大象传媒

John Robert Hood was a bandsman in the Durham Light Infantry. It surprised me when I was a lot younger, how a bandsman could serve in so many parts of the world. The photographs he had taken while touring? prove where he had been. I was told I should show these to people who might have known him. How was another matter? I built a website to point people towards at www.aocfotos.com/memories.html Then the B.B.C brought out this 大象传媒i. Now I can tell the story to whomever it concerns.

In 1937- 40 The Durham Light Infantry was stationed? In Shanghai and Tiensin, China. I think the Japanese were about to invade Shanghai. Then they were in Burma and Malaya. Although I don鈥檛 know which first or how long in each. He didn鈥檛 like to talk about it. I know he caught malaria, which kept coming back. The next photograph is dated Cairo 1940. A group of them got separated in North Africa from the rest of the Regiment. I鈥檝e seen photographs of them marked El Alamein, and Tobruk, and Egypt.
One particular photograph he showed me, he said 鈥淒o you know who that is?鈥� To which I replied 鈥淚t鈥檚 Field Marshall Montgomery isn鈥檛 it?鈥� A lot of servicemen had cameras in the photographs. Which posed a question: where do you get film developed?
They were on a troop ship with supplies bound for Malta in 1942. They couldn鈥檛 leave Malta because it was being attacked by German Bombers.

This story may be a little disjointed as I piece together photographs, documents and stories. They must have got back to North Africa because he told me him and his mate were patrolling the streets, turned a corner, straight into about 100 Italian soldiers.
What seemed liked ages was probably only seconds, but 100 Italian soldiers surrendered to 2 British soldiers? Newsreels said things like that happened. However, things took a turn for the worse a few days later. While out on patrol they came face to face with a German officer with a number of German soldiers. They ended up being captured by the Germans and taken to the island of Kos, (Greece) There they imprisoned for 18 months until being liberated by the Russians. He mentioned Dunkirk, but I don鈥檛 know it to be his way home. We have medals that he got: 鈥楾he Africa Star鈥� 鈥楾he 1939-1945 Star鈥� 鈥楾he Italy Star鈥� 鈥楾he Defence Medal鈥� 鈥楾he War Medal鈥�

No doubt there were thousands of others in these situations, some worse. Which is a good reason for this 大象传媒 website? I only know my father was in the Durham Light Infantry. His brother was in the Navy. My mother and her sisters worked in munitions factory in Leeds. My father was fortunate to survive until just after retirement.

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