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Australia

Enlisted on the 29th of May, 1941. Being only 17 years 9 months old at the time he enlisted under the assumed name of Melvin Reginald Maynard. 

22/9/1941 Embarked for the Middle East

24/10/1941 Marched out to 26 Australian Infantry Training Battalion

21/5/1942 Marched out to 2/48 Battalion

30/7/1942 Reported Missing in Action (believed POW)

3/9/1942 Officially reported POW

1/5/43 Reported Interned in Camp 57, Gruppignano, NE Italy

15/7/43 Reported Interned in Camp 106, Vercelli, North Italy

14/11/43 Reported entered Switzerland from Italy

9/10/44 Reported arrived in Italy for repatriation to Australia

21/11/44 Arrived Melbourne

Allen Sydney Maynard described his capture at Tel El Eisa on 10 July, 1942 at the hands of the Germans as follows:

"During a company attack we captured our objective (Tel el Eisa Railway Stn) The Coy had consolidated and held off German (ground/aerial?) attacks until evening, when the enemy launched a fresh attack with Tanks, mobile infantry, artillery, ....(?) remainder of the Coy withdrew without (warning/informing?) the forward sections ...(?) of which I was a member. We held off the attack until the mobile infantry ..(?) dropped behind us & attacked us from the rear and the tanks ......? made it impossible to hold out any longer. We then had no alternative but to surrender"

With him at the time and also captured were:

Cpl. Montgomerie

M. Richardson

Pte S.G. Kinsman

In his Statement he described the conditions during his internment in 5 different camps:

General living conditions:"Tents, no bedding, no lighting/heating... Huts, wooden bed"

Food: Insufficient quantity of very poor quality, poor cooking facilities"

Clothing: "Only what wearing when captured.. Full Red Cross (?) at Camp 57"

Bathing/washing: Camp 1-3 Very poor, camp 4,5 - Fair

Work: Rice fields, 8 hours per day, no pay camp 1-3

Behaviour of Internment camp staff: "Very bad in transit camps.. very bad and vindictive at camp 57... attitude changed with war news"

Names of other Australians seen while prisoner of war:

Major Burns (?)

L/Col M. Richardson

R/C R.C Imour (?)

Allen Sydney MAYNARD was born in Clare SA, the third of four children born to Thomas and Sarah. Allen's father Thomas died in June 1926. His mother Sarah remarried in 1930 to Adolph Edward BEINKE and they had two children together.

Allen enlisted in May 1941, using the name and birthdate of his cousin, Melvin Reginald. He gave his own sister, Edna Emily, as his next of kin.

His cousin Melvin enlisted in Jan 1942 (S114058), with the same birthdate and place, but Allen's deceit was not uncovered until 1950. The reason he gave was that he was born in 1923 and underage; however, SA BMD records show his birth was registered in Clare in 1922 (101A/212). 

Allen was a POW on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. He was one of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident. 

Allen married Sylvia Muriel LITTLE. They lived and died in Mount Gambier, SA. Allen and Sylvia died on the same day in 1985. His cemetery record shows his birthdate as 19 Aug 1922, as does a letter from his sister in his war record.