South Africans in Italian POW Camps

Discussion in 'South African' started by HilikusZA, Oct 4, 2011.

  1. Robert Ross

    Robert Ross New Member

    Hello everyone, what an amazing scource of information this forum is.

    My grandfather was Eric Augustus Jordan POW number 224186. I have very little information on him apart vague references from my Mom that he was captured in Tobruk, possibly sent to Italy and then definitely ended up in Stalag ivb from where he was liberated and sent home. I know he was in Stalag ivB as the only thing I have from him is his tag. I have mailed the SANDF to get whatever they have on record but wondered if he appeared in any other records that members of this forum have.
     
  2. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Robert,

    Upon arriving in Italy your grandfather spent some time in Prisoner of War Camp 85 at Tuturano near Brindisi. He is registered as being there in a document held in the National Archives, London, catalogue number WO 392/21. (Copy of part of the relevant page attached) This information was collected by the International Red Cross and passed on to Great Britain and her allies and unfortunately is not always accurate.

    Campo PG 85, as it is called, was a transit camp, and before being sent to Germany to Stalag IVB he would almost certainly have been held in another camp in Italy. This information should be available from the report you have requested from SANDF.

    Best wishes,

    Vitellino
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Robert Ross

    Robert Ross New Member

    Thanks so much for your reply Vitellino, I will continue the search. It means a lot to me so thanks again for the time you take to research this and respond.
     
  4. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Please post the information you get back from SANDF.
     
  5. Robert Ross

    Robert Ross New Member

    Waiting for SANDF info in the meantime I have the following from my grandfather
    IMG_3761.JPG IMG_3760.JPG
     
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  6. dawie botha

    dawie botha New Member

    i am new to the forum and hope i am asking this in the correct way.I recently got my handwritten few pages from my aunt that my gf wrote.He was held at campo 52 and escaped together with Charly Bouwer( not sure if correct as diff to read his handwriting.)
    I know he ended up in Switserland with 4 other men but do not have the details how they got there.
    i am trying to fill in the blanks if anybody read his name somewhere. He was no 26055 D I Botha who served with the 5th brigade when he was captured.[​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
  7. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

  8. dawie botha

    dawie botha New Member

  9. Clock3r

    Clock3r New Member

    Looking for details on my grandfather Edward Joseph Phelan, he was a south african
     
    Last edited: May 2, 2017
  10. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Clock3r,

    I have done a lot of research involving S. African POWs and their camps.

    I am in the UK at the moment but will look him up when I get back to Italy next week,

    Vitellino
     
  11. Clock3r

    Clock3r New Member

    Thanks So Much Vitellino
     
  12. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Clock3r,

    Your grandfather was held at one time in Campo P.G. 65, which was at Gravina in Puglia, down in the heel of Italy. He may well have been moved on from there as the Allies advanced up the peninsula.

    I have a list of South Africans being held in Germany but it is a box somewhere - we are in the process of moving house.

    The only way to find out exactly what happened to him is to send for his service records from SANDF ( If you put this word into the search box at the top of this page you will get some more information).

    Best wishes,

    Vitellino
     
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  13. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

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  14. micky

    micky Member

    Hello Tarquini, you mentioned Captain Jobling.
    I have a picture of an "English airman, captain Hugh Jobling" that returned in Italy in the '50s to pay a visit to Don Ximenes Azzolini, priest of Villa Fogliano, near Reggio Emilia. Don Azzolini has hidden Jobling and another unknown British airmen for some time, later the two escapers was bring in the partisan held area in high Apennines mountains. Do you have more informations on him? Thanks in advance.

     

    Attached Files:

  15. Hi! I am looking for information for WJ Myburgh? Conflicting records stated that he died in Jun 44 and was a POW in CAMP 49 Italy. I need confrimation that he was in fact a POW?
     
  16. Campo Prigionieri di Guerra No. 65


    Based on the hand written memoir of my Grandfather, 197086, Corporal Rudolph Henry Sonnekus, 2nd Battalion South African Police. After the fall of the garrison of Tobruk on 21 June 1942 [Monday was the 79th Anniversary of the garrisons surrender] 10 721 South Africans suddenly found themselves ‘in the bag’ as they termed being a Prisoner of War (POW).


