Nikolai Bebono
MALTA, LEROS, LAG: THE 4TH BUFFS BEFORE AND AFTER THE AEGEAN THROUGH THE MEMOIR OF LIEUTENANT C.J.H. MORGAN
Malta, Leros, ‘Lag’: the 4th Buffs before and after the Aegean
Nikolai Debono
The 4th Buffs (East Kent Regiment)
- Renamed Royal East Kent Regiment in 1935
-
367 years old in 1939
- Territorial battalion
- Sent to France with British Expeditionary force
December 1940 - September 1943, 2 yrs, 9 months
Military Topography
Held by the National Army Museum, London.
Illustration by Jack Whitehouse, Company Quarter Master Sergeant to the Manchester’s ‘A’ company during the Siege of Malta
‘Malta at War’, Vol. 1
Held by the National Army Museum, London.
Held by the National Army Museum, London.
The 4th Buffs’ Social Life
Held by the National Army Museum, London.
Leros to ‘Lag'
Oflag 79
Oswald Henry Duncan Oflag 79
‘Hidden radio inside prisoner of war camp Oflag
79, Braunschweig, Germany’,Alexander Turnbull
Library, New Zealand.
Extract from ‘Daily Mail’, chosen by C.J.H. Morgan:
“Most of us want to be able to slip home quietly without a great deal of fuss. A great many of us I know would rather their families did not meet them at the Station or off the boat, but wait at home. If we do not want to do a thing, do not try to press us to do it. Again, a large number of us, after being home for a fortnight or so, will want to go away by ourselves right away from everyone. Do not try to stop us & keep us at home. It will do us a great deal of good to go on this sort of holiday. Very few will have anything mentally wrong. I am quite sure that after a few months we will adjust ourselves, but those first months may be a trial to our families.
All we ask is that they will understand the confusion of our minds & outlook, and will bear with us with patience until we function normally again.”