In a prisoner of war camp in 1944 in southern Poland, as wet, wintry conditions set in, England and Australia played a game of cricket.
It wasn’t a typical match but it was, for the men involved, as important as the Ashes.
Private Maurice Kelk, from Parkes, NSW, was in the Stalag 334 Prisoner of War (POW) camp after being captured in Crete in 1941.
He was often the opening batsman for Australia, but he would also keep score of each match in a small diary, which he decorated with cartoons.
One cartoon shows the ball turning at right angles to just miss hitting the wickets with the caption, ‘What luck’.
For that particular match in 1944, the diary shows that Australia won.
An illustration in the recently re-discovered cricket score book from the Stalag 334 POW camp. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
Just months later, the POW camp was emptied and prisoners were forced to march west, still under German guard.
Private Kelk must have hidden the little cricket diary under his arm — at least, that’s the only way Australian War Memorial (AWM) senior historian Dr David Sutton thinks it could have ended up in their archives.
As the Ashes season approached, Dr Sutton went looking for old archives related to cricket, expecting to find scorecards or signatures.
Instead, he was surprised to find Private Kelk’s beautifully decorated cartoons.
“You never quite know what you might come across when you go digging through the archives,” he said.
Australian War Memorial senior historian Dr David Sutton recently re-discovered the illustrated scorecard in the AWM archives. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
Tough conditions for cricket
The 1944 match may have been cricket, but it was a far cry from the carefully curated wicket at the centre of the MCG for today’s Boxing Day Test.
Dr Sutton said the game was often played in long, thin, dusty and dirty courtyards across numerous POW camps in World War II (WWII).
Knitted mats were laid down as a pitch which, he said, “made the bounce really difficult”.
While one of their number kept a look-out above for enemy planes these Australians played a game of cricket in the ruins of a Tobruk street in September 1941. (Supplied: Australian War Memorial)
A boundary to the short side of the field was only worth two runs — not four.
“Every morning before they played, they would do an emu parade and pick up any pebbles they could,”
Dr Sutton said.
“It wasn’t white picket fences and green grass.”
Yet sometimes these games would attract 2,500 spectators — a sign that the sport was seen as “a real boredom saver”.
A cure for boredom
AWM historian Dr Michael Kelly said the conditions in POW camps varied depending on where the camp was located and who was in charge.
AWM historian Dr Michael Kelly said that in every conflict Australian soldiers have participated in, there is evidence cricket was played. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“There’s camps that are really horror stories and you wouldn’t get any cricket happening at all,” he said.
“In other camps sport really thrived and was a real boredom saver and morale winner.
“The prisoners signed up to fight a war, not to sit behind barbed wire. Sport seems to be a great unifier in any place, times of hardship or times of fun.”
Dr Kelly said that camps further from the front tended to be more relaxed.
In some camps, the Red Cross was able to provide cricket equipment.
Australian troops playing cricket in Malay, 1941 during World War II. (Supplied: Australian War Memorial)
Dr Kelly said Australia’s military history was full of examples of the importance of sport.
“Wherever we are as a nation anywhere in the world — from the Boer War right through to modern conflicts in Afghanistan, there’s always a cricket bat and ball,” Dr Kelly said.
“It’s part of our psyche.”
The substitute Ashes
Private Kelk’s diary isn’t the only cricket-related record in the AWM’s collection.
A cricket book called the Ersatz Ashes, detailing games between Australia, England and New Zealand in POW camp Stalag 383 in Bavaria in 1943, also sits among their shelves.
The front cover of the Ersatz Ashes compiled by prisoners of war Jim Welch and Jim Davies. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
Dr Kelly said “ersatz” could be translated as “substitute or replacement” — fitting, given the Ashes was well-established by WWII.
The Ersatz Ashes record was compiled by prisoners of war Jim Welch and Jim Davies.
The diary was then brought to Australia by Lieutenant Bill Foxwell after WWII.
Now in the AWM collection, it shows painted cartoons about the different cricket results, and images of the kiwi, the British lion and a kangaroo battling it out.
A kangaroo, the British lion and a kiwi wrestle and jest in illustrations from a cricket game played in 1943. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
On one page, a disgruntled looking kiwi sulks off with the caption “I’ll show these big shots a thing or two when Rugby starts”.
The little diary shows a batsman shin-deep in mud while a fielder wears a scuba suit.
On another page, a batsman walks off with a duck, reminiscent of the animated animal that pops up on TV screens when a batsman scores zero runs.
A decorated scorecard from a game of cricket played in a POW camp during WWII. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
“These are two of the most stunningly beautiful records we have, documenting Australia’s love of sport but also just trying to make the best of hardship as well,” Dr Kelly said.
“Wherever there’s members of the Commonwealth, there’s cricket.“
Men sitting outside their huts in ‘Anzac Avenue’ at Stalag 383 POW camp in Bavaria. (Supplied: Australian War Memorial)
Dr Sutton said the records showed the human face of war stories.
“This is the stuff history is made of because it helps us flesh out these stories and understand what people got up to in really difficult times,” he said.
“It gives a bit of perspective. We get worked up every year watching the cricket. When you see these guys in such horrible conditions using cricket as a way to get through it, it calms me down a bit because I think, ‘I haven’t got it that bad’.“
A team photo of the Australian cricket team inside Stalag 383 POW camp. (Supplied: Australian War Memorial)
The diaries can be viewed upon request at the AWM.
