District Constabulary (the "DC") - that was us - was not supposed to pull any garrison duty or be used to "guard," transport, or handle American Service personnel per se: that was the duty of the MP's. But it came about one time through some screw-up or another, that we were needed for garrrison duty here and a bunch of us got assigned to a 24-hour rotating guard duty over some American prisoners. This may have been down at the Command Headquarters in Grohn (Camp Grohn - or as we all used to say it and accent it from the German: "Camp G-R-O-A-N!"). I am not sure now. The guardhouse however, was a big old drafty building with a fireplace in it as I recall - its funny how memories finally get pretty indistinct. It was built over or into the main camp gate somehow (?), and the prison was right nearby. Anyhow - we all slept 8 on and 8 off there in bunks - and it being winter and all, guys just slid in and out of the same bunks when the guard changed... the bunks never cooled off!
Well, my recollections of that Guardhouse are kinda reminiscent of a "Kasserne" and its "grosse dor" and the "laterne" beneath which "Lili" and her soldaten lover once stood - so what better place here for a rendition of "Lili Marlene" ...THE "Song of the War" on both sides, believe me! - for we Allied troops sang it every bit as much as did the Germans. (Odd - but not unheralded perhaps: I once read that Abraham Lincoln's favorite tune was..."Dixie!")
Lili Marlene Now what they didn't tell us till our first tour in this place, was that these prisoners were (supposedly) real bad-asses in here and all had been courts-marshalled, or were awaiting same, and several had been sentenced to death! By hanging I guess. Somehow as the years have gone by, I kinda think this was overplayed or overstressed by the Sergeants and all - but they may have been leveling with us! It did have the effect of keeping everyone on his toes, however, as no one wanted to be caught "off guard" while "on guard," if you will pardon a pun or whatever here... "The cruel-tyrant-sergeants they watch 'im 'arf a year; They watch 'im with 'is comrades, they watch 'im with 'is beer; They watch 'im with the women at the regimental dance, And the cruel-tyrant-sergeants send 'is name along for "Lance." The 'eathen...R. Kipling Here's how it worked: You entered the prison down a short corridor. There was an iron-barred gate across the corridor. Behind it, and right at the head of another corridor which jutted off at right angles to the left, was a desk. Here sat the first guard, still armed. He controlled opening and closing the barred door. Down at the end of the second corridor there was yet another corridor at right angles to it - jutting off to the right. (Actually in same direction as the short entering corridor). Another armed guard was stationed at this latter juncture, and there was another barred door. He was on this side of it. Inside this door, the next or third guard was not armed - but there was some Mickey Mouse now about how his "shadow" could always be seen projected on the corridor wall outside the barred door where the second guard (presumably out of line of sight now) could always "check on" the state of the third (unarmed) guard by looking at his shadow. It was less than satisfactory and less than convincing to my way of thinking.... Especially, since I drew the unarmed, third-guard-slot for my very first tour! How lucky can you get? Now when you were third guard, all of the other guards passed you in along these corridors till you were (alone) in the last one. The cells where the prisoners were all opened off this corridor to either side. But their doors were solid, so that you could only see the inmates inside by peeping through the peepholes in the doors. These were rather larger than normal peepholes - as you are about to learn (as I was about to learn!)... You were supposed to "periodically" walk up and down this corridor and report any "unusual occurrences" back to No. 2 (the shadow watcher) and thus on up to the front gate... So with some trepidation, I started out on my first walk down this corridor. I had only gone about halfway when I heard a loud "thump!" behind me! I whirled and confronted a broomstick which someone had jammed through the peephole (that is what I meant by their size - they were really "eyeholes") and had shot it across the corridor about at eye level to me right behind me and was holding it fast on the other side of his door - so that my way was "blocked" by this temporary inconvenience. I had no more than taken this in, when I heard another loud "thump!" behind me again, and turned about once more to face a second broomstick jammed out from the other side of the corridor in similar fashion: I was "boxed in!" About then I heard a maniacal laugh - joined by other laughs from adjoining cells. The prisoners, by the way, were allowed brooms or mops in their cells to keep them clean. This was all a sort of "hazing" they had worked out to "break in" new guards - and gave them something to do. Whew! For a while there I thought I was a goner or something, and the biggest garrison jail break in the Army of the United States was about to happen on my watch! Suffice to say that the next eye-opener hereabouts was when a couple of cell doors opened on their own - and the occupants stepped out into the corridor! For it had come about some way that the Sergeant-of-the-Guard or whomever had started all this one time and now it was their "right" you see, and believe it or not these guys openly visited one another back and forth across the hall! And played poker in each others' cells! And to get the whole story out, we "death row" guards also sat in on some of the games, too! Like I said earlier: there is a right way, a wrong way, and the army way to handle just about everything! "I've a head like a concertina: I've a tongue like a button-stick, I've a mouth like an old potato, and I'm more than a little sick, But I've had my fun o' the Corp'ral's Guard: I've made the cinders fly, And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal's eye." Cells...R. Kipling I don't know whatever happened to the half of these guys. One guy had killed a civilian in a fight somehow; others had various similar charges leveled at them and so on. I really can't remember much. They may have been en route back to Leavenworth maybe or elsewhere in the States. Maybe they had to serve out remaining sentences there or something. I don't think there were any such capital sentences carried out around there while I was there; leastways I never heard of them. Scrape Here for more 'Barrel...'
