11275 Italian help for WW2 escapers

Hi

very interested to find out more about the September events please.

Coincidentally, I've just had to do some hasty research in order to translate a letter for an italian in whose father's name (Roberto Cicerone) a similar bursary is just being created. So I had the MSM trust link to hand: [url=http://msmtrust.org.uk/home/]The Monte San Martino Trust - Home[/url]

A chap called Roger Absalom from Sheffield Hallam University seems to have done most of the recent primary research on the assistance that the mainly contadini gave to escapers. He describes the mass 'great escape' in September 1943 of 50,000 Allied POWs from the total of 80,000 held in italian camps, like Campo 78 nearby here in Sulmona. Of the several papers he has written, I used 'Journal of Modern Italian Studies 10(4) 2005: 413-425' to give me an idea of the situation.

Although the MSM trust work is fantastic and definitely should be supported, there is an issue which does apparently still rankle a little with some italians and that is that the King's Medal was denied to the nominees that the Allied Screening Commission had identified as the most significantly helpful to escapers (including the late Roberto Cicerone, mentioned above). Apparently out of consideration for the families of Allied servicemen who had lost their lives by italian hands.

Most moving in Absalom's account was the reference to Annita Santemarroni, from Roio Piano, a little hamlet overlooking L'Aquila. Her Christian assistance to several young soldiers led to her deportation, after a betrayal, to Mauthausen concentration camp from whence she never returned.

The 'Freedom Trail' walks that started as commemorations of the escapers' routes have changed in some places simply to anti-fascist marches mainly for students. Absalom makes some interesting points relating to the difference between the antifascist partisans who helped the Allies defeat the Nazis and the contadini who helped the escapers. Perceptive stuff, and well worth reading!

Very interested, please keep us posted. Also interested on the walk From Ponzano Superiore. You are involved with that aren't you? We live there.

My uncle was one of those escapees, and visited his helpers after the War. There are many books written by escapees, some full of derring-do, some stiff upper lip officer class stuff, and, most movingly, some ordinary soldiers who identified very closely with those who sheltered them. Amongst the latter I would recommend "Escape from Ascoli" by Ken de Souza. Particularly interesting for Le Marche residents. See [url=http://www.iandesouza.de/index.php?kat=64]Ian de Souza[/url] for more details

I would certainly be interested in the 2009 celebrations

I shall pass on this information to a friend of mine.

Her father was an escaped POW who was sheltered in a cave in the mountains by local Italians.

A young girl was chosen to take food to the cave (the thought was that a girl would raise less suspicion)

Her family were threatened by the Germans and at one point a German soldier put a gun in her sisters mouth and threatened to shoot her if they did not give up the whereabouts of the escaped prisoners. Luckily the soldiers were distracted and all survived.

After the war, this POW returned to Italy and searched out the girl who had saved his life. He married her and my friend is their daughter, who now lives here in Abruzzo.

Unfortunately neither her mother nor father are still alive but I had the privilege to meet her dad when he came here on a visit, and I was enthralled listening to all his wonderful stories.

I really think these stories show the generosity of spirit and basic humanity of the Italian people, something which is well worth celebrating.

That's an amazing and wonderful story which would surely sell for a packet in Hollwood.

Great story Nielo - very like Eric Newby - [url=http://italian-mysteries.com/EN01.html]Love and War in the Appennines by Eric Newby[/url] and his wife Wanda

One of his stories was that the American Pows challenged the Brits to a game of base ball. As one of the British POWs was Captain of the English cricket team and another was a National team bowler, they took them up on the challenge.

The ball was regularly hit out of the grounds of the POW camp, but the Italian guards joined in and acted as ball boys. The Brits beat the astonished Americans by miles.

The POW camp in Chieti is now police headquaters and my friend’s dad was able to point out to the police chief where the tunnel was.

This site shows pictures of the mainly british POWs in Fonte d'Amore camp near here before the capitulation of the italians.
[url=http://www.smpe.it/photos/campo78.asp]Sulmona SMPE.iT - Foto: Campo di prigionia di Fonte d'Amore[/url]
The local catholic hierarchy are depicted being shown around the camp and entertained by the camp officers.
Most of the british chaps illustrated would have escaped in 1943 and either made it through to allied lines (helped, of course, by the contadini) or been recaptured by the germans and shipped back to germany.

