Can anyone help me please. During a recent visit to Italy we found a family who helped my dad on the last part of his escape from an area above Aprica in northern Italy to the Swiss border. During the brief meeting at the farmstead in the mountains at a place named Guele it was found that while the family were helping dad and taking him down the mountain the following morning to Dosso where he crossed the river Adda into Switzerland their father was a prisoner of war in the UK. I would like to help find if we have records of him in our archives as they said he worked in a factory where they made steel drums. Thanks Trevor
Others will hopefully know of better resources but, for now, here are two you might cross-reference to short-list camps and a third on what you might be able to do with your list: List - Prisoner of War Camps (1939-1948) | English Heritage Database - Grace's Guide >> "steel drum" search listing 7 companies with 13 factories (NB: Grace's Guide is generally far from exhaustive) Guidance - Prisoners of war in British hands | The National Archives And the best of British ..., Steve
Hello First Post. Just looking back at my Nonno's (grandpa's) journey and found he ended up in Thankerton Camp 62 down from Lanark. He was let out and bumped into my Nonna's family who owned a café at the time called Valerio's which is now Valerio's Fish and chip bar. He married my Nonna, Iolanda Bianco, and had two children my mother Alida Bianco and Dario Bianco. I have tried searching for records of the Italian P.O.W's that were brought to this specific camp or of any lists at all of Italian P.O.W's brought up to Scotland but cannot find anything apart from a record of the camp itself.
Pcamillo, As far as I am Aware the ICRC (International Committee for Red Cross) collated POW's Details of all nations and may hold some information. Regards Tom
Pcamillo, There are files in Kew however the comment below in red was posted on WW2 Talk so myself and the Guele family are checking at the local councils in Tirano Italy The camps did not maintain 'War Diaries' but individual records were maintained on all captured personnel. However, I was informed that when the UK joined the Common Market all these records were returned to their respective governments in order to assist in pension, injury, or disability claims etc. In the case of German PoW these have all be maintained centrally, but I didn't follow up their whereabouts. The Italian government divided the records, distributing them back to the PoW's place of birth. Therefore unless you know their d.o.b. and its location it is almost impossible to find them. Tried the British Red Cross who do not hold any information Will let you know the outcome Trevor
Following a link someone gave on here to all the POW camps in the UK, acc. to one report, the camp in my home town (Blyth, Northd.) had Italian prisoners.
We had a PW camp on the outskirts of our town which housed both Italian and German PWs. The Italians I recall as amiable chaps who were trusted and allowed to wander around town in their free time when they were not working on the local farms. In fact, I only went potato picking on one occasion when I was about eleven years old with a gang of lads; most of us stuck it for only half a day as we resented taking orders from a rather fierce Italian PW acting as the farm foreman, the latter being away in the army. The PW berated us for our general idleness and that morning constantly was urging us to speed up! At lunchtime the farmer paid us 2/6d each and we cycled home! Many of those Italians settled locally after the war and brought their families over. My mother worked at a local brewery in the bottling plant and I remember her telling me that every morning a small party of German PWs were brought down to work supervised by a British Sergeant. The largely women labour force had struck up a rapport with the PWs and one morning one of them said something derisory and barely audible to the Sergeant who struck him a back hander across his mouth. Following this the women told the Brewery Manager outright that if this Sergeant ever escorted the PW to work ever again, they would walk out! That was wartime and It could only happen in Britain!
A lot of mention of Brewing, was this Burton on Trent? If so where was the PW camp. I am researching to find where the Italian POW's that were killed in the Fauld Explosion were billeted for a booklet to be issued (for free) to those attending our 75 years commemorative event at the crater and Hanbury Memorial Hall in October '19.
