大象传媒

Exchanged

Then there came a time, when after being counted, they led us into a big building and started dividing us into different groups. They'd do this two or three times a day, and each time we'd seem to be in different groups. Sometimes, I'd be with my special friend there, Lewis Jones, and other times I wouldn't. So I asked the padre there; I said, "What's going on? All this counting?" He said, "Well, I don't know for sure, but I believe there is going to be an exchange of prisoners." I said, "We're all able bodied.." He said, "I know, but we're going to be exchanged, I believe, for Italian prisoners of the same ranking". And then one day I was told to pick up my gear and get ready for leaving. Lewis wasn't picked for some reason. Before we left we had some bits left from the last Red Cross parcels and I shared mine with another chap. We had a tin of oatmeal, a tin of condensed milk, and a tin of blackcurrant puree. Fancy getting that in a Red Cross parcel. We mixed them all up together anyway and made a purple mess, which we divided between two bowls and I ate all mine, of course. The other lad could only eat half of his, and said, "Ooh, I don't like this!" So I said, "give it 'ere", and I ate it. Now the outcome of this was, you see that I was sick. The other lad wasn't but I really got the advantage because when it came to going to Bari to go on the hospital ship to take us to Turkey to be exchanged, I couldn't walk. So they put me in an ambulance. All the other chaps who were going had to walk; it was a half-hour or three quarters of an hour march to the port of Bari. So the poor lads, when I got to the ship, they were all lined up at the bottom of the gangway, waiting to go up and the ambulance arrived and I got out, straight up the gangway into the sick bay.

Now that was something on the ship, because you sat down at table, with tablecloths on. And we had plates and spoons and we had almost as much, well too much to eat. It was macaroni, of course, sweet macaroni. Then we had meat and veg and wine.

It took about two and a half days to sail to Alexandria, which was in Turkey. We anchored out in the bay there. Eventually, the English ship with the Italian prisoners came and anchored about a hundred yards away. After a while, two tugs came out towing barges and one went to each ship and filled up with prisoners and they both left and we crossed each other in mid harbour and so we were exchanged. When my turn came, I got across to the English ship, went up the gangway and on top they gave us a bag. The bag contained toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, flannel, towel, cigarettes, a bit of money. You know, all the essentials. With the bit of money I had, I went straight to the canteen on the ship and bought a tin of condensed milk. Somehow, I eventually found a big nail, and then I sneaked off into one of the toilets there, locked the door, sat on the seat and just gazed at this tin. My body had been crying out for something sweet for over six months. I sat there; I punched two holes in this tin. Then I just sat back, lent up against the pipe at the back, lifted the tin up and sucked. Oh! Talk about nectar! It was absolutely heaven! I could have died quite happily then. I couldn't finish the tin, although I got over half way, I think and then I just had to stop there. That episode is engraved on my memory forever!

When the exchange was complete we left Turkey and made our way down to Port Said, where they placed us on a train and took us down to Alexandria. The date by the way was 22nd March 1943. They put us into one of King Farouk's old palaces there, which they'd taken over and used as a rest or rehabilitation centre. We were expecting to be sent home very quickly; we were all looking forward to that, but we didn't leave there actually, until about the middle of June. We were very well fed there of course. When we arrived, we all had to strip off and get weighed. I was just over two stone under my normal weight but by the time we left there I'd put it back and a bit more. Of course, we spent our time doing nothing, just sunbathing. I got brown as a berry and certainly felt very good, and didn't want to leave except that I wanted to get home.

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