British POW captured at Tobruk held in Italy

Thanks Geoff, i'll give it a try.

 

Hi all, in my continuing quest to discover details of where my late father was held in Italy, between June 1942 and 1944, I contacted Lee Richards at acre.com. Thanks to Vitellino for this really helpful suggestion.
Arcre are a company that carry out research at the National Records Office. I requested that they search the POW liberation reports in the hope that my father had completed one. Arcre were great with good communication throughout, but sadly they were unable to locate anything.
Does anyone have any other ideas that I can pursue?
Many thanks.

 

Hi,

I haven’t scanned the whole of the thread so will just ask have you applied to Swiss Red Cross for his records held there?

Requests for information about people held during Spanish Civil War or Second World War: Quarterly limit reached

Steve

 

Britain had anticipated that the Italians on surrender would organise an orderly repatriation of POWs. Accordingly messages were sent via MI9 to the senior British officers in each camp that men should not leave the camps but wait to be repatriated. In many cases these orders were followed which made it all too easy for the Germans to take over the camps and then transfer the prisoners to Germany. Numbers did disobey orders and leave the camps There were also a significant number of escapes from trains during the transfer. I've recently read a New Zealand academic paper that castigates British thinking and planning (or rather the lack of it) in this regard. I'll see if I can relocate it and post a link

 

Here's that link
I: Events preceding and immediately following the Italian Armistice | NZETC

 

Hi Steve, yes, I've got the records from the Red Cross but they only confirm that he was a pisoner of the Italians and do not hve any camp details for him until he turned up in German hands.

 

Thanks Robert, interesting stuff.

 

Hello Sid's War,

Sorry there wasn't a Liberation report.

I think you should send for a copy of his service records at this stage - forgive me if you have already done so.

Vitellino

 

Hi Vitellino, I have a copy of my dad's service record which states that he was captured at Tobruk and a prisoner of the Italians but the camp is unstated. I've attached photos of my dad's casualty cards from his service record as I wondered if there are any clues, or anyone can shed any light on his whereabouts from the notes and codes that are used.
Thanks again.

 

Hi,

Whilst I appreciate it hasn’t provided all the information you desire I think you’ve been very lucky to get that series of POW Casualty Card forms containing POW information as B103 usually only has a one line entry - believed POW - then another one line entry - no longer POW (edit to add - as shown on the extract from his B103 you posted up thread).

It’s only the second example I’ve seen posted on the forum.

Steve

 

Hello Sid's War,

Of the men on casualty list 893, Gunners Parry and Redman appear in WO 392/21 without at camp next to their name. As I said before, the lack of a camp next to a name often means that the prisoner had been sent from one of the main camps to a work camp.

Unfortunately Gunner Redman was killed during his period as an escaper and was buried in Tufo cemetery before being transferred to Assisi War Cemetery, but Gunner Parry, who ended up in Stalag 334 according to WO 392/1, may have left a liberation form and it might be worth seeing if there is one,

Vitellino

 

Hi Vitellino, thats a great idea, i'll give that a try.
Many thanks.

 

Keep us informed.

 

Hi there, My father went missing at Tobruk on the same day as yours. His details are as follows. 1451248 War Substantive Bombardier Robert Sydney Williams, 282 Battery 88th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment. I do have a couple of photos with names and numbers of POW camps on the back of them. My filing system is not brilliant but I'll look them out for you. By the way, he escaped from the Italians and was recaptured and sent to Germany, then repatriated to UK 17/08/45.

 

Hi Gez, your father is listed on the file WO392/21 (POWs in Italian Hands as of August 1943), as being held in Camp 54. This might help Sidswar in determining his father's camp after capture. Thanks for posting.

 

Here is Bombardier RS Williams in WO392/21. Camp 54 Fara-in-Sabia near Rome.

 

Thanks very much for that. I'll add it to my records.

 

The point about PG 54 is that it fed out men to other camps throughout its life. For example in January 1943 a group of South Africans went as a labour force to PG110 in Sardinia. At least four groups went to Umbria - one to built PG 64 (which later became an internment camp for Yugoslavs) another to built PG 77 at Pissignano, one to the brickworks at Marsciano (PG 115/3) at the end of March 43 and another to the cement works at Morgnano PG 115 on 21 June. So, if there's no number next to the name in the register it's because that particular serviceman was no longer in the 'parent' camp, though the work detachments still depended on the parent camp for food parcels etc.

Sid's War, The train your father was on, was bombed at Allerona 76 years ago today.

Vitellino

 

Thanks all. I look forward to seeing your photos gez.
Sadly using a researcher at the National Archive to find other similar prisoners liberation reports drew a blank. Therefore I still haven't been able to confirm which Italian camp my father was held in or if he was on the train at Allerona.
If anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them.
Thanks again.