Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

In April 1941, the 2/43rd Battalion were ordered to form an inner defence line at Tobruk. Together with the 2/28th they took up position on the Italian perimeter. On April 11th, the 2/43rd sights enemy tanks and lorries which cut off land communications. The battalion detroys the bridge over the anti-tank ditch, closing the Bardia road. Lieut. Sunter takes out 2/43rd,s first patrol. On the 13th, they encounter a much superior force, five men were wounded and five were missing, one of the missing was William ( Bill) Luck.

The following extract from the Mount Barker Courier.

"Mrs F.W. Luck has received letters from commander and lieutentant of her son Bill's company. It will be remembered that recently notification came to hand of his having been posted missing. The officers, as all in Mount Barker would, speak highly of the missing lad and state that there is now every reason to believe that he is safe and well although a prisoner of war. The C.O. continues " This information came to us from prisoners we had captured...He did a very brave act the night he was captured. His platoon was on patrol that night and unexpectedly met the enemy and a fight ensued. Owing to being unable to see very far, on account of the darkness, our boys decided to withdraw.Bill had started back, when he and his corporal noticed a wounded comrade and the two of them went back to help him in. Just at this time a large number of the enemy cut them off and they were taken prisoners. It was impossible for his friends to rescue him, as he and his captors were immediately swallowed up in the darkness. Had Bill not gone back, he would have come back with the platoon safe and sound, so you can imagine what we all think of this brave act" 

Our Father was born in Carlisle England in 1919. He was only 4 months old when he arrived back in Australia with my Grand Parents on the H.M.T. " Luce Woermann"; my Grand Father along with many other soldiers returning after the end of WW1. 

Our Grand Mother had never set foot in Australia and had left her family behind to start a new life. 

They settled near Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills where they ran a dairy farm. Bill was the first of five children, three boys and two girls. All the boys would eventually enlist in the Army after the outbreak of WW11 in 1939, with Dad being the first in June 1940.

After spending 5 months at the Woodside Army barracks housed in tents through the very cold winter, the troops travelled to Melbourne and departed from Port Melbourne on the H.M.A.T. Mauretania on the 29th December 1940. They arrived in Egypt via Colombo on the 8th of February 1941. Two months later, Dad was a P.O.W. 

Dad was recorded as "missing in action" by the Army until the 30th of June 1941 when confirmation was received that he was being held as a P.O.W. Dad was taken initially to Derna in Libyia where he was involved in an attempted escape on 22 April 1941. From there he was transferred to Bolzano Italy. He was interned there from the 25th of July until the 25th of October 1941. Bolzano would later be used by the Nazi's as a Concentration Camp.

From Bolzano, Dad was then transferred to Camp 57 Gruppignano Italy near the town of Udine. Approximately 1200 P.O.W.'s were held there. Soldiers who were not officers. This camp was commanded by Colonel Vittorio Calcaterra, described as a "sadist and a beast and an accessory to murder". Conditions there were extremely harsh. Food was poor and overcrowded housing with poor sanitation lead to disease with pneumonia and kidney disease common. Prisoners had to improvise their own medical treatment. It was during this time that Dad contracted Tuberculosos.

The Red Cross played a huge part in ensuring the survival of P.O.W.'s during their incarceration. Many more would have perished without these food parcels.

Dad's diary: 27th March 1942 "We get our first R.C.P. ( Red Cross Parcel) for 7 weeks and believe me it was just like Xmas, it was the first full stomach we had for the 7 weeks" Even so, Dad goes on to write, " the Italians ask for volunteers to work on their farms. Nobody volunteered even though they were offered extra rations and better living quarters". The weekly food allowance for each prisoner:

1400 grams Bread, 240 gms Meat,132gms Rice,330gms Maccoroni,

90 gms Olive Oil, 270 gms Cheese,210 gms Beans, 49 gms Coffee.

Dad remained there until 25th of April 1943 ( 18 months in total).

Dad's Diary: "Leave Gruppignano 25th of April 1943 for a working camp named Veneria (near Vercelli) arriving there on the 26th. The food here was a big improvement on the concentration camp. We were told we had to work 8 hrs a day and 6 days a week. After we had been there a week they wanted us to work on Sunday, we refused so they cut our rations, we still would not work so after three or four days they gave us our rations back."

Work continued here for a few more months, but freedom was coming..

Dad's Diary: "We saw the last big Facist gathering in Italy, the Under Secretary to Mussolini visited the casino (meeting house), our chaps were looking over the fence. When he came towards the fence the boys turned their backs on him and walked into the barracks, he went white with rage. The next day our rations were reduced and he ordered the guards to make us work hard and beat us if necessary.

A few days after this gathering Mussolini is out of power, all the Italians are jumping with glee and kissing each other."

"7th of Sept, finished work at Veneria and arrived at Vercelli.

On the eve of Sept. 8th we hear that Italy is out of the war, we are all jumping around and shaking hands. The "Ites" are running around everywhere, they brought us plenty of wine. There was very little sleep for us that night.."

"Sept 9th: I could not have received a better birthday surprise."

"Sept 10th: The Germans arrive in Vercelli, so we go away at 11 o'clock that night. Two Italian girls guided us out of town. We saw a German tank on the road as we went under a bridge just outside Vercelli; the German tanks went over the top.

11th Sept. We walked on further, we had to cross several rivers, the civilians helped us a lot, showed us a map and the direction to go.

