大象传媒

Memories of an Italian Naval Signalman Part Six 鈥� From Ramghar to POW Camp 26/3 at Pathankot, Kangra Valley near Kashmir. Onto Bhopal in April 1944 and arrival in Greenoch on 1st June 1944.

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

鈥淭hen one day they had got a list coming in the camp, tomorrow you are off! They took us to the station, well not a station, to a side line. And it was mid day, we were under shadow of trees and as I say, there were quite a number of camps, there was some from different camps I don鈥檛 know where and I see somebody, it can鈥檛 be! This chap, he was an Army Lieutenant. When we were at Palermo at the beginning of the war he was training to be an officer and there were four of them, friends from the town where they lived, they were training to be officers. When I saw him I looked at him and I said, 鈥楬ere鈥� I said, and he looked at me 鈥榶es, it鈥檚 me alright!鈥� 鈥楬ow did you get here?鈥� I said. 鈥榃ell, you know when you came to see me in Palermo, we had finished the course as Officers and I was sent to Africa and I was nabbed there.鈥� 鈥極h鈥� I said, 鈥榮o you are here!鈥� Then we went to the same camp in Northern India. When I saw this chap, we were issued with export cigarettes on board, I gave him some in a packet. And the next day from the Bridge they ring up who ever was on duty on the Command Bridge and the Petty Officer he say, 鈥楬ere, there is somebody who wants to see you鈥� and I said, 鈥榳ho is it?鈥� 鈥榃ell, it is an Officer.鈥� 鈥楢lright, send him up.鈥� He came up on the Command Bridge, I said, 鈥楬ow come, I saw you yesterday!鈥� 鈥榃ell,鈥� he said 鈥榶ou gave me some cigarette and I gave one to the Colonel Commanding the training and so he told me go back to your friend on board and get as many cigarettes as you can.鈥� (They were export cigarettes and they were considered to be very good) he told him, 鈥榠f you don鈥檛 bring some cigarettes 鈥� 鈥� so he came on board and he said, 鈥榯hat is the condition, the Colonel wants more fags!鈥� 鈥榃ell,鈥� I said, I鈥檝e got only a few and shop on board is closed鈥�, anyway I got some from somewhere. And then I found him, as I said, from that camp he was there, he said, 鈥榯hey nabbed me in Africa.鈥� 鈥極h, well鈥� I said, 鈥榳e are together!鈥�

From there we were shipped to north India and out there. We went through New Delhi, the capital, Quetta, Benares, big towns like that and we ended up, I don鈥檛 know how far but we weren鈥檛 very far from Kashmir, right near the Himalaya mountains. The camp was all on a slope, like that, it was nice because there were mountains, snow capped all the time, it was nice. Eventually in 1943 when Italy changed sides they allow us to go out for a walk in the country and some Officers organised to climb mountains. I just went across in the countryside. They used to go in the rice paddy, they have got the rice fields like that and other things and tea growing and there was the men smoking bubbling pipe in the shade and women carrying babies on their backs picking tea leaves all over the fields. We used to say, 鈥極oh, talk about modern people.鈥� If somebody did that in Europe they would be shot on sight.

Well, in that camp there was a bigger shop where they clothes and things like that. Then they built a football pitch, football camp but when we were in 26/3 we were allowed to play outside the camp where they had levelled the ground as well. Every time we went down with friends there were stones and things like that. We organised a Championship. There were 15 or 20 camps, something like that, every camp had got a team and we used to play the Championship like that.

