My Dad gave me his Essex cap badge when I was in my late teens. He was captured at Monte Casino along with his brother. They were sent to Germany and Dad was made to work in a pipe factory. He was released by the Russians, and a Russian soldier and gave him a rabbit skin jacket and I still have it today. He did not like talking about the war. One story he did tell me, that the Russian solders were kept in separate huts from the rest of the troops in the camp.
The Germans were starving them and they were screaming out for food, the Germans sent their dogs into the huts, but they never came out.
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