大象传媒

Chapter Seven
Two Hundred Volunteers

After a few weeks, preparations were made to move everyone out of the camp as the Allies had invaded Sicily. We had a choice of volunteering for a working camp to the North of Italy, or being taken to Germany. I put my name down for the working camp and next day one hundred and eighty of us were on our way.
Our destination was Santa Christina in the Province of Pavia, beside the river Po on the Plains of Lombardy. It was not far from Milan and only Ninety Kilometres from Switzerland. We were taken by train to a point near Santa Christina and just had two kilometres to march to the village. The prison camp was a building in the centre of the village, which is still there to this day, as I visited four years ago. The senior soldier among us was a full Corporal and the Italian 鈥淭enente鈥� (Commandant) informed him we would be working on a farm. It is mostly peasant country in this area, dominated by rice fields.

After two days when we had settled in we were transported on wagons pulled by oxen. It was about a thirty minute ride at sunrise. We were up to our knees in water in the rice field levelling the earth, with Italian peasants (mainly girls) planting the rice.
We were to work till sunset.
It was back breaking work and our Corporal after a few days protested to the Tenente
On the grounds of the Geneva Convention, that prisoners should not work in water all day. The Padroni (owner) then put us on cutting corn with scythes, which was equally back breaking.
Gradually we grew fitter with the extra food we were given, rice and frogs legs with macaroni and parney (bread) at night when we got back to the camp.

After a week or so of this, I began to get a sore in the calf of my right leg and it began to turn black. A guard took me to see the village doctor. He told me to lie down on the camp bed in his surgery, went to a cabinet in the corner and coming back he told the guard to hold me by the shoulders. The next moment he plunged a knife into the festering sore on my leg and I went out like a light. When I came to, I had a hole in my leg that was stuffed with cotton wool. There is no doubt that he saved my leg.
The guard helped me back to camp and the doctor came to see me three days later to declare me fit for work.
Later I had bleeding piles, his treatment for that was a bucket of water with a block of ice to bathe them and some black ointment.

Chapter Eight

Two on the Run

So we continued working on the farm, the weeks rolled by, and it neared September. One day the Italian foreman, whose name was Angelo and who only used two words 鈥淵amo.Yamo鈥� (hurry! hurry!) as we worked, called us into his hut and told us to sit down. He brought out some glasses and filled them with wine; he said 鈥淪alute amigos, Guerra (war) finito鈥�. Italy had surrendered on September the eighth. When we got back to our camp, our Corporal told us that we would be released the next day.
The following day we just walked out of the camp as the 鈥淭enente鈥漚nd the guards had disappeared.
We were not aware of the true situation, that although the Italians had surrendered, the Germans certainly had not. In fact, in most P. o. W camps the men had been ordered by their Senior Officers to stay put. This was a great mistake as most of them were recaptured by the Germans, with only a few out of forty thousand managing to escape into the countryside. The rest were taken to Germany.
We were blissfully unaware of this as we marched down the road, thinking that for us the war was over and we just had to make for the coast to be shipped home.

As the one hundred an eighty of us made our way through Santa Christina, the residents approached the Corporal and said 鈥漈edesche veni鈥�(Germans coming) and told us to follow them to a nearby village. Here there was a small wood and we would be ensconced in a long low building for the night, which was an old empty school house.
The Italians said they would keep us informed .where the Germans were.
The Corporal addressed us and said if we got word of the Germans coming, to scatter in two鈥檚 and three鈥檚 as we could not move over the countryside in large numbers.
Gunner Cliff Downs and I agreed to stick together. He had been taken prisoner at Tobruk and another lad agreed to come with us.

Sure enough, during the night, one of the Italians burst into the hut and said 鈥淟atedeschi veni, andato via subritor鈥� (鈥淕ermans coming-go quickly鈥�) He did this at great risk to himself and his family, as the Germans would have shot them.
We all rushed out leaving our belongings in the panic, and spread out over the fields in the dark, not knowing where we were going except for the need to put some distance between us, the building, and the Germans.

The three of us lay low in a hedge for the rest of the night and when dawn came we got our bearings. Seeing the building we had vacated we decided to go back to see if we could retrieve our belongings, what little there was! Cautiously we approached it, and as there was no activity we went in. It was chaos inside-with belongings strewn all over, so we picked up what we thought would be useful on our travels, but we couldn鈥檛 waste much time as it was a dangerous situation. Cliff and I got an army greatcoat each and some under vests and shorts and a safety razor- the other lad got what he needed. As we made our way to leave I saw, lying on the floor an army issue New Testament so I picked it up and put it in my greatcoat pocket. All these things were to prove to be invaluable in the months on the run that lay ahead of us.
As we moved away from the hut we heard shots in the wood and we learnt that it was the Fascisti, who were helping the Germans to round up the lads on the run, and half the lads were recaptured. We made for the fields again and it was rough going. The lad with Cliff and I was limping badly and said he wasn鈥檛 going any further. We tried to persuade him to continue with us but he said he would rest a while then make for the nearest village. We never saw him again.

We pushed on for a few miles to get clear of the danger area, we could tell by the sun that it was late afternoon and as we were very hungry we made for a house we could see in the distance. It was mainly peasant country we were in and those that didn鈥檛 work on the big farms had smallholdings where they could just eke out a living.
As we drew near, we saw that it was a small farm. The owner must have seen us approaching and came out of the house towards us. He knew of course that we were escaped P. o. W s by our marked battledress 鈥淚nglese鈥� he said, and when we said 鈥淪i Si, escapari鈥� He took us into the house where his wife made us a meal of polenta (boiled Indian corn) It was tasteless but filling. This and rice was the staple diet in this area. We were also given russo-vino and some bread (pani)- all this at great risk to themselves, considering the Germans were still around.
After the meal as dusk was coming in, he took us to the cow byre and said we could sleep there for the night, but we must go at first light. This was typical of the welcome we received from farms and villages we came upon on our journey.
After thanking him and his wife for what they had done for us, we retired to the byre to bed down with the cows.
At first light, after again thanking our friends, who gave us some bread and cheese, we made our way across the fields in the direction of Santa Christina. Our fist priority now was to try to get rid of our uniform and change them for civvies if possible.

After a while we came to a village named Tore-de- Arase and approached a house on the outskirts near a small river beside a bridge. The door opened and we were then taken into the house, soon we were tucking in to a plate of Polento some russo-vino and a cigarette called 鈥淧opulari鈥� which was very strong. Cliff and I were overwhelmed by their hospitality which put them at great risk. We asked them if there were any Germans at Santa Christina still, and were told that Tedesco鈥檚 had gone from the vicinity for now. After taking our leave with many 鈥淢ucho Gracias鈥�, we set out for Santa Christina which was about three kilometres away. As we entered the village one of the residents recognised us.

Her name was Maria and she had worked with us on the farm when we were prisoners. She took us into the house and as we were picking up quite a bit of the Italian language by now, we told her what had been happening since we left the prison camp. We explained about our battle dress and asked would it be possible to exchange them for 鈥渃ivvies鈥�. In no time at all she went round the village and came back with two coats trousers and shirts. We gave her our two piece suits and put on our civvies.
We kept the greatcoats however which on our travels we carried the over our arm with our few belongings in the pockets and used them as blankets at night. For the next few weeks we stayed in Santa Christina, moving from house to house ,hayloft to hayloft and being fed by the peasants. They had not much themselves but shared what they had.
The villagers informed us that the Tedasche had put out a reward of 1,500 Lira (about fifteen pounds) for any P. o. W found dead or alive and anyone found harbouring them would be shot.

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