POW - Italian work camp pg 146

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by FB77, Apr 11, 2017.

  1. FB77

    FB77 New Member

    Good morning.
    I'm writing from italy. Sorry, but my english is not so good.

    Anyone is still working on italian POW camp PG 146 ? I read only old messages about that.
    I'd like to write about pg146 with anybody had father or relatives on that camp.

    I have recently started an historical investigation about a member of my family.

    Thank you.
    Fabio
     
  2. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    Hi Fabio,

    Can you give us some more details of the relative you are researching please? Name, date of birth, where they were born etc?

    Welcome to the forum.

    Cheers - Maria
     
  3. tedfromscrubs

    tedfromscrubs Junior Member

    Ciao Fabio
    This link PG 146 Mortara Pavia takes you to a page with links to names of Allied PoWs in PG 146

    I have looked at the first one, Blakeney, and you will have to scroll down into the comments to discover that he was at PG146.

    Good luck!

    Anne
     
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  4. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

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  5. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    Camp 146.JPG Camp146.JPG

    Found these gents using the search term Camp 146 in the newspaper archives. Somebody with a subscription to findmypast or the British News Paper Archive might be ble to get the full articles.
     
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  6. On a link are the following are mentioned and wonder if anyone can check if ''Escape and Evasion'' reports exist for them for it may give and indication of what happened on sheet 2 ''details of Final escape''.

    Rifleman 11620 P.D. Bailey, held at Camp 146.
    Rifleman 11623 J.K. Currin, also held at 146.

    Trevor
     
  7. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    I've just finished going through documents WO 392/21 and WO 392/1 and have discovered:

    a) That 129 South Africans were registered as being in PG 146, including Bailey and Currin (see above)
    b) That 41 of these appear in a camp in Germany, Austria or Poland (WO 392/1)
    c) That 89 do not appear in WO 392/1 so presumably were escapers

    I have posted this list below.

    If anyone has or has access to a list of Escapers and Evaders please let me know. Find My Past is now completely useless- goodness knows what ADM 199 would say. If you enter the name of an escaper for whom a report is known to exist his name will come up but the words Escape and Evasion do not appear any more. They want us to pay to see what records are held on that person ( I tried it with submariner A. Melling, whose E&E report I have).

    Vitellino
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Apr 21, 2017
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  8. Bruce A

    Bruce A Member

    Hi Fabio,

    My father, Douglas Allum was at PG146 between 03/06/1943 and 10/09/1943. George Tudor, a colleague of my father was also there during the same period. They were both Signalmen from the Middlesex Yeomanry.

    Both escaped and were given shelter for two and a half months working in a farm not far from the camp, owned or managed by the Bazzano family. With help arranged by the Bazzanos they left the farm on 15/11/1943. My father believed the guides that helped them were arranged by Giuseppe Bacciagaluppi.

    I hope this information is useful and would be happy to correspond with you further.

    Grateful of any details regarding the Bazzanos or Giuseppe Bacciagaluppi you might have.

    Kind regards,

    Bruce
     
  9. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    As an aside, could not help noticing that F/L J A Broadley DSO DFC,DFM is the same F/L J A Broadley who was Group.Captain P.C (Percy) Pickard's navigator on the heroic daylight Amiens Jail raid by Mosquitos on 18 February 1944.A successful operation,the hole blasted on the east wall is still evident after being repaired..

    Both were killed on the raid which was an operation to free French Resistance captives held in the jail....both lie side by side in the St Pierre Cemetery,Amiens, a short distance from the jail.

    Casualty Details
     
  10. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Bruce,

    I'm following this thread with interest.

    Do you have an Escape and Evasion Report for either your father or George Tudor?

    Regards

    Vitellino
     
  11. Bruce A

    Bruce A Member

    Hi Vitellino,

    Thanks for replying.

    Unfortunately I don't have a repatriation report for my father but I do have one for George Tudor (attached), kindly provided by Dennis Hill whose father like mine was also in P.G. 59. before moving on. George Tudor Repatriation Report.jpg

    I have photographs of the Bazzanos with my father and George and their names with other information.

    What is your interest in the camp, did your relatives live nearby or help escapees or were they guards at the camp?

    Next year my brothers and I intend to visit Italy in an attempt to retrace his steps so I'm keen to glean as much detail beforehand.

    Anything I can do to help, please let me know.

    Kind regards,

    Bruce
     
  12. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Bruce, I am English, live in Italy, am married to an Italian (a former marshal in the Italian Air Force), have spent the last few years researching certain POW camps and am now involved with PG 146, a difficult enterprise as there were so my attached work camps, nearly all of which were farms.

