Clem Smith and John Dixon. They joined up together and were captured together

Clem was born 11 August 1911, son of George Smith & Edith née Head. George and Edith had been married in Mortlake. Clem had an elder brother George, a twin brother Alfred, a younger brother Francis and a sister Constance.
7 March 1936 Clem married Dorothy Florence Douglas at St Leonards in Colchester. They lived at Corner House, High Street, West Mersea.

In WW2, Clem joined the 2/5th Battalion of the Essex Regiment, who served in Palestine/Iraq between 15th June 1942 and the 30th June 1942. They were a Territorial Unit drawn predominately from rural areas in East & North Essex. Subsequently, they fought in the Battle of Deir-El-Shein 1 July 1942.

The Battle of Deir-El-Shein on the 1 July 1942, in which the 2/5th Battalion, The Essex Regiment, fought with particular distinction, marked the turning point of the desert campaign in that year. The actions of the 2/5th were recognized by the award of a Battle Honour to the Essex Regiment. The German forces had forced a general withdrawal of the Allied forces, and they stopped here to stand and fight at what was to become known as the Alamein Line. Short of supplies, the Battalion converted a piece of bare desert into a reasonably defended locality.

Clem was captured 1 July 1942 - half the unit were captured that day and the rest within 3 days. They were up against Rommel's 15th German Panzer Division. They were marched from El Alamein up to Tobruk. There for 48 hours, handed over to Italians, and then shipped to Benghazi. Stayed there for 6 weeks, 27,000 men, with no shelter. 4 ships left for Italy - two of them were sunk by the Royal Navy. Clem was in a new Italian freighter and the 3,000 of them were put in the hold that had just carried oil. They went to Brindisi in Italy, marched 12 miles, train up to Florence, and then marched to Laterina, camp PG82.

Clem was at Laterina for 11 months. Initially little food, only the clothes they stood up in. They were under canvas, but then the PoWs helped to build 12 huts for the camp. Red Cross parcels started to come and made a lot of difference. The camp initially was a vineyard. They asked for volunteers to go and work on the farms, so Clem volunteered. With 50 men he went to work on an estate about 4km from Siena.

How did they get away? Clem does not tell all the story, but they decided that Sunday 6th September [1943] was the day they would go. 3pm, guards were asleep and he and another chap were away. They hid by day and travelled by night. They crossed the railway and the road - in 1976 Clem went back with his wife and he showed her the spot. For a week they never saw a soul. They lived on the land - plenty of food around. Seventh morning it was pouring with rain - they crossed the road dropped into a field where they surprised a woman picking leaves on vines. She was frightened, but they made friends - she took them back to her house where they met her brothers and they were given food and wine. They stayed for 6 weeks, helped pick the grapes, cut the corn, but eventually were given away by a French Morrocan who was in the British Army but was now working for the Germans. They were dressed in civilian clothes but he spotted their Army boots. Clem and his pal hurried back to the house, told them they had to leave, and recovered their Army uniform. They were given food and wine and kept on the move. They came to [Coosie ???] a village that kept changing hands between Germans and Allies. They had found the village swarming with Germans, knocked on the first door and were taken in. They were given food, and dried out but it was not safe to stay, so they were taken up the side of a mountain to a well-hidden grotto - where they spent 11 days hidden, supplied with food by the family in the village.

They decided it was getting dangerous with too many Germans around. This was 180 miles from where they had first met the friendly Italian family, and it had taken them six weeks to get here in easy stages. It was 10 days to Christmas Day, 1943. They went back in 10 days and went to the the family that had welcomed them originally, in the village of Lucignano.They stayed in this area for 3 months, working and going from farm to farm on this estate of 157 farms.

Clem and his pal were not recaptured. The Germans were being pushed back and the British Army was coming up the Po Valley. For 3 days they were in no-mans land and then the tanks of the 6th South African Armoured Division came. The pair made themselves known. They were in civvies and were taken back for 5 days of interrogation - to start with the authorities did not believed that they had been on the run for 10 months...

An account written by Clem's brother George gives a glimpse of life at Lignano. "He shared the family's modest social life as well as their hardships. One Sunday they were all invited out to dinner by a neighbouring family; for conditions have passed rock-bottom when an Italian can't find at least one bottle of wine to drink with friends. Knowing how terribly scarce food was, Clem was agreeably surprised when a large rabbit pie appeared on the well-scrubbed meal table. "Molto carue" - plenty of meat remarked he cheerfully to his host. They all gratefully tucked in, finished off with another glass of wine, and drifted out singly to the sunny yard. As Clem passed an outhouse, he sees a large ginger cat skin carefully stretched and nailed to the door. It didn't need two and two to cause him to gently reproach his friend, "Antonio, you've killed the cat"! His benefactor was momentarily downcast then rapidly clenched his hands and earnestly gazing heavenwards as though in supplication, he replied "Clementi, Clementi, amico mio - fratello mio! I am so sorry - what could I do? Twelve hungry people come and I have one small half grown rabbit only"! As Clem said, "There are times when it merely upsets your stomach to be angry, besides, it tasted like rabbit," He couldn't resist asking Antonio how he had achieved this culinary feast. After all the war wasn't over yet. Apparently his host had gutted and skinned the household pet, then staked the carcass out in a clean, fast-flowing stream for forty-right hours. Clem could but accept it as an extremely generous gesture. These simple, kindly folks had protected, sheltered and unselfishly shared with him for twelve long months, until our forces arrived in the area.
[George Saunders Smith Chapter 5 page 81.]

Clem got back to the UK and normal life returned. He had a business, selling fresh fruit and vegetables, mostly grown by him. He was described as "one of a kind, showman, wheeler dealer with a personality far bigger than his stature.". He was a Councillor for many years with West Mersea Urban District Council.
Clement Sanders Smith died 28 October 1982.

Other local men at Deir-el-Shein:
Geoff Green - captured with Clem, Italian Prisoner of War. See WW2_GFG
John Dixon - captured with Geoff and Clem, with John in Grignasco PoW Camp, escaped to Switzerland and returned to UK 20 November 1944. See WW2_FJD
Henry Nesmyth, who lived in The Lane West Mersea and was killed 1 July 1942. See WW2_NSM
Stanley Victor Neville of Langenhoe was captured and went to a German Prisoner of War Camp. He died 25 December 1944 as a result of Allied Bombing on the factory where he was being forced to work.
See NEVILLE Stanley Victor (PDF file opens in a new window).

Thanks to
Carol Wyatt

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