Walter Alexander Theyers

In memoriam

Buried near this spot 33434 Private W.A. Theyers N.Z. Infantry 17th. August 1942 Age 35

Service Number ~ 33434 Unit ~ New Zealand Infantry, 25 Battalion Campaign ~ Western Desert Last Rank ~ Private, 25 Infantry Battalion Service ~ B Force, 8th Brigade, New Zealand 3rd Division B Force (R22440171) WW2 POW - Unknown Prisoner of War Camp POW Deaths (R25405152) Walter Died of wounds on board (S.S. Nino Bixio) Monday 17 August 1942 He was the Son of John Charles Theyers, and of Annie Jemimah Theyers (nee Elliott), of Athol, Southland, New Zealand. 18 New Zealand prisoners of war died when the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean. The day after it left Benghazi the convoy was attacked by the British submarine HMS Turbulent. The Nino Bixio was hit by two torpedoes: one exploded in the tightly packed forward hold, killing an estimated 200 men and wounding another 60. In the ensuing panic and confusion many men jumped overboard. Some drowned immediately; others reached makeshift rafts and drifted around the Mediterranean for weeks without food or water. Those on board who had survived the carnage were hauled up on deck by rope. The injured were treated by medical officers. Despite extensive damage, the Nino Bixio did not sink. The ship was towed by an escorting destroyer to Navarino in southern Greece, where the dead were buried. The surviving POWs were transferred ashore, and those fit enough were shipped, after a short stay in Corinth, to Bari in Italy.

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