Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 29, 2008 0:40:13 GMT 12
I picked up the book 'Farewell Campo 12' by Brigadier General James Hargest yonks ago but I'm just getting round to reading it now, taking a break from Air Force reading.
Some of you may have read it, but for those who haven't beware there are spoliers below.
This is a superb book by one of the commanders in our 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in WWII, having commanded the First Echelon from their departure in 1940 and he apparently fought all through the Greek, Cretian and North African campaigns.
However the book breezes over those interesting years sadly and begins in earnest when he is involved in the Battle of Sidi Aziz, where sadly the NZ'ers and their Allies were whipped by Rommel's mob and many hundreds were captured. Hargest was captured himself and turned over to the Italians as a POW.
I am about halfway through the book and have to say it is quite surprising to me to read how he was treated, and the various things that happened to him, and his reminiscinces of the various people he met. Especially his Italian captors, many of whom he held great respect for.
One such was a submarine commander who transported him and other prisoners to Tripoli - Hargest really liked the guy and they got on well. He says he was one of the finest men he ever met. Apparently this captain liked the kiwis because his wife was a New Zealander. When war broke out she'd chosen to stay in Italy, but was torn about it because her fatehr in NZ was a merchant mariner and she was dredfully worried that someday her husband might sink her father's ship. Amazing.
But the treatment that Hargest got because he was a Brigadier General surprised me somewhat compared with other POW stories I've read and heard. At his first camp he was treated like all the other officers, had to sleep on a concrete floor and had to share a blanket.
however from then on he was seperated from his men, but he was allowed to take his batman (ie military manservant) wherever he was posted to, and his first place in Italy where they were inprisoned was a hotel, in which he had his own room and he paid from his own pocket for his batman's room. There he was given 1000 Lire by the Italians to go shopping (under guard) for new clothes (he didn't buy any and that 1000 Lire, a lot of money, is all part of the intricate story later).
He was then transported to a POW camp which he described as appaulling. However he and three other Generals who were prisoners were not put into the main camp with the men. No, they had a three storeyed villa that had been some rich people's holiday home. It was fully furnished, it had a tennis court, it has a rambling garden in which they pottered and attempted to grow veges despite the winter. It had a full kitchen that their servants (each had one and they lived in) did all the cooking in. They were even able to buy food and seeds for the garden and stuff from the town and they bought up a load of rum among other things! Talk about a bloody holiday. The men in the camp nextdoor were probably eating gruel while these generals played tennis and sipped rum. And he reckoned it was appaulling conditions!
After a few months he was moved to a castle in Rome which was a large prison just for Generals and it seems there were a load of them there (a few Air Staff members from the RAF too - how and where they got captured I don't know, maybe off ships?).
It is there that I am up to in the book, and it does sound a little bit more grim than their country villa, but it's amazing how the other half lived.
Don't get me wrong, Hargest had really done his bit for King and Country and had fought hard. But so had his men and I find it really interesting how the Italians treated the Generals quite differently. When he was at the hotel after arrival in Italy, an Italian officer had taken him on a sight-seeing tour of the town in his car, just for fun! Just amazing.
Sadly Hargest never survived the war. He apparently escapes (highest ranking person ever to do so) and got back to the UK, then went with the forces to Normandy on D Day and was killed there in August 1944. The book gives away all thise ending at the beginning of it!
It's a great book though, really interesting and recommended as something a bit different. not many generals will have written their war memoirs in 1943 and then been killed in action in 1944 I'd guess.
Some of you may have read it, but for those who haven't beware there are spoliers below.
This is a superb book by one of the commanders in our 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in WWII, having commanded the First Echelon from their departure in 1940 and he apparently fought all through the Greek, Cretian and North African campaigns.
However the book breezes over those interesting years sadly and begins in earnest when he is involved in the Battle of Sidi Aziz, where sadly the NZ'ers and their Allies were whipped by Rommel's mob and many hundreds were captured. Hargest was captured himself and turned over to the Italians as a POW.
I am about halfway through the book and have to say it is quite surprising to me to read how he was treated, and the various things that happened to him, and his reminiscinces of the various people he met. Especially his Italian captors, many of whom he held great respect for.
One such was a submarine commander who transported him and other prisoners to Tripoli - Hargest really liked the guy and they got on well. He says he was one of the finest men he ever met. Apparently this captain liked the kiwis because his wife was a New Zealander. When war broke out she'd chosen to stay in Italy, but was torn about it because her fatehr in NZ was a merchant mariner and she was dredfully worried that someday her husband might sink her father's ship. Amazing.
But the treatment that Hargest got because he was a Brigadier General surprised me somewhat compared with other POW stories I've read and heard. At his first camp he was treated like all the other officers, had to sleep on a concrete floor and had to share a blanket.
however from then on he was seperated from his men, but he was allowed to take his batman (ie military manservant) wherever he was posted to, and his first place in Italy where they were inprisoned was a hotel, in which he had his own room and he paid from his own pocket for his batman's room. There he was given 1000 Lire by the Italians to go shopping (under guard) for new clothes (he didn't buy any and that 1000 Lire, a lot of money, is all part of the intricate story later).
He was then transported to a POW camp which he described as appaulling. However he and three other Generals who were prisoners were not put into the main camp with the men. No, they had a three storeyed villa that had been some rich people's holiday home. It was fully furnished, it had a tennis court, it has a rambling garden in which they pottered and attempted to grow veges despite the winter. It had a full kitchen that their servants (each had one and they lived in) did all the cooking in. They were even able to buy food and seeds for the garden and stuff from the town and they bought up a load of rum among other things! Talk about a bloody holiday. The men in the camp nextdoor were probably eating gruel while these generals played tennis and sipped rum. And he reckoned it was appaulling conditions!
After a few months he was moved to a castle in Rome which was a large prison just for Generals and it seems there were a load of them there (a few Air Staff members from the RAF too - how and where they got captured I don't know, maybe off ships?).
It is there that I am up to in the book, and it does sound a little bit more grim than their country villa, but it's amazing how the other half lived.
Don't get me wrong, Hargest had really done his bit for King and Country and had fought hard. But so had his men and I find it really interesting how the Italians treated the Generals quite differently. When he was at the hotel after arrival in Italy, an Italian officer had taken him on a sight-seeing tour of the town in his car, just for fun! Just amazing.
Sadly Hargest never survived the war. He apparently escapes (highest ranking person ever to do so) and got back to the UK, then went with the forces to Normandy on D Day and was killed there in August 1944. The book gives away all thise ending at the beginning of it!
It's a great book though, really interesting and recommended as something a bit different. not many generals will have written their war memoirs in 1943 and then been killed in action in 1944 I'd guess.