Compliments to everybody who has contributed to this thread with information, personal stories, and support.
I just have one nit to pick: is it reasonable to term the British and other allied servicemen helped by the Italians "escapees"? As far as I have read (and it is not extensively, and entirely in Italian), the Allied POWs held in Italian camps simply found that the gates were left open for them when Italy's war leaders 'changed sides'.
To describe them as "fugitives", certainly in fear of their lives (because of the brutal German occupation) is perfectly acceptable, and doesn't in any way detract from the bravery of the Italians who shielded them.
I'm entirely happy to stand corrected if in fact some POWs did indeed escape.

Actually they were told by High Command that they were not to escape but to stay where they were. And most of them did just that and got carted off to German POW camps for their pains. And although in many places the Italian guards gratefully left their posts to go home, not all of them did. So I think those who lit out into the mountains were really escaping, before the Germans arrived. I know you don't mean it like this Charles, but I have heard some people laugh off the whole episode as "well anyone could escape from the Italian camps". If you read Ken de Souza's story, he concocted an underground hiding place in which he and his companion stayed for several days whilst the rest of the camp was marched off. He was risking severe reprisals and although not Colditz I think he deserves a lot of respect.

I have just read of the 2007 walk on the website and found it very interesting. My uncle was captured by the Italians and walked to the Russian front, then held prisoner but I do not know where. He never talked about it and sadly died a few years ago before I found where our ancestors came from. They were from Rossano. I will now try and find out exactly where my uncle was prisoner as it would be really strange if it was the place of his ancestors!

[quote]I just have one nit to pick: is it reasonable to term the British and other allied servicemen helped by the Italians "escapees"? As far as I have read (and it is not extensively, and entirely in Italian), the Allied POWs held in Italian camps simply found that the gates were left open for them when Italy's war leaders 'changed sides'.
To describe them as "fugitives", certainly in fear of their lives (because of the brutal German occupation) is perfectly acceptable, and doesn't in any way detract from the bravery of the Italians who shielded them.
I'm entirely happy to stand corrected if in fact some POWs did indeed escape.[/quote]

Speaking as someone with two years army reserve service still to run, this seems to be a peculiarly offensive and unnecessary post to have written. The nearly 50,000 escapers from the 80,000 held captive, attempted to gain and retain their freedom before the germans arrived, with the invaluable assistance of many contadini. A significant number lost their lives, as did many of the contadini who helped them. Why would anyone want to re-label them as fugitives, with its ambiguous connotations? Do you have some sort of axe to grind?

Chambers's Dictionary: "escape - to free oneself from; to pass out of danger from, to evade, elude; to come off or through in safety; to emerge into or gain freedom; to flee."

I am truly sorry to have offended you, barn-elms, with my use of the word fugitive. It has no ambiguity for me, it simply means one who is fleeing. Thankyou, annec, for your elucidation.

I would love details of the event in September. I think you (Brian) sent me details in an e-mail attachment but I couldn't open it. I managed to get a copy of "Rossano" for my partner for Christmas and we both want to read it before we next visit Italy and go to Rossano, which is not too far from us. I was interested,on reading about one of the walks to hear about the family at one of our local restaurants at Villagrossa. I am also reading (in my Italian class) stories about the history of that area written by Almo Paita and thought il tenente Dany must be the same Dany mentioned in the walks which gave me a lot more motivation to concentrate on the stories in Italian. Thankyou to everyone with their interesting information.
pam

The British servicemen who died in Sulmona's Campo 78, either of illness or through being shot, are buried in Moro River Cemetery near Ortona, along with others killed in the local area and those killed fighting alongside the Canadians whose cemetery it is and of course who comprise the largest area of the graves.
Standing amongst the headstones just before 11am last 11th November, I was acutely aware that with the officiating English padre, Rev Kingsley Joyce, from Naples, we were the only English or Brits there.
For those who haven't visited but who are close enough to be able to, it is a place to be thoughtful in. Reading the names on the stones does bring it home to you what a wide spectrum of society is represented. From the sons of knights to a rifleman by the name of William Daniel Cobbett, shot in Sulmona camp, there is certainly an equality in death.

