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Profile of
Spr. Joseph Linklater
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Spr. Joseph Linklater
W.W.II
R.C.E.
P.O.W in Germany 1944-1945

Soldier and Native Veteran Joseph Linklater recounts how he was captured and treated during his time as a Prisoner Of War in World War II.
From his capture in October of 1944 to his liberation in 1945 he shares his experiences.

Told from an article titled "Dad's Story by Joey Linklater". Native Veteran Joseph Linklater was very happy to share it with this project for everyone to read.

(Ed. Some aspects have been edited for clarity)

I always wanted to tell my story about Prison Camp at Stalag 11-B in Germany.

On October 16, 1944, a day I will never forget, our unit was to hold a raid, some 15 miles out of Antwerp we have just crossed a small river by boats. There was a lot of gun firing in the distance. When we reached out destination, we dug in for the night. We were to wait for orders. We were very cold and hungry.

The night before one of our men got killed by snipers, and I took his Brangun from him - an automatic machine gun that held a few rounds. Anyway, just before daylight an artillery barrage started very heavy right where we were, there was a lot of gun fire and then I heard some of the boys moaning they have been hit. By daylight German tanks started rolling in. I've never seen so many German soldiers and they were coming from all directions, even behind our line. There was a Brangun carrier not far from us and they blasted that to pieces. There were two soldiers under that truck at that moment. I heard a voice calling, "rouse, rouse!" - this means get out in German. There were a few guns pointing at us. At that moment, our own artillery barrage started right where we were, there were a lot of bodies laying around including German Soldiers. Our unit was wiped out. There were a lot of prisoners and a lot of wounded on both sides. Our medic was there all right, but by this time they put us on the tanks and took us behind German lines. There were so many German soldiers and tanks. They drove us on trucks all day to this place where interrogation started.

A German officer was there. He talked perfect English. All I could give him is my rank and number. He asked me how many tanks were there, and I said I only saw five. Then he told me to get out.

The next day they took us to the station. There was a lot of prisoners already there. We were ordered to get into the box cars - about fifty in each box car. There was hardly any room to lay down. We travelled for three days, stopping and going. We would bang on the box car doors so we could go to washroom outside. The German soldiers wouldn't open the doors, so we had to go to washroom at the door ways. I'm telling you, it stunk! In those three days we stopped at a town and the German Red Cross gave us some sandwiches and water.

When we reached Stalag 11-B, we were taken to huts. The bunks were five tiers high. The first thing I saw was women and children, but they were gone the next morning. The bunk house was so filthy there was lice crawling on the walls. We had hay for mattresses, no blankets. The prisoner's that were there before us were so lousy, dirty and hungry. We tried to clean the place, but we had nothing to use. The outside latrines were so filthy, but we still had to use them.

There were all kinds of nationalities there, but the Canadians and Americans were together. Canadian and American prisoner's were coming every day, so we knew how far allies were.

If you went outside, you would see nothing but bombers. Day after day, night after night, the sky would be just full of planes. Sometimes we could see bombs raining down.

On day in March 1945 the Germans picked out two hundred Canadians to work in the Salt mines away from Stalag 11-B. We got to the new camp. It was a little bit cleaner than Stalag 11-B, but rations were very poor. We had to go under ground every morning at 7:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. all day. We wouldn't get anything to eat all at, not even water. We'd come back at night and all we'd get is a bowl of soup, and sixteen people had to share three kilograms of bread. The German guards didn't have much to eat either.

Around the first week of April 1945, 4:00 p.m., we saw red berets coming down the road in single file. We ran to meet them and hugged them. We were so happy to see them. A little while after the tanks started rolling in. They went right through the wire fence. We were taken away behind the lines. There we were treated like soldiers. The happiest day of my life!!

Thank you to Spr.Joseph Linklater for putting a new perspective on this project.