Searching for info on POW Camps + Escapees - WW2

Hi I am new to this site and just stumbled upon it when looking for something else. Wonder whether anyone can help me> I am looking for information on 3 POW camps that my late father mentions in a notebook discovered after his death -
No : 254076
Pvt Barend Carolus van Tubbergh (Ben)
He was captured at Tobruk on the 20/6/1942
Camp 75 - 28/6/1942 - ???
Camp 54 18/9/1942 - 22/1/1943
Camp 110 29/1/1943 - 4/7/1943 from which he escaped
He was 'on the run' and apparently part of the partisans until he rejoined the Allies on 14/7/1944
Would appreciate any info from anyone who knows (or has come across) anything pertaining to my my late father and his whereabouts. He lists a whole lot of villages/towns in this notebook, not sure what they mean.

 

Hello and welcome.

Lesley

 

Welcome to the site, let me caution you do not go around posting your email address on International Forums. If you register you can ask people to send you a private message and then give your email address to them if you want.

It is a standard security practice on most sites. I subscribe to a Computer Magazine for a dozen years and that is the FIRST thing they tell new subscribers.

You will probably be ok but a couple years ago an AOL Executive who was leaving his job sold email addresses for thousands of AOL customers to spammers by last name.

Example for all the H's he would got $10,000 and on and on. He was arrested and is being charged for this as a crime.

 

Hi Elize and welcome!

They are right - It is quite dangerous to publish your own e-mail address online..

Marco

 

Hi Elize,

Here attached is a Camp list for POW in Italy and a roll with your father's details as of August 1943. He looks to have escaped according to your information from Sardinia or Camp 110.

This information comes from file reference WO392/21, POW's of the Italians as of August 1943. Hope this helps out?

Steve.

 

Thanks Steve for the information, and have taken the advice of everyone above and removed my email address.

Regards

Elize

 

Hello Elize,

I live in Italy and may be able to help you with the notebooks. The second camp (54) that your father was in was Fara Sabina, to the north of Rome.

You talk about a list of places. If you send me a private message with the list I will see what I can do for you. On 14 July when he joined the Allies he could have been in Tuscany not far from where I live. 6 British Armouored Division were approaching Arezzo, 4 British Infantry Division were in t e Val di Chiana and 6 South African Armoured Division were in the Chianti hills to their left.

Regards.

 

Hello Elize. It seems to me that you can ignore what I've just written about your father joining the Allies in Tuscany as I have looked up Camp 110 which was called Carbonia and was in Sardinia. However, if you need any help with the notebooks my offer is still there

 

Hi, Elize.

I just sent you a (hopefully) private message. Think your father was a friend of my grandfather! My grandfather ("Danie" de Jager) met Van Tubbergh in a camp in Fara Sabina, and they were together from there onwards until meeting up with the Allied forces in Sienna many months later. Yes, some of the "on the run" guys did join the Italian resistance movement (Partisani). Really do hope to hear from you. Have lots of stories, since my mother went to great effort to record it all and finally published the book earlier this year. Van Tubbergh has a starring role

Leone

 

Hi Leone

You may already know all about this but just in case....there's a website dedicated to PG54 Fara Sabina here Campo PG 54 - Fara Sabina

And I'd be interested to know the details of the book your mother published - is it available to the general pulic?

Anne

 

Hi, Anne.

Thanks for the link to the Fara Sabina website. Have had a quick look there, but my grandfather and the others I'm interested in are unfortunately not listed yet.

The book my mother published about my grandfather's story is called "Kospotte van Egipte & Italië" by Alet Gardner, published by Rosslyn. It starts in SA with training, then off to the North African campaign (including Gazala & Tobruk), then capture and the POW camps, their time after escape (Northern Italy, and joining the Italian resistance movement), and return to SA.
Kospotte van Egipte en Italië (short description, and some photos from the book)
Kospotte van Egipte en Italië | Facebook (mostly in Afrikaans, with photos etc.)
It isn't available widely in shops yet, but you can get the e-book version on Amazon and on Smashwords. She has just finished with the translation to English, so that should be available a bit later this year.
I have a small box with books at home, so if you can read Afrikaans and would like a hard copy, please message me and we can make a plan.

Kind regards,
Leone

 

Hi Leone

Just sent you a private message

Anne

 

That hyperlink is not now working. Is there an updated link, please? (My Dad was imprisoned there after capture at Tobruk, June 1942 - and hospital in Caserta- until Italian capitulation and escape, September 1943). And is the book now available in English? If so, how/where, please?

 

Ursula21,

Ted has not been logged on for a few weeks, so sent him a message to come back - hopefully!

 

Wayback Machine is the first port of call for defunct sites and pages.

The archive took periodic snapshots of the pages

eg
Campo PG 54 - Fara Sabina

Ross

 

Hi Ursula and welcome! That website was being set up by a fellow member back in 2009 so I'm afraid I don't know what happened to it. If you haven't already - google PG54 Fara Sabina and quite a lot comes up. This site's Vitellino has a website devoted to an American bombardment of a train carrying PoWs from PG54 to Germany THE BRIDGE AT ALLERONA
Did you Dad talk much about his experiences after escape? Was he looked after by Italians?
And I agree I'd like to know about the book! Meanwhile South African Bill Burnett was in PG54 and wrote "The Rock that is Higher than I" , there's probably still second-hand copies around....

Meanwhile a fanatsitc resource if you are looking to read around the subject is a bibliography compiled by Julia MacKenzie, a fellow Trustee of the Monte San Martino Trust Monte San Martino Trust - Monte San Martino Trust. It's at
JuliaMacKenzie's books | LibraryThing

Anne

 

My book on PG 54 Is in Italian - perhaps I should translate it.

I have been there quite a few times in the last 15 years, to two ceremonies and with several relatives, and have accumulated a fair amount of material.

The camp was converted into a village called Borgo Santa Maria after the war - Google it and you can see the layout. The people in the Community centre put on a magnificent lunch for the families of men on the bombed train on the occasion of the 75 anniversary in 2019.

Vitellino

 

Another job to add to your list vitellino!

 

Thanks very much, Ted! I don't know how to navigate my way around this site - it's rather confusing - but I did, just prior to posting my queries, to which you've responded, put up a brief description of my Dad's military career in the Sth African Army. However, all your questions will be answered here, in his own words, published (very amateurishly) on my homemade website:
POW Memoirs: Philip Sydney NORTON

Thanks again
Cheers
Ursula