Locals: Prisoners worked on farms

When German prisoners of war came to Covington County to work on local farms, farmers were more scared of the guards than the priosoners, John Clark recalled.

“In 1943 we got the first ones down here with Japanese American guards,” Clark recalled. “They were just as American as you and I are, but folks around here had never seen Japanese Americans before. All they knew was about the war with the Japanese in the Pacific.

“Farmers were more sacred of guards than the prisoners,” he said.

Clark, who was 12 at the time, said the prisoners had been capture in North Africa Clark said American supply ships serving troops in Africa first housed the POWs, then brought them to the states.

“There were only old men and young ‘uns here,” he said. “Everybody else was fighting the war. I happened to be one of the young ‘uns.”

Many of the soldiers were well educated, Clark said, adding that most of them spoke English well. The prisoners worked here for two or three years, he said, and eventually, guards weren’t used.

He recalled one incident when the guard was napping in the shade.

“We were in a peanut field across a pretty good branch,” he said. “They brought their dinner, which was two sandwiches. The guard was under one of the haystacks and went to sleep. I wasn’t going to wake him up, so this 12-uyear-old kid brought 10 German prisoners across the branch where their lunch was.”

Clark said he got in trouble with his daddy, because his father thought the prisoners could have used the chance to escape.

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“But where were they going,” he said. “They couldn’t swim the Atlantic Ocean.”

Mr. C.E. Spicer also used POWs on his farm. His granddaughters, Kay Johnson and Ernestine Cosby, live on the farm today, and also shared some memories, including farm photographs and letters the POWs wrote to their family after they returned home.

Their aunt, Sara Martha Gantt, previously had shared information about the POWs with Jan White.

“She said the prisoners lived at the camp, and would bring a sack lunch to eat. Her mother would cook black-eyed peas, turnip greens and other things for them to eat because she wanted them to have a hearty meal to do work in the fields.”

Wiley Ward recalled seeing the POWs working near Pleasant Home when he was about 10.

“They were down there on a farm. We would see them every day when we went by on the school bus. But they kept it quiet. They were afraid people down there if they got a chance, would after get them.”