The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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231430 Pte Paul John Leonard Randles South African Army Umvoti Rifles from:Pietermaritzburg Paul Randles(19), former Head Boy of Hilton College, volunteered to fight for the Mother country. The Randles family had come from Shropshire and his mother's (Tweedie) from Peebles. He was sent to Egypt for army training. Fighting in the desert war in North Africa Private Randles was taken prisoner at the fall of Tobruk in July 1942. He was taken to Italy where he was held prisoner in Montalbo (PG41) in September 1942. In March 1943 he was transferred to another camp, Fontanelatto (PG49). On 9th September 1943 he was one of the 536 prisoners released by the Camp Commandant. He and his compatriots made their way south through the Apennine Mountains with the aim of joining the Allies. They covered 700km on foot. He was sheltered by a family called Vincenzo in San Donato in Frosinone. He was recaptured by Germans while attempting to cross to the Allied lines. He was entrained to Germany where he saw out the war in POW Camp Stalag VIIa, near Mooseburg northeast of Munich. Having survived the war Paul studied Law and became senior partner at Randles Davis and Wood in Pietermaritzburg, Natal. Paul played rugby and cricket for Natal and got a trial as wicketkeeper for the Springboks. While under the protection of the Vincenzo family he was invited to attend the christening of their youngest child. He made too merry after the service and slipped out of the haystack where he had been hiding and landed at the feet of a German officer. Quick thinking Ma Vincenzo took off her belt and scolded him shouting "Off to your room now and sleep it off - the young today just do not know how to behave". The officer roared with laughter and suspected nothing. Alexander Irvine-Fortescue Add to this record.  Related Content: Siege of Tobruk Prigione di Guerra (Campo) P.G. 41 Prisoner of War Camp Prigione di Guerra (Campo) P.G. 49 Prisoner of War Camp Stalag 8A Prisoner of War Camp Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.