L/Bdr Robert Lewin
South African Allied Forces 2nd Light Anti Aircraft Regiment
from:Stradella, Clovelly, Western Cape
As dictated to Bev Lewin by Robert Lewin in January 1986. "As from 1940 I was assigned to 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, which was posted to North Africa under command of General Klopper. Our regiment was at El Adem, near Tobruk. After the capture of El Adem on 22nd of June 1942 by German forces lead by Field Marshall Rommel, we were shipped to Campo 52, at Chiavari, on the Gulf of Genoa. When the Allied invasion came and Italy surrendered, in early September 1943, the Germans decided to send their prisoners of war to Germany. En route across the Lombardi Plains, some of us escaped by cutting a hole in the canvas covering of the cattle train truck we were in, and we jumped out of the moving train. Four of us stuck together. We were Bill Watson, Andy Blake, Charles Shaw and I – all South African Non-Commissioned Officers. We made it to Stradella. We were astonished one day to find Sergeant Fick of the UDF in Bobbio in North Italy. He had escaped with us from the same prison train. He had got through the Allied lines walking 16 days to cross the Sangro River. Now he had been parachuted with orders to help us get through to the Allies. We embarked on a perilous journey of +/- 100 miles, through the mountains to the Allied Lines. One of the former Partisans, who made the trip with us, was SAMC Corporal Mark Rubenstein, of Johannesburg. He was their official medical officer to a group called the Brigade of Garibaldi. When we reached the Allied lines, we were de-briefed at the Red Cross station when we had crossed over the Alps to the North Western border of Italy."
I appeal to you for any guidance you could offer me, in my search for the above papers. I sincerely hope that these pieces of information and the names I have supplied can assist in locating the whereabouts of my affidavit. It would be greatly appreciated, if any leads could be passed on to me. Bobby died in March 1991
