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We would lay down and keep perfectly still during the blazing heat of the day and the workers in the tobacco field opposite also had a siesta for a few hours each afternoon.

There was a tilted pipe in the compound from which a few drips of water were leaking and some intrepid POWs had to queue up for ages in order to get a few drops each.

One day, one of the POWs was seen chained to a tree in the compound and ants were running all over him. I did not know why they had done this to him.

Joy of joys, some musical instruments arrived from the Red Cross and it was indeed an occasion to hear the tunes - 'The waiter, the porter and the upstairs maid,' 'Sleepy Lagoon' and 'How deep is the ocean?' being performed quite well. It was not until 'Oh,Oh, Antonio' was played that those most appreciated instruments were confiscated. For some reason or other that tune was regarded as an insult by the Italians.

Our meat came into the camp covered with flies and it was alleged that some men made attempts to escape under the carts. We ourselves were told that if we could save up some food from our Red Cross parcels, get outside somehow and hide in a deep hole, our forces would very soon be here. However, it was some eleven months before they actually did so and we would have been many miles away by then. The 'soft under-belly' to which Winston Churchill referred, turned out to have been extremely difficult.

A lovely young Italian girl appeared at a short distance from our camp serenading us with her guitar, which was very uplifting, but after a few days, she was never to be seen again!

The Italians had heard of certain ammunition having been found within tinned foodstuff in other camps and thereafter punctured all tins with their daggers and twirled them around within, just to make sure. This naturally caused us concern, because we had to finish tinned goods, so opened them as quickly as possible in such heat.

Word went around, that if ever we were to be transferred to camp 70, it would present our best means of escape, being so close to the Swiss border.(reminds me of the closing scenes of 'The sound of music' today).

One day, I received a most unexpected letter from a very delightful young lady with whom I had but a brief encounter whilst in Bexhill-on Sea in 1941 - Miss Patricia Geale. She said that the Mayor of Bexhill had made a speech from the balcony of the Town Hall in which he had said how proud was the whole of Bexhill of the success of the 155 Battery at Sidi N'Sir, Tunisia, on the 26th February, 1943. We had spent a few very pleasant months there in 1941. It was only now, some 3.5 months later, that the Master Gunner - Field Marshal Lord Milne was free to announce the story of the occasion in the British House of Lords.

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