大象传媒

Chapter 9

So, with almost 23 years service as a regular soldier I found myself well and truly in captivity, not a good position to be in and in consequence I was very low in morale, my thoughts were continually with the Regiment, what would they think of me, was I in any way to blame, could I have done or rather ought to have done anything more to avoid being in this position, my thoughts would then rocket to Kit, how would she be able to manage. The nights were terribly long and sleepless due to two reasons firstly I found out that hunger keeps the mind alert and being alert caused the second reason, which was this continual thinking. I was reasonably comfortable as regards accommodation, a good bed and bedding, although the building was very large, cold and damp, after all one could not expect a palace. I soon settled down to my corner cot and under the circumstances could not grumble, although I have been more comfortable as a single soldier in barracks. I missed my married bliss more than I care to say though there is nothing to beat home life. It will do Derek and Rodney good to always remember this. I have always appreciated my home comforts, I probably have not shown it as much as I ought to have done but if I am lucky enough to get out of this with my life and to once more to have a home of my own, Kit will never have cause to complain of lack of appreciation. This single bliss was hitting me hard.

I had a very good pal in Mick who remained with me throughout the Italian days, I also had Glue, my batman, and Baker, my driver, with me in camp, in addition to others of the Regiment, the only other officer being Charles Woodbridge. I got to know quite a number of people but nobody that I had known very well before capture. There were several officers of our Brigade who were captured at the same time as me. Other than Mick the only ones that I really interested in were Arthur Woods, a regular QM of the RA, whose wife was down in Durban under the same conditions as Kit, Ernie Cox of the Sappers, whose father had been RSM of the Buffs. The monastery in which we were in was very old, with great thick walls, which were very damp, high ceilings, which also were very damp. It was built in a hollow square, senior officers were allotted the ground floor, which consisted of rooms, and each set of 3 rooms having its own toilet and convenience and held about 12 to 14 officers. In addition they had a small garden to each set, altogether there were 23 or 24 sets of rooms, originally each set of rooms was occupied by a monk. The officer occupants of these rooms were known as Wing I, I had the opportunity of moving into one of these rooms due to my age and being a Quartermaster, but as Mick could not go with me I decided against it The majority of the junior officers were housed on the upper floor which consisted of a huge corridor running around 4 sides of a large square, about a 100 officers being allotted to each side of the square and were known as Wings 2, 3, 4 and 5. There were only 2 stairways to this upper floor; one a very rough arrangement and the other a fine piece of work. Electric lighting had been installed but the load on the local power station was so increased it was very poor indeed, in fact of a night time one could only read when immediately below, the eyesight of several must have been ruined through this. All the windows of the upper floor were on the inside of the quadrangle so that we could see was what went an in the square below, outside of the windows was a balcony about a yard wide on which we used to sit and in the summer and in the evening to watch the most glorious sunset, if Italy has nothing else to see these sunsets were worth watching. The conveniences on this upper floor were bad, for the 400 hundred officers accommodated on this floor there was not more than 10 sit down toilets and 30 wash basins, this number was eventually increased but never a sufficient number to be adequate.

The view that I had from the French window by my bed was not very inspiring, in the quad was a path around the outside with a series of paths that led to a fountain, that did not work, in the centre, the paths were laid out like a Union Jack. Looking to the left I could see 2 wooden huts, which were increased to 4 at a later date. Three of the huts were used for housing the orderlies and the other was used as a recreational hut, jammed in between these huts was a small squared off portion which was apparently the burial ground for the monks. To the right at the far end of the quad was another wooden hut, which was used as a library and canteen, when there was anything to sell. Looking straight ahead all that I could see Wing 5 but over the roof one could see some high mountains in the far distance, I could just see the peaks of these and usually they were snow covered The view from Wing 5, the opposite Wing to ours, was of the village of Padula on the hills behind us, this was very picturesque.

Outside of the building to the west was a place called the paddock on which we used to play football and take our daily exercise, it was surrounded by a huge wall with barbed wire mounted on top, and inside the wall was a double apron, which was lit up by electric, light every few yards and sentries as numerous as the lights. Around the football pitch was a track, oval in shape like a running track, which had been made by the prisoners endlessly walking around in circles. The only other places I have not mentioned are the hospital or infirmary in which for a long time there were no medical stores whatsoever and until the time that we came away no serious illness could have been treated. Next the showers, the only type of bath in camp, one could obtain a hot shower once a week and then the water was alternately hot and cold, running for 4 minutes cold and 2 minutes hot, 21 officers could bathe at a time. There was no actual mess but we did have a dining room. in which 250 could sit down at a time, 12 to a table.
Cutlery and china was supplied, excluding cups and saucers, all the time I was in Italy I had to drink out of a Canadian butter tin with a handle I managed to fit, in consequence I never really enjoyed my 'brews'. We started off with a full set of crockery, breakages will always occur and they did more than necessary, we found out to our dismay that it could not be replaced, when we left the place we were eating off aluminium affairs which were shaped like a pie dish. The room in which we dined had been fine 100 years ago but now was not so good, it was an old chapel and was quite lofty. The windows were very high up but had no glass and in order to keep the birds out wire netting was put up, this served as a good roost for the numerous sparrows that used the place.

