wrote Hall.
“December 28: After the boy was hit, the guard raised his gun to shoot again, but was yelled down by half the camp. Shot through the lungs, he talked to the Padre till the very last. His home was in Canada, just 19 years old,” wrote Hall.
Later there was a short service for the young soldier.
“Another cake has been baked for tomorrow, same recipe,” said Hall. “I've changed my mind entirely about the Germans after seeing how they live, how they have no regard but for themselves. It is useless to say that a mere few started this war and that they alone should be punished.”
He was critical of how the Germans lived up to, or didn’t, the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners.
“December 31, the Jerry has issued another new order. All Jews on camp are to be moved into one hut. We're not to associate with them. What the Hun has in mind is not known,” said Hall.
Kemp said allied prisoners had marginally better conditions than captives from other nations, an admittedly very low bar, at least until supply lines deteriorated and Red Cross care package deliveries became more infrequent.
“Our cigarettes are gone. I have about 20 Cigarette ends left. It takes three ends to make one cigarette, if you have any cigarette papers. We buy them from the Jerries for soap. It seems as though Germany is very short of soap,” Hall recorded.
Jones wrote of a visit to a camp dentist. Prisoners also played baseball and Hall kept box scores and statistics of games played.
Kemp said Hall’s diary show a preoccupation with food, frequently scarce, and copiously detailed the contents, origins, and quality of care packages.
“He included camp recipes, vernacular recipes they would have to depend on,” said Kemp.
“Jan. 2, 1945. Daugherty’s birthday today. Received a bar of chocolate from the Argentine bulk. Very good,” wrote Hall.
Hall even compared the contents of British and American care packages.
“Wednesday July 19, Jaque, Toff and myself were chosen to assist in opening and distributing Red Cross parcels. This will be our permanent job. The Germans insist on having all the cans containing meat, butter, etc. punched with two holes. The purpose of this is to ensure that in case we escape we will not be able to take our own food along as it would spoil soon. We have offset this somewhat by spreading margarine over the holes. The food will keep fairly well this way,” wrote Hall.
The journal included diagrams of the camp layout and schematics of individual barracks, said Kemp.
The entry for Thursday, Oct. 19 noted about 50 Russian soldiers worked around the camp doing most of the building. There were five compounds. Each compound could hold around 1,200 men.
“It has been said in the food line, we get what the Germans don't want, and the Russians get what we don't want. If this is true, the Russians aren't doing so good, also they have no Red Cross to send them parcels. Two days ago, the Huns sent our ration of meat. The Hun medical officer said it was okay. But both our butcher as well as the German butcher said it was unfit for human consumption. The Hun gave it to the Russians,” wrote Hall.
About 1.2% of all Americans held in German hands died, said Kemp; 3.5% of British POWs died in German prison camps. About 60% of all Soviet prisoners died.
“With the Red Army on the march and nearing the camp. The German guards evacuated the prisoners and sent them on a death march several 100 miles across the Oder River to a POW camp about 30 miles outside of Berlin,” said Kemp.
Hall wrote the Russians were street fighting just 11 kilometers away when the march began.
“We crossed the Oder River at 7 am. The bridge was blown up by the Germans at eight. We stopped at 11 am and cows were evacuated to make room for us,” said Hall.
The diary noted Polish citizens were kind to the prisoners and fed them well along the route in Silesia.
“At one farm a family of Poles spent an entire day dishing out coffee, soup, and spuds to us. And we were 1,500 men,” said Hall. This was on one of the days after a hard night-march, so we had the day of rest.
Another stop was for shelter at Karlsruhe in a brick factory.
“Until 8 in the evening, at which time we started on our first night March. No German rations. We marched 41 kilometers with the temperature at 35 below zero. On our entire journey up to Goldberg the Russians were only 24 hours behind us. And at times it seemed as though they would catch up but not so our luck. Their guns could be heard night and day on this journey of 260 kilometers,” wrote Hall.
Kemp said a couple hundred men died during the march that began with 1,600 people.
“Then ‘Joe's boys,’ his description for Soviet troops, Joseph Stalin's troops, liberated the second camp Stalag 3A on April 22, 1945,” said Kemp.
According to the Museum of History, 336 McLean County people are known to have died fighting during World War II.
After the war, Hall returned to Normal, ran a record store, and then worked as a school equipment salesperson. In 1947, he married Agnes Odell, who also served. She trained Navy pilots on what was known as a Link-Trainer. That was an early flight instrument simulator used to improve safety and shorten training time for more than 500,000 pilots. Most nations in the war used such trainers.
Hall died in 1976 at age 61. His daughters, Holly Schultz, Louanne Negley and Nancy DeLorge, donated his diary to the Museum.
