大象传媒

Everyday Life in Camp
I learnt three Italian words there; one was "domani", the other was "sapone" and the third one was "pane". "Domani" was tomorrow because Red Cross parcels were supposed to come every week, which of course, they didn't. Every time we asked where the parcels were, we were told "domani". When the parcels did come, there were always tablets of soap. Well, we couldn't wash; one chap tried to have a hipbath, and got paralysed for two or three days! So we didn't bother. The Italians had no soap, only this ersatz soap which broke away in your hand when you put water to it. So we gave them soap and got bread from them for tablets of soap, "sapone", and "pane" was bread. We used to go to the barbed wire and say "Sapone - pane?" They'd have the bread tucked down the inside of their jackets.

One day I noticed a few of the lads standing there by the barbed wire. I went over there, where they were listening to music in the guards' compound some distance away, where there was some palm court orchestra type music. Of course, we had no music, so they were just standing there listening. The things we take for granted. Another time, there was a small group gathered round and one lad had a little mirror about an inch square. There was great hilarity, as they were passing this around, because they hadn't seen themselves for months and never with beards and no wash.

Occasionally we got cigarette parcels, very occasionally. The parcels were due, and I asked one chap (an ERA actually) who didn't smoke and had about five or six packets of ten if he would give me a cigarette. He knew the parcels would come in the next day, but he wouldn't; he just refused. I thought that was rather mean. To counteract that, one of the stokers, a coloured lad, who I told about this, just put his hand in his pocket and took out the one cigarette he had, broke it in two and gave me half. You certainly found out a chap's character in conditions like this.

You used to save the tins from the parcels when they did come. It's amazing what you can do when you haven't got any tools. I found a piece of wire about a quarter of inch diameter, and I got a stone and hammered this away until I was able to flatten one end and then kept hammering and sharpened up one edge so I made a knife. I cut the top and bottom of each tin and then opened up the seam to end up with an oblong piece of tin. We used to fold these together to make ovens, stoves, so we could heat up some water and make some tea when we had it. The first one I made was just a simple one of three cans, one above the other, with a larger one at the bottom, and a hole cut in each side. I took the top and bottom off and put a little fire inside with a can on the top with water in. The best one I made, was about twelve inches square and six inches high. It had two holes in the top, to take two tins, which held about half a pint of water each, two chimneys on the side (made from a type of cocoa tin). I cut flutes on the side to make a draft and it had a fire grate which I could take out and empty, and it had an oven at the back with a double bottom on it and a door which opened at the back so I could put a bit of bread against the inside of it, when it was on, so I could toast it! So I was quite proud of that stove. Eventually, when I was exchanged, my mate, Lewis was left behind, and in a ceremony .. I presented him with my stove. I'd intended making one when I got home but I didn't have the patience of course. I had all the patience in the world there; there was nothing else to do.

With not being able to wash, as I say, it was too cold, we were all covered in lice, never a very pleasant subject. You could feel them crawling all over you. At night, you could see all the lads, sitting there with their trousers on and their vests off, the vest turned inside out and going down the side seam killing the lice. .. You'd get twenty or thirty a day. We used to have little races. Someone would say, "I've got the daddy of them all!" And put them down and give them a little poke, and have a little race with them. They used to be white these lice and as they sucked your blood, so a little red spot appeared, and eventually you were all red as they just filled up. Not a very pleasant subject, but then if you want to hear my memoirs, some are pleasant, some unpleasant.

There was a place for exercise and walking round, but that just gave us an appetite, and we had nothing to ease our hunger you know. There were hundreds of other prisoners in this camp, not just us. There were a lot of South Africans who were supposed to have held Tobruk but they didn't; they just gave up and handed it over to the Germans. They were in the camp .. and had all their uniforms and very well fed. So, I'm afraid that none of the English lads would have anything to do with them, at all, never spoke to them, but kept well away from them. We just didn't trust them.

With there being so many in the camp, there were all sorts. There were a few teachers and I did join one class doing Pitman short hand and getting on quite well when they exchanged me. Also, we had one or two concert parties that we put on, all men of course, dressed up as girls .. I was there for Christmas midnight mass and the Italians of course, were Catholics; there was a church in the camp, I went to. The Italian guards and their families were there. A very pleasant day, that was; it felt as if I was back home again at midnight mass with communion and everything.

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