War Poems in German & Italian P.O.W. camps.
Sergeant Lynn Sarrell Ongley



Our Bungalow
L.S. Ongley
13 March 1945

Bare brick walls all cold and damp
With freezing stony floor
A tiny closet wet and foul
The lighting system poor
Shaky beds of nails and plank
No mattress can be seen
A draughty roof of timber logs
The dripping rafters green
A smoky stove burns twice a day
The atmosphere is dead
One table is the furniture
Reprisal it is said
Some window panes are missing
the door wont fit the frame
Two heaters never operate
For coal is just a name
Fifteen feet by twenty
Is the length of our prison hut
Eighty men packed sardine tight
With every window shut


Stalag 357.
Fallingbostel. Hanover. Germany.