大象传媒

Memories of an Italian Naval Signalman Part Eight 鈥� Repatriation to Italy in April 1946. Return to Westoning, Bedfordshire late 1947.

Part eight of an oral history interview with Mr. Artemio Ettore Torselli conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum

鈥淏ut at Flitwick they were getting the Prisoners of War from a camp the other side of Bedford and here at Westoning, there was Tingrith, all farms in this area had got Italian Prisoners of War, now there was a farmer at Flitwick had got four. This farmer, we called in on the way, there were three then on another farm, there was 12 on another farm there was eight. They were mainly Jews that had come in from Poland just before the war and they were well off and somehow they had decided and they had bought farms. Well they were quite pleased they could get Prisoners of War, most of the men were in the Forces you see. And well at a later date somebody had an idea, why do we have so many round here, why don鈥檛 we form a football team? My wife鈥檚 father, he was Parish Councillor and we put it to him and he said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 think it is a good idea because a lot of men here out in the Forces and it is only natural that people here have got their men out there. They wouldn鈥檛 really appreciate that you play football while their men are out fighting.鈥� So we said, 鈥榃ell, forget about it, we don鈥檛 want to upset anybody for enjoyment of sport.鈥�

In about April 1946, by then we were corresponding, the mail go normal, so I was in correspondence with my family. And up until then from home there was one of my sister living at home with my parents, because I have five sisters, four of them were married. The one younger than me, she was living with my parents and when about March or April 1946 I wrote home that I expected that it wouldn鈥檛 be very long before I was repatriated. Then my sister decided to let me know that father had passed on 12 months before, they didn鈥檛 like to upset me and of course when I heard that took the pleasure to say after nearly six I was going back home and I didn鈥檛 find father there, you see. It was actually decent idea to let me know because I hadn鈥檛 heard personally from him for four years. What happened, when I got caught Prisoner of War, what we used to do during the war we were at different places. We were at Tripoli and any mail we used to post on board was to be sent by Officers. So what we used to do when we went to anywhere we used to go ashore get a card of the place, just put your signature on it so they knew at home where you where. It didn鈥檛 make a lot of difference but that was a trick we learnt. Well, what happened? My father had done four years in the Army as a National Serviceman that happened in the First World War he was called up again as a skilled rifleman, but he was called up and he was put with the Military Police. He did all the four years of the First World War but what he had to do was pretty awful on the battlefront. But what he had to do was escort Prisoners of War and in those days, in the trenches like that they were in a very poor condition, rats and everything in there. Eventually you know when I was a Prisoner of War that upset him and got him down very badly you see. When I was captured, I think the last card I sent from Tripoli. Well we had left Tripoli two days before. One morning, they were getting the daily paper, they get the paper and my sister looks at it and in big letters on the first page, 鈥楾HE SHIP, COLLEONI HAS BEEN SUNK IN A NAVAL BATTLE WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CREW鈥� like that. Of course my sister said, 鈥極h, hell.鈥� So the paper vanished so that mother couldn鈥檛 see it like that but later in the day mother went to see some friends and there on the table open like that is the perishing paper. Well, that just about sent her - well, I mean father, considering you know what he seen in the First World War he started worrying his guts out about me, which didn鈥檛 help his health. I think it was about three months before we had the Red Cross International, well the British Head Quarters when they had got a chance on the radio they used to communicate, you know to send out. I think after, oh, about three months they gave us form to fill in, they got the form filled in so they knew I was there and relieved them but still because we couldn鈥檛 on some of these forms we couldn鈥檛 say where we where at all. In the end they still were worrying about it. And then lo and behold, we used to live on the outskirts of the town - the Germans go in place for ack-ack gun just out of the yard, 100 yards from the house. And once the Yanks, they opened fire on the place, well they took notice, the Yanks and they went and nearly destroyed the town. They bombed nearly the bloomin鈥� town out. Well that just about finished father. Just killed him off, like that! That鈥檚 life!

