Fred Hutson

Fred Hutson was a DEMS (Defensively Armed Merchant Ship) gunner on the AD Huff. His story of the sinking of the Huff is much like George Shaker's. He contradicts Ernie Shakelton's story about preparing the gun to fire.

Fred was taken from Milag and sent to a labour camp in Silesia where he spent most of the war. Fred sent me a letter telling his story and I have reproduced it here. Fred lives in Devon, England. Clicking on any of the pictures sent to me by Fred's son Jeff will bring up a larger version

My experiences were the same as George Shaker’s up to a point, as I was taken from Marlag & Milag Nord some time in 1942, and transferred to a working POW camp in Silesia, which was a buffer state between Germany and Poland. It was called Bau und Arbeits Battalion 21 Uber Heydebreck Bleckhammer Selesia, situated not far from Katowitz and Breslau. (This was a sub-camp of Stalag VIIIB - Mark Hickman's POW site has some other stories from this camp.)

I was in a working party till the end of the war with a firm that was installing sewage pipes for a new oil refinery that was being built about a mile from the POW camp. (Roger Coward who wrote "Sailors in Cages" was also taken from Marlag und Milag and put in Bau und Arbeits Battalion 21.)

As for my personal experiences in the sinking of the AD Huff I only remember I was with most of the crew at the rear of the ship not really knowing what to do. I was only an acting A/B gunner and my oppo was a Petty Officer name of Bert Barham and he was in charge of the gun which was a 1st World War Breach loading 4” gun which would have been ridiculous to fire at the Gneisenau, in fact suicide. (See Ernie Shakelton's story which includes crew lists from the AD Huff.)

But back to the camp. I think that I was fortunate to be transferred to a working camp, as in hindsight I think the time could have passed a bit quicker with something to do all the time.

But never the less time still dragged and if it wasn’t for the occasional supply of Red Cross parcels life could have been quite unbearable.

I was never involved in anything spectacular like trying to escape, there was the occasional attempt I believe, but not much success. Unfortunately the camp got bombed in 1944 when the factory for the first time started producing refined oil. The American Super Fortresses came over and bombed the factory and unfortunately hit the camp and about 20 POWs were killed. (Mark Hickman's site has copies of Red Cross reports on these bombings.)

This was a very nerve racking time and we were glad that in Feb 1945 we were ordered to vacate the camp as we were being transported further south as we were not far from the advance of the Russian Army.

But the transport prove to be a myth and we were marching the rest of the war till we reached Bavaria at a place called Landshut. Eventually we were released by the Americans and flown home to Tangemere in Sussex.