211716 Pte. Frederick Charles Worthy British Army Hampshire Regiment from:Christchurch, Dorset My dad, Fred Worthy, joined the Hampshire Regiment in 1939 after a stint in the Grenadier Guards in the late twenties. He served in Tunisia and was then involved in the Salerno landings unfortunately, under the command of General Matt Clark. He was captured on the first day 9th September 1943 with only him and one other from a squad of 27 men. I believe he was then taken to Ocri a transition camp in Italy. He was then taken to a POW camp in Poland Camp 8b or 357. As the Russians advanced towards this camp they were then taken on a march towards Germany now known as the Death March or The March. One night he and another POW stole a duck from the farm. A German guard caught them and asked the farmer what he wanted to do with them as this was a shooting offence! Luckily the farmer was the town Mayor and had the savvy to realise that the War was lost so he just took the dead duck and let my dad and his mate go. Two weeks from the end of the War my dad was in a column of POW's that were straffed by the RAF and he was wounded in his right leg which after two years of trying to save his leg from gangerene he finally gave in to the pain and asked the surgeon to amputate it. He spent most of the rest of his working life as a carpenter on building sites. He was tough old soldier and never complained about his lot in life he was also a kind man who loved children much to the chagrin of the parents as he would spoil them rotten. He died in 1982. God bless him and all who served with him I'm proud to have been christened with his name.
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