Michael Hanley was reported as a prisoner of war on August 3rd, 1942. It is possible he was one of the prisoners taken during the attack on the Mrier Depression in Egypt on the night of July 21-22. He was one of 68 men taken prisoner that night. He found himself in the Italian Camp 57 at Udine.
Fortunately the winter turned out to be mild. Although the allowance of blankets was sufficient, there were few heating stoves in the barracks and only enough fuel to keep them going for about two hours each evening. Conditions in the cells were especially severe in winter, as they were not heated in any way, and prisoners slept on bare boards with one blanket only. Supplies of Red Cross food parcels failed owing to the breakdown in the transport arrangements through southern France, and the International Red Cross Committee warned all camps to issue at the rate of half a parcel a week as from 1 December. Some men who had not sufficiently recovered from previous privations broke down in health as a result of this additional food shortage; there were a good many cases of beriberi and a disproportionate number of deaths both in the camp and in the local hospital. -Private J. D. Caves - The Long Journey Home.
ROLL OF HONOUR
HANLEY — At Camp 57 Udine, Italy, Private Michael Francis (Frank) Hanley, elder son of Mrs and the late Mr Murty Hanley, Ouse Street. Oamaru, and loved brother of Mrs Gardner, Raymond Street, aged 42 years. R I P. -Timaru Herald, 1/2/1943.
Mrs M. Hanley, of 15 Ouse street, Oamaru, has received word that her son, Private Michael Francis Hanley, has died in a prisoner-of-war camp at Udine, Italy. Private Hanley, who was born at Morven, was educated at the Windsor School, and followed farming pursuits at Corriedale until his enlistment in the forces. -Otago Daily Times, 2/2/1943.
WOULD any M.E. Soldier who knew the late 19370 Pte. Michael Francis Hanley (Frank), Camp 57, Udine, Italy, please communicate with Esther Hanley. Staff, Public Hospita1, Nelson. -NZ Herald, 3/12/1945.
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