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'This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from CSV London on behalf of Douglas Charles Chandler and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

There had not been many attempts at escape up to this time, but there were two of note. One, when a Squadron Leader and a C.S.M. staged a fairly dramatic attempt. This had been pre-arranged with the co-operation of a number of men inside. At one point where the wire was not so high these two were to scale it at the moment that somebody inside fused all the lights both in and around the compounds, this was achieved by putting a dead short across the mains, which were carried in overhead and entered Compound No. l at the eaves. Sudden panic gripped the guards and when at last the lights came on again the escapees had gone. A check-up was started and for this everybody was ordered out of

their beds, out of the buildings, and outside to form into their groups of 100. This took some time, and a lot of prodding by the guards. Everybody wrapped a greatcoat or blanket over their sleeping clothes, whatever they were, and slipped their feet into unlaced boots and slouched out through the doors. Counting in the daytime could be difficult but it had nothing on this nighttime checkup. The guards began to yell and shout at the moving masses. Somebody tossed a stone towards them, which scared one guard into withdrawing the bolt of his rifle so sharply that the bolt came out completely and fell to the ground. Roars of laughter went up and the rather odd spectacle of a dozen or so prisoners trying to find it for him and at the same time the guard in question getting even more panicky, lest someone should steal it. There was obviously some agitation going on at the top of the " compound which we at the back didn’t know of, except when there was a sudden stampede in our direction, This was caused by bayonets being fixed and a forward movement of what looked like a posse. At this point the guard commander, imagining a grand escape by all and sundry, ordered everyone inside. This suited us of course, except that for the most part of the night we were disturbed by Italians counting us over and over again. Meanwhile the escape had been achieved and they got right clear of the camp. Unfortunately, as so often happened, an unknown factor would creep in. Although these two made several miles, on the second day out one had an attack of malaria and couldn’t go on. When this happened it was their intention to stick it out in some woods until the sickness passed, but they were spotted by a local farmer who called in the military. After about a week they were brought back and they had to serve the usual thirty days in solitary confinement. There was considerable relief amongst our guards when they were found because the local commander would have to answer to his superiors. During their absence there was as usual a tightening up of restrictions. Nobody ever minded this if a well-planned escape had been arranged.

A few weeks later the second attempt was made spontaneously by another airman, whom we thought must have had wings, because by standing on a windowsill in his barrack room, which was about level with the top of the wire, he took a colossal leap which carried him clear this long jump was of some 18 ft. with a drop of 8 or 9 ft. the other side of the wire. In spite of this courageous effort it was the wrong side of the camp to be of use because there was such an open area for him then to negotiate. Unfortunately quite soon he was picked up, and had to do the usual 30 days solitary confinement.

Now followed one of our better periods, almost completely due to the arrival of Red Cross Parcels sent to us via Switzerland. These were the only people allowed access to the camps, and were without any fear of contradiction- the main feature that enabled us to survive this period of captivity. Anyone who was a prisoner of war in this theatre would wholeheartedly agree. Not only was there food in the parcels when they arrived but the anticipation served greatly to provide incentive to keep going. They were wonderful packages prepared in all parts of Great Britain, Canada and South America, and no praise is too great for the people who prepared them and the Red Cross Society in arranging delivery. When an issue was due everybody was cock-a-hoop. Men who previously were uncommunicative and completely disinterested in what was going on became their old selves again. Also by this time we had re-organised our groups and we now had one building in which we assembled all the Cypriots Palestinians and other like nationals, as much by their request as by ours. They lived differently from us and wished to continue to do so.