    I was contacted by Fabio as he had the idea (wrongly, as it happens) from my name 'Vitellino' that I might be Italian. I have been helping him 'behind the scenes' to investigate his relative. He managed to track him down to one of the work camps - not the one where your father and George Tudor were, unfortunately, and we are now trying to establish the date on which his relative 'opened the gates' to allow the prisoners to escape.

    It is interesting to read that your father was in Servigliano. On 21 May I shall be at there taking part in the annual conference, put on jointly by the Monte San Martino Trust and the WW2 Escape Lines Society, during which I shall be talking about escapers and evaders in the Apeninnes. I am in contact with Dennis Hill and we have shared quite a bit of information. With regard to George Tudor's report, I am surprised that it ends on Page 1 and that there is no reference to what happened when he escaped from the farm. It was normal for the men to mention the families who had helped them on this form.

    I will look up the Bazzano family for you in the White Pages and see if anyone is still there,

    Regards,

    Vitellino
     
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  13. Bruce A

    Bruce A Member

    Hi Vitellino,

    Many thanks for your prompt reply and thanks for taking the time to explain the situation. Good luck with your conference and investigations, especially on Fabio's behalf.

    If the Bazzano's farm is still there, I feel sure someone in the neighbourhood would be able to discover a relative or acquaintance of theirs. It would be wonderful to meet with someone from the family to explain what kindness was bestowed on my father and George and how grateful he was.

    Many thanks for your offer to look up the Bazzanos.

    Kind regards,

    Bruce
     
  14. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Brujce,

    I am in the UK at the moment.There are two farms in the area run by people called Bazzano but I think that your farm is wrongly named on George Tudor's document. I think the men were at the Cascina Sforzesca - 'Google it'. This would need to be confirmed by someone on the spot.

    Regards

    Vitellino
     
  15. Bruce A

    Bruce A Member

    Hi Vitellino,
    Where abouts in the UK are you, perhaps we could meet up or talk on the phone?

    I only have the first page of George's Repatriation Report and it doesn't mention any farm - did you get a second page from somewhere?

    My father specifically mentioned he was at the Bazzano's farm, close by to PG146. He had all their first names too as he was with them for 10 weeks.

    Regards,

    Bruce
     
  16. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Bruce,

    I've just returned to Italy - I never read my emails more than once when I'm in the UK so I've only just picked yours up. If you send me a private message I'll tell you where I'm from with the idea perhaps of a future meeting.

    Mortara was above all a work camp, with most of the prisoners being out on farms, so yours was no exception. Brian Sims - now unfortunately no longer with us but the real expert on POW camps - compiled a list of Mortara' s farms from all the E& E and Liberation reports he read and it can be found on Pegasus Archive. I have discovered that unfortunately some of the spellings the prisoners gave to the names of their camps were wrong and these wrong spellings have been handed down. I am currently amending the list and adding in names of prisoners as I do so. I haven't included your father's and George Tudor's as I need to be sure that the farm was in fact Cascina (which means diary farm) Sforzesca and not Sfortesca which I can't find on any map.

    I suggest you try to get hold of the complete version of George Tudor's E & E Report from one of the researchers offering their services on this website.

    I will attach the amended version of Brian's list in due course,

    Vitellino
     
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  17. Bruce A

    Bruce A Member

    Hi Vitellino,

    The Bazzano's farm where my father stayed for 10 weeks wasn't one that he or perhaps any POWs had worked at whilst they were imprisoned at PG146.

    My rather mentioned that most of the work he did was harvesting but here's an extract from his memoirs:
    "Thus on the 3rd June 1943 we were taken by ordinary train to campo P.G. 146/XVIII P.M. 3100 situated at a tiny village called Sforzesca, near Vigevano, north of the River Po, being some 40 miles S.W. of Milan."

    I will try to get George's complete E&E Report but I'd value my father's much more. Thanks for the suggestion of using one of the researchers.

    Regards,

    Bruce
     
  18. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Bruce,

    From what you say he must have stayed with the Bazzano family following the Armistice and perhaps we could now trace them.

    I will check them out again and post their addresses later today.

    Vitellino
     
  19. Bruce A

    Bruce A Member

    Hi Vitellino,

    Yes, my father and George cleared out of the camp following the capitulation. They were confident of a friendly reception as the farm was small and not being given POW labour, unlike the larger farms that enjoyed fascist support.

    Many thanks,

    Bruce
     
  20. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Bruce,

    I have found two farming families by the name of Bazzano in the area between Mortara and Vigevano:

    Bazzano Eusebio
    Via Mortara, 88
    27025 Gambolo'
    Telefono: 0381 64008

    Bazzano Piero
    Via S. Margherita, 8
    27025 Gambolo'

    What were the names of the family members? If I have them I will then have something to go on if I phone.

    Vitellino
     

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