    Sonnekus was to spend the next six months being held in a POW Camp in the Libyan city of Derna before he was shipped over the Mediterranean Sea inside the holds of an Italian ship. Coming ashore in the Italian port city of Brindisi, Sonnekus like countless other Springboks before him, was transported the 118 kilometres up the Italian Adriatic coastline to the port city of Bari and the Campo Prigionieri di Guerra No. 75 [Prisoner of War Camp No. 75].


    The location of the camp can be found on Google Maps by searching for the Chiesetta Torre Tresca, [a church located on the old POW Camp grounds] inside Torre Tresca, Bari.


    Campo P.G. No. 75 was a transit camp and Sonnekus records that the camp was so full upon his groups arrival there that they were held in an almond orchard in the rain and mud, a consequence of arriving in the middle of Italy’s winter of December 1942. After two weeks, Sonnekus records in his memoir that he was transferred to his permanent camp, Campo Prigionieri di Guerra No. 65, located between the villages of Gravina and Altamura, 53 kilometres west of Bari.


    The camps location can be found on Google Maps by searching for Campo PG 65 Altamura / POW Camp 65 between Gravina and Altamura. Campo No. 65 consisted out of 36 barracks and was designed to hold almost 9 000 commonwealth’s soldiers captured in Tobruk and North Africa and was destined to become the biggest Italian POW camp during WW2.


    In the spring of 1943, Sonnekus was sent to work on a wheat farm in the Foggia district, approximately 140 kilometres north of the camp. This was allowed as the Geneva Convention allowed the forcibly employment all POWs below the rank of Sergeant into work of a non-military nature. Soldiers in the rank group Sergeant and above had to volunteer for such work details. With its everlasting boredom, no forcing was necessary, as most POWs fought for spots on these details just to get out of camp. Besides something to do, work details also received extra payment, Sonnekus mentions 1 Lire per day, and extra food, an important consideration. While working on the farm, Sonnekus, became dreadfully ill with malaria and was unconscious or in a state of delirium for almost ten days. He was transferred back to the hospital at Campo No. 65, where he doctors administered the anti-malaria drug Atabrine to him. Unfortunately, Atabrine should be diluted in water prior to being injected, but Sonnekus’ doctors gave it to him neat, which almost killed him.


    Sonnekus because he was still recovering from his bout of malaria remained in camp at Gravina when his fellow prisoners began to be railed to other camps further north, due to the Allied invasion of Sicily on 19 July 1943. He was thus able to witness first-hand the power of the Allied Airforce: “One morning we woke up to what became known as the thousand bomber raid on Foggia. Wave upon wave of Liberators flew over the city all that day – dropping deadly bombs. It was told that 10 000 people died that day”

    Sonnekus’ source of information was remarkably accurate, for the Allies on 19 August 1943 launched seven waves of Heavy Bombers consisting out of 233 Liberator B-24 and B17 Flying Fortresses against Foggia’s transport network and airfields causing 9 581 deaths amongst the city’s population.

    Soon after this bombing, Sonny was also transferred, his destination Campo No. 82 at Laterina, in the Italian region of Tuscany, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Florence and about 14 kilometres northwest of Arezzo. This was to be his last Italian camp, for upon the Italian armistice on 3 September 1943, Sonnekus was placed on a train and taken north to Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager IV-B, or simply Stalag IV-B, located 8 kilometres north-east of the town of Mühlberg in the Province of Saxony, just east of the Elbe river and about 48 kilometres north of Dresden.
     

    Attached Files:

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  17. Morning.

    Have you drawn his military record from the South African DOD Archives in Pretoria?

    Jean-Pierre
     
  18. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Dear Jean Pierre,

    Thank you for this information on your grandfather,

    I will put him on my Laterina website in the near future.

    You should alert Domenico Bolognese (see this forum) regarding this post as in late September of this year, Covid permitting, there is to be a ceremony at PG 65.

    Out of interest, Ann Marie Gerber told me earlier this year that she has written a book about her relative in Afrikaans.

    Vitellino

    Edited to say:

    The Italian armistice was signed on 3 September at Cassabile in Sicily but was not made public until the evening of 8 September, when prime minister Badoglio broadcast to the nation. There's a very good account of what happened at PG 82 following his announcement on my website.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2021
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  19. South African Prisoners of War at Prigione di Guerra (PG) (Prison of War) Campo 82 Laterina

    Morning from the Military Academy.

