Memories of wartime hero Jim Exall

His answer was always the same. “It was for keeping that out,” he’d say, tapping his nose; and then, tapping his mouth, “and for keeping that shut.”

Maureen, now a 79-year-old New Earswick great-grandmother whose married name is Maureen Judge, smiles at the recollection. “He made you laugh,” she said.

The truth is her father won his MC for much more than just keeping his nose out and his mouth shut.

A career soldier who hailed originally from Bermondsey, he’d seen service with the 1st Battalion of the Green Howards in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Palestine before the Second World War broke out.

In between times, while stationed briefly at Strensall Barracks, he’d met and fallen in love with a young York girl, Agnes “Aggie” Brown, who lived in Groves Lane.

The pair married in 1932, and had two children – Maureen and her twin brother, Jimmy.

Jim senior remained in the Army, and saw service in Malta and Palestine before returning to Catterick in 1939 as war beckoned. There he was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major of the 4th Battalion of the Green Howards, a TA unit.

Before long, he and his men were in France and then Belgium, trying to stop the Nazi advance across Europe. They were with the British Expeditionary Force that pulled back to Dunkirk in May and June, 1940.

Jim and 90 men were evacuated on a Brighton Belle-class paddle steamer which took them to Folkestone.

By spring 1941, they were judged ready for battle again, and sailed for Egypt. From there, they headed west into the deserts of Libya and it was there, during the defence of Tobruk, that Jim won the MC for “outstanding leadership”.

He’d been sent with a platoon of men to defend a disputed ridge overlooking the German positions at a place known locally as Capuzzo Gap.

Maureen’s son Kevin – Jim’s grandson – pieced together what happened there in a history he wrote of his grandfather.

Kevin – who later served in the RAF – writes: “He led the defence of the ridge for two days of constant attack, and he carried on until a relief could be effected, even though he was wounded.

“Jim was in charge of Allied troops up on the ridge – and for two days it seems to have been a hellish place to be.

“Jim could see the Germans, and they could see him. The Germans bombarded the position all day on May 28. It was a softening-up prior to the attack.

“The German infantry attacked late on the 28th and it was in this action that Jim was wounded.”

Kevin doesn’t mention the nature of the wound Jim suffered, but Maureen believes her father had some shrapnel in his lungs.

Kevin takes up the story again. “The Germans were repelled but the relief did not last long,” he writes.

“As soon as the Germans retreated the shelling started. The shelling lasted all night and the Germans launched another attack at dawn the next day. Although Jim was wounded he carried on leading his men, again the attack was repulsed.”

The Germans launched yet another attack on the ridge on May 3, but eventually Allied help appeared.

A badly wounded Jim and his men were evacuated.

But his war was over. Within days, Jim and the rest of his battalion had been captured.

He spent the rest of the war as a POW. At first he was in an Italian camp, PG 73 at Fosseli near Modena in northern Italy. When Italy surrendered to the Allies the camp was taken over by the Germans.

Jim and other POWs seem to have been marched across the Austrian border to a German POW camp, Stalag 18C, at Markt Pongau in Austria. It was there that Jim remained for the rest of the war.

He was no ordinary POW, however. As a Warrant Officer he was made a camp leader, and became responsible for the welfare and morale of Allied POWs under his command.

Throughout his years as a POW, Jim kept a leather-bound notebook. In it, he kept photographs, humorous cartoons drawn by POWs, examples of camp money, a picture of his daughter, Maureen, and even a pressed eidelweiss, the Alpine flower which presumably grew near Stalag 18C.

That leather-bound notebook, much worn with age, now belongs to Maureen and the images on these pages come from it.

They provide a fascinating glimpse of life in a POW camp. Jim is shown standing proud in front of his men and with the commander of the Italian POW camp, a Col Giuseppe Ferrari.

Photographs show prisoners dressing up as women – presumably for a spot of amateur theatre to cheer the troops up – and taking part in boxing matches and forming their own band, the Rhythm Rascals.

The cartoons prisoners drew in Jim’s book, meanwhile, display an earthy humour. One shows a naked POW carrying a huge baked potato on his back. “Cost me every stitch I had!” he gasps.

A letter Jim wrote from Stalag 18C in October 1944 suggests the prisoners were generally well treated, and that morale was pretty high.

The letter was addressed to a Captain HE Thornton, who was in charge of the Green Howards’ POW fund based at Richmond.

The letter was to say thanks for a parcel that had been sent. But Jim added: “We are now settled down and more happy than when I wrote last. We have a sports field and practically everyone is out in the evenings playing something or other. The health and morale of the camp is very high.”

Jim remained a prisoner until he was liberated by the Americans in 1945. And on November 1 that year, the London Gazette announced that he had been awarded the MBE, military division, for “outstanding services as camp leader in the POW camps.”

Seven days later, the same newspaper announced that Warrant Officer Class 1 James Exall, MBE, had also been awarded his MC.

After the war, Jim worked for many years at the Infantry Records Office in York.

But there was still tragedy to come.

His only son, Jimmy – Maureen’s twin brother – died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 29.

Her father was never the same again, said Maureen. He died 18 months later, on June 20, 1965.

But his memory lives on in the wonderful wartime notebook he kept – and in the history of his life written by his grandson Kevin.

Maureen Judge with her father’s medals

Italian POW camp money

The cartoon drawn by one of the prisoners