T/64606 Driver William Hagan (14 Company RASC) - PoW Italy (Liberation Questionnaire)

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Bruneval, Apr 11, 2020.

  1. Bruneval

    Bruneval Well-Known Member

    Good afternoon,

    I am posting the Liberation Questionnaire of Dvr William Hagan 14 Company RASC and wish to draw your attention to two points that you may find interesting:
    1. Questionnaire Part 2, Q.8 - 'Planes flying low over the Stalag. They flew so low that one man was struck and killed by landing and another man had legs broken in the same incident'. Is this incident known within the wider WW2 Talk community? The Stalag he refers to is Stalag 4C - MUHLBERG
    2. The hand written statement by Dvr Hagan refers to numerous Italian family names and locations. Would anyone have any details on these names?
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    Regards

    Bruneval
     
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  2. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Bruneval,

    Thanks for posting this report. It is of considerable interest to me as I have a website on PG 82 Laterina. I will add in the information about the escape from the work camp as supplied by Driver Hagan.

    I don't have any information about what happened in Muhlberg but there's something here on Countess Calista Lovatelli and her property, the Tenuta Presciano:

    When Driver Hagan and his companions were sent to Taverne D'Arbia on 10 May '43 they were employed on this huge estate. Another prisoner, Douglas Welsford, sent this testimony about life in this work camp to the BBC The People's War series.

    The countess died without heirs in 1944 and left the estate to an Institute of the Blind in Rome. The farmhouses on the estate, in which the sharecroppers lived, are now literally falling to pieces. Only the Contessa's own home is still in anything like a habitable state. I suspect that the Andreoli family were one of her sharecroppers. The only Andreoli family I can find in the area's White Pages lives in Siena itself.

    Vitellino
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2020
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  3. Bruneval

    Bruneval Well-Known Member

    Vitellino,

    Thanks again. Also, Douglas Welsford was from 14 Company RASC, the same as William Hagan.

    Regards

    Bruneval
     
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