    As part of my Doctoral Studies I have discovered that the following South Africans were held in PG 82 Laterina (see list).


    During the Second World War (1939-1945) almost 15 000 South Africans, thanks mainly to the twin disasters of Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk in North Africa, found themselves as Prisoners-of-War (POW) of the Axis powers. After initially been kept in the POW cages in Africa the POWs were shipped over the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. Here they were distributed amongst a network of camps. By the time of the collapse of the Italian war effort in September 1943, PG Campo 82, located in the Italian region Tuscany, about 50 kilometres southeast of Florence and about 14 kilometres northwest of Arezzo, housed a considerable number of South African POWs.

    With their Italian guards simply abandoning their posts after the Italian Armistice many of the POWs in PG Campo 82 seized the opportunity to escape into the hills and valleys of Tuscany, despite the Senior British Commanders forbidding them to do so – as they were under orders to remain in camp as it was believed (falsely) that the Allied armies would shortly arrive to liberate them. The sudden arrival of German guards at the camp along with the news that all the POWs would be transported over the Alps by train to new camps in Germany and Poland was a great shock to those men who had decided to follow orders and stay in camp.

    Despite British bumbling, many South Africans decided to chance their lives and try to escape despite the menace of the German guards. Some decided to try and hide away in camp when the Germans began gathering the POWs together for the march to the train station. Others braved machinegun fire and jumped from moving trainings or slipped away during air raids.

    Military records within the British Archives (currently available electronically free of charge due to Covid) records the escape from PG Campo 82 Laterina of 48 South Africans. Of course, there might be many others, but I have only found these 48 names, all of whom were decorated for their bravery with either the Military Medal (MM) or received a Mention in Dispatches (MiD) Clasp.

    The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award was established in 1916, with retrospective application to 1914, and was awarded to other ranks for "acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire". The award was discontinued in 1993 when it was replaced by the Military Cross, which was extended to all ranks, while other Commonwealth nations instituted their own award systems in the post war period.

    To be mentioned in dispatches (MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy is described. Servicemen and women of the British Empire or the Commonwealth who are mentioned in dispatches (MiD) are not awarded a medal for their actions but receive a certificate and wear an oak leaf device on the ribbon of the appropriate campaign medal.

    Generally, those who were awarded the MM not only escaped but also did extra service such as join a band of Italian partisans fighting the Germans, while those who simply escaped (not that such an endeavor was without great risk and still required great courage) were awarded the MiD.

    Below is the list of names of the 48 South Africans known to have escaped from PG 82 Campo Laterina. An * behind a person’s names indicates that I have the commendation report describing the actions for which the award was being considered.


    Military Medal

    94003 Pte John Raymond BATSTONE 1 Natal Mounted Rifles (1NMR), 2nd SA Infantry Brigade (2 Bde), 1st South African Infantry Division (1 SA Div) *

    32304 A/Sgt Gordon Andrew BUCHANAN 2 Transvaal Scottish (2TS), 6th South African Infantry Brigade (6 Bde), 2nd South African Infantry Division (2 SA Div) *

