Catalogue description PP/MCR/215

Nell joined the 1st Battalion, The Green Howards in May 1932, and served in India (1934-36) and on the North West Frontier (1936-38). In the summer of 1940 he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and transferred to the 7th Battalion, with responsibility for a signals unit. He served with the Battalion in North Africa (50th Division) in 1942 and was captured at Mereah Matruh on 28 June 1942. He was soon moved to Italy where he was imprisoned in camp PG70 on the Northern Adriatic coast until September 1943 when the Germans occupied the area. Thereafter he was imprisoned in the following camps in Germany:

30 September - 26 October 1943: Jacobsthal Concentration Camp

27 October - 1 December 1943: Mühlberg (Stalag 1VB)

2 December 1943 - 28 January 1944: Jacobsthal

29 January - 23 September 1944: Mühlberg

24 September 1944 - 16 April 1945: Hammerstein (Stalag IIB/357)

The contents of the volumes throughout can best be described as reflective rather than descriptive. The vast majority of the entries concerns his obsessive thoughts of his fiancee and other women friends in England, letters from home, war news and speculations on when the war might end, and food. He constantly suffers from what he describes as the "most inferior of inferiority complexes" (Vol. 1. 15 February 1943) and his spirits rise and fall dramatically, largely influenced by the points listed above. He makes occasional references to his capture and the surrender of the unit under his command.

Volume 1. 47 pp 21 December 1942-28 August 1943

The first volume begins (mid entry as earlier pages are missing) with Nell a prisoner in PG 70 reflecting on his poor state of health and possible personal plans for his life after the war. He claims that "time is flying. Boredom doesn't affect me" (10 April 1943) but the diaries show a regular irritation with the continuation of the war, news of which he seems to receive quite frequently. He gives very little descriptive detail concerning the camp and life in it, beyond mentions of courses and food shortages. The invasion of Sicily and the flight of Mussolini aroused great enthusiasm among the prisoners and the first volume ends on a resounding note of optimism and high hopes that he might soon be able to return home.

Volume 2. 100pp 1 September 1943-2 July 1944

The second volume begins with a rather pessimistic realisation that the war has not ended with the "collapse of Fascism" and the fear that the camp might be moved to Germany. Following the signing of the Armistice, the Senior British Officer insisted that prisoners stay in the camp - a view which Nell at first supports, but later criticises when the German forces take the camp over (17 September)

On 24 September 1943 the prisoners were taken to Germany and were moved back and forth between camps at Jacobsthal and Mühlberg, before finally settling in the latter camp towards the end of January 1944. Nell makes only passing comments on conditions in these camps, but begins to show increasingly signs of strain owing to the "maddening ... monotony and futility" of being a prisoner and occasionally gives vent to his growing impatience with the continuation of "this silly bloody war" (29 March 1944).

Expectations of the opening of a 'secondfront' increase throughout the early months of 1944 and preparations are made in camp amidst fears that the Russians will merely replace the Germans as overlords. The second volume ends with guarded hopes that the war will end soon.

Volume 3 61pp 4 July-28 October 1944

In the early entries Nell expresses outrage against the Germans, at this point largely because of their ill-treatment of Russian prisoners in a neighbouring compound. In all the volumes Nell occasionally lapses into wild invective against the German race (see especially vol. 2 25 April 1944 and vol. 4 3 November 1944), going as far as to express a certain pleasure in knowing that they are being "blasted into Hell" (23 October 1944) by Allied bombs. He shows a slight understanding for the reservist guards of Mühlberg and speaks of the "better Germans" he finds on moving to Hammerstein (Stalag IIB).

Volume 4 72pp 28 October 1944-25 January 1945

Depressed by news that the war is unlikely to end before mid 1945, Nell once more gives voice to a tirade of abuse against the Germans - a tone which he later moderates to a slight sympathy for the German soldiers on the Eastern Front (30 December 1944 and 15 January 1945). His spirits in this and the final volume fluctuate radically, influenced almost wholly by his obsessive emotions for his fiancee and by good and bad war news. These subjects take up the majority of entries, although among the other points which he mentions, it is interesting to note the increase in tensions among prisoners, particularly between Army and RAF personnel (7 January 1945). Nell appears to have been only temporarily troubled by the removal by the camp authorities of matresses and other items of furniture in reprisal for alleged similar treatment of German prisoners by the Allies in Egypt (15 January 1945).

He shows consistent admiration for 'Joe' (Stalin) and the Russians as reports of their rapid advances spread about the camp, but by the end of the volume he remains pessimistic about the war ending before the end of 1945.

Volume 5 61pp 29 January-25 April 1945 and postscript of 25 March 1980

Increasingly throughout this final volume Nell complains about severe cutbacks in rations, which, combined with the effects of a cold winter made worse by a reduction in the number of blankets issued to prisoners (25 February 1945), leads to personal tensions and squabbles among prisoners (see 9-12 February in particular). His hatred for the Germans and his anxieties for his fiancee increase in proportion to the reduction in rations (see particularly 3 March).

On 8 April an abortive attempt was made by the Germans to evacuate the camp, but after three days marching towards Bergen, the prisoners returned only to find their huts ransacked by local inhabitants in their absence.

By this stage the camp guards acted as "little more than commissionaires" (15 April 1945) and a routine of "easy living" took over as the liberating British forces drew closer. The camp was finally liberated at 10.46 am on 16 April 1945 and Nell arrived in England ten days later, marrying his fiancee nine days after his return.