“TOUGH GOING!”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22204, 23 February 1942, Page 4

“TOUGH GOING!”

Bardia Prison Camp Weevils In Biscuit ‘‘Broth” “I can tell you it was tough going,” wrote Gunner A. W. G. Hellier, formerly of Timaru. in summarising his experiences as a prisoner of war at Bardia for five weeks and two days, in a letter which his mother, Mrs W. H. Hellier. of Otipua Road, received on Saturday. “I suppose you have been worrying about me as you probably had a wire from the Army saying I was missing.” wrote Gunner Hellier» • Well. I nave been, but am now safe and well at the base. I will give you a rough story of what I have been through. “We were attacked about 7.30 a.m. on November 27 by part'of the German Panzer Division. There were round about 50 of his big tanks among them. The battle lasted two hours, but it seemed only about half an hour. We were given a chance to get our blankets out of the trucks and that was all. I lost everything bar my mug and mirror and a packet or two of ‘smokes,. When I went to get my things two German soldiers were ‘ratting’ the lorry and they would not let me get a thing. One took my banjo and the razor the boys at work gave me.

Eight Hour March “They marched us hell for leather from 1 o’clock until 9 p.m. to Bardia, a distance of about 20 miles. I only had my sand shoes on as I had put them on to do the last shift of picket the night before. I can tell you my feet and ankles were done when we got there. We had nothing to eat for two days. They gave us a two ounce loaf of bread and a tin of bully, which I think was horse meat, for the first meal. We were put in-an enclosure of about 2 of an acre on the cliffs just above the sea with one blanket. We had to dig holes in the ground to sleep in to get out of the winds and scrounge a bit of tin or bag for a roof. The Germans handed us over to the Italians so they had to guard and feed us. We lived on damn all. I don’t know how we»lived with the cold. We had threequarters of a cup of black coffee for breakfast; no milk or sugar, a ladle of macaroni or rice for dinner, another cup for tea. We had an Italian biscuit issued to us after tea at night. It was about half an inch thick and about four inches in diameter. They ran out of these and started giving us German biscuits which were square instead of round. They were that full of weevil that we had to make sop out of them and scoop the weevils off the top of the water. I can tell you it was tough going. Germans Preferred to Italians “They used to ship so many of us off every second night to Italy by submarine, but I was one of the lucky ones. The Italians tried to tell us that we were getting the same as them, but we found out differently when we were released by the South Africans. We spent from November 21 until January 2 in gaol, and I don’t want to experience it again. I hope your Christmas and New Year was a little better. The Germans are all right to speak to, but the Italians are ! We were treated well by the South Africans and they gave us the Christmas parcels and all. We were starving and ran up the road to meet them when they came in in the tanks. We have been well treated since and are going to be issued with new gear this afternoon. When we get fit again in base we are rejoining our regiment and are getting seven days leave from then. I must get to some scales and weigh myself to see how much I have lost. I am pretty thin in the ‘old dial’ now, but will soon fatten up again. “We have not had any mail or parcels for more than two months, but it is being sorted out in the base post office in Cairo for us.” Before concluding Gunner Hellier mentioned that he had met Don Drennan, in the Bardia gaol. He was one of the six or seven Timaru boys who were there with him.