大象传媒

I had escaped from 2 POW camps and now had no intention of being shipped off to Germany from this camp and I gathered they needed some work doing in the compound and I was allocated to the job. I had two sentries working with me, but there were none guarding the outside perimeter. They were having some trouble with a truck and I said, 'Yes, I do know about trucks because you work on trucks in farms,' and I helped them 鈥渕end鈥� the trucks 鈥� and I would then spoil them again when they weren鈥檛 looking! In fact I learnt to talk then with the Germans; you know this is how you got round them. They spoke quite a lot of English 鈥� much more than the Italians. There were two of them guarding me and one of them was actually quite nice. He was telling me about his family and how where they lived had been very badly bombed. He hadn鈥檛 heard from his parents for six months - you know war is a terrible thing. Of course he was one of the many Germans who told me there was no London left 鈥� it had been bombed to bits and just didn鈥檛 exist! O dear! He was the one who stayed when the other one went off to get a tool I said I needed.

Anyway, one evening I messed about until late and it started to get dark. The guards were chasing me up to get back and that was when I got one of the sentries to go fetch me a tool. I then grabbed some pliers out of the kit I was working from and clobbered the bonnet down on the friendly sentry鈥檚 head! I ran like hell for the top of the compound with the pliers and as there were no sentries to worry about I promptly started cutting the wire which surrounded the compound. Well, shots were fired at me and all hell let loose but I managed to get out!

So I succeeded in getting away from there but I learned later that the Germans told the rest of the prisoners in the camp that I had been shot escaping to teach them a lesson. I don't know why it was that Red Cross conventions never seemed to really apply in Italy.

Anyway, cutting on ahead - my brother Peter was a prisoner in Germany - he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain and had been shot down on a patrol, and when he saw some Coldstream Guards coming into his camp he started asking, 'Have you seen my brother? Have you seen my brother?'
These chaps said, 'Oh, I'm sorry, didn't you know? He was shot escaping!鈥�.
So my poor mother, after being told that I had been missing twice, suddenly got a letter from Peter saying, 'I'm so sorry to hear that Dennis was shot escaping'. Poor old Mother, when I eventually did get home, I gave her quite a shock!

I had escaped from this prison camp within a couple of weeks of arriving and I now made my way down through the mountains, not knowing where I was going, but happy to be free! Italy was still at war with us and it was very difficult so I lived mainly by stealing from lonely houses at night and moving on before daylight.

As I travelled south I kept hearing rumours about us invading Italy and eventually heard that they had capitulated, so at least I knew in which direction to head, but I had no route. I just avoided the very highest mountains, and kept away from Germans and towns. I was back in civilian clothes again, although I had sworn I would never risk wearing them again, but I had to get some trousers, and in fact a family gave me a coat as well, which was very useful as it got quite cold up in the mountains. In some ways things got a bit easier - provided there was no-one to betray them a lonely family would help you - but they were all frightened of the Fascists, and of course the Germans were very much in force. But I think the Fascists were worse than the Germans as you couldn't recognize them and they just wandered around the districts as little dictators with their own spy circuits.

I had many adventures walking down south. Sometimes people were helpful and gave me food and water, and sometimes they weren鈥檛 and I used to steal. It seemed to go in regions, you'd get an area where you wouldn't risk being seen by a soul, whereas in other localities, where there were just lonely houses, they would give you food but tell you to push off. I remember that on one occasion I was very hungry, well I was very hungry on many occasions, but on one particular occasion I saw a girl working in the fields and I watched her for a long time from the corner of the woods and eventually I called to her. I鈥檇 picked up a few words of Italian by now, and she came across and I told her I was an English soldier and was very very hungry - could she get me some food? She said 鈥測es, come to my house in the village and I鈥檒l give you some鈥�. I thought this was too risky but she said that the Germans had already ruined their village and had now left but I still wouldn鈥檛 go with her. She eventually returned with food for me but I鈥檇 been tagging along behind her towards the village and realised that no-one was following her so I was fairly safe. She then said that her father thought I should go to the village for some hot food so I did and it was wonderful. They then put me in a barn to sleep for the night and I settled down. Suddenly in the middle of the night I was woken up to whispers 鈥� 鈥淭he Germans, they鈥檙e back, they鈥檙e back!鈥� So it was panic stations for them as well as me! Why they should be doing this for me I really didn鈥檛 understand. They took me out of the barn which was such an obvious place for them to search and hid me in a tool shed with just a couple of sacks over me which was safer.

