大象传媒

Capo Campo Part 2

There were two reasons for planning the escape for a Sunday. The first was that being a rest day John had an excuse for being in camp. The second reason was that if I could cover up the absence on the evening roll call and possibly again on the following morning, the escape would not be detected until the work parties were leaving the camp. This would allow John some eighteen hours or so to get clear away.

That evening I was relieved to find that the Corporale Maggiore was to take the roll call. The Maggiore was an easy going and simple type of fellow who I thought I could easily hoodwink during the count, - and besides we had a plan. Often in the past when taking the evening count, the two cooks would be still be working in the cookhouse. When this had happened and especially with the Corporale Maggiore taking the count, their being at their place of work would be accepted. The plan was that on the Sunday evening count and to cover John's absence I would bring up one of the cooks from the cookhouse to be counted on the parade up with the others.

Having just finished parading the men I was alarmed and dismayed to see the camp commander enter the compound. This meant that the parade had to be reported to him and it was with a certain amount of uneasiness and foreboding that I approached the commandant, saluted and presented the parade for counting, with a flourish of his hand he waved for the Corporale Maggiore to carry out the count.

I joined him, and together we walked along the two drawn up columns of men counting heads. At the end of the line and finishing with a count of forty six I turned to the Corporale Maggiore and pointing to myself said - "And myself, that makes forty seven." Then gesticulating towards the building I continued. "And one on the top floor in bed sick, makes forty eight - and two cooks in the cook-house鈥� That鈥檚 the fifty."

The Tenente standing at the side of the parade during the count now intervened to curtly tell the Corporale Maggiore to check on the sick prisoner in the building. At first the Corporale Maggiore stood at the bottom of the stairs shouting up to the top floor for the sick prisoner to answer down to him. He was getting no reply, possibly the man could have been asleep. The Italian officer became impatient and mentioning something about him being idle, told the Maggiore to go up and check personally. Whilst waiting for the Corporale to return the officer commenced walking along the drawn up ranks of men. He seemed in a good mood and stopped occasionally to talk to a particular prisoner. I could not but help look anxiously towards the building. What was keeping the Corporale Maggiore? The delay could be critical. Why couldn't the silly old bugger get a move on?

Finallyly, what I had feared happened. The officer had halted and was staring into the back Rank. Turning to me, he gestured to where De Beer one of the cooks was standing in the Rear rank. At first there was a look of surprise and uncertainty, which quickly changed to
Anger.鈥� The cook - what is he doing here?" he expostulated. Turning to a sentry he
shouted an order for him to check the cookhouse and at the same time he feverishly
hurried along the line of prisoners conducting his own count of heads.

Before he had finished his count, both the sentry who he had sent to the cookhouse and the Corporale Maggiore had returned. Incredibility could be seen on the face of the Commandant, a prisoner was missing. Shouting orders at the Corporale Maggiore and sentries he left the compound and hurried up the path to the office block. I surmised that he was going to report the escape to the local Carabiniere.

His orders to the Corporale Maggiore were having its effect. A klaxon was sounding somewhere and the Italian soldiers seemed to be running everywhere. The sentry at the gate was doubled and the building thoroughly searched. The prisoners at first nonplussed as to what was happening soon got to know that there had been an escape. Within a short while the Corporale Maggiore returned with an escort. I was ushered out of the building and taken to the camp office. I had never seen the commandant in such a rage as he was now in. With uncontrollable anger he immediately lashed into me. Where is Sergente Potter," he demanded. Putting on a poker face I evasively shrugged my shoulders. 鈥淚 don't know. I had no idea he was escaping, he did not tell me."

The reply brought a further outburst of fury from the commandant.

"Sergente Maggiore, you lie," he shouted. "You were in on it, you helped him. This evening on the roll call you were covering up for him."

I stood silent waiting the next bout of anger. Instead the commandant turned to the Corporale Maggiore and barked orders to him. I was immediately hustled out of the office, down the path and into the compound. On the outside wall of the building was a small-padlocked door. This was now opened and I was pushed inside it. I had noticed the door many times in the past, but it had never been opened in my presence and I had no idea what lay behind it or what it was used for. I had assumed that the small enclosure in its original form had accommodated animals. It was the sort of place that would be used as a pigpen or sheepcote for orphaned lambs, or it might have been a storage chamber of some kind. There was no question of what use it was being put to at the present. It was a prison within a prison; perhaps a dungeon might be the better word for it.

To get through the small opening I had to bend down on all fours. Once I was inside, the door had been slammed shut and I could hear the bolt and padlock being rasped into place. There was no window, just the small entrance door. Feeling around in the darkness I realised that it was empty but for myself. Curled up on the stone floor I eventually tried to sleep but the hardness of the ground and the cold kept me awake most of the night. With the coming of dawn a little light began to penetrate through the cracks in the wooden door.

It was still early morning when they came and fetched me out. The camp commandant was waiting for me the office, but it was a different person from that of the evening before. He was now actually smiling. He opened the conversation. "Sergente Maggiore, all your planning and efforts have been in vain. Sergente Potter has been taken into custody."

I stared at him, but made no reply. And he continued. "It was a good plan, but it did not succeed and it was only a matter of time before he would be caught."

"Where is he now?" I asked.

"He is with the polizia, who captured him in the night. You won't see him anymore, he will not he be coming back here. They will be taking him back to the main camp at Laterina." Staring intently at me, but still with a smile on his face he continued. "The escape was quite unique and now that it鈥檚 all over you can tell me how he did it. I don't blame you for the part you played in it, I still don't know what Sergente Potter hoped to achieve. Having managed to get out of the camp, where was he was heading? Was it to Switzerland? If so then it would be a long and difficult journey on foot ... and I assume, that he was going to head north?"

It then struck me that he was trying to get me to tell which direction John had taken after escaping from the camp. It was all a bluff, they had not caught him and John was still free some, eighteen hours after escaping. "I don't know where he was heading and as I told you yesterday evening, I knew nothing of his escape plans." I could not help but then add. "Tenente, I think that you are bluffing. Sergeant Potter has not been recaptured." The smile and mask of friendship disappeared. Turning to the Corporale Maggiore and in an outburst of anger he ordered him to return me back to the hole in the wall

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