We were in there in this camp, close to the Himalaya until, was it about April 1944 and then one day they came into camp with a list 鈥榬eady tomorrow to be off鈥�! 鈥� Where?鈥� Nobody knows. So we got on the train, this place was out in the country, Kangra Valley which was right up in the north of India near Kashmir. We got on the train, we were near a big town which then became capital of Pakistan (Karachi) from there, because it was a narrow gauge railway from this big town to there. Karachi, when we up there we travelled by night from Karachi and then coming back we came in the daylight. Oh, hell, a range of mountains, talk about a ravine, this narrow gauge railway! Anyway we got on the main train and we travelled the usual three or four days and we ended up in the central provinces at Bhopal where there was the big explosion some years ago, which was called Death Valley, talk about warm. That was a sort of transit camp and there was only one able seaman left in charge of the camp, the others had left and I said, 鈥楬ere, have you come across so and so?鈥� 鈥榶es,鈥� he said 鈥榖ut I think he鈥檚 up at Maharaja castle鈥� I said, 鈥榳hat is he doing?鈥� 鈥榳ell, God knows, he has got about 100 Italians to do all the catering and things like that and he has 100 wives, I don鈥檛 know if they help him out like that!

Anyway, after a few days this Able Seaman he said, 鈥楥an you give me hand to organise ..?鈥� because we were all fresh coming in all from all over the place and an English Sergeant came in the office talking and said, 鈥楬ere, come here with me.鈥� I went to the office and there big piles of uniforms like that, 鈥楬ere you are, pick one out to fit you.鈥� I said, 鈥極K!鈥� So I picked one out. Well I didn鈥檛 realise at the time that it was an officer uniform. It fitted me alright but on all the rest of them there was a sort of badge sown on the back of the jacket, a purple diamond shape to denote that we were Prisoners of War, well in that uniform it was a plain uniform. After one or two days we got orders we were going away, the Officers noticed that I had got no patch. They said, 鈥楬ere, come on what鈥檚 happened there is not a patch on the back?鈥� I said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know. I was told to get a uniform and I got it.鈥� That uniform served me for the rest of Prisoner of War and then I wore it. It did cause me a lot of harassment because they all used to say, 鈥楬ow come you haven鈥檛 got a patch on the back?鈥� I used to say, 鈥楽hut up, never you mind!鈥� Even I got in Milan, I was coming out of the main station, I was going to see somebody and a chap in uniform and he said to me, 鈥楢re you a Captain? How nice for you.鈥� He kept on quite a while, was it nice in the Regiment? I let him carry on for a while, I don鈥檛 know whether he was after some thing, I said, 鈥楬ere, what the hell are you talking about, Captain so and so? I have been nine years in the Navy and I never knew any 鈥� 鈥� He was left dumbstruck and I said, 鈥楥heerio鈥� I said, 鈥業 am going.鈥�

In that camp in the southern Provinces, when we got there, I think it was one o鈥檆lock, midday and somebody said, 鈥楬ere, where is the football?鈥� 鈥榦h, so and so has got it鈥� 鈥榦h, tell him to get it鈥�. He gets a football, outside the camp there was a football pitch, right we start playing football. I think the temperature was over 100潞, something like that. A British Officer, I don鈥檛 know if he was in charge, he turns up, he started carrying on blue murder, 鈥榊ou silly humbugs you must be mad, you should be locked up. In this temperature and you play football.鈥� 鈥楢lright, we鈥檒l pack up.鈥� One day he said, 鈥楻ight. Ready this afternoon we are going to the station.鈥� 鈥榃here are we going?鈥� because nobody knows where we are going. The driver would perhaps know. Then the next day we stopped to have lunch, because sometimes we have a military train with a kitchen attached but it was organised you would stop at a certain place and the food was ready and anyway we had got just one Captain of the British Army. What had happened, there was a lot of Maltese in the British Forces, their official language was Italian in Malta, they could speak Italian, so they gave them a rank, Captain, something like that and made them an interpreter. So the next day when we stopped for some food, 鈥榃ell,鈥� he said, 鈥榖oys, now we are out of the way I might as well tell you, we are going to England.鈥� Somebody said, 鈥榃hat to back up for export?鈥� 鈥楧on鈥檛 worry,鈥� he said, 鈥榯hey鈥檒l find you a job.鈥� That was the best thing that could happen to us you see.