When I went back, well the worse thing was to go and visit my father鈥檚 grave. I kept on corresponding with Edna, my wife and the family. When we landed at Naples on a troopship from Southampton, we sailed on a troopship, oh there were hundreds of British Army men, we were you know a mixture of cargo. They were going to the Far East and to India, and some of them they expected to be de-mobbed perhaps in a few weeks time or a month like that and you should have heard the language. They said, 鈥極nce we get landed in the Far East it could be months before we get back,鈥� they were oh, that mad! Then to top it all in the morning you used to get the porridge with no sugar! Oooh, ooh, the language they used because they reckoned that somebody was making a packet! Well they daren鈥檛 kick up too much row because at Southampton they were off a troopship because they were too crowded and we were due to sail four days before. But the troopship we were going on board had to put these off a troopship and put them on another ship, we joined and they daren鈥檛 kick up too much because they could be court marshalled so they had to bear it but were they mad like that! When we landed at Naples on the pier there was a big crowd of people. I guess some how they got know there was a ship coming and ooh, dear that was a commotion because most everybody had got a photograph of somebody as we went ashore, 鈥楶lease, have you seen 鈥� .鈥� 鈥業 am sorry, I am afraid 鈥� you know.鈥� It seems it was a pretty bad reception after the years I had been away like that, well, in anguish to see those people as well, but I can鈥檛 help.

It took some horrible travelling to get home in April 1946. On Good Friday I was in Bologna and I got the ticket from the Navy in Naples to go to Venice, my Navy Department to report. I was talking to somebody on the train and he said, 鈥榃here are you going?鈥� I said, 鈥業鈥檝e got a ticket for Venice.鈥� He said, 鈥榃hat!鈥� he knew, I鈥檇 told him I lived towards Milan, 鈥榙o you think you are going on Good Friday!鈥� 鈥榳ell鈥� I said, 鈥榶ou must be mad鈥� he said 鈥榠f you 鈥� 鈥� 鈥榳ell I don鈥檛 like after six years to get into any trouble!鈥� 鈥榶ou can disperse for six months, nobody cares here.鈥� So I got on a fast train to Milan. After a little while a ticket collector comes along to check, 鈥榃ell鈥� I said, 鈥業鈥檝e got this ticket.鈥� 鈥榃ell鈥� he said, 鈥榶ou are bloomin鈥� well on the wrong line, on the wrong train, you should go to Venice.鈥� Some of the men that were on train said, 鈥榳ell, after the poor devil has been away for six years, it鈥檚 Good Friday!鈥� 鈥榓lright鈥� he said 鈥榮orry but you will have to pay for another ticket to Firenze (the first call of the express train) on the way to Milan鈥� so somebody said, 鈥榳hat! You charge him for another ticket after what he has been through? You鈥檇 better wake up quite or we will sling you out of the train.鈥� And they meant business you know and the poor devil he said, 鈥業 can鈥檛 help it but I will get the Chief on the train.鈥� He comes along, he finds this chap, 鈥業 could lose my job鈥� so I said, 鈥榓lright, it鈥檚 Good Friday let us apply a bit of good will. How much is the return, a new ticket?鈥� 鈥榦h, about a couple of pounds鈥� 鈥榬ight, here you are鈥� I said and he gave me a bloomin鈥� ticket and he went on.

