SOUTH AFRICA: WAR VETERAN'S MARATHON WALK

(18 Apr 1995) English/Nat

A 75-year-old South African veteran has walked hundreds of miles in his own way of commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

His marathon trek of 400 miles (640 kilometres) to Johannesburg was the same distance he was forced to walk as a prisoner of war by the Germans.

The closing stages of a war veteran's epic journey.

Graham Cousins staged his own unique commemoration of the end of the Second World War.

He walked 400 miles (640 kilometres ) from Phalaborwa in South Africa to Johannesburg - the same distance German soldiers forced him, as a prisoner of war, to walk in 1945.

Some of his fellow P-O-Ws were there to greet him at the 'finish line'- the Johannesburg Easter Festival.

Cousins, a signalman, was one of the 10-thousand South African troops captured in June 1942 when German Field Marshall Rommel broke the British lines and captures the vital Mediterranean city of Tobruk .

He and his comrades were shipped to prisoner of war camps in eastern Germany.

As the Red Army drew nearer, the Germans forced a quarter of a million Allied P-O-Ws to march towards France to stop them from being liberated and fighting again.

They were finally liberated on the French border by the advancing American troops .

Despite his age, Cousins found the lengthy hike through the warm and dry northern regions of South Africa much easier than fifty years ago .

Members of the South African army shadowed his march with support vehicles and provided him with food and lodging.

Unlike the last time he did it, he said his biggest danger he faced was dodging oncoming traffic.

SOUNDBITE:

"All I really did was walk - with time to really see the country, take over 1,000 photographs and make friends with many people along the way."
SUPER CAPTION: Graham Cousins, World War II veteran

To mark the end of his trek the WWII veteran received presentations from the South African National Defence Force.

The friendly nature of this march was in stark contrast to the gruelling conditions of 1945- they became known as the Death Marches because so many died in the terrible winter walk.

SOUNDBITE:

"It wasn't a pleasure to walk then - snow in the middle of winter. They, prisoners were weak. A lot of them died along the way and to commemorate those who made it and those who didn't make it, I decided to try and walk the same distance in the same time."
SUPER CAPTION: Graham Cousins, World War II veteran

Cousins wore out one pair of hiking boots and stayed a day or two ahead of schedule.

He could have done it faster, he jokes, but the support car slowed him down.

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