An unidentified announcer introduces an interview with New Zealand J-Force member Sergeant Pedro de Treend, who attracts attention wherever he goes, due to the many ribbons on his uniform. He explains his colourful past military service
He was born in northern Spain, but his family emigrated to England when he was seven. He ran away from a monastery school in Ireland and travelled in South Africa, Argentina, and Europe before coming to New Zealand. When the Spanish Civil War broke out he volunteered to go back to Spain and fight against Franco. He was captured and spent six months in jail.
He was forced to do non-combatant work for Franco on the docks but he managed to escape and get onto a ship.
He says when he was first captured by Franco's forces his ankles were broken to stop him running away. After he managed to escape on the ship
he came to Australia.
He joined up in April 1939 with a British Tank Corps and went to
France. He was discharged from the army in 1940 because of injuries from his broken ankles and worked in an aircraft factory in England. He was shot in the foot by a crashed German airman and spent a year in hospital.
He then managed to get back into the Army again and went to Africa before being injured in a tank. He was then sent back to England and discharged as permanently unfit.
So he joined the French Foreign Legion which was fighting with France
against Germany. He fought with them for 9 months when the 2nd French Armoured Division was being formed in Algeria and they wanted men who were experienced with tanks to volunteer. He took part in the invasion of France in the American sector and took part in the liberation of Paris. However, as he was a foreigner he was told he would have to leave eventually.
He hitchhiked to Holland but was arrested by the Dutch Secret Police. After he was released, he went over the German border and joined
an American unit. The American Military Police got suspicious of him being a spy and he was sent to a refugee centre in Belgium.
He was eventually cleared and hitch-hiked to Antwerp and tried unsuccessfully to get back into the British Army. Then he went to the French headquarters where he was given his clearance papers.
Back in Belgium, he rejoined the British and went on to the invasion of the Rhine with an airborne armoured reconnaissance unit. He was captured and sent to a German concentration camp outside Bremen as there were no proper POW camps. He says conditions were terrible at the Sandbostel camp.
After two months he was liberated and flown back to England. He was on his way to serve in Burma when the war finished and he was diverted to Palestine where he stayed until 1946. He was then demobbed and returned finally to New Zealand, where he joined up with J-Force.