The day after I posted “Stephen Hargreaves—A Soldier Comes to Light”), Steve’s daughter, Julie Barkway, wrote again:

“It is strange how little snippets of conversation keep coming back to us every now and again,” she said. “There was an anecdote that my father used to tell us that went along the lines of something like this:

“He was travelling along some heights in Tunisia with his troop, when they looked down on a very quiet village. My father and a driver took a jeep down to investigate while the rest gave cover from above. Finding the place deserted, both men were heading back to the jeep when a Stuka came diving out of the sky and dropped a bomb which landed between the two men. My father recalls the scream of the plane coming down and then this warm, floating experience, as he was thrown into the air. It seemed to last for an age.

“After a while, he opened his eyes, but said he couldn’t see anything in front of him at all nor could he hear a single sound. He got to his feet, checked himself over, and found no injuries at all. His only conclusion was that he was dead and having an afterlife experience. The driver who had been with him suddenly appeared in front of him like a ghostly white apparition. His mouth was moving like he was trying to say something but my father heard nothing but a ringing in his ears.

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Occasionally I come across the name of a soldier whom I know little about, other than that he had been interned in P.G. 59. Such was the case with Sjt. Stephen Hargreaves, whom I found on the Alphabetical List eight years ago.

Then, last week I heard from Julie Barkway (née Hargreaves).

Julie and her husband Peter had just returned from holiday in Italy. There they had visited the P.G. 59 memorial site where Julie’s father, Steve Hargreaves, has been interned.

“We were very unfortunate with the weather, which obscured the surrounding mountains. We didn’t have a tour and the museum was closed, so we just looked around ourselves and used what information Peter had found.

“I found it to be a very emotional day that really brought home to me what the soldiers must have gone through as young men. To be on the run at such a dangerous time in a strange country—and totally dependent on others for food and help—required bravery and courage. And, of course, a lot of luck.

“I am so grateful to those kind souls who helped them at great risk to themselves. They, too, showed enormous courage.

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