    109348 Gnr John Edward OLSEN 2nd SA Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 2 Div *

    304505 Gnr William LOUBSER 1st SA Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 1 Div

    193183 Pte Walter Edward WESTBROOK 1 South African Police (1SAP), 4th SA Infantry Brigade (4 Bde), 2 Div *

    25821 Pte Daniel William WHITEHORN 4th South African Armoured Car Regiment, South African Tank Corps *

    Mention in Dispatches

    11638 Cpl Malcolm Frank ALBRECHT South African Corps of Signals (SACS), 4 Bde, 2 Div *

    7698 Sig Arthur Gordon BARNARD 2 Div Signals Company

    196068 Cpl Jan Hendrik BARNARD Field Security Section, 2 Div Headquarters *

    175479 Pte Harry BECKER 2TS, 6 Bde, 2 Div *

    1500 Pte John Bernard BELL Umvoti Mounted Rifles (UMR), 4 Bde, 2 Div *

    14758 Pte Cecil Oscar BENITO UMR, 4 Bde, 2 Div

    37194 Gnr Jacob Johannes BOTHA 3rd Field Regiment (Fd Regt), South African Artillery (SAA) *

    9211 Rfn Robert William BRETTELL 6 Bde Headquarters, 2 Div

    92401 Sig John Charlton CARTER 4 Bde Signals Company *

    14825 Pte John CHAPLIN 1 Cape Town Highlanders, 1 Bde, 1 Div *

    7347 Pte Vernon Thomas CHRISTENSEN 2nd Royal Durban Light Infantry (2RDLI), 4 Bde, 2 Div *

    108892 Gnr Stanley Victor DARLING 2 AA Regt

    27587 Pte Norman Alexander GALBRATH 2TS, 6 Bde, 2 Div

    227226 Pte William James Chittock GOBEY Technical Service Corps (TSC) Mobile Workshops *

    12265 LCpl Stanley Hilton HACK Die Middellandse Regiment (DMR), 2 Div

    19084 Pte Charles Walter JAMES TSC

    143857 Gnr Grahame KNOX 2 Fd Regt, SAA

    31 TSM Nigel V. LARSEN 2 Fe Regt, SAA

    7328 Cpl George LAUDERDALE 4 Bde Workshops. 2 Div *

    75067 Pte Herman LENZ Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Rifles (DEOR), 1 Bde, 1 Div *

    27919 Pte Abraham LIFEROV 2RDLI, 4 Bde, 2 Div *

    214148 Tpr Johannes Christiaan Klopper LOMBARD 7th SA Armoured Recce Battalion, SA Tank Corps *

    186305 Cpl Brian MANN TSC, 1 Div *

    127794 LCpl William Frederick MAWDSLEY 1 Imperial Light Horse (1ILH), 3rd Brigade (3 Bde), 2 Div

    191350 Spr Samuel MOORE 2 Div Engineer Headquarters

    196137 Cpl Thomas MYBURGH 1SAP, 6 Bde, 2 Div *

    5376 Pte Frederick George NELSON UMR, 4 Bde, 2 Div *

    32251 Pte Frank Henry NOBLE 2TS, 6 Bde, 2 Div *

    90292 Gnr Kenneth Thorne NORRISH 2 Fd Regt

    84975 Sgt Cyril Felix O’DONOGHUE 1SAP, 6 Bde, 2 Div

    1828 Pte David Swan PEISER UMR, 4 Bde, 2 Div *

    15963 Pte John PETRO Indian and Malay Corps (IMC), 2 Fd Regt, SAA

    178774 Sig John Edward PUGLOWSKI 2 Div Signal detached to DMR

    241970 Pte Thomas REID 1TS, 1 Bde, 1 Div

    138448 Pte Hendrik Petrus SCHEEPERS TSC

    4106 Pte Thomas Igenatius Hermanus STEENKAMP 4 Bde HQ *

    36554 Gnr William Jacob SWANEPOEL 2 Anti-Tank Regiment, 2 Div

    130944 Pte John Edwards Alford VAN WYNGAARD 2TS, 6 Bde, 2 Div *

    27293 Pte James Lee WEBBER 2TS, 6 Bde, 2 Div *

    Posthumous Mention in Dispatches

    56836 Pte NFJ EATWELL 2TS, 6 Bde, 2 Div *
     
  20. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Thank you very much.

    I will add them to my website - giving you the credit, naturally.

    Three names are already well known to me :

    9211 Rfn Robert William BRETTELL

    32304 A/Sgt Gordon Andrew BUCHANAN

    56836 Pte Nigel F. J. EATWELL

    Rfn Brettell was mentioned in his unpublished memoirs by submariner Arthur Melling. The were in a partisan band together in an area not specified by Melling to the north of Rome - I have written about him in my book Twixt the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

    Eatwell and Buchanan were in the partisan band headed up intially by Ernesto Melis and later by Eatwell himself in the mountains of Umbria.. Eatwell was tragically shot and was the subject of a war crimes trial. I have written about them both and also another South African held in Laterina, a seasoned escaper, who was part of the Forced or Death March in June 1944 - 113867 L/Bdr. D.J. Watson, in my book The Long Trail Home.

    I didn't intend this to be a publicity spot for my research/publications, but it is turning out that way. In fact, thanks to the efforts of a lot of people, including some Italians, and also the late Frank Unwin's book, Escaping has Ceased to be a Sport, Laterina is well and truly on the map.

    Vitellino
     
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