Stalag Luft III

The Dawn Will Bring A New Melody

Music by John V. Ward and Lyrics by R. M. Koenig
The dawn will bring a new melody -- I'll be awakening to find --that she's no
longer on my mind and my thoughts are free---no longer will that
old reverie--reflect her image on my brain--and so my heart will feel no pain --
-for what used to be.--to-night E-raised the stains that once cast a
spell. that once in-spired re-frain has now fad-ed to-morrow brings a
new change of key---For I've forgotten how I cared to seek a love she
ne-ver chared and my heart is free---

Song:Dominant of the Tonic

Music by John Ward; lyrics by John Ward.

Song: The Dawn Will Bring A New Melody.

Explain how they had musical instraments at the camp. Who provided them and why did you want to learn the clarinet? The instruments were brought in by an organization (it could have been the YMCA) trying to make life more bearable while we were locked-up. Instruments were given to muscians in the camp. Johnny Ward was my instructor on the clarinet "poor guy." A lot of these guys played for professional bands in the U.S. I gave it enough time, weeks or months. but it wasn't going to happen. We had to practice inside the aborts (latrines), when it was cold. Then there was the time guys wanted to escapce from the latrine and they went around telling everyone not to use latrine Y. Music by John V. Ward, lyrics by R. M. Koenig.

Senior American Officer

This is the autograph of the last Senior American Officer at Stalag Luft III. Prior to the General's arrival, Colonel Delmar T. Spivey was the Senior American Officer. When the General arrived, he became the Senior American Officer and appointed Colonel Spivey to act as the Commandant of Center Compound, which, in the end, was approximately two thousand men, me included. The East Compound was British and had their own English Senior Commandant.
Maybe he was also in command of North Compound. South Compound had it's ranking officer as Commandant of South Compound. The same applied to West Compound. All of these Commandants were great men.

Instructers of Classes I attended at Stalag Luft III

How did you do this? Did people trace around their dogtags and then write their names and addresses? I did all of the dogtag tracing of each page at one time. Then I went to each for their signature. A German POW dogtag was used for the tracings on this page. Did you do this so you could write them after you got out of the camp? Yes, this would enable me to write each if I wanted to. Another reason for accumulating these names was that I had a personal relationship with each person and that when the war was over, I could look at my Logbook and reminisce the "good old POW days". We were all there together until we were marched on foot approximately 100 kilometers to Spremberg, Germany, where we were put on a "40 and 8" train to another prison camp at Moosburg, Germany. "40 and 8" refers to forty men and eight horses. More about this later.

more dogtags

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dogtags

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dogtags2

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Von Budapest Nach Sagan

What does Von Budapest Nach Sagan mean? What do these names refer to? And why does it list the number of raids for some? Von Budapest Nach Sagan means from Budapest to Sagan. I was put on a train at Budapest, Hungary and the train went to Sagan, Germany.