.

People

Name
Zuncheddu, John Salvatore (b.1920)
Introduction

John Salvatore Zuncheddu was a prisoner-of-war in Somerset during World War II. In 1941 he was captured at Tobruk and eventually sent to Goathurst prisoner-of-war camp on the Quantock Hills.

 

He worked as a farm labourer in the Minehead area and then moved to Burtle on the Somerset Levels. He left England to be demobbed and went back to Sardinia before returning to work in Somerset as a farm labourer until the mid-1950s. In this clip John talks about the experience of being captured, and the kind of work he did as a POW in Somerset.

Goathurst POW camp. Goathurst POW camp.
Sound File
Listen to John Salvatore Zuncheddu - 879KB Duration 1:52 min.
Transcript

AH: And how long were you in Tunisia then?

JSZ: Not very long unfortunately.

 

AH: What happened?

 

JSZ: Well, we were about forty-ninth day eventually but still to do the front and then, I don’t think I even shoot the rifle because there was no hope, no chance, nobody knew exactly where we were but they were waiting for us.  It was the British Army, I think it was Montgomery.  And I was near Tobruk.  And, of course, eventually we came to Bridgwater, Goathurst.

 

AH: How many of you came?

 

JSZ: Oh, well it was a full camp, some forty-four, I think a couple of hundred.  They were all from different areas, from [Umbria] all going there.   So I stayed there in the camp, oh, about six months I think and daily we used to go to work, different places.

 

AH: What kind of work was that?

 

JSZ: Oh, anything, hedging, ditching, different places. 

 

AH: Was it just working on the farms then?

 

JSZ: No, no, no.  When you were in the camp you had to go to work anywhere, places like [repair roofs] doing ditching, and I know it was a place in Martock, Martock, they was making, building, like a great big place, like very often you find students now, like…

 

AH: YMCA?

 

JSZ: Yes, places like for people to stay.

Copyright Information
Copyright. This recording was made by Ann Heeley in January 2003. Photograph ©SRLM. For access to full interview please contact the Somerset Heritage Centre.