Flywheel; Memories of the Open Road" by Tom Swallow and Arthur Pill "and the members of the Mulhberg Motor Club" The inmates of Stalag IVB, in 1944 and 1945 formed a motor club of guys interested in cars and bikes, and held twice weekly meetings, with guest speakers etc., relying onn their recollections of sporting events and vehicles from before the war, and a small number of magazines that were allowed through the Red Cross process. In this period they produced elevn issues of their magazine "Flywheel" on exercise books, EVERYTHING handwritten and hand-DRAWN in vegetable inks, ink from lamp-black and soot etc. If you get it you'll see how little BLUE there is for instance, but how much brown...GRAVY! Each edition was then copied a dozen times by a team of copyists and circulated round the camp. The artwork is frigtheningly good for the circumstances it was produced in! Get your hands on a copy if you can.
I'm trying to remember the name of another motoring magazine created in a POW camp elsewhere. I'm sure it wasn't Flywheel
Flywheel I have had a copy of the book for several years now. The Late Tom swallow was a personal friend of mine. Tom worked on the text and Arthur Pill was the artist. Tom was a very interesting conversationalist as he was Company Clerk for 14 Company R.A.S.C.. The man who worked with him was Edward T.Schurch who was hung for the Wartime offence of Treachery. Schurch operated as a "Stoolpigeon"for the Italians and ocassionally the Germans under the alias of"Captain Richards" R.A.S.C. Stalag 1VB also had another notable Artist in Ray Newall of the 68th Mdm Rgt. R.A. Rays work has been exibited in Colditz and the Leeds Armoury.
Interesting Brian BBC - WW2 People's War - Wartime Friends in the Middle East - But Issy Was a Spy Theodore Schurch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Theodore Schurch
Stalag 1VB I attended several Stalag 1VB reunions several years ago with an ex P.O.W. friend. Meeting up with so many interesting people and listening to them relating their experiences diverted me from my main research on several ocassions. Tom told me of Schurch who linked into my research on P.O.W. Lost at sea. So I researched the man at Kew. Lt Cmdr. Brommage who was captain of H.M.Sm. Sahib came across"Captain Richards"in a Camp for Officer P.O.W. in the Vicinity of Rome. It didn't take long to rumble Schurch and what his game was. Brommage was a witness at the Trial. Brian
