大象传媒

This story was told on behalf of Frank Edwards by his daughter Grace Hawker, and has been added with her permission, to the People's War web-site by Heather McGrouther of the 大象传媒 Coventry & Warwickshire CSV Action Desk Volunteers. All parties fully understand the terms & conditions.

This was a story that I found amoungst my Dad's effects, after he died in December 2001. The story was enclosed with a letter that my Dad received from an old friend called George Powell, who he was a Prisoner of War with in an Italian Hospital. George is happy for his story to be added to the web-site.

(To read Part 1 of this story please type: Who stole the bread roles? Part 1 - A picture of the hospital. in the search box above.)

One day, several new patients arrived to replace some who had moved on, amoung them a Guardsman who was put in the bed opposite me, the first bed on the other side of the ward. When he had settled in, we introduced ourselves and discovered that we had attended the same school, although Frank (or 'Mick', as we later christened him), was about three years older than me, he was in his last year whilst I was in my first. The school was St. Margaret's Anfield, a well known and respected Church of England school next to the church of the same name. Frank's full name was Francis Edwards and he was of Welsh origin, but because he came from Liverpool, he was recruited into the Irish Guards.

Frank was badly wounded in hand to hand fighting when, coming face to face with a German, he was shot, the bullet grazing his head just above the ear. Frank was knocked to the ground and ashe lay there helpless, he was shot again, the bullet entering his right shoulder, and left lower down his back via his lung, luckily missing his kidney.

As soon as Frank was allowed out of bed we decided that we had to do something to improve our food allowance, and spent some time checking hospital routines with specific relevance to our ward and quickly found that the rolls were delivered in the evenings ready for the next day, and stored in a room opposite the entrance to the ward. This room was equipped with cupboarsd and was kept locked.

The first requirement was the aquisition of a key that would unlock the outer door of the store room and this was aquired more easily than we had feared.

By careful observation and a large slice of good luck, it was noted that the key that we required was the key that was used to open the medicine cupboard which stood in the passageway that linked the ward with the main gangway off which the storeroom was situated. Pretty soon we had hatched a plan which involved waiting until the medicine cabinet was unlocked and, as was the habit, the key left in the lock. Frank and our American associate positioned me in front of the cabinet and then waited half hidden opposite. Soon a nurse came along and, telling me that I should not be out of the ward, took me by the arm and accompanied me to my bed! Whilst this was going on, Frank quickly left his position and removed the key from the lock of the cabinet. Mission accomplished, or at least, the first and most crucial part of the operation.

Now that we had the key, and I had established myself as a good look-out decoy, all we had to do was wait for an opportune moment, some time in the evening after the delivery of the rolls and during the gap between the finish of the nurse's day shift and before the start of the night shift. The next night, we commenced to put our plan into operation and I took up my position as look-out decoy near to the door of the storeroom within earshot of the felons inside!

This worked wonderfully well and, as we had agreed, only enough rolls to supply each member of the ward with one roll each were taken.

As we only took a small percentage of the stock rolls, the thefts were not detected for about a week but, like all good things, it ended when some Italian workmen came along and changed the lock on the storeroom door, but we were never found out, and all the patients in the ward benefited by the small increase in their daily rations!

To read more about this story please type: Who stole the bread rolls? Part 3 - We still had the key! in the search box above.

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