Support From the Home Front
For Able Seaman William Dearl Trickett, POW #1295 and the other Athabaskans behind the barbed wire of Marlag und Milag Nord, adequate food rations were an issue. Too be fair, the Germans in the Bremen area themselves would have had their own issues securing foodstuffs considering the Allied advances. But when your usual daily rations were only a chunk of bread, some tea, a bit of jam, and a potato, the stomach would have been empty most of the time.
Shortly after the 83 Athabaskans were captured at the end of April 1944, an urgent call from the Red Cross for Emergency Kits for newly captured Canadian and British personnel was the front page of the 30 May Canadian Prisoners of War Relatives Association News Sheet. 3000 kits consisting of a towel, face cloth, tooth powder, tooth brush, comb, shaving stick, soap, razor and blades and two safety pins were being shipped immediately. They were trying to also raise sufficient funds to send another 12,000 kits (cost of $1.50 each) ‘as soon as possible so that a large supply will be ready for any emergency that may arise within the next few months.’ I would say that D-Day was a poorly kept secret and everyone knew it was near.
The Canadian POW Relatives News Sheet publications are fascinating to read and would have given the people on the Canadian Home Front an opportunity to support their captured loved ones.
Cdn POW Newsletter 30 May 1944
In order to supplement their POW existence, Uncle Bill received food, supplies and well wishes from the Red Cross and loved ones from Kelwood. Below are scans of his Wartime Logbook of items he kept describing the support and parcels he received.
Below is a listing of the contents of the various aid parcels that would come to the POW camps. It was said that the Canadian parcels contained the best provisions and were highly sought after.
Contents of Red Cross Parcels
American: 8 oz. Cocoa or 2 ‘D’ Bars. 6 Oz. Jam. 1 Oz. Salt & Pepper. 12 Biscuits ‘K2’. 1 Lb. Prunes. 12 Oz. Bully Beef. 12 oz. Meat & veg. or Spam. 6 Oz. Meat Pate. 8 Oz. Cheese. 1 Lb. Powdered Milk. 8 Oz. Sugar. 1 Lb Oleomargarine. 4 Oz. Soluble Coffee. 8 Oz. Salmon or 2 Sardines. 2 Soap. 80 Cigarettes. 7(?) Vit. C Tablets.
Canadian: 5 Oz. Chocolate. 1 Lb. Jam. 1 Oz. Salt & Pepper. 12 Biscuits. 6 Oz. Prunes. 12 Oz. Bully Beef. 10 Oz. Ham. 7 Oz. Raisins. 4 Oz. Cheese. 1 Lb. Powdered Milk. 8 Oz. Sugar. 1 Lb, Butter. 6 Oz. Coffee or 4 Oz. Tea. 8 Oz. Salmon. 1 Sardine. 1 Soap.
English: 4 Oz. Chocolate. 8 Oz. Jam. 1 tin Egg Powder (2 Oz. Approx.). 8 Oz. Service Biscuits. 8 Oz, Prunes or Apricots. 12 Oz. Meat Roll. 16 Oz. Meat & Veg. 4 Oz. Oatmeal. 1 Soap. 3 Oz. Cheese. 1 Tin Condensed Milk. 4 Oz. Sugar. 8 Oz. Margarine. 4 Oz. Cocoa. 2 Oz. Tea. 8 Oz. Salmon or 8 Oz. Bacon. 1 Pancake Powder or 1 Creamed Rice or 1 Apple Pudding.
Argentine Bulk: 3 Oz. Bully Beef. 5 Oz. Meat & Veg. 3 Oz. Ragout. 2 Oz. Corned Mutton. 4 Oz Pork & Beans. 5 Oz. Butter. 2 Oz. Lard. 2 Oz. Honey. 5 Oz. Jam. 2 Oz. Milk Jam (?). 4 Oz. Condensed Milk. 8 Oz. Sugar. 7 Oz. Cheese. 8 Oz. Biscuits. 1 oz. Pea & Lentil Flour. 3 Oz. Chocolate. 2 Oz. Cocoa. 1 Oz. Tea. 1 Soap. 3 Oz. Dried Fruit
Almost more important than food was the demand for cigarettes requested by and shipped to the Canadian POWs. Letters to home contained pleas to send more cigarettes. Their true purpose was not necessarily for Canadian consumption but for bartering with the German guards for extra necessities. German tobacco was of inferior quality and Canadian cigarettes were used in trade. For example, the going rate for a radio was 5000 to 1.
Relatives of Uncle Bill’s took advantage of the ‘300 Cigarettes for 76¢’ and he kept their receipts in his Logbook.
Mr. W. E. Trickett, Mrs. Lyle Wilson, and Mr. A. Trickett of Kelwood took advantage of the Imperial Tobacco 76¢ offer to send Bill packages of 300 Sweet Caporal cigarettes.
Along with the relief parcels and smokes, there was correspondence back and forth from home. Care was taken to keep personal details to a minimum due to the fact that the Germans might use information on a POW against him. But once the family knew the POW’s prisoner number and their camp, they could send them letters. None were in Bill’s Logbook, neither sent or received but there were some examples of how he could have corresponded.
The first item at the top of the page was a type of pre-printed letter that could be folded up into it’s own envelope. The bottom item was a plain postcard that the POWs could send. Kriegsgefangenenpost translates into Prisoner of War Mail. Postage for the postcards was free and from my research, German POWs in Canada were charged 30¢ to send a letter home via airmail.
Uncle Bill also kept a special piece of Canadian mail from Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King who sent every Canadian POW his well wishes for Christmas 1944. Each POW also received a Canadian Christmas care parcel as well.
From my own deployment experiences overseas, I can say that keeping in contact with the Home Front does wonders for moral. Just that little bit of mail or the occasional care parcel would have kept Bill and his fellow prisoners going all those long monthes while waiting for liberation.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.