Jinks' stomping ground on his one-night stand
posted for 'clouds'
PoW diary extracts for August 11th
My dad did not write in his PoW journal every day but he made an entry for this day, August 11th, both in 1942 and also in 1943 and I include these short extracts here:
1942 in PoW camp in Benghazi (having been taken prisoner at Tobruk 21-6-42)
"On Tues 11-8-42 white troops were allowed out on fatigues and I thought I would go to try and get a little food or anything that might be going. The South African black troops used to go out on fatigues on the docks every day and were able to procure wood for fires and some extra food. The white troops only went out for 2 or 3 days on account of the little work done by them. I did not feel much like work and I certainly did very little whilst out on the docks.
On my day spent on fatigues on Benghazi docks from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. I managed to scrounge some wood for our fire. This was valuable as we used to have to buy wood off the South African troops with cigarettes. I was given a cigarette or two by some Germans and one gave me a box of matches. A civilian gave me a few grapes and a small piece of bread. I also obtained some mealy-meal flour which came in very handy.
On my return to camp, I cooked up the mealy-meal and mixed in my bully making a sort of skilly. The following morning Jack and I made a kind of porridge with the remaining mealy-meal which we enjoyed immensely."
1943 in PoW camp, P.G 73, in Vetralla, Italy
"On Wed 11-8-43, I received my first personal parcel from home. It was good to see so much chocolate and the clothing was most welcome. We had been receiving issues of clothes from the Red Cross, but these were limited. The parcel was intact according to the list which was enclosed.
The next day Jack received a cigarette parcel. On Tues 17-8-43, I got a small parcel from the Red Cross containing a harmonica. This proved useful to me and I passed away many hours playing same. The next day, Jack and I received a cigarette parcel each and so were O.K. for smokes for a time. Those are all the parcels I received in Italy."
from the PoW diaries of my dad, Bert Martin (Gunner 943454 - Royal Artillery - 67th Medium Regiment)
A small and belated September update for 2024, where I am still, after many years' membership, on 365 Project, also now posting elsewhere but wanting...
Those clouds are fabulous just begging to be photographed. That is some area naughty Jinx enjoyed, I was telling my friend about him today, she has a doggy day care business and is well up on dogs. She wondered if there was a bitch on heat somewhere that he had to get to;0)
Very much enjoyed the diary extracts, it is good to know they were shown some kindness. The fav is for both shot and extract
Cotton wool clouds! Your fathers diary is so interesting...to have such a personal account of his war is incredible fir you his daughter. Just shows how important & welcome the parcels from home were.
August 13th, 2014
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Very much enjoyed the diary extracts, it is good to know they were shown some kindness. The fav is for both shot and extract