Capua, PG 66

Thank you for this great resource. I used it to manage to visit the site of the former camp today.
Here are some pictures.

 

Thanks for these, Mark. Greatly appreciated.

Vitellino

 

I belong to this facebook page and these photographs of Capua POW in 1941 were recently posted
Campo 57 Grupignano-Gruppignano, Work Camps & Partisans
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1678849172294371



Do you recognise your relative?

 

Hey Geoff
I hope you saw my post below. I managed to track down the site of the camp recently, using the aerial photos and map locations on this thread. The site of the camp is still very well defined, although there's very little physical evidence of any barracks there now, perhaps supporting the testimonies that it ways mainly tents. The site, itself, does not sit on raised ground and I'd wondered whether Vesuvius would be visible from Capua. It's clear that it definitely isn't. Naples is a good distance away and there's no view of the volcano. I imagine that the prisoners arriving from North Africa would have landed at, or close to Naples and there is no doubt that the view of Vesuvius there would have made an enormous and lasting impression on them.

 

I did visit the site in 2017 when in Italy. I know I wrote up my visit and had thought I had posted it with photos, but it is not in my post history? I intend to recover the file and repost it in the near future.
Just on the POW photos I posted, they must be late 1941 or early 1942 as there are mainly tents with only two barracks type buldings in the background of one.

 

More Capua Photos from
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1678849172294371







Thanks to Chris Kelly for allowing me to repost these photos
Chris Kelly - Writer & Storyteller.

 

Thanks for this information about Camp 66. My uncle said you could see the volcano flaring up and dying down at night. According to Google Maps, Capua to Vesuvius is only about 16 miles as the crow flies (much longer by road, admittedly), so it's not hard to believe you could see the flaring of the volcano especially at night. The volcano had erupted earlier in the year (March's lava flows destroying the village of San Sebastiano al Vesuvio). From October 1941 to December 1942, there were episodes of lava overflowing the crater rim in multiple directions. Down its southern slope, Vesuvius’s flows reached an elevation of around 600 meters (nearly 2,000 feet).

The other bit of trivia I managed to translate from the Italian original document held on https://powcampsitaly.webador.com/ was a long record of camp administration dated October 28th, 1941 (which coincided with the twelve weeks my uncle was there). The prisoners received a consignment of coffee from the Red Cross in Venezuela - which delighted my wife who comes from that country. It's great coffee. I hope my uncle and his fellow prisoners enjoyed it.

 

Hi Geoff - I stumbled upon your Post about your Dad while I was checking out PG 66 where a Capt. D.A.D.J. Bethell was reported as being held as a British Army POW in WO 392/21. My research is covering my own father's time as a POW in PG 49 at Fontanellato (PG 49 at Fontanellato in Italy – The Story of allied servicemen who were held prisoner of war in this town in Italy in World War II) and I'm trying to get to the bottom of who, exactly, was in PG 49 at the time of the Italian Armistice in September 1943. My reason for writing now is that I noticed your Dad was at Campo 202 as a Medical Orderly at Lucca and I recalled that I had come across a lot of information about the S.B.O. (a Colonel Hugo Graham De Burgh - Colonel Hugo Graham De Burgh – PG 49 at Fontanellato in Italy – The Story of allied servicemen who were held prisoner of war in this town in Italy in World War II) who had also been at the Lucca Hospital from 17th March to 8th August 1943. I've had a lot of help from a number of people on here trying to piece together my Dad's WWII exploits and I'm now trying to work out if and when this Bethell was moved from Capua to Fontanellato as he doesn't seem to appear in a book I've recently been sent entitled "Home by Christmas". Although there is lots of evidence to indicate that he was at PG 49 (FLOWERDEW, G.D.H. – Lieutenant-Colonel). This is all probably of no interest to you but I'm always fascinated to see that so many people appear to have far more knowledge of their father's war than others.I'm still hopeful that I will one day find out how and to where my Dad was transported from I think a battle at Deir el Shein after his capture in North Africa through Italy and ended up in Fontanellato. Hope you've got to the bottom of your journey to Capua. Chris

 

