Eastbourne

March to Freedom




UPDATE - 21/11/2016

We've had contact from readers who suggested we re-title this transcript. As a result, we've renamed it March to Freedom (from Death March). 

We have also been asked about the reference to a woman cooking the food: As the POWs marched through villages and towns accommodation was sought. The guards expected the women to cook the rations so they could eat too. Few men would have been around at the time.





Prisoner of War




My brother Gooza (Leslie) and I joined the army in 1940. At first we camped in the horse stalls at Caulfield Racecourse, then were shifted to Mount Martha, where we camped in tents, and later we shifted to a new camp called Darley, outside of Bacchus Marsh. There were many other service men for our town, seven of whom didn't come home. Some women enrolled in the Ladies section too.