It was from here that a number of events and happenings were created, not the least of which was an almost bazaar like atmosphere. By this time people were receiving parcels from home, although these were never allowed to contain food. Swaps were arranged; sales, daily auctions of all sorts of goods took place. Generally cigarettes were our monitory standard. Everything was valued in terms of cigarettes, the English Cigarette being valued the highest, quite a little stock exchange existed and had to be run to recognised standards. You couldn’t meddle with prices and quickly found the current value of any article-however small. Various entrepreneurs took over the more important positions some held their posts for a long period. Others were overthrown; in general fairness and honesty prevailed. Coffee and woolen garments were precious items in those days. They lent themselves to a good deal of jiggerypokery one way and another. For instance, the coffee came in tins, the top of which was a thin foil soldered round; On many occasions this foil was carefully pierced at the edge, the coffee carefully removed, and a similar quantity of sand or mould was put in its place, and skillful hands would repair as new by melting the solder. These tins were then bartered for food with the Italians. Soon of course they discovered the content's was not coffee, but they had no comeback, because they were in the wrong for trading with us. Many of these trading deals were done surreptitiously and there was no time for checking. Perhaps short-sightedly we were willing to trade some of the woolen garments during this summer period, which was quite a heat wave to us and food was still the only significant thing on our minds. In making normal swaps one had to be careful that a label from a tin of meat had not been transferred to a tin of peas or some other lower vitamin foodstuff. Still, all these things provided points for argument or amusement depending on whether you were on the receiving end or not. This in general went on in the Cypriots hut, because a number of these could speak Italian so well they became intermediaries for everyone.

Whilst parcels were issued regularly we were able to prepare for ourselves a fairly constant daily menu, generally worked amongst small groups of say six, so single tins could be shared out instead of one person having to save parts of tins perhaps for several days. The preparation of drinks, tea coffee, cocoa, etc really provided a major problem when you consider each compound had one small cookhouse and up to 1000 wanted a drink at some time each day. We in our compound adapted a method for early morning hot water, which was boiled in our square vessels. The men formed an orderly queue and the issue was one ladleful per man. The men preferred this to the erzatz coffee, which was the camp issue, and which we understood was ground acorns. Incidentally we accumulated a number of packets of this, which we eventually dissolved and used as a brown paint; then the bare cement walls were made to represent oak paneling by scumbling a thick mixture of “paint” to look like wood grain. We imagined then perhaps we were in a stately home.

After receiving this issue of hot water it was our practice to stand by and watch the next compound set off for their early morning drink. Their system was different to ours. There it was first come first served and the resultant stampede provided amusement without fail a number would fall headlong and be trampled on by those following madly on. After watching this galloping episode we would go back to our huts to drink our tea or whathaveyou. It wasn't possible to repeat this boiling up any other time of the day because the vessels were then required for the preparation of skilly, but at various times the hot embers were left free for individuals to use as they wished. As this area covered approximately 6ft x 2ft and there were two of them a system had to be devised whereby all those interested could have access. The plan was to have a tin attached to a loop of wire and dangle this contraption over the embers with a stick until either your water boiled, your tea brewed, your porridge cooked, or your Yorkshire pudding mixture rose. As more people gathered round the fire longer sticks or wires were needed to stretch across the two or three in front. This soon became known as "fishing" and when word was passed around that fishing was up there was a general rush for fishing tackle. Many a time fierce arguments raged when somebody's pot was tipped over by a latecomer, and it was not unknown for a person to put in his specially prepared mixture of coffee sugar and powdered milk and to pull out a stodgy mass of porridge. Since the tins were pot black it was difficult to know which was which. Often it was just potluck. These were amusing happenings and never ceased to provide a laugh when retold back in the huts.

At about that same time we received table tennis bats and balls from the Red Cross parcels…but of course no table. Proper plywood was completely out of the question but a stonemason in the hut came up with the idea of a concrete tabletop. It took a while to scrounge up cement then the mason set to work and produced an excellent surface, with the high density of the concrete the table had good bounce and so it was actually very good to play. There were many other ingenious inventions made by men with” idle hands”. There were very skillfully engraved spoons, everyone was issued a single aluminium spoon, and many were skillfully engraved by their owners, at first just initials to identify the spoon by beautiful works of art were ultimately created. Other devices included individual cook stoves for making tea; with only tin cans and bits of wire to work from the small stoves were made to boil up a cup of tea, they used the tiniest amount of fuel and the best ones had a crank to turn a tiny fan so that the fire would heat up the tea quick as wink. Sadly most of these gadgets were of course lost and forgotten at the end of the war, it’s a pity because they showed a fine example of the creativity and resilience of men with scarce resources.

