In the Prison of His Days: The Memoirs of a Captured World War Two Gunner

When Gunner George Norman Davison returned to his hometown of Sheffield, England, upon the conclusion of the Second World War, he used the diary he had carried with him to write a vivid first-hand account of his experiences.

These included the former insurance clerk's initial training in the UK and posting to North Africa; his immediate separation from Irene, his newlywed wife; his subsequent capture and imprisonment in the desert camps of Libya; the seemingly endless, lonely and hungry minutes dreaming of food and home; his re-transportation to Italy; the cruelty and kindness of his captors there; and - finally - his escape with the aid of the Italian resistance across the border on Lake Como into Switzerland.

Job done, Davison then put his remarkable story to one side before typing it up in manuscript form shortly before his death in 1986, whereupon it was rediscovered in a dusty attic by his only son, John. Alongside it was a battered old suitcase which contained yet more fascinating items, including each and every letter that Norman and Irene Davison had written to one another in those dark days from 1939 to 1946.

Published by Scratching Shed Publishing.

Available from:
Amazon

What Price Bushido?

Alf 'Blackie' Baker was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942. 'What Price Bushido?' is his story of his treatment as a FEPOW.

However, while a considerable number of stories have been published by FEPOWs about the treatment in POW camps in Thailand (the 'Death Railway'), Alf Baker's story is very different.

He was one of the 600 Artillerymen who were transported to Rabaul, New Britain (now Papua New Guinea - see Google Map) in October 1942. When the war ended three years later, only 18 men remained alive. 517 of these men were taken to Ballale in the Solomon Islands, from which none returned alive - a terrible incident which seems to have been lost in history.

Before I read this book I had no idea about what happened at Rabaul and Ballale. Alf Baker's book includes a Roll of Honour of both the lost and the survivors. It is a fitting tribute to the men who lost their lives while POWs of the Japanese.

Available:
Believed to be out of print, although I have seen copies in secondhand bookshops in Devon.
Amazon

Further reading:
The story of Alfred William Burgess (killed at Ballale)