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At this Camp 82 we all had a real haircut,it having been entirely removed in a couple of minutes, by the use of sheep shears! Never had I ever seen so many men look so much more alike, without their crowning glory. It was necessary to cover the head when walking only a short distance back to our quarters, because it was extremely hot indeed. Then we would lay down and keep perfectly still during the siesta period, in order to avoid dehydration.
There was only a tilted pipe on the compound, which produced only a few drops of water and there were only a few men having to wait for so long to obtain so little water in such blazing heat, it was clearly not worth the effort.
There was a tobacco plantation opposite and the workers ceased their toils for the afternoon during the siesta as we did.
There was a suicide in the end of one of the low-built buildings prior to our arrival at Laterina. the sad fact being that he was not aware that he was due for repatriation the following week!
One of our men was chained to a tree with light chain and was covered with ants in all that heat, for reasons unknown.
Some musical instruments arrived one day from the Red Cross and it was quite an occasion to hear the tunes -'The waiter and the Porter and the up-stairs maid', 'Sleepy lagoon' and 'How deep is the ocean?' being performed quite well. It was not until they played 'Oh,Oh Antonio' that those very appreciated instruments were confiscated. It seemed that the playing of that particular tune was regarded as an insult by the Italians.
Our meat came into the camp covered with flies and, it was alledged, that some men made attempts to escape underneath the carts. We ourselves were told, that if we could save some food from our Red Cross parcels, get outside, into a deep hole, our forces would soon be here. However, in retrospect, it was eleven months before they actually did so! The soft underbelly of Europe, as referred to by Winston Churchill at that time, proved to have been very much more difficult than he had expected.
A lovely young Italian lady 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 seen again!
The Italians had heard of certain tinned food contained within our Red Cross parcels had contained ammunition of sorts, therefore they started plunging a dagger into the tins and feeling around in search of same. This meant that we had to consume the contents very soon, especially on account of the heat.
Somehow, we were given a tip that should we ever get moved to Camp 70, this would be our very best chance of escape, because it was very close to the Swiss border. ( reminds me of the end of 'The Sound of Music' )
I received a letter from a young lady Patricia Neale with whom I had a chance meeting whilst in Bexhill in 1941, saying that the Mayor of Bexhill had made a speech from the balcony of the Town Hall, saying how proud was the whole of Bexhill of the success of the 155 Battery at Sidi N'Sir Tunisia on 26th February 1943, it having spent those few months in Bexhill in 1941. As mentioned earlier on in this story, it was only now that the story was announced in the British House of Lords by the Master Gunner, Field-Marshal Lord Milne, although the actual battle had taken place some 3.5 months previously.

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