大象传媒

Prior to landing we were issued with a ship's biscuit about 4" square, which is sold in a pet shop today as a dog's biscuit.! This was if anything, a little more palatable when soaked in water.

A very large warship was in the harbour and it was dressed overall and lined with naval ratings from stem to stern.

Upon landing,it was quite obvious that the Italian people sympathised with us and could be seen weeping here and there.

Having entrained, we were now on the way to our first official POW camp. En route we passed fields with row apon row of plum-shaped tomatoes and lettuce. A view of the backbone of Italy (The Apennine Mountains) in the background.

Finally,we detrained at Capua (pronounced -Kah-poo-ah)and Camp 66, The town is in Caserta Province, on the Volturno and situated in a fertile plain north of Naples.
where there was later in the year to be some very heavy fighting, sometime after we had been transferred to another camp in 1943. The Romanesque Cathedral which was high-up, just across the Axis troop-carrier training ground from us, was apparently almost destroyed.

All of our hair was very soon cut completely off within a minute or two, by use of sheep-shears and this being the worst draught in Italy for 25 years, we were warned to place paper over our heads when returning even a very short distance to our quarters.

It was sad to know that before we arrived at 82,a certain disabled POW had committed suicide, not knowing that he was due to be repatriated the following week.

We were afforded an excellent view of Mount Vesuvius belching white smoke by day and glowing red by night.This was said to be some 3,890 feet high. 10 miles east-south-east of Naples, the last major eruption in 1906, although there was molten lava flowing from the crater in March, 1944
It was also said that the crater had been 1,000ft higher prior to the eruption in 1906.

Camp 66 suffered greatly from lack of sanitation, there being a large, square pit across which were placed at regular intervals, lengths of heavy beams similar to our railway sleepers. I leave the rest to the imagination! Empty tins were piled up in a great heap, which naturally attracted flies galore.

It was during the heat of the summer that many of us were queuing up outside the camp hospital suffering from Malaria, which we were led to believe was caused by the mountain air! Staff therein used to form up in a row with blankets, with which they had to shoo the swarms of flies out by moving from one end of the hospital to the other, time and time again. I remember feeling so ill whilst awaiting entry in the extreme heat, that it was not possible to stand, but could only squat.

There were some Sudanese troops in that camp along with their Sgt.-Major and they could be seen each mornng cleaning their teeth by using their fingers and salt. Because they would not eat anything from a pig, owing to their religion, we were able to exchange a tin of whatever they preferred, for a tin of their bacon.

It was common for blankets to be taken out in the sunshine, where it was more easy to find the fleas gleaming and to squeeze them to death between our finger nails. What tedium! We were now to live with these creatures and more until our release. Bugs and lice added to one's indignity.

It annoys me greatly when films are produced supposedly depicting POW camp life today which are not by any means true-to-life, and ignore the very real boredom experienced by POWs in general. Have always maintained it would have been preferable had ex-POWs acted those parts themselves.

In camp 66 the 'brew up' would be made by a small stove made out of empty tins, which were opened up and the sheets therefrom being 'welded' together by punching with a nail and further shaped to produce a stove, which was operated by turning a handle connected to the finished article by a belt of string. A suitable bowl must have been obtained from without! It was amazing how soon a bowl of water would boil and when finished a cry-out was to be heard "Any embers?" These were the remains of the red- hot twigs for someone else to use. The enemy looked on in awe, no doubt being intrigued with British ingenuity, then carried on with their exercises over the many humps and bumps, in their troop-carriers.

All at once there were nightly flights of enemy Junkers 52 troop-carriers flying so low that we could see their lights flickering from rooftop to rooftop. They appeared to be landing just over the Romanesque Cathedral. We were told that they were taking re-inforcements of troops over to Tunisia, but, of course, the opposite was the truth - they were evacuating them from whatever airfields they had left in Tunisia! This was getting on for 13th May , when they were driven out of Africa altogether.

Having received our first Red Cross parcels from home, although obviously very much appreciated, were not sufficient to start with. Consequently, there would not for instance be enough cheese to be split evenly between 14 of us. We suggested we take turns to receive it,whenever it was next distributed. We could not afford to waste the crumbs as it was divided up!

Each evening, under the lights of the camp we would offer the guards whatever they demanded in return for bread. Maybe one day they would ask us for a certain item from our parcels in return for either two or three 'Panes'(Bread) according to their charge for that day. These they used to store in their pantaloons, but we did not care as long as we had somethng to eat, wherever they came from. Sometimes they wanted clothing and when throwing same over the wire fence to them, they would get caught up in the electric light cables, so we would beat a very hasty retreat!

From some outside information we were told that the war would not last longer than six months, because Germany was now very poor and that in that country either one had to work or starve.

One day I remember having heard an almighty explosion in the Naples direction. Maybe the Allies had blown up the warship we had seen upon landing in Naples on the 7th March last!

On the lighter side, there was a person whose name I seem to remember as being Arthur Helliwell, who kept our spirits up somewhat with his 'over-the-wall' sketches, which he performed with music hall perfection.

We were now to say good-bye to Vesuvius and in June, 1943 we left by train , travelling through Rome by night in wagons which were to accommodate 40 men (or 12 horses) We finally arrived at Camp 82 in much more picturesque country than at camp 66. This was at Laterina in Tuscany and was said to have been some 25 miles south-west of Arezzo.

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