Guards, Goons and Ferrets

Germans were universally known as "Goons", a nickname which puzzled them. (When asked, a captured officer said that it stood for "German officer or Non-Com".) The tall sentry watch platforms which mounted searchlights and machine-guns were therefore "Goon Boxes", and annoying the guards was "Goon Baiting". Whilst the guards were not the cream of the Luftwaffe, they unhesitatingly shot first and asked questions afterwards if any prisoner was rash enough to stray over the knee-high warning wire, and then fail to surrender if challenged. Some were undoubtedly trigger-happy and records at Kew hold correspondence from the SBO to the Kommandant reporting cases of unnecessary use of firearms.

GOON BOX (watercolour by Geoffrey Willatt and reproduced by kind permission of the artist)

The German guards specialising in escape detection were known as 'Ferrets' and could enter the compound at any time and search any hut without warning. Equipped with metal probes, they searched for the bright yellow sand indicating that a tunnel was in progress, or an English-speaking ferret would lie concealed under a hut listening for careless talk. Their most active, unpredictable and generally dangerous member, Gefreiter (Corporal) Greise, was known as 'Rubberneck' (above)

There is evidence to suggest that when a tunnel was detected by the guards or ferrets, it was allowed to continue without intervention until it appeared to be near completion. Then, the ferrets would pounce, driving heavy trucks around the compound to collapse the tunnels and galleries.