大象传媒

My father was a Royal Corps of Signals Teleprinter and dispatch rider in North Africa.

He was taken prisoner of war in Toubrock, N. Africa by the Italian Forces and spent some time iin a prisoner of war camp in Italy. According to my father the accommodation was pretty ghastly with leaky roofs, rain coming in and my father had pleurosy and had to be taken to a Military Hospital for medical treatment.

After a yeaar the prisoners where taken to Germany and to a nightmare existence there. According to an interview my father had with the Dunfermline Press three days after him coming home to Rosyth this was the nightmare situation.

"When we arrived at the prisoner of war camp we were told by the Commandant in Charge, 'I have no interest in your welfare and want you to work every day in quarry 6.00 am - 6.00 pm.'

My father told of one incident when a fellow prisoner fell down into the shaft below and he was given no medical attention. I think he died shortly after.

My father was liberated by the American Troops in and taken to a military establishment in Germany then shipped home to Scotland and his family in Rosyth.

I was born three years after the war and remember my father talking about how they had concert parties. My father was a singer and musically talented. So I imagine the fun they had with doing this in such awful conditions.
He also told us the Guards who were kind to them would teach them German. My father also said that his faith in God kept him hoping for freedom.

My father died on the 28th June 1995 50 years after the end of the Second World War. He had another battle to fight then of Cancer in Gullet.

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