…certainly behaved in barbaric fashion. A few Germans were killed (hung or shot or beaten) others they set to to desecrate & pillage the farms. Chaos reigned supreme. A pal & I discovered a German family with 2 Frenchmen in a farm surrounded by Russians who were plundering wholesale & slaughtering livestock ad lib. We found they were hiding a German farmer (the head of the house from the Russians so I clapped my great-coat on him and took him back to camp. When I arrived Lt Jessop approved my action & detailed my pal and I to carry on the good work of escorting these outcast families to the camp. They were overjoyed to find the Russians were going and to learn the Yanks were coming. It was pitiful to witness them. A young French girl with them had been a prisoner for four years and she was nigh delirious with joy at her liberation. She’d no love for the Germans either…

…for at all. I’d like to get my hands on some of the Jerry NCO’s etc; who hunted[?] last night.
Some gun fire just north of the camp. Probably a few Jerries holding out in the woods.
2200 hrs Orders given out by Major White, new camp Commandant appointed by the Russians to the effect that anyone outside the wire without a pass would be shot immediately by the Russians. We come under strict Russian military control until the Yanks get here. They are commandeering all food & have guaranteed an adequate food diet for the camp…

The Camp seems to be going pretty berserk & order & discipline is pretty lax. Still what can one expect from long term Kriegies! The Yanks are expected in the very near future, but the novelty of being liberated is beginning to wear off & time palls.

…really cannot see what they can do with the stuff.
2000 hrs the advance Yanks turned up midst great jubilation just at the time when it was being announced in the hut that, among others, W/O Cleary was in charge of C Platoon for purposes of moving! – So beautifully vague. Everyone is giving orders. The RAF is a separate unit, but of course the arrival of the Yanks has probably queered the patch.
I’m writing this by candlelight and the hut really looks festive for the first time really in twenty months. Well, it’s pretty late so I’m turning in. Late order. The Yanks will be back with their CO between 10 & 12 tomorrow…

May 5 1945
W/O Cleary and party marched militarily across the Elbe on the pontoon bridge at Belgern, quaking like a crowd of schoolgirls inwardly but appearing outwardly calm and very important! Saluting all round etc etc & we reached the other side safely…

…the Russian, who apparently did not want to lose face in front of the German farmer clapped his hand on his gun & said “You take them all or else!” or words to that effect. Needless to say we took them much to the consternation of the family we were staying with! When we left next morning, we left the remains of the eggs, but the German family said that rather than eat them themselves they would sooner return them if they could do so unnoticed by the Russians…

…were a trifle sick of barbed wire. We approached our driver & told him we would not stay but he was a bit dubious about driving us back as he was under orders to drop us at the camp. However we told him that if he slowed down on the way back, he would not find us with him when he reported back. To this he agreed and we dropped off the lorry sometime later. As it was getting late we decided to bed down in the nearest village. We knocked up the burgsmaster[?] who was awkward at first but soon came to heel. The eight of us were billeted in four houses & we ate altogether in one of them. We had been given plenty of rations by the Americans & also plenty of cigarettes which were useful for barter.