HIDING IN GREECE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4523, 14 January 1942, Page 5

HIDING IN GREECE

FOUR MONTHS IN MOUNTAINS NOW PRISONER OF WAR After hiding in the mountains of Greece for nearly four months, Second Lieutenant E. H. (Dick) Bishop, of Te Kuiti, was captured and is now a prisoner of war in Italy. Further letters were received by Mr and Mrs Leo Evans, of Te Kuiti, over the holidays, giving news of his adventures. One letter was written on 23rd of August, three days after the writer was captured, and the other on 12th September, four days after he arrived at his permanent camp near Piancenza, in the north of Italy. “ I was eventually betrayed by some of the Greeks,” he writes in his first letter. “ Perhaps it was a good thing, what with the winter approaching and food becoming scarce, whilst the chances of regaining our own territory were vdry remote indeed. As you may imagine, my condition as regards clothes, boots, etc., is not so good, but I can still wear most of my outfit at present, although all I have is what I stand up in. The Italians are quite decent fellows, and are doing their best for us in regard to making oui- conditions and food, etc., as nearly as possible similar to conditions with our own people.”

In the other letter he stated that he was captured on 20th August, having speht the previous four months in the mountains with occasional periods of dodging enemy patrols, and it certainly was tough luck (the next few words were effectively blacked out by the Italian censor). The story of how he was left behind when the troops were evacuated would keep until later, he stated, so he told of his daily routine in the camp. There were quite a number of officers there, a,nd they were living in an old castle under conditions which, though not up to what they had been used to, were a great deal better than those of the previous four months. Later on, he understood, improvements were to be carried out, and they might see the winter through in comfort.