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arms behind. The S.B.O. ordered them to stay in the camp & mounted the gaurds on the walls, armed with sticks. They stayed in the camp for a week & finally the Germans & were surprised to find over a thousand officers still there! Many other camps had somewhat similar experiences. Looking at it from the other side the third item of the Peace Treaty was the release of all prisoners. This was left entirely to the Italians who for the most part did nothing to help or if they did anything it was to hinder them. So is was a colossal blunder on our Army's part! We were just the goats apparently!

I have seen it said that at least we saw Europe - well I suppose we did, but through barbed-wire from cattle trucks and every few minutes of the night, punctuated with Tommy gun bursts along the sides of the train! Well to continue with my journey to Germany. We left Gavi in the buses and drove all day by very round about routes to MANTOVA where we spent the night in an arena with a concrete cycle track around the rim. The next day we marched to the station where we were greeted by a large crowd of weeping Italians who threw us food & cigarettes. We were then loaded on cattle trucks. I really