大象传媒

During our time at the farm we occasionally saw the other five who escaped with us and we would go to one of the nearby villages and meet in one of the wine bars. One night we met in San Andrea, a nearby village where the Fascists had a large grain store. In Italy at that time each farmer was allowed to keep a certain amount of grain for his own use and the surplus was stored in these grain stores and then taken to Germany. We had a few drinks and decided to open up the store and sell the grain back to the farmers and villagers. We broke in and during the evening and night cleared the store selling the grain for 100 lire a sack full. Early the next morning we left the village and slept in the cowshed of a nearby farm. During the morning the farmer came to wake us to tell us that some of villagers had informed on us and the Fascists and Germans were looking for us.

We moved out and split up again heading for the mountains. Squiff and I eventually headed back to the farm and when we got there we found they already knew what we had done as they recognised the descriptions of the men being looked for by the Germans. Luckily for us no one ever told the Fascists we were living so near the scene. Later Theresa and Lena went to Tolentino and with some of the money we had got from the grain sale they bought some proper trouser material and made both of us a decent pair of trousers.

Through Dinky Jones, one of those who escaped with us, Squiff and I got to know a Yugoslav woman named Sasha who had been released from an internment camp in Italy. Before the war she had been engaged to an Englishman who worked at the British Embassy in Yugoslavia, but when the war started he had been sent back to England. She was a widow and had two young sons in Yugoslavia and was very despondent because she could not get to them or get news of them. She was living in San Andrea and we used to visit her there. Later when it became unsafe there we moved her to a farm near us and she stayed there until we left to get back to our troops. Sasha had a roll of film and Enrico managed to get hold of an old box camera, so we were able to take photographs of family and friends. (I managed to keep the film safe until returning to England and then had it developed).
(Unfortunately these pictures cannot be found)
In June 1944 our troops began pushing the Germans north towards where we were and we heard the Germans were digging in north of Tolentino . We thought we would try to get through to our own lines. Sasha asked to come with us but we didn鈥檛 think she could make the whole journey on foot. We still had quite a bit of money left from our grain sales and be managed to bribe one of the locals to take us through the mountains in his horse and trap.
There was a very tearful parting when we left the farm, even the old man cried, no doubt in relief that we were at last going! Then to Camporotondo and said goodbye to the brothers and other friends that we had made, then picked up Sasha and headed for the foothills near the mountains. During the afternoon we ran into a patrol of Polish troops who would not let us go any further with the horse and trap, the farmer left us there and we continued on foot. We stayed in a village that night and the following morning found a British army truck and the driver offered to take us to the Polish headquarters. We were kept under guard there for three days until they verified we were escaped prisoners of war and not German deserters. After this we were put on a lorry with Italian refugees and taken to Naples. Sasha was dropped off outside Rome as she had friends there.
When we got to Naples we were able to write home, my parents had not heard from me since the previous August. We just hung around at Naples until there was a troop ship coming home. We got to Liverpool on 12th August and I travelled home overnight, it was a wonderful reunion and my sisters who were both in the forces managed to get leave to come and see me.
I used to read a lot and visited the local library, a very pretty girl worked there, I got talking to her on my last day of leave. I went back to the army on 12 September 1944 and later rejoined the KRRC at Strensall Camp, just outside of York. I had to undergo training on all of the new weapons that had come out since I had been captured. After this I became an instructor in the training unit, back to the old job again.
I wrote to the lady from the library, Jean, nearly every day 鈥� she was to become your Nanna, we got engaged in November and married in January 1945.We spent our honeymoon in a Morrison shelter, this was a large table made of steel surrounded by steel mesh which was to protect you from falling bricks and rubble in the event of an air raid
After my leave I returned to Strensall to train recruits, when the war ended in May 1945 I was sent to the depot at Winchester again as an instructor leaving the army on 30th May 1946 after seven years colour service but was still a reserve for a further five years.

That ended our dad鈥檚 World War II service. He joined the Surrey Police. In July 1950 he was recalled for duty in Korea as a reservist and was attached to the Royal Ulster Rifles. He was injured by a grenade in April 1951 and sent to hospital in Japan. Having recovered he returned to the UK in November 1951 and continued where he left off in Surrey. In May the following year he joined the Criminal Investigation Department where he remained until he retired.

In 1967 Dad took Mum, my sisters Linda and Janet to Italy on holiday, near to where he had been a prisoner, I was married and a mum.
There was a journalist from the then popular British weekly paper 鈥淭itbits鈥� also on holiday at the hotel. He listened to this story and they all went of to find the family Enrico had moved from the farm but they found that they were on another farm at Caldarola, a small village not far from Camporotondo.

When they got to the farm dad saw Enrico working in a field in a field that was about 2 metres below the level of the road, he just leapt down to the field for a very emotional reunion

Enrico and Theresa were there, Mario was working away.
Luigi, Lena, Franco and Bruna had gone to live in Argentina.
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