Survivor of the Long March

things I couldn’t talk about which happened to me during the war.

I never thought I would write a book. Never dreamed it would happen to an ordinary fellow like me. It’s been a wonderful experience. I have cried a lot and laughed a lot with Dee as I told her my life story and dug deeper into my past. As we put all my thoughts and memories together down on paper and put them in order, it has been like doing a huge jigsaw puzzle spread out on the dining room table. Lily and Brian loved doing them. Me, I never had the patience.

First you find a few pieces of sky and grass and position them at the corners. You pick out more and put them in the right place and see the picture grow, filling out to meet the edges. You go away and leave it for a while and then come back and try again, adding more and more until you only have the last few pieces in your hand. Where do they fit together to complete the picture? Ah, yes! There and there. It’s done – and there’s not a piece of the puzzle left behind.

Plates

^{Private Charles Waite, Queen’s Royal Regiment, October 1939.}

^{Winnie in the family shop c.1930.}

^{Family business card.}

^{Charles, aged nine, on the delivery vehicle with his brothers Reginald and Alfred.}

^{Charles aged twelve with Peter the dog.}

^{Waite family at Reg’s wedding, 1933. Charles carried this photograph throughout the war.}

^{Back row: Leonard (20), Doris (22), Muriel (16), Alf (28), Winnie (18), Marjorie (26), Reg (24).}

^{Front row: Elsie (11), William and Alice (parents), Charles (14).}

^{Lily’s parents, Alf and Ada Mathers.}

^{Lily Mathers, 1938. Charles carried this photograph throughout the war.}

^{The BEF lands in France. How many of these men would make it out of Dunkirk?}

^{Up to their necks in it. A human chain from shore to ship at Dunkirk.}

^{Stalag XX (20)B stamp on the reverse of the photograph of Lily.}

^{Copy of Charles’s signed admission card to Stalag XX(20)A dated 26 June 1940 (International Red Cross).}

^{Red Cross advertisement. A Surrey vicar ‘adopted’ Charles as his own POW and sent cigarettes in bulk, useful to barter with for food.}

^{A Red Cross parcel issued to prisoners of war.}

^{Piles of food packages at the International Red Cross warehouse in Geneva, in a photograph probably taken late in the war. (Library of Congress)}

^{A Hilfswillige (volunteer helper) armband printed with the words: ‘In Service of the German armed forces’. These were worn by Russian prisoners of war, used by the German Army for slave labour.}

^{Charles’s PoW camp dog tag No: 10511 issued at Stalag 20A Thorn.}

^{Private Charles Waite on the Stalag 20B farm, 1941.}

^{‘I cannot dance’ camp letter from Charles to Winnie and Bert, 5 April 1942.}

^{Tommy Harrington’s letter to Winnie, 22 January 1944.}

^{Letter and envelope sent from camp, March 1944.}

^{Envelope received from home, April 1944.}

^{Group camp photograph, 1941 (GB 1373). Charles stands third from right in the back row, Jimmy fourth. Heb is first from left in the front row, Laurie third.}

^{Group camp photograph, 1942 (GB 557). Heb stands first from left on the back row, Charles fifth. Laurie is in the middle of the front row.}

^{‘The Russians are coming.’ It was the successes of the Red Army that created the suffering of The Long March.}

^{Notes written during The Long March on the back of Charles’s camp propaganda postcard.}

^{Notes and map written in the New Testament received on the Long March, 28 January 1945.}

^{‘God Help Us’ Letter, January–April 1945.}

^{Example of lagergeld – camp money.}

^{Charles’s Army Book 64 – Soldier’s Service and Pay Book – which he kept with him throughout the war.}

^{Lily in an ATS group photograph, taken while she was stationed at Slough, 1944. She is in the second row from the front, fourth from left.}

^{Receipt for Lily’s engagement ring, 13 June 1945.}