Chris,
Yes I have followed my fathers journey in Italy during the war. I have been to docks of Naples where he landed to the sites of his POW camps at Capua pg66, Chiavari (Pian di Coreglia) PG52, Lucca Hospital PG 202 by train. A very worthwhile venture.
Lucca - Graham De Burgh arrived about 2 weeks before my father left on a Red Cross repatriation train across southern France thru Spain to Lisbon then to UK by sea with about 440 other Protected Personnel and disabled POW. They had been gathered at Lucca from all over Italy during March 43. I must check if the previous SBO was repatriated?
While my father rarely spoke of the war, I was fortunate that my mother wrote about their past including a brief outline of his war. I also inherited his NZ Official History Volumes for his Battalion & Tobruk in which he features.
As you know I posted here about him and chased any posting that may have helped understanding his journey. I have been doing this for nearly 10 years and been down many rabbit holes, and I am still discovering information.

For your fathers journey to Italy you could read this chapter from NZ Official History
Prisoners of War
I: The North African Campaigns of 1942–43—Prisoners in Italian Hands
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/...a.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Pris-_N84741.html

 

Thanks Geoff - very much appreciated. And I've just noticed that I'm down the coast from you, though not of NZ origin. However, I was in Lucca a few years ago but at the time I had not made much progress on my research into POW's in Italy. Is the Hospital still there? My Dad was Indian Army so whilst I've seen some great info published in NZ about WWII, including the attached link you posted, it's not as easy unearthing information about the 4/11 Sikh Regt. I do know he was captured after the fall of Benghazi early in 1942 but escaped and walked across 250 miles of the Desert to rejoin his Regiment at Gazala before being captured again I believe at Deir el Shein on 1st July 1942. I am hoping that one day I'll find out more about which Camps he passed through on his way to PG 49. Thanks again, Chris

P.S. I've just noticed the Map of the routes used to transport POW's from North Africa to Italy which is really interesting. Many thanks and I probably need to re-read that Article more thoroughly!

 

Hello Chris.

If you are already aware of these documents relating to your father held in the UK (at two different places, TNA Kew and The British Library) please ignore; But if you shouldn't have come across them before here you go (screenshot of catalogue entry followed by link).



Name: Andre [GR] Willis . Date of Birth: 24/04/1916 . Place of Birth: Livingstone . ... | The National Archives



Willis, Andre Graham Romain | The National Archives

Kind regards, wishing you the very best in your research, always,

Jim.

 

Jim - thanks so much. I have them both on my "To Do List" if I ever get the opportunity to fly up to the Northern Hemisphere. I'm sure there must be some records of where he signed up in India too I daresay and I'd really love to visit his birthplace in Zambia as well. So much to do. Much appreciated. Chris.

 

Chris,

Love Hawkes Bay, my wife is from there. Some advice for you.

1. Start a new thread under your fathers name in the section Research >Searching for Someone & Military Genealogy
   1. Include in this starter thread everything you know to date.
   2. Explain what you want to find out
   3. This way you will have the info in one place for future reference
2. Apply for his Red Cross POW record. There are several threads on how to do that.
3. Consult with member dryan67 as they have posted as below
4. There are members here who undertake research for example Drew5233
5. Use the NZ Official History to find out where and what your dad's unit was doing alongside 2NZEF ie in The Relief of Tobruk Index under "Indian Forces" there page references
   • Infantry
     • 2 Bn, 5 Mahratta Lt Inf (11 Bde), 480
       
       
     • 3 Bn, 1 Punjab Regt (5 Bde), 467, 499–500
       
       
     • 4 Bn, 16 Punjab Regt (7 Bde), 126, 214
       
       
     • 4 Bn, 6 Rajputana Rifles (5 Bde), 500
       
       
     • 4 Bn, 11 Sikh Regt (7 Bde), 125, 127, 299–300, 312, 495
6. As far as the treatment of POW all followed a similar path.
7. The building that housed PG 202 is still there and is now used as the Court of Lucca. I visited it in 2017 and the Court Manager allowed me in during the Lunch Break, however the internal layout is quite different now.