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My father,Dennis Hutton-Fox, was in the 3rd battalion of the Coldstream guards from 1936- 1945.
It was always difficult to get him to talk about his war experiences but over the years I picked up odd stories and began to piece them together. He had served in Egypt and Palestine and was captured in 1942 and shipped to Italy where he escaped 3 times and ended up living in a cave in the mountains for some months befriended by an Italian family. He sent food parcels to this family for a while after the war but eventually lost touch. It was only in 1990 that my cousin reestablished contact with them and in 1991 my father and sister went back to Ascoli Pecino and stayed with them.He was treated like a local hero by all the family and local residents alike. On his return I got him to tell us all about it with a tape recorder running, and then he got inspired to talk his whole story onto another tape for us.
Sadly my father died in 2002 and in the summer of 2003 my sister,Sheila, and I went back to Italy to once again look up the Antonucci Family. We met up with 4 generations of them and were made so very welcome, with food and photos instantly produced and fond memories shared. Mario, who was now in his 70’s, was one of the young boys that had taken food to Dad in his cave 60 years before. He led us up the mountainside behind the now derelict San Georgio to hunt for Dad’s cave. It was obvious that the terrain had not been visited by anyone for many years as we clambered for an hour or more, through endless rough brambles that tore at our clothes and skin, and over huge boulders and broken trees. Mario was evidently having difficulty in recognizing where he was and we were becoming increasingly anxious about the wisdom of getting this elderly man (with heart trouble!!!) to clamber up a mountain!! Then suddenly from hidden in the undergrowth ahead of us we heard an excited exclamation and we knew he’d found it!!! And there it was looking exactly as dad would have left it — Dad’s cave — still with its dry stone wall still protecting it. We scrambled past a tree now growing across the entrance and crept into the cave. It was deeply carpeted with leaves with a huge boulder near the entrance. On sitting on Dad’s look out we too could see across the valley to Castel Trossino that had been the German headquarters!
It was an emotional and amazing experience, from which we emerged hot and exhausted, scratched and bleeding but triumphant in our achievement.
It inspired me to start collating all versions of his story into one proper version - leaving it in his own words, and this is what I'm reproducing here.
I'm having to do it in several stories as it is so long.
So far I've written;
The Western Dessert 1939-1942 Part 1
My 1st escape - and recapture Part 2
My 2nd escape - and recapture Part 3
My 3rd escape and life in the Italian Mountains Part 4