One Day at a Time

The war years of 1939 - 1945 were a time when ordinary people did extraordinary things. Some events and experiences are well documented, some told first-hand by the people who were there. Many kept their own counsel, choosing, over the years, to disclose only fragments of those times.

Descendants become curious to know of their ancestors' past - everyone has a story. Some will remain untold, some pieced together with the help of documents and archives recently released. The more I investigated, the more the snippets told to me by my father - corroborated and expanded upon by others - have fallen into place. I have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible, but this is a work of fiction based on his story. Some characters, locations and incidents have been fictionalised or modified for dramatic purposes.

Follow Harry from his call-up in March 1942 through deployment in North Africa, his capture and journey via transit camps in Sicily and Naples to Sulmona. When Italy signs an armistice with the Allies, German troops pour into the country, sparking a mass escape into the mountains.

Amid the confusion, Harry's wife, Nell, and his parents wait for news.
A few escapers make it over the mountains into Switzerland; others head south to meet Allied troops fighting their way north from Salerno. Despite the help of local villagers, who risk dreadful reprisals, many are recaptured and transported north into Germany and Poland to be used as forced labour, a journey fraught with danger, not only from the enemy but also from Allied bombers.

Trapped between Russian troops encroaching from the east and the Allies from the west, German guards receive orders to evacuate the camps - the prisoners not knowing whether they will be used as human shields or used bargaining chips. So begins the long march.