Now what they didn't tell us till our first tour in this place, was that these prisoners were (supposedly) real bad-asses in here and all had been courts-marshalled, or were awaiting same, and several had been sentenced to death! By hanging I guess. Somehow as the years have gone by, I kinda think this was overplayed or overstressed by the Sergeants and all - but they may have been leveling with us! It did have the effect of keeping everyone on his toes, however, as no one wanted to be caught "off guard" while "on guard," if you will pardon a pun or whatever here...
"The cruel-tyrant-sergeants they watch 'im 'arf a year; They watch 'im with 'is comrades, they watch 'im with 'is beer; They watch 'im with the women at the regimental dance, And the cruel-tyrant-sergeants send 'is name along for "Lance."
Here's how it worked:
You entered the prison down a short corridor. There was an iron-barred gate across the corridor. Behind it, and right at the head of another corridor which jutted off at right angles to the left, was a desk. Here sat the first guard, still armed. He controlled opening and closing the barred door. Down at the end of the second corridor there was yet another corridor at right angles to it - jutting off to the right. (Actually in same direction as the short entering corridor). Another armed guard was stationed at this latter juncture, and there was another barred door. He was on this side of it. Inside this door, the next or third guard was not armed - but there was some Mickey Mouse now about how his "shadow" could always be seen projected on the corridor wall outside the barred door where the second guard (presumably out of line of sight now) could always "check on" the state of the third (unarmed) guard by looking at his shadow. It was less than satisfactory and less than convincing to my way of thinking....
Especially, since I drew the unarmed, third-guard-slot for my very first tour! How lucky can you get?
Now when you were third guard, all of the other guards passed you in along these corridors till you were (alone) in the last one. The cells where the prisoners were all opened off this corridor to either side. But their doors were solid, so that you could only see the inmates inside by peeping through the peepholes in the doors. These were rather larger than normal peepholes - as you are about to learn (as I was about to learn!)... You were supposed to "periodically" walk up and down this corridor and report any "unusual occurrences" back to No. 2 (the shadow watcher) and thus on up to the front gate...
So with some trepidation, I started out on my first walk down this corridor. I had only gone about halfway when I heard a loud "thump!" behind me! I whirled and confronted a broomstick which someone had jammed through the peephole (that is what I meant by their size - they were really "eyeholes") and had shot it across the corridor about at eye level to me right behind me and was holding it fast on the other side of his door - so that my way was "blocked" by this temporary inconvenience. I had no more than taken this in, when I heard another loud "thump!" behind me again, and turned about once more to face a second broomstick jammed out from the other side of the corridor in similar fashion: I was "boxed in!" About then I heard a maniacal laugh - joined by other laughs from adjoining cells. The prisoners, by the way, were allowed brooms or mops in their cells to keep them clean. This was all a sort of "hazing" they had worked out to "break in" new guards - and gave them something to do. Whew! For a while there I thought I was a goner or something, and the biggest garrison jail break in the Army of the United States was about to happen on my watch!
Suffice to say that the next eye-opener hereabouts was when a couple of cell doors opened on their own - and the occupants stepped out into the corridor! For it had come about some way that the Sergeant-of-the-Guard or whomever had started all this one time and now it was their "right" you see, and believe it or not these guys openly visited one another back and forth across the hall! And played poker in each others' cells! And to get the whole story out, we "death row" guards also sat in on some of the games, too! Like I said earlier: there is a right way, a wrong way, and the army way to handle just about everything!
"I've a head like a concertina: I've a tongue like a button-stick, I've a mouth like an old potato, and I'm more than a little sick, But I've had my fun o' the Corp'ral's Guard: I've made the cinders fly, And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal's eye."
I don't know whatever happened to the half of these guys. One guy had killed a civilian in a fight somehow; others had various similar charges leveled at them and so on. I really can't remember much. They may have been en route back to Leavenworth maybe or elsewhere in the States. Maybe they had to serve out remaining sentences there or something. I don't think there were any such capital sentences carried out around there while I was there; leastways I never heard of them.