Across one end of the hall was a huge picture depicting the Last Supper, but of course was now very dilapidated, it used to show up more plainly during the damp weather. On one side of the hall was a very fine pulpit made of polished marble that was resting on an eagle carved out of stone, a very fine specimen indeed. Around the walls to a height of 10 feet was a lot of panelling which would have looked very nice in its day but now was home for the biggest rats I have ever seen. The floor was of a very fine mosaic was for our stay covered with wood so we never had the opportunity of seeing it, this hall was used to hold our entertainment, a stage being erected from the dining tables.

The camp at the beginning was commanded by Colonel L of our Brigade but he went off to the Senior Officers Camp 4, Colonel F, New Zealander took over for a short while until the arrival of Brigadier V, but he could not get on with the Italian Commandant and was continually being confined to his room until he was moved and then Brigadier M took over and remained Senior British Officer (SBO) whilst we were in Italy. The Adjutant was a New Zealander by the name of Charles Hutchinson, a small man with a ginger moustache, a very big one at that, a right good Adjutant he was too, everyone looked up to him. The Camp Quartermaster was one Arthur Woods with whom I was very friendly. The usual day was 8am, cup of coffee, between 8 and 9 am a check parade at which we were counted, another between 11 and 12 am, lunch first sitting 12.15 pm, second sitting 12.45 pm, check parade between 1 and 2 pm, cup of coffee or tea at 4 pm, evening meal at 6 pm and 6.30 pm, another roll call during the course of the evening and we had to be inside the building by 9.30 pm. During the first month the camp being a new one began to get organised, many educational classes on all kinds of subjects were formed, programmes of lectures of all kinds and entertainment were arranged.

During this time also we were made up to the strength of 500 officers and 140 other ranks. The officers coming from Sulmona, Bezzanello, Bari and have course our party had come from Capua. The other ranks were used to do the various jobs of the camp, cooks, mess waiters (l to 48 officers) and batmen (l to 10 officers). The officers were Naval, Military, RAF, Fleet Air Arm and Merchant Service, some could be called officers in the true sense of the word but others no. I realise that it was a very trying time for all, war news looked very black, morale was very low indeed, but quite a few forgot that cleanliness is next to godliness and went unwashed, unshaven generally looked most filthy, a bad example to officers against whom we were fighting. I felt very miserable and low in spirits and seldom said a word to anyone but Sticky and Mick, but I did clean myself up to the best of my ability and changed what washing I had at least once a week The other ranks did our washing for us but how they managed under the conditions I do not know. On the other hand I could see why these officers were getting into a state, the weather was terrible, we were 2000 feet up in the mountains which didn't improve matters, it rained like hell, news was so very bad, no news from home and above all the great shortage of food, all conversations were on the subject of food, which of course made them more hungry. In addition we were all going through that very bad period, the first 3 months.

I very soon realised that I had got to do something to occupy my mind or I should go round the bend. I had a job of work to do which kept me busy during the day but the evening hours lagged, I couldn't read owing to the lights, my thoughts were for ever with Kit. And so I studied accounts in my spare time, languages I could not cope with being of the opinion that if anyone wanted to speak to me they could do so in my own language. I also took over the duties of Wing QM to give me something additional to do. I learned to play bridge and other card games and so passed many an evening but this was in the very early days when one didn't know how long the war was going to last, there were all kinds of forecasts and bets laid, on the whole it looked never ending, if there had been a date to look forward to it would have been so much better and so I and an agreement with myself to live from birthday to birthday commencing with mine for 1942 and then on to Kit鈥檚 and so on. I also found this craving for food was disconcerting, although I was dealing with the food of the camp. Unless one has been through the pangs of hunger one does not realise how disconcerting they can be, your mind just cannot rest, it is not the same hunger as one feels after a hard days work, then one knows that the feeling can be satisfied, but when you have just had a so called meal and still feel hungry knowing that after the next meal the feeling will be the same, then one begins to think and it is the thinking of it is so disastrous, but one just cannot but help think about it and the mind wanders back over those tasty meals that are enjoyed so much, how many times I thought of the meals that Kit used to give me, I used to miss them before capture but now it was a 100 times worse. No wonder that some of the younger ones who wanted more food than I began to lose their self-respect. It worried me to see myself falling away but nothing could be done about it so I had to grin and bear it.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.