The war wasn’t going well for the Germans. The black shirts also had one eye on what they could see was the end game. We were very lucky to survive. When they did question us, it was always the same question “how many” they said, meaning “how many troops were in the mountains?” We told them there were thousands of us and that thousands more were coming.
After only a couple of days at La Spezia jail, we were moved North to Verona before being transported further and further into Germany as the Allies advanced. We had to stand up in over-crowded cattle trucks, hundreds of us cheek-by-jowl for days on end. The train came under fire from the USAF some prisoners were killed that way. I remember we reached the relative safety of a tunnel where the train stopped for about 36 hours, jammed inside like pigs without any food, water or even a pot to do our business in.
As soon as the train exited it was spotted from the air and attacked.
One officer decided to take charge. He ordered us to get off the train and strip to the waist and form up into large letters spelling out P.O.W. with our bodies. When the fighter planes began to dive the men bent over so their naked backs, together, formed the shape of these letters. The sight of a load of half-naked blokes bent over and virtually waiting to be blown to kingdom come, thankfully, must have had the desired effect on the pilots, who pulled up without firing.
But the danger wasn’t over. The fighter planes continued to circle trying to determine whether this was an enemy trick or whether we really were POWs. I remember a couple of padres praying and I don’t mind telling you I gave a little prayer myself. We were ordered to stand our ground and hold the formation if the planes dived again and dive again they did.
The Thunderbolts came screaming down from on high. It was terrifying. Only one bloke cracked out of all of us and did a runner although all our instincts were to do the same. The guns started blazing. I thought we had had it then for sure.
We couldn’t understand how they hadn’t hit us. We heard them pulling up again. They must have been testing us and they had deliberately fired to miss. As they zoomed over our heads they dipped their wings in salute and disappeared. The Jerrys herded us back into the tunnel and the next day we were forced marched for two days until we reached Wentzler and Dutenhofen. There we stayed in the camp until at last, on the 28th March at 1pm the American 7th Armoured Division liberated us at Dutenhofen. After a short period being debriefed and checked medically, I was flown back to the UK, landing at Oakley in Hampshire on 3rd April. I returned home on leave on 4th April 1945. My Mum, God Bless her, had only been advised in late February that I was being held in German hands in an unspecified camp and had no idea I was back in Blighty.
Rob Hann and Trevor Harrold (c) Rob Hann
I carried on in the army after the war and was posted to the Parachute Regiment camp at Piddle Hinton in Dorset as Company Quarter Master Sergeant. I was eventually demobbed on 9th July 1946. Throughout this time I had kept in touch with my old SAS CO Major Rooney, whose family owned a brush making business, R.A.Rooney Limited in Walthamstow North London. They offered me a job in late 1946, initially as trainee works manager. I was made works manager in 1950 and worked for the Rooney family for the whole of my working life, right into my 70’s!
I will never forget the years I had in the army and the SAS. As a young lad you never really think about the dangers and you enjoy the good times and camaraderie with your mates. Looking back, despite all the hardships we went through as a POW, I think I was fortunate to survive. Many others, sadly, did not come home.
Sgt Trevor Harrold ex-3 Squadron 2 SAS November 2017
Author’s note: Trevor Harrold was interviewed recently as part of Monty Halls Channel 4 series WWII’s Great Escapes: The Freedom Trails. Thanks in part to Trevor and his stick’s brave resistance to interrogation, SAS Operation Galia was a complete success. A mere 33 men managed to tie up over 6,000 front line crack enemy troops – see my book SAS Operation Galia.
© Rob Hann November 2017