An Armagh woman who was fascinated by her father’s recanting of his time as a prisoner of war and the Polish family who helped him has immortalised his life story by putting his words to paper.
Lynda Pollock – who was born and raised in Armagh – is preparing to release her father’s war story in novel form, ‘The Promise Keeper’ this November 14.
Sharing some of that remarkable story with Armagh I, Lynda explained that her father, Eric Armstrong spent his youth living in Milford before he was married.
Eric had worked a few odd jobs here and there but work was hard to come by back then, Lynda explained. So eventually he joined the ‘supplementary reserves’, which functioned in a similar way to the more contemporaneous Army Reserves.
Then one fateful day in 1939, when World War II broke out, Eric was “called up” as a member of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Eric was enlisted as a soldier, did a little training in England and then travelled to France.
It was there that he found himself amid the famous Battle of Dukirk. That was where Lynda said her father was engaged in most of his “main fighting” before regrettably being taken as a Prisoner of War (POW) by the Nazi German forces.
At the time Nazi Germany occupied sections of Poland. With an exorbitant number of POWs, the Germans sent many captured Allied servicemen to Polish camps or “Stalags”.
Eric was taken to Northern Poland where he was kept in a Stalag for five long years.
Lynda explained: “Quite a lot happened during that time and the Russians were moving in.
“When they moved in and the Germans moved back, they moved their prisoners into Germany on ‘the long walk’.”
However, a slight hiccup meant that her father and 32 other men were some how or another “forgotten” by German troops!
“The moved the prisoners out of Stalag XXA and their outposts but they some how forgot my father and the men he was with and they had to make special arrangements to have them shifted!”
It was during the harsh Polish winter that Eric and the others found themselves in the midst of being moved over vast territory into Germany.
It also came to their attention that they would be moved by the infamous Schutzstaffel (SS). Eric astutely knew that if their guards for the journey were the SS, they had “precious little chance of getting home”, said Lynda.
During the course of his time in Poland Eric was “fortunate” to be taken under the wing of the Sprengel family who owned a farm.
Lynda said they treated her father with so much “kindness” and the relationship ended up blossoming into a “lifelong friendship”.
Around the time that Eric was due to be taken from Poland to Germany, he approached Konrad Sprengel, the farmer who he worked for, and told him he was going to try and escape!
Stalag XXA, Eric third from left in back row
He asked the gentle farmer if he managed to escape could he some day return to see him and his family. Naturally, Konrad welcomed him to return.
They set a date for 1979. It was a “tease” said Lynda. But in actuality, Eric made the journey back to the Sprengel family almost 40 years after his capture… the very year he promised to.
All these fascinating stories were relayed to Lynda and her siblings as children. Eric also jotted them down in “shopping list” style notes.
Prior to his death, Eric always planned to write a book of his experiences as a soldier and POW. Sadly, the day never came.
When he died, Lynda put a “little book” together that was never meant to see the light of day beyond her immediate family circle. It contained every stitch of information she could pull together, both from memory and writings.
Then, out of nowhere one of her father’s stories appeared on ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio Ulster shared by Baptist Pastor Lindsay Allen.
The presenters of the show were intrigued. They enquired as to where the story had come from and invited a member of Eric’s family onto the show to explain a little more.
Lynda’s brother, Stephen attended the next day and in the course of his interview revealed Lynda had written a book!
The enquiries flooded in and while she hadn’t been expecting to go beyond the little booklet she had created, she thought, “Maybe I’ll give it a go!”
Lynda had read a book published by Maurice Wylie Media of the same vein as her own. With nothing to lose, she reached out to the publishing house and fully expected to receive the reply, “Woman dear, what make you think you’re a writer?”
But, she said, the publisher replied with a demand! “You need to write this because you are the last generation that will be able to write the story and know the person you are writing about!”
It was recognised that if she decided not to pursue the book, there was a high chance her father’s incredible story would be lost!
With Maurice Wylie’s help, Lynda put together her father’s story entitled ‘The Promise Keeper’ which she is now set to proudly launch on November 14.
Without giving too much away, the story is told in her father’s voice up until the time of his death, when Lynda takes over.
It navigates separation, fear, hunger and longing but it also celebrates the essence of humanity and friendship.
Those wishing to attend Lynda’s debut book launch are warmly welcomed to the Temple Lundy Room at First Armagh Presbyterian Church on the corner of Russel Street.
Teas and coffees will be made available from 11.30 onwards and copies of The Promise Keeper will be on sale.
