大象传媒

I joined the Royal Hampshire Regiment in November 1939 aged 20 years, at Newport on the Isle of Wight and after 2 months moved to Shepton Mallet in Somerset to the 5th Battalion.
Because our troops were being evacuated from France, instead of crossing the channel, we started to dig trenches and put up barbed wire as a defence against invasion on the Kent coast.
We then marched from Westgate on Sea, Kent to London arriving outside Leightonstone.
It was not until the end of 1942 that we embarked in Scotland onto a Belgium troop ship the Leopoldville and set sail for Algiers in North Africa.
Being in the infantry, duty consisted of night patrols and look-out. We had little contact with the local Arabs.
In 1943, when fighting in the front line, we were attacked by German tiger tanks, our officer was forced to wave a white flag and we were taken prisoner. We had suffered many casualties and I myself was wounded in the face by shrapnell.
We were held for 2 days then, because of my wound, I was taken to Tunis in a German Mk.6 tank when the one English speaking German soldier treated me well and gave me a sandwich made with black bread (which I had never seen before).
After some treatment I was transported by an Italian boat to Naples ending up in a nunnery being looked after by the nuns under a British Medical Officer POW. Here we were guarded by Germans.
12 weeks later, I was transferred to prison camp No.66 with Italian guards and mainly Hampshire Regiment POW's. Our food consisted of a daily bowl of macaronie or rice plus the occasional Reg Cross food parcel. We played football, cricket etc., to pass away the time. At night we slept three to a bunk - not too bad really! The Italian guards also gave us some Italian money which we were able to spend buying ice cream and other items from traders outside the wire.
At the end of 1943, I was taken by rail in a cattle truck to Stalag VIII A at Gorlitz, Lower Silesia on the Polish/German border. We were x-rayed and if declared fit, sent down a coal mine to work. We loaded coal from conveyor belts into trucks to be taken to the surface. The miners were all Polish and did not speak English. We were quite happy working down the mine because we felt safer from the American bombs falling overhead.
In January 1945, with all the other prisoners, I was marched about 900 miles to Munich in Germany because the Allies were advancing.
We were poorly dressed and did not receive much food and it was winter.
Then on VE Day, 1945, I was liberated by the Americans with much cheering. I was repatriated via France and flown back to England in a bomber aeroplane.
I finally left the army in 1946.
Incidentally, I still have my dog-tag from Stalag VIII A - POW No. 81152; a number I will never forget.

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