The day before in the papers we saw that in Bombay harbour a ship load of ammunition had blown up, well when we got near the port, oh, dear the destruction there, it was something dreaming, horrible. We said, 鈥楾hank the Lord it happened three days ago.鈥� When we got on the pier and there was this big ship, it was a P & O liner, that was before the war was on the Canada run, from England to Canada. During the war they transformed into a troop ship. We heard from the crew that she was going from the beginning of the war going around the world every six months, going through Panama, Vancouver in Canada and then New Zealand, India, Suez Canal, every six months. On board there was every race, creed, political idea, colour of the entire world, sailors of every country, every colour. There were reckoned to be over 3000 Italian Prisoners of War, there were two Battalions of Indian troops, there was all English troops from everywhere, there were also families, civilians, children. They reckoned there were about 18,500 people on board that ship. There was a Commodore that was eventually in charge of all the shipping in the convoys. We left Bombay on May 1st 1944 and for a couple of days there were two Indian destroyers escorting us, there was quite a big convoy.

Our ship, the Strathaird, had got a gun on board as well because all merchant ships had got a gun on board and they used to drop something in the sea and then fire for timing. But after a couple of days the destroyers went back and we were under the Commodore, he was commanding the convoy. We came into the Suez Canal and when we got over to Port Said it was chock full of every shipping under the sun, of every type. We got there in the morning and in the afternoon it appeared that we were just about to sail and we looked out and there is just outside the harbour a flotilla of destroyers going round in circle at top speed. That was what you call a submarine attack, dropping bombs like that. We said, well, it looked as though we were ready to come out and lo and behold if there is some flotilla submarine there they are going to have a real time. We sailed as a big convoy with the Strathaird in charge, with the Commodore and in the Mediterranean there were ships, because they had landed in Italy, there were ships going in every direction, from Italy to North Africa and other ways. It was quite funny. In wartime we always zig zagged when the ship and the convoy turned towards Italy there was some chap, 鈥極oooh, we are going to Italy!鈥� when the ship turned around 鈥榦h, talk about the bloomin鈥� Navy, now we are not going to Italy anymore.鈥� It was a bit of fun all the time. You know I鈥檇 got a pretty good idea of where we where and nearing Gibralta I never slept down in the place for troops I always slept on the top deck outside because if these submarines attack, that鈥檚 blue murder, phew. I don鈥檛 know, about one o鈥檆lock, somebody else that was sleeping on deck like me shook me up, I said, 鈥榃hat is the matter with you?鈥� 鈥榣ook鈥� he said, 鈥榯here is a Naval battle going on?鈥� I said, 鈥榳here?鈥� he said, 鈥榳ell, look!鈥� There was flashing going on. I said, 鈥榊ou silly beggar, that鈥檚 a storm!鈥� There couldn鈥檛 be actually any German warship inside the Mediterranean and he said, 鈥楶erhaps you may be right.鈥� So he went to sleep again.

We came out in the Atlantic and being in convoy all the time. The next day a warship joined us, but then they were called anti-aircraft cruiser, they had armament, anti-air gunners and they came with us in the convoy. Later in the day I see from the cruiser I see they were calling the flagship, our ship and they signalled that at three o鈥檆lock they were launching some balloon and practicing anti-aircraft firing like that. I never said anything, come three o鈥檆lock and this warship not very far away opened up with all the guns and everything like that of course everybody on board, 鈥極h, what the hell is going on, now?鈥� I was grinning so somebody said, 鈥榃hat is the matter with you are you nuts, you are grinning?鈥� I said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 worry, that鈥檚 only for practice.鈥� 鈥楬ow do you know?鈥� 鈥榖ecause I saw the signal from the cruiser to the flagship.鈥� 鈥極h, that鈥檚 alright.鈥� We came, I worked it out approximately between Northern Ireland and Scotland one morning, the fog you couldn鈥檛 see the people you know, talk about fog, according to my calculation we came close to the British coast and there they spread the convoy. Some, we understand, they went to Liverpool and we went up the Clyde to Glasgow. We stopped the night at Greenock, just outside Glasgow but in the morning when the fog cleared, oh, about 10 o鈥檆lock something like that, on the Clyde it was a wonderful sight! On the coast, the heather it made a lovely show. At the night we get into Greenock, drop the anchor there.鈥�

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