THANK YOU ROYAL NAVY – YOU SAVED MY ARM!
I recently received this email from Wolfgang Wiesner in Germany:
“It was nice to find your webpage with photos and memories of the POW camps in the Canal Zone. As long as my father was alive, he told me of his time in Quassasin and from all that I heard I am really grateful for the find treatment he got from the British soldiers.
After being wounded in Russia he was posted in Greece where he soon was badly hit by bullets both in his legs and in his right elbow. He made it onto a hospital ship and once on board the German doctor decided that his arm had to be removed. However, the ship was brought up by a Royal Navy destroyer and escorted to Alexandria, so his arm stayed on his body.
Upon going on board, a British doctor thought that the arm could be saved and he was taken ashore at Alexandria and admitted to hospital where he was treated and cared for by nurses from New Zealand. After some weeks in hospital he was sent to the POW camp in Quassasin.
From there he was given work in the kitchens under a cook who was originally a policeman from Dover. He was treated very well and I think the time in the camp was by far the best time he had had for the last three years and maybe sometime after.
He came back to Germany with both arms, a British Army uniform and lots of Players Navy Cut cigarettes. Thank You All!!!
This is why I always had and have a big liking for the English and for England. It is always a great pleasure when my wife and I have holidays in England. Sadly the last one was in 2019 before this dreadful Covid. That one was in the Peak District but this year I hope very much to be able to visit again and we will walk the Yorkshire Dales.
My very best wishes and a huge thank you to all the Canal Zoners.
Yours, Wolfgang Wiesner”