South Africa military POW

[jen5525]

Hi all...I posted this in the WW2 section but thought I'd try here as well

looking for help in finding information about time spent as a POW (not necessarily military records since I know where to find those).

My great uncle John Stewart (b. 1921 in Scotland, d. 2000 in Durban S. Africa) served in the south african military in WWII.

Here are the details according to his son: He was in Royal Durban Light Infantry [RDLI] and I think he was slightly under age when he joined up. He was sent to North Africa to fight against Rommel’s forces at the early stages of the war and was captured very early on in the war in North Africa at Tobruk, and was shipped to Italy to a prison of war camp just north Venice.

He managed to escape along with a number of other South African in the camp .They were befriended by a small farming community and they live and worked on the farms always being aware of their status as escaped prisoners.

Any thoughts on finding out more about his time as a POW?  Especially in figuring out what camp he was sent to, as my Google seach seems to suggest that most of those captured at Tobruk wound up in the southern parts of Italy.

I'm awaiting access to his military records. Does anyone know if those will have that information.

[Nookie]

See that there was a POW camp called Malo close to Venice.  I wonder if that was the one he was sent to.  I would think that his military records would give you more information.