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Although Edward was only 16 when the war started he was already serving with the Queens’ Own West Kent Regiment. At this time he was stationed in Malta where he was assisting in the building and guarding of Lucca airport. At this time Malta was in a siege position and food was very short. Although tea and milk were plentiful the meat ration was limited to 1 tin of corned beef per day to be divided between 4 men.

In 1943 Edward was on the Greek island of Lobos when, because of an ammunition shortage Edward and his friends were captured by the Germans and sent to Leipzig (the flower city). On arrival Edward was sent to a camp where he saw people being sorted into groups — it was only after the war that Edward realised that the camp was Belsen and some of those people were being sent to the ovens.

Edward was moved into a small barracks with about 50 other POWs and was sent on details to work on the gas pipes in Leipzig. Edward recalls that he and his mates used to make holes in the pipes whenever they could! Edward and his friends managed to have a fair bit of fun, for example, they would go off to the cinema — this was because the Germans guarding them were quite friendly, most of them were a fair bit older and many of them had war injuries. Edward managed to learn fluent German which was a great help in getting a little more food.

In the winter months Edward was moved to a work detail at the railway and became a porter. Edward recalls that one of their jobs was to grease the train wheels — they used to replace the grease with sand. Edward did a week in the barracks’ prison when this was discovered! Another memory is of a POW who made a radio, in a biscuit tin; in this way everybody was able to keep up to date with the war news. During this time Edward meet escaped prisoners trying to get home, Edward was able to point out to them which train to catch and where to get off to evade capture; some of these men were later to be depicted in the film The Great Escape. It was easy for Edward and his companions to be identified as POWs as they had to wear small red triangles on their uniform, 1 on their jacket and 1 on the back of their trousers.

Whilst in Leipzig Edward had his 21st birthday; at this time he was working in a brewery so managed to keep to the old soldiers’ tradition of getting truly drunk on this day!

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