Spent 3½ Years In Italian, Nazi Camps

Northern Advocate, 24 August 1945, Page 5

Spent 3½ Years In Italian, Nazi Camps

Experiences while a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany were recounted by Sapper N. Procter, of Whangarei, a member of the last party of liberated prisoners of war to return to the Dominion, in an interview with a representative of the “Northern Advocate.”

Sapper Procter was captured by the German forces at Sidi Rezegh towards the end of December, 1941. First taken to Benghazi, he left the port by steamer'for Tripoli only two days before the Indian forces of the Allied armies advanced and captured the city. Marching through Benghazi, the prisoners were thrown cigarettes by the German soldiers and, instancing the friction existent between the two Axis powers, the Italians had attempted to stop the captives from picking them up.

Landing at Tripoli, they were transported to their camp at Garian in railway cattle-trucks, in which they were literally “packed like sardines.” Christmas on Slender Fare. Christmas of 1941 was spent in the camp at Garian. No extra fare for the table was provided and the prisoners ate their regular meal of Italian bully-

beef, bread and soup. After Christmas the prisoners embarked on another ship, after marching through Tripoli streets as an exhibition, and sailed to Naples, arriving on New Year’s Day of 1942.

First, they were taken to a transit camp, Camp 52, at Capua, where they obtained their first issue of Red Cross parcels. Several days later they were moved by rail to a camp a short distance from Genoa.

•‘We went by the usual dog-box de luxe,” commented Sapper Procter. “There were 40 men in a closed truck, -and I am sure, by the jolting and uncomfortableness of the journey, the truck had square wheels.” Camp 52 had been inaugurated by the Italians fairly recently, a good commandant, who was actually thought to have pro-British leanings, he having served for a considerable time with British forces in the 191418 war, having been placed in charge. “All these camps depended on the commandant,” Sapper Procter said. “If the commandant was bad, so was the camp, and, conversely, if the commandant was decent the camp would be bearable.” As soon as affairs were organised, conditions in the camp became as good as possible. A library had been commenced, and a musical circle had been formed. One disadvantage faced by prisoners was that there was insufficient space in the camp for sport, although baseball was patronised fairly extensively in the limited grounds available. With guards preventing their escape, the prisoners were able to go for walks in the surrounding country. Original object of the walk was to obtain wood, with which the prisoners would heat the contents of Red Cross parcels to eke out the two meals a day they were given by the Italians. But although wood was scarce, and it was rarely that any captive returned with large quantities, the walks continued. Unknown Reason Spr. Procter was confined in this camp until the day before Christmas, 1942, when hurriedly, and for an unknown reason, all the New Zealand prisoners were moved out and shifted to Camp 57, in Udine. There more varied conditions obtained, as well as much stricter discipline. The camp possessed its own gaol, and prisoners would find themselves confined therein with a minimum sentence of 30 days on the slightest provocation. On one occasion prisoners had been lined up on parade, and when the inspecting officer had arrived on the ground, the buzz of low-muttered conversation could be heard. Without hesitation, he had chosen several men at random and sentenced them to a period in gaol. Although inmates of the gaol did not receive the ordinary Red Cross parcels, they were able, through generosity of the cooks, to obtain the best of food within the camp. Occasionally the prisoners would find, perhaps, a stick of chocolate or a packet of cigarettes in their bread. Ample room existed for unrestricted sport, and they took the fullest possible advantage of the facilities offered. With string from the, wrappings of Red Cross parcels, they had made their own cricket balls, and on a pitch which they themselves had constructed, they conducted several test matches. Ammi t , the cric.u r ers confined in the camp were several well-known representatives, including Bill Vincent and Rupert Morgan, of Wellington. Another source of competition were cricket matches between the different compounds of the camp. At the capitulation of Italy. Spr. Procter was still confined in this camp. On receipt of the official proclamation of surrender the Italians had worked themselves 'into a frenzy of joy. “The Italians were really fed up to the teeth with the war,” commented Spr. Proctor. “They wanted peace, and when it came they were really more excited than we were.” .. . „ ~ Thrilled at the news of their forthcoming reunion with the Allied forces, the orisoners received a rude shock to wake up one morning and find that during the night the Italian guards had been exchanged for German sentries. Under German guard, tiie nrisoners had been marched to the station. Before departing from the camp, the Germans had given them a demonstration of the effectiveness of a flame-thrower, and the moral effect of this coupled with the fact that ranks of Germans marched on either side of the groups of captives, and were armed witu machine-guns, while at one corner of the road an 88mm. gun was placed, proved a sufficient deterrent* against escape.

Russians and Bed-Rugs Entraining, the prisoners were transported to a camp in Austria. The camp authorities had not expected the prisoners and confusion resulted. On arrival, the New Zealanders found the camp to contain Russian prisoners and plenty of bedbugs Then on to Gaulitz, in Silesia. There, the prisoners were segregated into working and non-working groups, and as a member of a working party, Spr. Procter was transferred to a coal mine at Sosnovitch. Some of the first faces he had seen upon his arrival underground had been those of "Lockey” Sweeney, of Whangarei and Charles Rope, and his uncle. Bill Rope, of Dargaville. There were also several other Northlanders whom he had known in civilian life. After D Day he had been shifted to a coal mine nearby which had been worked entirely by New Zeslsnders, and then, several months later, he had been transferred to work on the railway at Odeburg. After 20 days’ employment at this centre he contracted illness and was sent to a hospital at Stalag B. When the Russians advanced and threatened to encompass the camp, the Germans left leaving 27 hospital patients behind in charge of an English doctor, but unfortunately the advance had not closed m, and the hospital patients, of whom Spr. Procter was one, were shifted by train to Weiden, and after a month, on to Reigensburg. Shortly after this, Spr. Procter was liberated and began the journey which was to bring him back to New Zealand after over four years overseas.