BARDIA PRISON CAMP

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22201, 19 February 1942, Page 4

BARDIA PRISON CAMP

Bitter Experience Miserable Food And Covering WELLINGTON, February 18. A vivid picture of life In a prison camp in Bardia Is given in a letter received from a Wellington gunner, who subsequently was rescued. He was among those captured by Rommel’s panzer division, and comments on the fact that the German general complimented them on the fight they had put up. A miserable food ration and practically no protection from the cold nights knocked the New Zealanders into pretty bad shape. For the first three or four days the meals, states the gunner, consisted of one cup of coffee at 8.30 for breakfast, 3oz of macaroni and a small loaf < doughnut sisei at 12.30 for lunch, and one cup of coffee and another 3oz of macaroni for tea. Two cigarettes were issued to each man a day. "By this time I had managed to scrounge one blanket and the Tties’ had brought in some old lousy, weatherbeaten, and rotting blankets that I wouldn’t have given a dog to sleep on. but they looked good to us.” continued the letter. “The days and nights rolled by. and we could hear the guns of our own chaps outside hammering away. We were still living in hopes of being released, but the waiting was awful. Every two or three nights a submarine came into the harbour and volunteers were asked to go away in it to Italy. They always seemed to find the necessary 11 or 12 chaps to make up the party. Towards the end It was not a case of volunteering. Thank God I wasn't picked, as we learned afterwards that two of the subs, had been sunk, with only a few saved in both cases.” The writer tells how the Royal Air Force were coming over in swarms and giving the enemy hell, while the Navy was shelling Bardia all night and every night. “The artillery fire was the worst, and we prayed that they knew where we were.” he says. “New Year's night nearly made us all go crazy, as shells were falling all round us, the nearest only 20 yards away from the boys and me. but luckily outside the compound. We lay through the night without steel helmets on and on our stomachs, shaking as though we bad the ague. Enemy Surrenders “We spent another night like that, and at 3 a.tn.. during one of the heavy bombardments, we saw chaps going round outside setting fire to trucks, gear, and dumps, and we suspected that surrender by the enemy was near. At 8 a.m. we were greeted with the news that the town had surrendered, and was there rejoicing in the camp! Chaps were shaking hands all round, some laughing, some crying with the released tension of the last few nights of heli. “The South Africans who relieved us couldn't do enough for us, and treated us marvellously. For dinner that day we had the best feed we had had for months —bully beef, milk, butter, jam. rice. The chaps went mad, and the gear and loot collected by some of them was amazing. Numbers of them had dressed themselves up in complete German uniforms, and once I had to look twice before speaking to one.” The writer mentions the habit of the Italians of stripping the prisoners of their watches. On this occasion the Germans made them give the watches back, and they themselves took only those watches that looked like having been taken from their own men on past occasions. At one stage the rations were so meagre that the prisoners had little strength to do anything. “We just lay about and talked, or walked up and down, but we couldn’t do too much walking, as we were too weak, and many a time I was just able to get back to our bivvy before almost passing out,” the writer states. “If we stood up suddenly after lying down for a while everything went black, and I saw many a chap fall over a couple of times before being able to walk.”