Signalman. John Mulhinch
British Army 4th Queen's Own Hussars
from:Glasgow, Scotland
I would like to submit my Father, John Mulhinch's, story of his experiences as a POW during WW2. My father passed away in November of 1994 but he recorded his war time memories as part of a school project for my niece. I think your website is a wonderful recollection of wartime memories so future generations do not forget the sacrifices of those gone before us.
Mulhinch, John, Signalman, 4th Queen's Own Hussars, 7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats). Born Glasgow, Scotland 9th September 1914 son of William and Alice Mulhinch of Welltrees, Rutherglen. John was captured on 12th June 1942 along with his radio operator when his tank was bombed and destroyed at Knightbridge, south of Tobruk by the German army and turned over to the Italian Army. The Germans were pushing on to El Alamein and could not take prisoners. He was held prisoner in an Italian camp in Italy from October, 1942 until September, 1944. His captors told the prisoners that Italy was withdrawing from the war to seek peace and that they could go and try to escape to Switzerland or stay for the German army to pick them up. John Mulhinch and three others, a South African, and two Englishmen made their way walking to Switzerland stopping in small villages along the way for 2 days at a time. A Friar in an Italian Monastery near the border showed them a safe passage to Switzerland and they escaped at night to freedom. John stayed in Switzerland for ten months until the end of the war in 1945.
He married Mary Forsyth Fenner on June 30, 1945, had three children, and emigrated to the United States in 1951. John died in Michigan in 1994.
