D-Day at Oflag 64

Headline of The Oflag Daily Bulletin, 6 June 1944.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center. Photo:
Susanna Connaughton. 

 

On June 6, 1944, millions of people around the world stayed close to their radios, awaiting broadcasters’ announcements of the long-anticipated Allied invasion of Europe. In German-occupied Szubin, the American prisoners of war (POWs) of Oflag 64 waited for news from their own precious radio.

The first 35 of these prisoners, most of them officers in the U.S. Army, arrived in Szubin one year earlier, on June 6, 1943. The Germans had captured them in North Africa in February of that year. By June 6, 1944, the camp population had increased to around 500. Expected anticipation of the European invasion rose with the growing POW population, and the prisoners even started betting among themselves on its exact date.

The POWs based their estimates on information relayed over their secret radio. The early arrivals had built the radio with parts from various sources: the generous British POWs they had met at previous camps, eager German guards they bribed with American cigarettes from their Red Cross parcels, and helpful Poles who risked their lives to help the POWs. When the radio was not in use, the prisoners hid its pieces around the camp—for example, buried in a pot in the POWs’ greenhouse or wedged into the attic ceilings of their barracks. Despite multiple raids— “shakedowns”—the guards never discovered the suspected radio.

The POWs nicknamed the radio “The Bird,” because when it broadcast, it “sang.” Every evening, a POW radio man assembled the parts, tuned the radio, and wrote down in shorthand the latest news and messages. He conveyed the updates to individual barracks “news readers” who then whispered the updates to their bunkmates.

The staff of the Daily Bulletin in January 1944. The Germans confiscated the coats soon after the photo. (l-r)1st Row: Lt. Leonard Feldman, Lt. Gerald Long, Lt. Seymour Bolten. 2nd Row: Capt. Richard Rossbach, Larry Allen.
Collection Susanna Connaughton

 

Not clandestine, however, was the POWs’ daily newssheet, The Daily Bulletin, a hand-lettered poster-size sheet of paper that focused on war news. Prisoner Larry Allen, a Pulitzer-prize winning Associated Press (AP) war correspondent, had launched the newssheet idea and bylined it “The Szubin Bureau of the AP.” His paper and ink came from materials donated by the YMCA War Prisoners Aid. His sources came from German-supplied newspapers and magazines published by the Reich Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin, and the English and German-language radio broadcasts that the Ministry piped-in over the camp loudspeakers. POW Lieutenant Seymour Bolten, who used his college German to become one of the camp interpreters, translated the German sources for Allen, and together he and Allen interpreted the propaganda.

Another essential source for The Bulletin was The Bird. Using clever and indirect language, Allen and Bolten incorporated this real war news into the newssheet’s articles. In the fall of 1943, when Allen pinned the first issue to the cardboard scrap of a bulletin board outside of the POW Mess Hall, he said to Bolten, “Stand back and watch the power of the press.” The POWs lined up to read. And so did the Germans.

That afternoon, an outraged Oberst (Colonel) Schneider locked Allen in the “cooler,” the camp prison cell. POW Colonel Thomas Drake, the camp’s Senior American Officer—a decorated World War I cavalry veteran--protested until Schneider released Allen. The day after his release, Allen posted the second issue, and then posted a new issue every day thereafter-- without further punishment. German officers visited the bulletin board every day: the newssheet was their most reliable source of information. 

In early spring 1944, the POW Entertainment Committee—one of many organized groups ordered by Col. Drake to keep his men mentally and physically fit—obtained permission from Oberst Schneider to commemorate the arrival of the first American POWs to Szubin: on the one-year anniversary date of June 6, 1944. The planning included carnival games, an “All-Star” softball game, and a musical revue by the POW Swing Band and Glee Club.

In the late spring, the Germans repatriated Allen back to the United States—according to Allen’s debriefing documents--to the relief of both Allen and Schneider. POW Lieutenant Frank Diggs, a former reporter for the Washington Post, replaced Allen as editor of The Daily Bulletin.

The Bulletin joined the global anticipation of the Allied invasion. Just like other newspapers, its editors speculated on the timing and locations of the Allied attack.


Excerpt from The  Oflag Daily Bulletin, 19 May 1944, anticipates the best night for an Allied invasion.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.
Photo: Susanna Connaughton

 

On the morning of June 6, 1944, The Bulletin ignored the war and highlighted the anniversary carnival. The sly headline read: “American Garrison Marks First Women-less Anniversary Behind Schubin Barbed Wire.” Its subsequent article observed: “But no women—in keeping with [a] now year-long tradition. Liquor will flow like water, in [our] imaginations.”

The morning issue of the Oflag Daily Bulletin, 6 June 1944, announcing the day’s anniversary celebration.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.
Photo: Susanna Connaughton

 

At 9 a.m., the POWs assembled for “Appell” (roll call) under a drizzly sky. As soon as the guards finished their count, the POW carnival midway crew got to work raising makeshift tents and setting up games that included fortune telling, knocking over milk bottles, and an ingenious Lieutenant Colonel dunk tank. Col. Drake opened the festivities with a speech that was also published in the POWs’ monthly news gazette, The Item:

The past year has been filled with ceaseless effort to improve conditions inside the barb wire so that the mental and physical life of all might be maintained and improved….

