The British army veteran, who is also considered the oldest bell-ringer in the world, is so eager to reunite with his hero that he published an appeal in the Daily Telegraph to find the tenente.
Brock only knows that the soldier was named Antonino Alessi, that he was around 25 years old, and that he was serving in the Ferrara area in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in 1943.
A resident of Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey, Brock was serving as a lance-bombardier when he was imprisoned by the Germans in North Africa in June, 1942 and was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy, where he suffered from malnutrition.
His condition became so severe that in 1943, he faced the possibility of losing the ability to use his legs.
He was transferred to a hospital where he met the Italian lieutenant who used a groundbreaking treatment to save his legs, injecting a serum into his lymphatic gland.
"He did an experiment, with my agreement. He said 'you'll never walk again if it fails', but it didn't fail. I climb up bell-tower stairs and I can still drive a car," Brock told the Daily Telegraph.
Brock contacted the hospital once the war had ended to try and track down his saviour, but he never received a response.
Now, 74 years later, Brock keeps his fingers crossed that the two soldiers will be reunited once again.
With ANSA