The Germans weren鈥檛 fools; they鈥檇 put sentries everywhere, including on the roads. But there was a sugar factory outside the village, where before dawn all the girls went out to work. So during the night, they dressed me up in a cloak. I was about 6鈥� 2鈥� standing over these girls who were about 4鈥� nothing but I walked out amongst them in the dark, past the Germans sentries, and got away!!

I had escaped three times now, and it was a dangerous business escaping, and even more dangerous being re-caught. I recognised that I was pushing my luck, so I was determined to be desperately careful and not to take any risks whatsoever, but I really didn鈥檛 like being locked up! So in fact although things were easier, I was inclined to steal more often from houses rather than ask for help.

I just kept walking. I didn鈥檛 recognize where I was, I hadn't any maps, and I hadn't got a compass. I didn't even know where I'd been, but one day I saw a lonely monastery, I couldn鈥檛 believe it - I was back at San Giorgio!This was an absolute miracle.It was the very place I had been hiding when I was recaptured during an earthquake after my first escape. Although the earthquake had knocked the place to pieces I found that the family were still living in one wing. I lay down in some rocks and watched it for about an hour. I couldn't see any signs of Germans or any people at all - until one of the daughters, Ada, walked in and out of the kitchen 2 or 3 times and I called to her very quietly and she heard me. She was horrified, I think. Anyway, she made me lie down there, and she disappeared into the house. She was gone for about three-quarters of an hour, and then her father Matteo came out, and they escorted me to a cave before having a big family conference. They had recognized the high risk they had exposed their family too when I had been recaptured, and had breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of me without being punished in any way. And now to see me back on their doorstep a few months later was really awful and they felt disposed to tell me to go. But for some reason they decided to help me. I suppose this was partly because Italy had packed in and I was a good insurance against them being maltreated by the British when they arrived at Ascoli Pecino. They could always say, 鈥淲e've looked after a British soldier!鈥�

However, they took me to one of the caves, quite a nice cave, and they started bringing me food again. It was November now and the weather was getting much colder. There was no way could I keep going鈥 had to have somewhere to hide up for the winter, I couldn't just keep wandering over the mountains like this. And the further south I got, the thicker it was with Germans.

So I stayed. I didn't make any further effort at that time to reach our own lines. I thought I would lay up there, if they would have me, until such time as the British overcame that part of the country, which didn't happen as quickly as I anticipated. It worked out that I had three or four caves and I used to move from one to the other, and I had a drop point, and the daughters -there was Maria, Ada, Yolanda, and Angela - would bring me food. Angela was the youngest. She would be about six, I suppose, and she and the youngest boy Mario used to bring me food more than the others, because if they bumped into anyone they could say they were taking food for the senorina working in the fields, and there didn鈥檛 seem to be the same risk. So I grew very fond of Angela and Mario at that stage.

My favourite cave had a very good vantage point. Looking across the valley on the opposite hillside I could see the hill town of Castel Trossino (where later Matteo was buried and I visited his grave in 1991).The Germans had taken it over and made it their headquarters and I used to sit on a rock hidden in my cave and watch their transport going up and down all the time. It was getting much colder and I felt very exposed so I built a dry stone wall across the front of my cave just leaving an entrance one side and a look out the other, and it made it really quite cosy.

It was filled with leaves and I entertained myself by catching snakes and skinning them and making belts for the family. I also knitted myself some boots on bits of wire. They were supposed to be socks but were so huge as I didn鈥檛 know how to turn the heel etc but they kept my feet warm at night. I never had a fire near my cave. I would wander off, light a fire somewhere, catch some sparrows and cook them there.