When I got at the station, to the place where I used to live, on the train I saw quite a number of people, 鈥榟ere, where have you been?鈥� 鈥極h, it鈥檚 a long story!鈥� 鈥榳e know.鈥� When I got off the train a chap that was working in the station, I knew him, he lived almost next door to me. He said, 鈥楬ere, is that you?鈥� I said, 鈥榶es, it鈥檚 me alright!鈥� He said, 鈥楧o they know you are coming home?鈥� 鈥榥o鈥� I said 鈥榯hey don鈥檛 because I landed at Naples at eight, day before yesterday, I said about sending a telegram but they told me perhaps it wouldn鈥檛 here for two or three weeks.鈥� He said, 鈥楢lright, don鈥檛 hurry鈥� I lived almost across the town, he said 鈥業鈥檒l go on and prepare for you.鈥� I said, 鈥楢lright.鈥� So when he got into the street he told, I can鈥檛 remember if he saw my sister, he said, 鈥極h, I鈥檝e seen somebody getting off the train he looked like so and so but I鈥檓 not sure if it is.鈥� Anyway, they jumped to conclusion and when I got in the street the whole street were out there, it was quite - and there were some children, 鈥楬ello, uncle!鈥� 鈥榳ho are you?鈥� 鈥業 am so and so.鈥� Sit here, they one, two, three years old, they were nearly as tall as me! 鈥楴ice to see you, to know you.鈥�

I was there for a while. Then somebody who married a cousin of ours had become a relation they used to be Jews but they changed their religion, they鈥檇 got a big factory, clothing. And the parents, the Nazi鈥檚 took away the parents and they never saw them any more, there were three of four children, they managed to get away in Switzerland and they survived. Anyway, he married my cousin he became a relation. One day he came to see us and he said, 鈥榃ell, do you want a job in the factory?鈥� 鈥榃ell,鈥� I said, 鈥榟ave you got one?鈥� 鈥榊es, for you sure there is one, in the store.鈥� Well I didn鈥檛 do much at all, only when goods were coming in, I opened them or get them ready for the women doing knitting and clothing. Well I didn鈥檛 do much work at all but there wasn鈥檛 a mechanic or any thing. The women used to come to see what was in the store, doing nothing very often. Used to go, 鈥極h, come and have a look at my machine, the bloomin鈥� thing won鈥檛 work.鈥� 鈥榃ell,鈥� I say, 鈥業鈥檝e never seen a machine like that.鈥� You know sometimes there was a silly thing, I put it right and they were very thankful.

After a couple of months or one and a half months that I was home I thought well perhaps I had better get things straightened with the Navy. I went to Venice, that was my Navy Depot, where I was recruited and well I got in the offices and a bloke, he said, 鈥楬ow are you?鈥� I said, 鈥榦h, I鈥檓 alright鈥� 鈥榳ell鈥� he said, 鈥業 haven鈥檛 seen you, where have you been?鈥� I said 鈥業 was on board Colleoni 鈥� 鈥榦h,鈥� he said, 鈥榦h, I remember beginning of the war鈥� because we were captured 39 days after Italy entered the war. He said, 鈥榃hat are you going to do?鈥� I said, 鈥業 think I鈥檒l get out.鈥� 鈥榃ell鈥� he said 鈥榓lright, come with me.鈥� He was in an office there, he said, 鈥業鈥檒l get all the documents ready鈥� and half an hour later he said 鈥榬ight, now we鈥檒l go to the Commanding Officer and he will sign it鈥� so we went there. 鈥楲ieutenant, Sir would you mind signing this here?鈥� 鈥榳hat for?鈥� 鈥榳ell鈥� I said, 鈥業鈥檓 getting out.鈥� 鈥極h, you lucky beggar! You getting out.鈥� The same day I got my release and that was that. Eventually I got permission - I got my passport ready and came home.

When I had left Westoning I promised Edna, she hoped that I would come back one day. So her father applied to the War Agriculture Committee or something like that for permission for me to come back. Because until after I went home - because I had got news that Dad had passed on - 12 months before I wouldn鈥檛 have stopped for anything but not long after I went back they allowed some men to stop here if they wanted to stop. My wife鈥檚 father applied to the Ministry and I got permission for me to come and work here for four years. Well that was for four years and I just got married and I am still here now you see.鈥�

In late 1947 Mr. Gazeley arranged a permit for Mr. Torselli to return to work for him in Westoning, Bedfordshire. Mr. Torselli returned to England from Italy towards the end of 1947. Mr. Torselli and Edna Gazeley were married on 5th June 1948. Mr. Torselli continued as a market gardener in Westoning until he retired.

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