Let us, anew, pledge ourselves that…we will see a greater effort to better ourselves so that we may return to our place in the American life better fitted to carry on the duty assigned to us and none the worse for the unenviable role which we have carried so long.

Let no man believe that there is a stigma attached to having been honorably taken captive in battle. Only the fighting man ever gets close enough to the enemy for that to happen….

Be proud that you carried yourselves as men in battle and in adversity….

A thoughtful silence then erupted into cheers. Col. Drake further lightened the mood by welcoming guest of honor Henry Söderberg, the beloved Swedish representative of the YMCA. Henry thanked the men for the warm welcome and announced that June 6th was also Swedish National Day and the 100th anniversary of the International YMCA. The men applauded and whistled, and the carnival commenced. The German guards spread themselves around the perimeter of the celebration, both keeping watch and trying not to smile at the American antics.

Masthead for The Oflag 64 Daily Bulletin. The editors reused the masthead and pinned new issues on to it.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.
Photo: Susanna Connaughton

 

Around 11 a.m., the POW in charge of monitoring The Bird sidled up to Col. Drake. His whispered message galloped through the camp, “the invasion is on.” Söderberg wrote in his wartime diary that POW Lt. Col. John Waters, son-in-law of General George Patton, stood close and whispered, “It has begun. The invasion started in Normandy last night. All is going well. Soon we will be free men.”

The POWs stifled their joy to protect their source, but the fever of the festivities grew. Under quiet chuckles among the gamblers, the Lieutenant who had bet on June 6 for the invasion collected his reward of 30 fortified “D-ration” chocolate bars.

Around 1 p.m., a German radio broadcast at last announced over the camp loudspeakers that the “invasion attempt” had begun. The POWs let loose their pent-up cheers. The games kicked into unbridled high gear. The Nazi Security chief, Hauptman (Captain) Zimmerman, doubled the number of guards on duty.

Lt. Diggs and the rest of The Daily Bulletin staffers rushed to their newsroom to write up a “Newsflash” issue. Zimmerman stood over them. He wanted to know how much the Americans really knew about the invasion, and when they knew it. POW Captain Doyle Yardley wrote in his journal that day, later published as Home Was Never Like This, “Sometimes it’s more advantageous to let people believe what they want to think, especially in times of war.”

The camp loudspeakers blasted the Propaganda Ministry’s announcement that the greatest share of the Allied airborne troops had been “annihilated.”

Evening edition of The Oflag Daily Bulletin, 6 June 1944.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.
Photo: Susanna Connaughton

 

The one-word headline of the afternoon’s Daily Bulletin Flash Edition took up a quarter of the page and its entire width: “INVASION!” The Bulletin Art Editors celebrated with the precious ink colors of red and blue. Half of the page displayed a German map of Europe—cut out of a German publication—on which Lt. Bolten had circled the invasion landings with thick red pencil.

A few hours later, The Bulletin staffers pinned up the “Late Radio Edition,” adorned with a lightning bolt.



“Late Radio Edition” masthead of The Daily Bulletin, and the late edition of 6 June 1944.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.
Photo: Susanna Connaughton

 

Back on the carnival’s midway, men “bashed” (ate with abandon) the Red Cross food they had pooled for the party. Söderberg departed after the closing ceremony, during which he presented YMCA sports badges and certificates to the softball, basketball, and volleyball winners.

POW Lieutenant Louis Otterbein, the resourceful set designer for the POWs’ “Little Theater of Szubin,” added a last-minute finale to the evening’s musical revue. A row of men flipped over cards that spelled out L-E-T-S—G-O—I-K-E, followed by a cardboard rocket that ziplined across the stage with the same message. Lieutenant Reid Ellsworth later wrote in his biography, The Reid Ellsworth Story, that even a few of the guards cracked small smiles. He wondered if they too were wishing for an end to the war.

In the months following D-Day, the camp population would triple, and the living conditions would become dire. But for now, the POWs of Oflag 64 celebrated well past Light’s Out. At 10 p.m., the Germans ordered an end to the day.

The following week, Lt. Bolten wrote to his family:

June 15, 1944
Oflag 64
Dear Folks,

Last week on June 6 we celebrated the first anniversary of the beginning of the only all-American ground officer’s camp. It turned out to be the reason for an even bigger celebration than we figured on.

Cover page for the bound May-June issues of  The Daily Bulletin. The POW book binders created these volumes. Lts. Diggs and Bolten carried them back to the U.S.
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.
Photo: Susanna Connaughton

 

Susanna Bolten Connaughton is writing a book about her father’s POW experience. She is Vice President of the Board of the Polish-American Foundation for the Commemoration of POW Camps in Szubin

 

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