Paul Lippok was born in Eastern Germany. At the start of World War 2 he was fourteen years old and when he turned seventeen and a half he was called up to be a paratrooper for the German army. He didn’t want to go but he had no choice. If he said no, he would have been sent to prison or maybe shot or tortured.

Although, called up to be a paratrooper, he did not get the chance to jump out of a plane because there were none left. So he travelled all the way to France for some training as a soldier and after that he went to Italy to help the German army there because the British were invading Italy. The British and American troops were pushing the Germans further back into Italy but because he was younger he was not in the front line so he never saw any fighting. In fact he never fired a shot at the enemy because he lost his rifle. It was just outside Rome, whilst he stood at a T-junction, wondering if he would go left or right, that an American came up behind him and said, “Put your hands up!”

Group photograph of German soldiers

From there he was marched to Naples then onto Algiers. From Algiers he was moved to a huge camp at Casablanca in Africa. After a short while he was loaded with lots of other prisoners on to 60 or 70 American ships to form a convoy across to America. The journey lasted three weeks and he was very scared in case the ship would be torpedoed by one of his own U Boats.

He arrived at Oklahoma. He stayed in three different prison camps. He was in Oklahoma then Texas and finally six months in California. They were made to work, picking plums in the Nappa Valley and when the plums finished they went south to pick the cotton. It was very warm and they had to fill an eight foot pack which was very tiring. Mr Lippok was treated very well in America. He said the food was great. In the morning he got to eat cornflakes with milk, bread and butter and coffee. For lunch it was steak or other meat and veg and potato. Again there was something warm for dinner, like sausages. Dinner was often like a mixed grill. It was almost better than being at home. During his spare time he read British and American newspapers to help him learn English.

He stayed for 2 years in America and then he was to be sent back to Europe but he was not free. Due to the terrible state that Germany was in when the war the finished he was not allowed back there and so in March 1946 he was transported to Liverpool in Britain. From there the German prisoners were all dispersed to different parts of the country. Two trainfuls were sent to Scotland. The journey just went on and on; there seemed to be no end to it. At last he was awakened from sleep to find himself in Perthshire. He was in a little village called Comrie. ( where the Black Watch trained. ) From there he was sent to Dingwall to a large camp beside Brahan Castle where a field had been set aside for huge timber huts. These had been used to house Canadian soldiers and then Italian POWs but they had now all gone home.

Mr Lippok in Kildary

From there twenty five of them went on to Kildary to a small two hutted camp between Balnagown and Scotsburn. There was a small stove in each hut for warmth. One hut was for the prisoners the other was for a kitchen and the dining room and the guard. When Paul arrived he thought the countryside looked beautiful. There was no barbed wire around the huts and only two guards. Each morning two lorries came to collect the prisoners to take them to work on the local farms from Portmahomack to Invergordon and prisoners were dropped off in ones or twos depending on the size of the farm. Balmuchy and Bindal farms had three of four men. Paul began work on a farm called Viewfield, just above Tain.

POW huts at Kildary

After some time it was agreed that if the farmers had room on their farms the POWs could stay there and not have to travel back and fore to the camp daily. There was plenty of space at Viewfield as it was only occupied by a sister and brother, their parents having died sometime earlier, so it was decided that he would stay there. However, he had to cycle every Saturday to Kildary to register. The POWs were not supposed to go into Tain but they did and could buy a little. The food in Britain was nothing compared to what it was in America but it was sufficient. They were also not supposed to go to any dances but sometimes they sneaked out to them.

In 1947 word came through that the POWs were to be demobbed and were free to return to Germany if they wished. However, they were also told that if they wanted to stay in Britain they could. The family he was with needed him. His own brother wrote to him and told of having to resettle in Western Germany. Paul’s family had been in Eastern Germany but had to move when the Communists took over and were all living in a single room. So he decided that it would be better to stay in Scotland. It was a decision he never regretted. In fact most of the POWs from the camp at Kildary decided to stay in Scotland.

Paul stayed on at Viewfield for eighteen years and although a stranger to begin with, he made sure that he became involved in the community. He played for many years in the Mansefield Dance Band, later the Tain Dance Band alongside other POWs. One of them, a British POW, had been imprisoned in a camp in Poland not very far from where Paul’s own home had been. On another occasion whilst looking for a bonnet at Hugh Mackenzies the draper in Tain, he found out that when he was a youngster visiting his aunt in Tost, he had watched British POWs exercising in a yard under her house and Hugh Mackenzie had been one of them.

Over the years Mr Lippok has made himself well known and respected in the town of Tain.