Ernald Freeman Chell

Service Number: 66808 Unit: New Zealand Infantry, 21st Battalion Cause of Death: Died of wounds (S.S. Nino Bixio) 118 New Zealand prisoners of war died when The Nino Bixio was hit while transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. With another unmarked prison ship, the Sestriere, it had left Benghazi for Brindisi on 16 August, escorted by two destroyers and two torpedo boats. Crammed aboard the Nino Bixio were almost 3000 POWs captured in North Africa, including more than 160 New Zealanders. Their deaths, combined with the 44 men lost on the Jantzen in December 1941, amounted to nearly a third of New Zealand's POW fatalities during the Second World War.