A RADIO made by a prisoner of war to listen to news of the conflict's progress has gone on public display for the first time.

The late Harry Watson, a sergeant fitter with the 9th Battalion Durham Light Infantry's (DLI) Motor Transport in North Africa during the Second World War, built the receiver with stolen components.

Mr Watson, from Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, was taken prisoner in June 1942 while fighting at Mersa Matruh, in Egypt. He built the radio in Stalag IV B Camp, near Leipzig, Germany.

"Harry began to build a radio from tin cans, candle wax, barbed wire and pieces stolen from German loud-hailing equipment," said Steve Shannon, curator of the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, in Durham City.

"The power for the radio came from two nails knocked into an electricity cable in a wall. The nails were then disguised from the German guards by hanging a hat on them.

"After many failures, the radio was working by December 1943 and Harry began to listen to BBC broadcasts.

"These were then secretly circulated around the camp each day, giving prisoners their only news of what was really happening in the war.''

The exhibition, put together by a group from the Friends of the DLI Museum, tells the story of the DLI in the last months of the war, including the relief of Belsen in April 1945.

The exhibition, called 1945 The Year of Victory, runs until Sunday, May 15.

Published: 25/04/2005