OUT OF CAPTIVITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1943, Page 3

OUT OF CAPTIVITY

BRITISH SOLDIERS HAPPY TO BE EXCHANGED EAGER DEMANDS FOR NEWS. EFFECTS OF RAID ON SPEZIA DESCRIBED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. British prisoners of war who are being exchanged for Italians were cheered by a crowd which included many members of the British colony when they arrived at Lisbon station this morning. The British Minister met them. Everyone was impressed by the appearance and bearing of the prisoners, who sang patriotic songs, waved and shouted in response to the greetings of their fellow countrymen. English women ran up to the train and handed English newspapers to the men whose demand was for news. Those who got papers called to the others: “Boys, Sousse and Sfax have already been captured by the Allies.” Two trains conveying Italians exchanged for the British left for Italy this evening. The demeanour of the Italians was in marked contrast to the British. As they landed, not a single man had asked a question about the war. They seemed to have lost all interest in it. The British seemed on the whole much younger than the Italians, but they included more crippled cases, a fact which made their obviously high morale all the more remarkable. Not a single man had lost his sense of humour, and all were eagerly asking questions. Most of the British prisoners in Italy were captured in North Africa. Those from Greece were taken to Germany. A general taken prisoner at Gambut when trying to rejoin the British after the fall of Tobruk confirmed the success of the R.A.F. raid against Spezia. He was on board a train which entered a tunnel as the first bombs fell. He said: “It was a beautiful raid and started fires which were burning next day.” Others said the industrial sector was ablaze and also oil tanks. The blast rocked their train and the tunnel, into which many civilians flocked. The Italians did not seem resentful, and many waved to the British next morning. “V” signs followed the repatriated men across France and Spain. , DEPARTURE FOR HOME LONDON, April 19, The hospital ship Newfoundland left Lisbon at 10 p.m. yesterday for Britain, with 450 British prisoners repatriated from Italy. Two Italian hospital trains simultaneously left Libson for Italy.