54 great opening lines: 43

Henry Holden decided to get an Italian prisoner-of-war after he had seen several at work on Esmond’s farm.

The Enthusiastic Prisoner, E. O. Schlunke

*****

Another short story by Schlunke, the author of The Irling which I wrote about a couple of days ago.  This line, beginning with a very Australian name, Henry Holden, caught my attention particularly when I saw it was about an Italian P.O.W.  It triggered thoughts of some photos from my father’s war album of Italians taken prisoner by Australian soldiers.  Many of the P.O.W.s were shipped to Australia and placed in camps, and their services were offered to local farmers who greatly benefited from the Italians’ excellent knowledge of food production.  There is a photo (above) of a stream of Italians heading towards their captor’s camp.  There’s also this image of a suave bunch posing for the camera:

Italian soldiers, North Africa, c1941
Italian soldiers, North Africa, c1941

4 Replies to “54 great opening lines: 43”

  1. Hello….
    I’m loving this photo….do you know who these gentlemen are? The one in the middle resembles my grandfather….
    Look forward to hearing back from you
    Kind regards
    Rosangela Crispino

  2. Hi Rosangela, I’m so glad you liked the photos of the Italians. Unfortunately I don’t know who they are. The photos are in my father’s war album of photos taken in Libya and Egypt in 1941/42.

  3. My uncle Giacomo was captured by the allies in north Africa and sent to England as a POW. He seems to have enjoyed this experience and went on to become a successful business man in France after the war.

  4. Thanks for telling me about your uncle. It’s rare to hear a good news story from the war. And thanks for reading my post.

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