Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

My Mom Sophia grew up in 2nd Elementary School in Kifissia Greece outside of Athens. She still remembers "Lenny" because he would make her and the other kids laugh. Humor came in handy after air raids and at other times when Mom and her friends and siblings were scared. She still imitates his "turkey" call which my birder friends in Australia say is a kookaburra. She said he cracked jokes and generally made everyone laugh in a middle of a war when they most needed it. His unit used the school as a place to store medical supplies including X-ray machines.

As the Germans drove the POW by in trucks Mom saw him and wanted to go out and hug him. My grandfather held her back and Lenny and the others that knew the kids and my grandfather motioned for her to stay where she was and to stay quiet. My grandparents went on in the Resistance helping downed Pilots and others escape the Nazis.

All these years I thought Lenny was a New Zealander but thanks to help from other I now know he was a "Qeenzlander." Well it sounds like Zealander the way I pronounce it.

Mom is 91 now so his kindness and that of some of the others in the unit had such an impact on her that she never forgot him. She was about ten when the troops came to her school. I periodically show her his pictures here so she knows he survived the war, had family and a long happy life.

Memory Eternal

The travel route noted in LEONARD WILLIAM BAKER’S diary where they may have stopped the train for a break, was:-

Salonika in Greece
Skopje in Macedonia
Nis, Paracin, Belgrade and Brod in Serbia Montenegro
Zagreb in Croatia
Citee and Naribar in Slovenia
Graz and Salzberg in Austria
Muhldorf, Landshut, Regensberg Wiesau, Plauen, Zwickau, Dresden, Riesa, Cottbus and Gubin in Germany
Sagan, Brislau, Glogow, Poznan, and Thorn (Torun) in Poland
The Diary records the following route from Torun. Poland
Muhlhausen, Fulda, Hanau, Frankfurt, Bililus, Worms, Frankenthal, Kudingshafen, Neustadt and Karlsruke, in Germany.
Straussberg, and Mulhern in Swizterland, Belfort, Vesoul, Gray, Lyon, Valance, Montelima, Avignon, Arles, Mirima and Marseilles in France
Transfer from Marseilles to Barcelona by boat.
Barcelona in Spain

The Red Ensign

In the prison camp a group of soldiers realised that they had a background in Boy Scouts. They formed a Rover Crew and called it the 1st British Empire Rover Crew. Members of this Crew signed their names on an Australian Flag which was made in the prison camp. This flag is now in the War Memorial in Canberra.