P.O.W. Camp number 52

P.O.W. Camp number 52, Pian di Coreglia (Genova),(Also listed as Chiabari), postal mark number 3100
Can anyone tell me anything about this please? I have found it for my father on the Forces War Records. Many Thanks x

 

First Name: T
Surname: Watson
Date of Action: 26/06/1942
Fate: Missing
Incident Details: Reported to the War Office Casualty Section for the 24 hours ending at 09:00.
Incident Date: 08/09/1942
Information: Casualty List No. 923.
Rank: Driver
Service Number: T/142448
Duty Location: Western Desert

 

First Name: T
Surname: Watson
Incident Details: Reported to the War Office Casualty Branch for the 24 hours ended 09.00am.
Incident Date: 25/08/1945
Information: Casualty List No. 1841. Previously shown on Casualty List No. 970 as reported Prisoner of War now Not Prisoner of War. Previous Theatre of War, Western Desert.
Rank: Driver
Service Number: T 142448


These three are listed on my father.

 

You may need to contact member Vitellino - http://ww2talk.com/index.php?members/vitellino.35276/ as she is our Italy POW camp expert.

Also :
UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945
Name: T Watson
Rank: Driver
Army Number: T/142448
Regiment: Royal Army Service Corps
POW Number: 29119
Camp Type: Stalag
Camp Number: VIII-B
Camp Location: Cieszyn, Poland
Record Office: Royal Army Service Corps Record Office, Ore Place, Hastings, Sussex
Record Office Number: 29

Maybe Mods will move these to a new thread as it really isnt to do with the thread title

TD

 

Sorry - I realised that - didn't intend it to come up on the site I had been looking at - the ATS.
Sorry about that

Thank you very much for moving my queries to the correct thread.

 

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

Your father may have passed through other POW Camp in Greater Germany after 1943 so you may wish to apply to Red Cross in Switzerland for his POW papers. The application window reopens 1st October 2017 but you will have to be quick as it will likely close within a few days.

If you haven't done so already you could apply for his service papers via MOD Glasgow. It’s £30 well spent.

You could ask a member to check if he completed a Post Liberation POW Questionnaire on his arrival in UK.They aren’t available on online and require a search of the file at the UK National Archives in London.

Good Luck

Steve Y

PS

Forgot to attach thread with ICRC details -

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?posts/759280/

 

As Steve stated send for the official service records via the government link
Get a copy of military service records - GOV.UK

also see the thread below
Camp 52, Chiavari

History
The PGN 52 field of Pian di Coreglia in Liguria has been in operation since October 1941.



In March 1943 he was described as a field for non-commissioned officers and troops, and a capacity of 3,000 seats (see DPG27 ).



But on February 28, 1943, according to the data of the Army Prisoners of the Army Military Staff in PGN 52 there are 3,438 British soldiers or allied countries (see DPG33 ).



Few of the information we have. A July 1942 document mentions the establishment of a group of prisoners to be sent as workers in some field of work (not specified) (see PGPC01 ). Maybe it's the PG work camp. n. 107 of Torviscosa (see PGPC02 )



Another document of October 1942 (see PGPC03 ) refers to the transfer to Pian di Coreglia of 493 prisoners coming from the dissolved field pg. n. 87 of Cardoncelli , in the province of Benevento.



According to a document of February 1943, 75 South African national (white) prisoners are taken from the field of Pian di Coreglia who will be used as workers by Francesco Accati in the construction of the new Turin sign (see PGPC04 )



Research on this field is still ongoing.



On the official website of Coreglia Ligure you can see two original photographs of the camp.

The field PGN 52 Coreglia become after September 8, 1943 a camp for civilian internees of the Italian Social Republic.


I CAMPI FASCISTI - Dalle guerre in Africa alla Repubblica di Salò

P.G. 52 Pian de Coreglia About 15 km inland from Chiavari, on the edge of a town called Calvari on the banks of the Lavagna River. Here https://goo.gl/maps/pWbMvZxXhv52 you can see a bridge over the Lavagna river on the northern edge of Calvari, near Pian de Coreglia. Mounted on the side of the bridge is a marble slab erected in 2002, commemorating the site.[4][5]
List of World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Italy - Wikipedia


regards
Clive

 

Hello,

Three weeks ago I was up at the site of the camp and am busy preparing a website on it.