There is a big English war cemetery near Fossacessia in southern Abruzzo. Some friends of mine live nearby and have visited. They were so moved that they say they will make regular visits.

I didn't recognise the name at first, but yes that is the Sangro River Cemetery:

[url=http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=2021204&mode=1]CWGC :: Cemetery Details[/url]

In addition to the battle casualties, it's where a number of escaped POWs who failed to make it through to Allied lines are buried. I couldn't visit two war grave cemeteries in one day, but will get there this year, partly to try to locate the grave of the RAMC officer (same cap badge) who broke his back and died while escaping.

On a trip to the Amalfi coast, a couple of years ago, we visited the British War Cemetery at Cassino. As my father was in the 8th army and involved in the dreadful battle for Montecassino, it was particularly moving to see - they are beautifully maintained, by the grateful Italian people.

Thank you for your various responses, which I will endeavour to reply to jointly.
Roger Absalom undoubtedly wrote the leading authority on the escapers - A Strange Aliance. However, some of the veteran escapers even dare to say that he gets it wrong occasionally!
I absolutely agree with the point made about the King's Medal. The refusal to award them [finally made in 1947] was a scandal. However, I managed to get the mould broken in 2001when Dany Bucchioni, once the Commandante of the Brigata Val di Vara, finally received a King's Medal. My father, with whom he fought, had recommended him for it in 1945, and following enquiries of Buckingham Palace, the award was finally confirmed in 2001. Dany has that medal, but he also received the O.B.E. in July 2005. The citation effectively refers to what he did for us in WW2.
In January 2005, the National Archives opened for the first time File WO 208/3397. This had been kept closed because it lists very many of the recommendations made for awards to Italians. Many are listed with addresses given. I appealed at that time for any information about the presence of any of them who survive today. I had hoped that with the award to Dany Bucchioni opening the door, others too might get their just reward. However, I have found no more as yet.
So far as the anti-fascist partisans were concerned, we commemorate their courage and sacrifcies regularly in the Rossano valley. The Rossano band included all sorts - many Italians, of course, but also Allied ex PoW'S, escapers from the labour camps near La Spezia, and a regular flow of German deserters.
Chieti was the PoW camp best known for its cricketers. It had a number of internationals, including [if I remember correctly] Freddie Brown.
For details of September's events, please email me at [email]Escapetrail@aol.com[/email]. The flier is a little large for this forum.
Happy New Year

P.S. Anyone who visits the old PoW camp at Servigliano in the Marche can decide whether there were escapers!! The whole in the wall broken through to enable the escape is still there. Some S.A.S.led the way out, two thousand others followed. To their eternal credit, the guards did not shoot at them.
However, we should remember that an order had been issued from London to all PoW's not to leave their camps, but to wait for the Allies to arrive. Disobedience was to be a court martial offence. Many S.B.O's enforced the order as best they could [for instance in Chieti and, I believe, in Sulmona]. Thus those who got out of the camps were escaping from London's order if nothing else.

Hope that this does not break the rules!
SAN MARTINO FREEDOM TRAIL – ROSSANO 2009

8TH-12TH SEPTEMBER 2009

INTRODUCTION

1. General: Those participating will meet at the Golf Hotel in Pontremoli for a fund raising Armistice Dinner on the evening of Tuesday 8th September 2009. Pontremoli is a walled river city adjacent to the La Spezia-Parma motorway in Tuscany, Northern Italy. It is approximately one hour’s drive from Pisa airport [Ryanair, Easyjet and BA], one hour from Parma [Ryanair], and approximately seventy-five minutes drive from Genoa airport. Pontremoli has a railway station and rail travel is straightforward. The event will finish with an end of trail supper at Vernazza in the Cinque Terre on the evening of Saturday 12th September.

