War taught true meaning of 'a fair go'

Jack Kelly, 92, soon learned the Germans did not appreciate a fair go the way the New Zealand soldiers did. Photo / NZPA

Sixty-nine years ago today Jack Kelly gave up his weapon and surrendered to the German soldiers he had been fighting on Crete.

The now retired Waikato farmer said he had no choice - if he had kept fighting the losing battle comrades the Germans had captured would have been executed.

Surrendering could have not gone more against the fighting spirit of Mr Kelly and his mates in D Company of the 18th Battalion of the New Zealand Infantry Regiment.

"D Company never buggered off ... in contrast to some historical records written by people who weren't there," the Te Kauwhata man said in his book of memoirs.

At 5pm on May 26, 1941, Mr Kelly laid down his 1914 Lee Enfield .303 rifle and became a prisoner-of-war.

It was the start of four years which sapped his mental, emotional and physical strength, and which also shaped his life.

Now 92, he said he seldom recalled the day he surrendered, although his four years as a POW often jumped back into his memory.

"When you have been bombed and people are killed beside you, it is like learning poetry at school. It is indelible. I don't have any nightmares but it comes back to you and you wonder why it ever happened to you."

Mr Kelly said being a prisoner taught him what "a fair go was just as good as any Bible-banger could teach you".

"It makes you sad to see that things aren't a fair go in many instances for all New Zealanders."

He said that after his capture he soon learned the Germans did not appreciate a fair go the way the New Zealand soldiers did.

After being held at a camp at Maleme on the island of Crete, they moved to the Salonica prison camp in Greece, crammed into the hold of a ship.

"The conditions were more cramped than I can describe. Many men were already sick with fever or dysentery. With no room to move, below deck was a stench of wounded bodies, human excrement and lice."

The toilet was wooden slats which hung out from the side of the ship. Men too weak to hold on often fell overboard and drowned. The Germans would not stop to pick them up, he said.

Conditions at the Salonica camp were subhuman and the "food was not good enough for a dog". The soup was often water with a horse's head or leg in it.

Cedes, another prison camp in Greece, was a different story. There the prisoners had more room and each day had regular food. Taken back to Salonica, they were herded into rail wagons for an 11-day trip to Wustermark, the first of several prison camps he was sent to in Germany.

Mr Kelly said he would probably not have survived but for the Red Cross parcels which came every fortnight, provided the Allies did not drop too many bombs and disrupt delivery and provided the German soldiers did not steal them.

He was freed when American soldiers took Leipzig in 1945 towards the end of World War II.

He was still suffering from malaria and jaundice and after four years of near-starvation rations, his first decent meal, given to him by the Americans, was roast pork and apple sauce with creamed rice pudding. It was far too rich and did not stay down long.

"We got stuck into that. The next thing we were all up against the wall spewing it all up."

It took several days for them to get used to the American K rations and move on to better food.

Mr Kelly said that 69 years after he was taken prisoner he felt increasingly humble at the increasing number of young people who attended Anzac Day services, asking questions about those who served.

- NZPA