In the meantime there is a combined map-photo showing its location on another Italian website together with some photos of the prisoners
www.marina.difesa.it/conosciamoci/.../la_caserma_di_caperana.pdf
http://www.marina.difesa.it/conosci...telmilit/Documents/la_caserma_di_caperana.pdf

You will also be interested in some excellent water colours done by Scotsman Horace Wade whilst in the camp. Don't be surprised that some of them are views of the surrounding area as the prisoners were taken occasionally taken out on walks

Campo 52 - Love from Scotland

I have the Swiss Legation reports on conditions in the camp. There were eight inspections, between April 1942 and 7 September 1943, the day before the armistice. They give rather a glowing report of the camp _ 'one of the best' - which contrasts somewhat with the testimonies in the War Crimes Files (There are four files which I will transcribe in due course).

An interesting thing about the camp is that Filippo Zavatteri, the adjutant to the camp commander Col. Dino Castelli Taddei, took away all the prisoners' records after the armistice and kept them safely at home. They are now lodged in the Telecommunications Museum in Chiavari - given to the museum by Zavatteri's son Fabio whom I met on my recent visit. Geoff Muir from New Zealand who has posted on this site visited the museum in June of this year.

Some men from PG 52 were sent to Lamsdorf in July 1943 before the Armistice. I have a list somewhere on a USB key and will check it out later to see if your father was on it,

Regards

Vitellino

 

Below are your father's registrations in both Campo PG 52 (in a document held in the National Archives, London, catalogue number WO 392/21) and Stalag 344 Lamsdorf (WO 392/1)

I have just checked the list of men sent to Lamsdorf in July 1943 and your father isn't on it. He probably left the camp when it was emptied by the occupying German forces between 13-17 September and the prisoners were sent to Germany and Poland by train.

WO 392/21 Prisoners held in Italy



WO 392/1 Prisoners held in Germany/German occupied territories



Vitellino

 

I have found that the first link I posted doesn't work unless you copy it and paste.

Here are some items from it including two photos showing prisoners and one of the military in hospital in Chiavari - right on the seafront- to where sick prisoners who couldn't be treated in the camp infirmary were sent. The Swiss Legation inspectors 'waxed lyrical' about the views from the windows.

 

Thought I'd post this cobbled-together map for good measure. The original wartime maps are from Texas University collection (online).

Regards

Vitellino

 

Hi Vitellino

New on the forum and closely following further details re. camp 52.
Looking forward to your website.

Regards

 

Hello Brendan,

I'm now putting everything together and have finished the 'Location' part.. When it's ready I'll post the link,

Vitellino

 

Thanks for the link to my website and my grandfather's painting, just one thing - he is not a Scotsman, he was from Nottingham!

 

'I can't see the edit button any more - if I could I would delete the Scotsman from my post and put in 'from Nottingham'.. thanks very much for pointing out the error.

Vitellino

 

See this thread - Editing older posts...

TD

 

Here's my website at last. Any further contributions welcome as I can update it at any time

You might need to paste it into the address bar: https://poPOW Camp 52 Pian di Coreglia Chiavari

Vitellino

 

Thanks Vitellino to the link to my website (lovefromscotland)

I shall pass over the link to my mother (daughter of Horace Wade) who recently visited the camp. She'll have more photos of the camp now as well.

There are many more watercolours painted by my grandfather of the camp & people - including people dressed up in the camp theatre and inside the Barracks. They are all on display at the museum of the Royal Tank Regiment at Bovington, Dorset. I would love to track down some of the families.

 

Send me some names Smidge and we'll see what we can do.

Vitellino

 

Hi Vitellino

Great to finally see the website. It has been very interesting reading for us. My grandfather was in camp 52 so this is all very helpful in trying to imagine what things were like then.