After completing his basic training, Kevin was assigned to the Australian Army Service Corps as a truck driver in the 17th Brigade of the Sixth Division. Along with some 5000 other British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers, he was captured in the evacuation of Greece, and subsequently became a prisoner of war. He was sent to Camp 10029/GW in Austria.

While Kevin was interned in Klagenfurt, Joan Dunston kept in touch with him through regular letters. However, in 1943, Joan relocated to Melbourne, fell in love, and got married. This life-changing news was intentionally kept from Kevin—a joint decision by Joan and Kevin's family. Despite her new life, Joan continued to write to him consistently, maintaining their connection.

Camp 10029/GW situated in the Waidmannsdorf suburb of Klagenfurt, about two miles from the city center and its prominent railway yards. By mid-1944, air raids had become a frequent occurrence in the area. According to the Geneva Convention, anti-aircraft defenses could not be stationed within 600 meters of a POW compound. So, at exactly 600 meters from Kevin’s camp, the Germans set up gun pit housing a Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun.

Roughly one kilometer from the camp, a small, scrub-covered hill stood. Today, this area is characterized by a few hectares of overgrown scrubland amidst an otherwise organized light-industrial zone. If you look closely, you’ll see a steel door set into the side of the hill, defaced with graffiti. Back in 1944, after the first air raid on Klagenfurt, contractors—assisted by POWs and French forced laborers—carved out the hill to create a bomb shelter. Over the following year, this shelter provided protection for both local civilians and prisoners of war.

For the men at Camp 10029/GW, Sunday, February 18^th, 1945, began like any other day. Many had spent the morning working in the biting cold, returning to the camp by 11 a.m. Their routine typically included a 6½-day work week. In warmer months, after-noons were often spent playing sports or relaxing outdoors. However, in February—one of the coldest months—they were confined indoors. The POWs passed the time huddled around heaters, chatting, playing cards, or resting on their bunks.

But that day took a sudden and dramatic turn. Around noon, the air-raid sirens pierced the quiet. The men were quickly called to assemble, and approximately 300 of them were marched to the bomb shelter. Attendance wasn’t mandatory, and Kevin later recalled that around 40 men chose to stay behind—some out of frustration or despair, and others because they were in the camp hospital. Until then, the camp itself had never been targeted. But on this day, everything changed—bombs fell on the camp for the first time.

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In 2014, Australian journalist and television presenter, Barrie Cassidy, published a book called Private Bill. His father, Bill Cassidy, was also a POW in 10029/GW. Cassidy wrote:

Suddenly, a line of bombs tore open the ground along the fence line, near the camp’s front gates. Within seconds, more bombs landed and ripped through the barracks. As Bill dashed for the door, the giant stove in the centre of the room came crashing down, crushing a man beneath it – the prisoner let out a piercing

down, crushing a man beneath it – the prisoner let out a piercing squeal, then fell silent. Bill realised that nothing could be done for him and charged outside. There was pandemonium throughout the camp as the full horror of the bombing hit home.Bill joined the group of men milling around a trench that he had been dug right outside the camp hospital. He learned that a bomb had blown out the sides of the trench, causing it to collapse on three patients. Just as he registered that that two men were wailing in pain and panic, he remembered that Alan Eason had been admitted to the hospital the day before. Then Bill heard Alan’s voice, calm and measured, informing his would-be rescuers from the bottom of the trench that he had been ‘badly knocked about.’ Alan could just be seen through the gap in the rubble. While the men dug feverishly, he asked for cigarettes to be passed down to him - he said he would be all right if they kept the smokes coming. Two hours later, the men were freed. Two of them survived, but Alan died from his injuries the following morning.

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Six POWs, three Australians and three British, were killed. It was thought that a bomber was attempting to bomb the ack-ack gun