Durrant, K
Private Kenneth Durrant
Kenneth Durrant
Kenneth Durrant enlisted in the RAMC as a Nursing Orderly in September 1939. After training, he embarked for Egypt, where he served in 2/5 General Hospital for two years, then in Libya for 6 months with 9th Light Field Ambulance near Tobruk. He became a POW at the fall of Tobruk on 20 June 1942 and was later transferred from North Africa to various camps in Italy, the last of which was POW hospital 203 near Bologna. It was from here that he was captured by the Germans after the Italians surrendered. Allied troops had remained in their POW camps having followed orders from British intelligence. He arrived at Lamsdorf on 1st October 1943 and remained there until turned out of camp onto the Long March in January 1945. He marched approximately 500 miles and was liberated by the Americans, arriving back in England on 9 April 1945.
On 30 June 1942, his name was published in The London Gazette, having been Mentioned in Despatches for Distinguished Service.
British POWs At Tobruk
Britain had established control of Tobruk after routing the Italians in 1940. But the Germans attempted to win it back by reinforcing Italian troops with the Afrika Korps of Erwin Rommel, who continually charged the British Eighth Army in battles around Tobruk, finally forcing the Brits to retreat into Egypt. With the use of artillery, dive-bombers, and his panzer forces, Rommel pushed past the Allies, who surrendered on the morning of the 21st. Rommel took more than 30,000 prisoners, 2,000 vehicles, 2,000 tons of fuel, and 5,000 tons of rations. Adolf Hitler awarded Rommel the field marshal’s baton as reward for his victory. “I am going on to Suez,” was Rommel’s promise.
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