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Private J. D. Caves: The Long Journey Home

10 January 1942 B Coy 24th Bn N.Z.E.F. Middle East Forces

10 January 1942 B Coy 24th Bn N.Z.E.F. Middle East Forces

My Own Jean,

The nights have been much warmer, for a while there it was bitterly cold. Today I stripped off and had a good wash in some water I heated up. We are now getting about a kerosene tin of water a week just for washing purposes. We have no difficulty this time of year in making our bottle a day of drinking water spin out.

One of our chaps returned from the desert with a Tommy [English] unit the other day after having been a P.O.W. for 3 weeks. He spoke well of Hun treatment but the Italians are not so hot. At Benghazi, where they were all placed in a cinema for the night, he and two others climbed up into the rafters and thus escaped being marched out onto waiting boats and shipped to Italy and Greece. He was able to tell me definitely about many others who I'm afraid we'll not see now until after the war. By gee! I had some narrow escapes all right - what with stopping one in my tin hat. It would not be too nice in a prison camp in Europe and worse as the war goes on.