We had received some books via the Red Cross and these were a great help. Of course they were soon read and passed around and gradually read by nearly everyone. However new prisoners were always arriving and keen to get a book to read. One book, “Who Killed Alfred Snow” was well worn and often passed to the unsuspecting new arrivals. Invariably they didn’t notice that the last two pages were missing…..with the punch line. Eventually the book disappeared.

Concurrently with the happenings a group of us had got together and founded a drama and revue section. We had a couple of tailors who made suits or costumes from palliasse covers, others who helped with props, we got permission to blank off one of our bays in the building, which became our theatre. The beginnings of quite a bright session, and a very important part of life in prison camps, we set to work to get the first show ready. We billed it to start on a certain date, working far into the night on some occasions to open at the stated time, in spite of the fact that we had many more months to spend in the place. (This was just another example of the disciplined nature of the soldiers, discipline and spirit enabled the POW’s to survive and even thrive in the most dire of conditions). A backcloth was prepared and was painted by dipping an old hairbrush in a distemper solution (the distemper having been acquired) - and drawing a hand over the brush, thus getting a spraying effect. On the night we opened with a show including such items as an excerpt from Palachii to recitation of Dangerous Dan Magroo and other poems of Robert Service. The morning after our first show there arrived the crew of an aircraft who had flown from England. On their way to Malta had landed in Sicily in error, and were immediately sent to our camp. Here we were with men only two days from home — our guests of honour. One of these could sing quite well and on the following night he was announced as being the latest arrival from England to sing current hit songs from home. It sounds a long way now but one of the songs was “Ma I miss your apple pie”. The serious plays were produced by DCC while Vic Baum (RAF Officer) covered the comedy.
The shows were usually attended by some of the senior German Officers who wanted to see that nothing underhand was taking place, and for the most part they also enjoyed the entertainment. For the reviews Vic was very clever at including some subtle comments at the expense of the Germans so there were often cheers from the audience much to the total confusion of the German Officers.

It was a tonic for all. These shows ran for three nights, during which time those who wanted to see them had every opportunity. Immediately following we put on a dramatic show the first was “The Green Pack” by Edgar Wallace. Meantime another group were polishing up something to follow. We aimed to provide continuity. Those who were not particularly interested in attending the shows played cards or chess, these having been provided by the Red Cross, and helped pass the weary hours. As the summer came to a close we began to anticipate some action on our second front. This we had gleaned from various new arrivals, who felt certain that this was about to take place. In fact, there was an attempt made by the Canadian Forces, but unhappily was not a success. Hereabout the Italians opened a little shop in which they sold seasonal goods that were plentiful in the area, such as tomatoes, grapes, onions, and a sort of bulbous celery type fennel. These we used to purchase with lira that we had issued in small amounts that we understood was claimed from our army pay by the Italian Government. There was never a choice of any
of these items at any one time so that for perhaps a week onions might be our menu- boiled, fried, stewed or raw. Although this might seem a rather severe diet at least onions could be cooked, but when it came to grape time there was no alternative but to eat them raw, with many adverse effects on the tummy. The shop seemed to open only when the Italians felt like it or maybe when a certain Officer was on duty. On occasions we may have had a show just underway somebody would shout either “shop open” or perhaps “water on” and the whole audience would disappear with artists dashing off with them. Food and water were a constant concern, I was one of the lucky ones to survive, I started at 12 stone I was a slim and fit athletic type, I eventually arrived home after almost 4 years as POW at a weight of less than 9 stone. Little wonder so many died from malnutrition on the way, such an awful waste that words cannot describe.

Please see A4518425 for the next section of this story, part 8.

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