27 June 2016
As a young boy age ten in my hometown of Readville, Massachusetts, I would be up at the railroad siding whenever a Prisoner of War Train from the Boston Army Base, Boston, Massachusetts would arrive for further directions.
During World War Two, The Boston Army Base was quite busy with departing and arriving troop ships. The departing troop ships brought men and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean to the English, European, and African seaports. On the return trip across the Atlantic Ocean to the Boston Army Base came wounded American Military personnel and German and Italian Prisoners of War. The return trip back to Boston usually was a large Navy convoy with Prisoner of War Ships in the middle of the United States Navy & Merchant Marine Ship Convoy headed For the United States. Upon arriving in the port of Boston, the Prisoners of War were the last to debark the Navy and Merchant Marine convoy.
Boston had a large ocean front and also was equipped with a railroad yard, which was ideal for transportation of the prisoners to the southern and western part of the United States. There was a large contingent of Military Police [MP] stationed at the Boston Army Base for security purposes. When the Prisoner of War Ships arrived at the Army Base, Military Police were assigned to each ship. The POW’s were broken down by nationality to a train passenger car and would remain together until reaching their destination. Each railroad passenger car had at least four MP’s to control the POW’s while travelling. When the POW train left the Army Base, its first destination was Readville. The train would be on a siding waiting for clearance to the Prisoner of War Camp and the rerouting of the train to its destination.
I was surprised that these Prisoner of War looked like us Americans, they were of the caucasian race, tall, and they spoke different languages. They appear to be in a happy setting and liked to carry on conversations with the folks from Readville. I believe that the Prisoner of War were happy to be away from the battleground they once were defending. Basically, they were free now from the continual fighting of World War II. The many Prisoner of War trains that I visited during the late part of World War II continued to show that they had accepted defeat and was willing to live a different life until they would be repatriated after the end of the war.
It was hard to tell how I felt seeing these foreign soldiers that just arrived from campaigns in Africa and Europe. After all the United States was fighting the same foreign soldiers in another part of the world. I wondered how the prisoners’ felt being in another country far away from their family and friends. Imagine some of these soldiers were young and some could be married and have a wife and children that they may never see again.
Readville was a small railroad town. As one can imagine in 1944 & 1945 it was a major attraction to go to the railroad siding and see and sometimes talk to the POW’s. We had a large Italian community in my home town and there was always conversations between the community and the Italian POW’s. They seemed to be friendly to the community folks that met each POW train. Some of the Prisoners would throw German Marks or Italian Lira to us as souvenirs. They sometime tore off their military patches and threw them also.
Eventually, the all clear would be given to the Engineer and the POW train would leave the siding and head for New York for further rerouting. The local community would go back to their home, work or play until the next POW Train stopped in Readville.
