Hello everybody, I am trying to trace the above serviceman, who according to the slip below, complied by him, one presumes, (though this was not always the case) crossed into Switzerland from Italy on 29 April 1944. The original is held in an archive in Milan in the Bacciagaluppi collection. Giuseppe Baccagaluppi headed up an organisation which helped escapers cross the Swiss border. However, I cannot find an Atkin/Atkins/Atkinson with his service number in WO 392/21 (Prisoners known to have been held in Italy in August 1943) and neither is he in Brian Sims' escapers' data base on FindmyPast. Nor can I find him in the British army casualty lists, also on FMP. Any suggestions? Thank you, Vitellino
Hi Janet, May be wide of the mark but I’m just wondering if it was an alias based on Kipling’s “Tommy Atkins” poem? Steve
You might be right. Thanks. I will go back to Brian's information and see who else crossed into Switzerland on that date.
Steve, Eight others crossed over the border on the same day. They are all in WO 392/21 except for a Canadian pilot who had been evading for only three days. His service number was J26704 and his surname foxed Brian Sims when he compiled his data base - he wrote Parama? It's a long shot but that could be him. Perhaps if I could get hold of an E&E report for the others someone might just mention him.
I'd found Bosworth Tony, but he doesn't appear in WO 392/21 as having been a POW in Italy so I had to rule him out.
Hello, Walter John Parama. https://www.northlincsweb.net/103Sqn/html/maurice_i_cox_and_crew_103_sqn.html
Thank you very much indeed. So Walter Parama arrived in Switzerland from Germany, not from Italy. That's why there's no 'formulario' for him. The 'formulari' were completed by escapers who had been helped to reach Switzerland from Italy by Bacciagaluppi's organisation.(See above) Another point about Atkins - he (or whoever filled in the form) quoted his unit as being the RASC. but the serialo number is of the R.A. So, clearly a fraud. The guides who led the escapers across the Alps were given a fee....