12th Sept: Go on further until we come to a "casino" where seven of our chaps were staying. There were another five at the next "casino" where we got a feed and picked up with them. At night, a chap showed us a place in the scrub where we could stay, near the village of San Nazzaro. 

13th Sept.: We are camped in the scrub we scrounged potatoes and fruit.

14th Sept.: A couple of women asked us to come into the village for tea, so we went down; they gave us plenty to eat and some bread and fruit to take back. We slept there that night as it was raining.

15th Sept.: We go back to camp, it is still raining so we build a shelter out of branches and ferns.

16th Sept.: We get some stew brought to us by a nurse and another woman and two men.

17Th Sept.: It is raining very heavy with plenty of thunder and lighting, the water is streaming through our shelter so we make a wild dash for a shack down the track. Everything is wet through, so we have to sleep in out wet clothes; we are getting used to sleeping in wet clothes as they have been wet for 3 or 4 days.

18th Sept: We get a hot meal brought to us by a doctor and his friend; also bread, medicine and soap.

19th Sept: A nice day. I have bad stomach, sweat scald. At night it rains again, soaking wet. Spent next day drying clothes.

21st Sept: Rained again." 

This went on until the 28th of Sept.: " A Frenchman came to see us, he is a journalist for the "La Stampa" a facist paper; he asks us if we would like to go through to Switzerland; he said it would be risky, if we were prepared to go he would take on the job of getting us through, we had to wait for a week"

5th Oct.: In the morning the Frenchman and a couple of other chaps come and ask us to be ready at 3 o'clock to move to Switzerland.

We leave camp for the farmer's house on whose land we had been staying; when we get there we get a couple of glasses of wine, move off at 4.30, two chaps go in his car the rest of us walk; after we had walked 14 miles he came back and picked seven of us up, the other two followed on bike. Drove in car for another 11 miles and stopped at place named Catignano, arriving at 8 pm. Little sleep, then train for Domodossola.

Germans got onto the train about two stations up. The German Headquarters were in Domodossola. When we arrived there, there was a German Officer on the platform, so we had to continue on. Our assistants bribed the engine driver to slow the train down about 3/4 of a mile before the next station. We jumped off, several of us fell over, I was saved by the chap behind, we dashed over a road and hid in some bushes. Several women on the train said a prayer for us.

Our assistants went to get a guide for us. At 8pm we move off with a guide, we have to cross a road used by Germans. We cross it just as a car comes around the corner; we dash into the bushes to let it pass, then dash up the road and into the bush to start climbing up a steep mountains. We climb for 3 and a half hours until we get to to the top of a very high one with a house and a monastery. Sleep for 2 to 3 hours then on the move again with a new guide and a bit of bread and a few chessnuts. 

It was the beginning of the hardest walk in our lives. One chap in our party was 42, after we had been climbing about 2 hours he was a long way behind the others; spread out at intervals according to age and stamina. After 4 hours walking we were all very tired. The guide tried to encourage us by telling us it was easier going further along; but it got worse and worse. After about 6 hours walking the oldest chap came good seemed to get a second wind, but two other chaps were very fatigued, they were falling over every few yards, crawling on hands and knees some of the way.

We saw the entrance to the longest tunnel in the World (Simplon Tunnel) about 400 yards from the Border. The oldest chap broke down, said he could go no further, but when he heard we were so close, he rallied again."

These extracts from Dad's diary do little to describe the dangers of crossing the Alps at any time let alone when you are weak and malnourished. The following notes recorded in Dad's diary give us a better understanding of the perils faced.

" A few of the chaps who were killed or died coming over the mountains: An Englishman fell down the crack in a Glacier, his mate went to get help. When he returned, he could not find the spot where he fell. Another case where five New Zealanders were roped together; one fell and the rest followed and were killed. Ten English chaps roped together suffered the same fate. Earlier in the year, 20 Italians perished the same way. Many more have died in the mountains from starvation, cold, or have fallen to their death."

" When we got to the Border, we saw a couple of Swiss guards, they asked us if we were English, we said Australians, he said bravo, we salute you. From there we were taken to the Swiss village of Gondo." 

Dad had made it to freedom after nearly 2 and a half years in captivity. He weighed approximately 40 kgs and was suffering from TB. He had been on the run for one month. Not only risking his own life, but the lives of those with whom he came into contact with who helped him and his comrades, as Dad's diary later reveals: "A chap came to see us who was camped on the river in Italy not far from us; he told us the Germans came to get us two or three days after we left. They fired into our hideout. They caught the man who helped us out, but he escaped to Switzerland with his wife and child.."

Dad spent the next twelve months in Switzerland. He was sent to Adelboden where he learnt to Ski. The Swiss encouraged the "evade's" to obtain employment and he a several others got jobs in a factory producing mouse traps. Later, he worked on a dairy farm before being repatriated through France.

Dad arrived back in Australia 17th November 1944. On the 25th of January 1945 he was admitted to Army General Hospital with Pulmonary Tuberculosis and spent the next 7 months there, finally being discharged from the Army on 31st August 1945. 

Dad eventually ended up in Balaclava South Australia, where he met Mum before moving to the Adelaide Hills town of Littlehampton around 1950. They had 4 children and we all grew up there.

Dad worked hard and provided well for us. He always had a very large veggie garden supplemented with fish or ducks or rabbits .

Dad became very good at lawn bowls and also croquet and once won the South Australian Country Championship. He lived a full life and died at the age of 84.