Join me at lunchtime in St Stephen’s Church on the High Street as I present a PowerPoint journey through the extraordinary wartime experiences of a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, called to serve in 1940.
Drop in for Coffee, Tea and Cake, so you can Listen, Look and Lunch! The story begins with his training and continues as he embarks on a voyage to join the North Africa campaign. His letters—often enriched with charming and humorous drawings—chronicle his time in Iraq and Cyprus before he was summoned back to North Africa. There, he was captured during the Battle of Gazala.
Following his capture, he was hospitalized for a shrapnel wound and later transferred to a transit prisoner-of-war camp in Capua, Italy, where he spent five months. This challenging period is vividly brought to life in the book The Cage by Dan Billany and David Dowie, first published by Longmans in 1949. Subsequently, he endured harsh conditions in POW camps in Northern Italy, including a bitterly cold Christmas in 1942.
In September 1943, seizing an opportunity, he escaped from the camp at Fontanellato. Undertaking an extraordinary 500-mile trek through the rugged Apennine mountains, he eventually reached the Allied lines in December. Returning to England in January 1944, he reunited with his family for a poignant first meeting with his two-year-old son. After a brief 28-day leave, he was redeployed to Europe.
His journey culminated in Denmark on 8th May 1945, where he experienced the unbridled joy and celebration of the locals, who generously shared food and festivities with the soldiers.
