CWACs and POWs

CWACs and POWs

In the book Athene, Goddess of War, there are many stories of Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC) members who had interesting experiences while serving in Kingston, Ontario, and elsewhere.

 One such story involves a particular CWAC member who, in 1942, due to a shortage of barracks in Kingston, was billeted at the YMCA.

As related by her, she had a boy friend who had a car, and whose home was in Kingston. It was a hot summer for uniforms, so in the evening they would occasionally go for a ride dressed in cool civvies. Three German prisoners had escaped from Fort Henry. Two had been recaptured, but the third was still at large. On this particular evening she and her friend, with another couple, went for a ride east of Kingston. After being stopped at roadblocks several times they returned to Kingston and parked on the waterfront. They were there about half an hour, when all of a sudden a motorcycle policeman pulled up, opened their car door, and asked for help. It was a bright moonlit night and, as the policeman had gone by them on his patrol, he had seen a movement in the grass and had returned to check it out. The movement turned out to be the escaped German who had been creeping up on their car with a knife in his hand. The policeman had caught the German, but needed their assistance in getting his prisoner back to the police station.  The policeman and the escapee then rode downtown in the rumble seat of the car. As soon as the policeman and the German were out of the car she and her friends drove away as fast as they could since they didn't want to be questioned. A few days later her friend was pulled over by the same policeman as he wanted to extend his thanks, and said if her friend ever needed help, just to call him. Her friend asked that their names be kept anonymous and explained the trouble the girls could have been in for wearing civvies. It was a front-page story in all the papers, but their names were never mentioned.