I used to push off occasionally and go for long walks lasting two or three days, just to relieve the boredom and find out what was happening, because all I got were rumours. It got jolly dangerous sometimes but I was picking up a bit of Italian, although I still wasn't very proficient. Then the snows came, and it snowed and it snowed. In fact there was six or seven foot of snow in places. My cave was very dry but anyone visiting me left great big foot prints so it was pretty dicey, and Matteo decided it was safer for me to be with them in San Giorgio now, because a German patrol was extremely unlikely to come up the mountain in these conditions. The snow lasted until after Christmas 1943, so I had the most wonderful time with this family in San Giorgio without feeling I was putting them in any danger and this is when I got to know them really well - I had got to know them quite well, but, now spending time in their home with them over Christmas, well it was lovely. Maria taught me to use a sewing machine and I used to make clothes with her, and I used to change the beds and help Ada and Yolanda with the housework and meal preparation. We used to all sit and argue round the fire as I got to speak Italian reasonably well by now. It was lovely to mix with pretty women again but, of course, nothing ever happened between me and any of the daughters as I could never have betrayed Matteo鈥檚 trust in any way. This family were risking all to save my life 鈥� I owed them so much!

When the weather improved and the snow had gone I decided to have a bash at getting through to our own lines, and I tentatively said good-bye but said I might be back. I pushed off south, because I鈥檇 heard the British had advanced quite a long way into Italy now - but I couldn't get through. I had a lot of risky experiences. I got stuck in a cave with Germans surrounding me on one occasion for about four days, hoping the British would pass over me, but of course nothing happened. I heard later that they were bogged down in Casino at that time which was near where I was trapped. I returned north once more and I was successful in finding San Giorgio again. By now I knew all the mountain peaks around the area and had no trouble in getting my bearings.

I waited there until our troops advanced up into Italy. One minute I was in German territory, and the next moment it was controlled by the English. They kept to the valley in their advance, and made no inroads up the mountain passes, but from where I was hiding in my cave above San Giorgio, I could see, just across the valley at Castel Trossino, the German headquarters - and suddenly it was empty! The Germans had amazingly melted away. Their trucks were no longer trundling up and down the ramp, and best of all the German sentry in the spire of the church - whom I always felt was watching my every move in that mountain hideaway - had gone.
It was time to go. It was very sad leaving these good Italian friends after all they had done for me. Matteo had told me that Ascoli had fallen without any trouble at all; there had been a bit of bombing and shelling and then the Jerries had just pulled out as it wasn鈥檛 a good defensive position. So Italy was now free and I was able to hitch-hike across to Rome. It was the middle of July 1944 and when I arrived it was dark and Rome seemed devastated. I stumbled around in the moonlight, not having a clue where I was, and found myself amongst some ruins. I didn鈥檛 know if they were caused by bombs or not and it was only later that I discovered that I had had been scrabbling about in The Forum!
Eventually I found my regiment and I walked into the camp exclaiming 鈥淚鈥檝e made it, I鈥檝e made it鈥� but no one was interested - I was amazed!
Then I saw a sergeant major and he said 鈥淲here鈥檚 your AB64?鈥� which is a sort of army passport.
I said 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 got an AB64! - If I had one I鈥檇 be a German!!鈥�, they always came well equipped 鈥� I鈥檇 got nothing. So he told me to go to the cookhouse, get some food and then get myself kitted up because I was in civilian clothes again! Civilian clothes were very hard to come by and yet the Antonucci family had fed and clothed me for about 10 months.

I went and had a jolly good meal and no one took any notice of me. I鈥檇 been a prisoner before this; 1942 this was the last time I had been with my regiment and now it was1944. I had 2 years of terrible deprivations and yet no one seemed to ask me who I was, where I鈥檇 come from or anything!
So then I went to the quarter master and got kitted out with uniform, but he didn鈥檛 give me any arms, I had to go to the armoury the next day for that.

I really didn鈥檛 think much of all this! I thought this was a pretty awful homecoming so I just walked out of the camp and went back to San Giorgio! I鈥檇 got on my new army boots and I gave them to Mateo in exchange for his very old worn out pair and I stayed for 2 or 3 days before saying a final goodbye and hitchhiking back to Rome.

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