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Transcribed on the Comput@bus at Brockhampton Rural Learning Event

I was evacuated from Dunkerque and then posted to the middle east. I was taken POW when Tobruk fell. I was flown to Italy and put in a POW camp in the “ Toe “ of Italy. When Italy fell I was entrained for Germany in a hot smelly cattle truck with a crowd of other POWs. As we travelled along very slowly with lots of stops we discovered a fault in the floor of the truck. A small crack. With great difficulty we set about enlarging the hole with our Billy Can knives, until it was large enough to slip through. At one of the enforced stops we slipped out under the train and made our escape. This was at Verona. We escaped to Switzerland across the Alps on foot to Tirano. It took us a whole week. We were greatly assisted by help from the Italian peasants, one of whom produced home made snow shoes for us to get across the Alps.
We made contact with the embassy in Switzerland and were told to wait until things improved in France. I think we would have been an embarrassment to the Free French who would not have been able to arm us. Eventually we made it to Marseilles and got a ship to Glasgow.
On the way through France the Americans fed us and I particularly remember them putting stew and tinned fruit in the same Billy Can all together. No Michelin stars here !

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