Of course in that period, we had the er prisoner of war camps here. And that was in Mabel's Furlong.

We had the Germans and the Italians here.

Italian, uh, Germans had grey uniforms.

The Italians had brown and they used a big round patch on the back and one on the knee. And we also had the Americans in er Eastern.

Well, these Italians. Some of them are very, very careful and they used to, of course, they weren't restricted to stopping to camp.

They wait on the, the land work, everything like that. 1947 was another, and they were on the road. They were still here in 1947 and uh we had a terrible here year with snow. And they were clearing the roads, everything, but they were allowed out.

Of an evening. And they weren't tied in.

Well, where, where could they go? But the Italians, some of them were very. Clever.

They used to come in and ask for little bits of strips of leather around that and they used to try and make purses or anything like that, you know, to take home, but When I was at school and I can remember them when they were being repatriated and I can remember them marching all the way up through the town. To catch the trains to go back home, but.

A lot of Germans and Italians stopped here.

They didn't want to go back. There was nothing to go back to. And er They were frowned up on a bit, but after a few years they were accepted and some of them married, um, you know, the girls here and all that, but, um.

Yes, it was a period, you know, where it was unrest and of course we were losing our own men.

In the war, of course you're going to go to go to the Cenotaph and see the names on there, and I can remember a lot of men who didn't come back.