2. The Event: The introductory Armistice Dinner is a semi-formal fund raising event on the evening of 8th September. It marks the anniversary of the announcement of the Armistice with Italy in 1943, which was followed almost immediately by the escape of about 25,000 Allied servicemen from Prisoner of War camps into the surrounding countryside. The 9th September is a day of ceremonies, and the walking starts on 10th September [which was the date upon which many prisoners left their camps] and lasts for three days.
The purpose of the Trail is to commemorate the humanity and self-sacrifice of the Italian people who sheltered and helped Allied escapers of every nationality, religion and race between 1943-5, and to raise funds for the Monte San Martino Charitable Trust [see below]. We will also commemorate, on 9th September, Operation Speedwell, which was a parachute operation by 2 S.A.S. in 1943. In the very early hours of the morning on 8th September 1943, six men were dropped by parachute near Barbarasco, not far from Pontremoli, hundreds of miles behind enemy lines. They were dropped blind, with the simple objective of doing as much damage to enemy lines of communication as possible. It was a busy and heavily garrisoned area. Only one of the six [Cpl Tanky Challenor] successfully ex-filtrated back through Allied lines after the operation, eventually crossing the front line in bare feet in April 1944, after nearly eight ,months on the run. Four were captured and were murdered secretly in accordance with Hitler’s notorious order, a fifth was captured some months after the operation, and survived the war. A local Italian farmer [contadino] at Barbarasco sheltered and fed a four of the soldiers, having discovered two of them in an exhausted condition some days after their landing. We will visit the memorial erected in June 2004 to the two soldiers executed at Passo della Cisa, and travel to Ponsano Magra where the second pair were shot a few days later, and where a monument was erected in April 2003. One of the latter, Captain Patrick Dudgeon M.C., was described by one of his German captors as: “the bravest English officer I met in all my life.”
On the 10th September, we will “flee from Pontremoli on foot, to escape the Fascist and German forces”, and seek refuge, as so many did, in the Valley of Rossano.
The Rossano Valley was the base camp of the British led non-political Battaglione Internazionale of partisans, and also of S.O.E. Mission Blundell Violet between 1943 and 1945. Operation Galia and Operation Blimey, two further operations mounted by 2 S.A.S. in December-February 1944-5, and April 1945, were also both based in the Valley of Rossano.
The people of the Rossano valley, despite their extreme poverty, sheltered and helped a minimum total of 437 Allied personnel, at great risk to themselves. The valley was a gathering point for Allied escapers awaiting help from the A Force mission “Ratberry Three”. A Force was the Allied organisation set up to assist escapers to cross the Allied lines to safety. 119 Allied servicemen were successfully passed down the escape trail by Ratberry Three, together with a large number of Italians.
The Battaglione Internazionale comprised many different nationalities who joined in the battle against the Nazi/Fascists. The battalion included a number of Germans who had deserted or escaped from the Nazis. They saw action against the Nazis and Fascists in the cause of freedom. A number were then passed down the escape line, and later provided invaluable intelligence to the Allies.
We will spend the night of 10th September in the Rossano valley. We will then escape to the sea on 11th and 12th of September, down the established trail used twice in the summer of 1944 as a part of Operation Essorbee, an attempt by A Force to evacuate escaped Allied prisoners of war by sea. We will spend the night of the 11th September in the courageous village of Sero, before eventually arriving in the beautiful Cinque Terre port of Vernazza for the end of Trail supper on 12th September.

Overnight stops on 10th and 11th September will be in roofed accommodation, with sleeping bags.

Historical briefings will be available throughout the event.

The walk is a commemorative event and not a race. We will have short ceremonial duties from time to time en route, when wreaths will be laid at appropriate memorials.

