50047 Henry Francis Army My grandad was Henry Francis and he came from Canningtown in East London. When we were young our grandad always seemed a bit mad, he'd often tell us to be quiet because the germans were coming, this was in the mid eighties and ninties, obviously being young
we often used to laugh at him and take the mick.
After he died in 1994 my younger brother, whom he happend to be very close to, found out that he had been in an italian pow camp in ww2. There is a story that goes around the family that whilst in the camp and on roll call one morning the gaurds were shouting at another
pow who happened to be quite a lot older than my grandad and also profoundly deaf.
Obviously the poor old sod couldn't hear the orders so was beaten with the butt of the guards rifle in front of the other prisoners.
My Grandad apparently attacked the guard and gave him a beating,to which the guards responded by torturing my Grandad for days and pulling his finger nails out, followed up with a spell in solitary confinment.
So we finally understood why he had been so nutty but we have no idea where he was held or for how long as he never really spoke about his ordeal and my father didn't have a very close relationship with him due to his past ordeals as my grandfather was suposedly a very changed man on return from the war.
Me and my brothers are very interested in trying to find out some info on my Grandads war experiences, can anyone help?
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