Walter
I found your description of the POW camp very poignant, as my late father was incarcerated from late '42 to the end of the war. He was a private in the East Surrey regiment.
He never spoke of his time as a prisoner, all I can remember being told was that he took part in the landings in Algeria in November '42 ( Operation Torch? ), was captured by the Germans in Tunisia and flown in a JU52 to a POW camp in Italy. I guess he was lucky not to have been shot down by the RAF or RN based in Malta!
After the Italians capitulated, they all did a runner but were soon recaptured by the Germans and he ended up having to work in a coal mine near Zwickau.
I only discovered after his early death in 1970, aged 51, that he had picked up a kidney infection in the Italian camp and was subsequently discharged from the army in early '46 as medically unfit. He collected his demob' suit and tried to get on with the rest of his life. I guess he may have been entitled to some sort of pension, but he never claimed one. He had hated every minute of the 6 plus years he had spent as a soldier and just wanted to put it all behind him.