3. Difficulty: The walking will be varied, and will include, through necessity, some walking on tarmac. Two mountain ranges lie between Pontremoli and the sea. We will cross them both. The most difficult day will be day 3, when we will cross the Via Aurelia, and the final mountain range that divides Rossano from the sea. Be warned that the ground is often rough and broken, and those with hip or knee problems would find themselves in difficulty. However, this is a walk and not a mountaineering expedition, and all of the route will be along acknowledged trails, albeit some of them difficult and long out of use. We aim to walk between 10 and 15 miles a day. The walk is in stages, with lunchtime stops. On most days, if anybody finds themselves in difficulty, it will be possible to drop out at various points, and to be picked up by road transport. On day 3, it is possible to join the Trail for the last two hour stage along the cliffs to Vernazza, by far the most scenic stage of the Trail.
Youngsters and families are welcome, but must be robust and self-sufficient. It is perfectly acceptable for anyone to walk a part of the route only, and to join in the ceremonies and meals at the stops, but we will need to go at a steady pace. There will be support crew transport. Non walkers are very welcome, but if they rely upon support crew transport, they will be expected to pay for it.
4. The Monte San Martino Trust
The Trust was founded in 1989 as a permanent tribute to the Italian people, especially those from the countryside, who aided thousands of escaping Allied prisoners of war after the Italian Armistice in September 1943. Despite their poverty and the danger involved, they gave food, clothing and shelter to PoWs, and guided many of them through the lines to safety. A number of them were shot as a result, and many others had their houses burned to the ground [as happened on 3rd August 1944 in Chiesa di Rossano].
The Trust’s founder, Cav. Uff. J.Keith Killby, O.B.E., in founding the Trust, sought to draw together the many individual acts of thanks by escapers and their families into a permanent living memorial
The Trust gives study bursaries in Britain to Italians aged 18-24 from regions extending from the Veneto in the north to the Abruzzi , where the front line remained for many months. Each bursary covers four weeks study and “soggiorno”, or accommodation. Over 300 bursaries have been awarded since the founding of the Trust in 1989. In 2002, a number of the Trust’s past students [including two from the Rossano valley] were presented to H.R.H. THE Prince of Wales at a reception at the British Embassy in Rome.
2009 is the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Trust. This event is intended to mark that anniversary, and to raise funds for the Trust. Walkers are asked to seek sponsorship for their efforts.
The Trust can be contacted at its London address of Flat 7, 18, Lambolle Road, London NW3 4HP. All donations are very gratefully received.

29th December 2008 Brian Gordon Lett
Event Organiser

PLEASE APPLY FOR FURTHER INFORMATION TO:

Comm. Brian Gordon Lett Q.C.
Event Organiser,
Email: [email]Escapetrail@aol.com[/email]
Post: 2, Paper Buildings, Temple, London E.C.4Y 7ET

PROGRAMME

SAN MARTINO FREEDOM TRAIL 8-12TH SEPTEMBER 2009

8th September 2009 Armistice Dinner at the Golf Hotel, Pontremoli, 19.30 for 20.00 –
a fund raising dinner for the Monte San Martino Trust. Italian
Guests, British and Allied Subscribers.

9th September 2009 A day to commemorate Operation Speedwell, a 2 S.A.S.
operation that landed near Pontremoli on 8th September 1943.
11.00 Ceremony to fallen S.A.S. at La Cisa
18.00 Ceremony to fallen S.A.S. at Ponsano Magra

10th September 2009 Freedom Trail begins – the flight from Pontremoli to Rossano
09.30 Meeting at the Sala Gordon Lett, Comune di Pontremoli,
followed by walk from Pontremoli to Chiesa di Rossano.
18.30 Ceremony at the monument at Pradanalara, Rossano.
20.00 Supper at Bar Adolfo, Chiesa di Rossano. All welcome.
Walkers sleep under cover at the Centro Storico di Rossano.

11th September 2009 09.00 Walkers depart for Monte Dragnone, Pieve and Sero, on
escape to the sea [Operation Essorbee].
Packed lunch on top of Monte Dragnone
18.00 Ceremony at the monument in Sero
19.30 Supper at the Bar di Sero. All welcome.
Walkers sleep under cover at the Bar di Sero.
12th September 2009 07.30 Walkers depart for Vernazza.
Long day’s walk via Brugnato, Borghetto di Vara, and
Corneto.
18.30 Arrive at Vernazza 18.30.
20.00 End of Trail Dinner in Vernazza. All welcome.

There will be a supporting “ground crew” who will be able to arrange transport to all venues for non walkers.
This is an event for all ages, and for walkers or non-walkers.

For those interested, there is a similar event for the partisans on Liberation Day, 25th April. A walk starts in the morning from Ponzano Superiore, up Monte Grosso, which was the local HQ for the partisans, down to Fosdinovo and the museum of Resistance, and finally to Sarzana, with a lunch in Giucano I think. I don't know the exact details for this year yet, but if you want some info closer to the time, I'll happily find out for you.

Thanks Heiko, we'd definitely be interested in this, if you can let us have more info, when you can.

Ciao, Tony & Helen

Thank you for the information on the Ponzano Superiore walk. It sounds an interesting one, from what was undoubtedly a heroic area. I will try and get to it this year.