Richard Hutchinson

The Good Enemy Richard Hutchinson

The journey began at Gourock on the river Clyde sailing on RMS Rangitata via Sierra Leone and Durban to Port Suez in Egypt. Postings in the Western Desert and Cyprus followed by return to the desert, these records continue with the story of capture by Rommel's army and subsequent imprisonment in Italian and then German prisoner of war camps. Camp conditions, forced labour and lack of food are detailed together with records of how he and his fellow prisoners were treated by firstly their Italian captors and then by the Germans. Enduring repeated RAF bombing raids over Chemnitz in February, March and early April 1945, liberation finally came on Tuesday 8th May courtesy of Russian forces followed by American troops.