Coldstream Guards - POW DIED ITALY SHORTLY AFTER ESCAPING MYSTERY

Hello members,
I'm wondering if any members can solve a bit of a mystery. I recently bought the GSM Palestine WW2 medal group to 830294 Guardman R.E. Shaw of the Coldstream Guards. He was captured in North Africa, transferred to Italy and one of his casualty reports states: "presumed died while evading the enemy on or shorty after 15/6/44 after escaping from captivity". He is listed with 2696523 Guardsman D Robertson of the Scots Guards, so they probably escaped and were killed together. Shaw commemorated on the Cassino Memorial.

As most of you probably know a lot of POWs in Italian camps had the chance to escape for a few days in September 1943 after the Italian capitulation, when Italian guards abandonned the camps. I understood that POWs who failed to escape where sent to Germany when the Germans turned up.

Shaw and Roberson were still POWs in Italy around 15th June 1944.

Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Shaw is on three Italy POW lists; in one he was at Camp 53 and is two others he was at Camp F31979. Does anyone have any ideas what or where Camp F31979 was?

Thanks very much to anyone who can help

 

Sorry can’t help with the circumstances of his death but forum member vitellino may be able to assist.

I note that his medal rack features the Italy Star. Not all “evading” POW in Italy (or in NW Europe post 6.6.44) were awarded the Star for the theatre of war where they were evaders.

Family would likely have had to make a case for the award or worse case scenario it has been added to his medal rack unofficially. An enquiry with Army Medal Office will clarify.

The remainder of his medals are as expected for pre war 3rd CG captured in North Africa - same entitlement as my father (who was also at PG53).

Steve

 

I am away from home but will reply properly tomorrow.

Many men who escaped at the armistice were at large for months before being recaptured by the fascists or Germans.


What is the source for F31979?

Vitellino

 

Thanks for the replies Steve and Vitellino,

I would have to get his service papers to see his medal entitlement, but yes, the group could have been made up assuming his entitlement. The most important medal as a collector is the named GSM of course, I can always take out the Italy star if he is not entitled.

F31979 is in the camp number column under his name, on the Italy POW camp typed list, I've posted an image of it. I've done a Google search of F31979 and it stands for Feldpost 31979. The Axis History website gives this information, Feldpost Numbers 31000 -31999:-

31979
(28.4.1940-19.9.1940) Front-Stalag 132
(8.9.1942-11.3.1943) Dulag 132
(25.11.1944-Kriegsende) 23.1.1945 gestrichen.

Not sure what this means though?

 

A zoomed in image of the Italian POW camp list attched showing F31979

 

Hi,

Can’t help re the Feldpost query but you might make some progress if you apply to Red Cross for his records when the opportunity arises later this month.

Requests for information about people held during Spanish Civil War or Second World War: Quarterly limit reached

Steve

EDIT TO ADD

CWGC has his forename (Richard) and show both his parents. He was 28 years of age.

Guardsman Richard Shaw | War Casualty Details 2098569 | CWGC

BTW His full details will likely be in CG Enlistment register available on FMP.

 

Dulag was short for Durchgangslager or transit camp. Dulag 132 was at Laterina, Italy. Prior to the armistice it would seem to have been the Italian-run Camp 82. There is quite a lot on the internet about both camps and there is just a chance that there might be something relevant to your research. Good luck!

 

Thanks for that Steve, I didn't know about this site.
Dave

 

Thanks JDKR I'll take a look
Dave

 

Just a quick point. His casualty record states: "presumed died while evading the enemy on or shorty after 15/6/44 after escaping from captivity". I assumed that he escaped from captivity, shorty before he died on 15/6/44, but perhaps this is not the case? Otherwise he would have been on the run for about 9 months before he died. Either way there's a really good story there, which, unfortunately I will never know.

 

The list you have downloaded showing Shaw is of Stalags in Germany or German held territories.

At home I have a full list of prisoners held n both Italian and German camps and will check out both men on both lists.

Now, PG 82 Laterina. See my website powcamp82laterina. weebly. com for pre - armistice information.

When the Germans took over the camp in September 1943 it became a Dulag or transit camp. Escaped prisoners of war and men taken prisoner in Italy were held there whilst awaiting transfer to Germany. The last known transferwas in June 1944.

 

Thanks very much Vilellino,
He was probably at the transit camp and escaped with the Scots Guardsman and they probably died together.
Dave

 

But he was registered as being present in the German feldpost.

I am virtually certain that the page you posted comes from WO 392/1 which is a list of prisoners being held in Germany and German held territories. This document, compiled by the International Red Cross, was dated September 1944 and gives the last camp in which a prisoner was known to have been held.

As I have said, I will check all the documentation tomorrow.

 

Thanks

 

Here goes:

- Both men are registered in document WO 392 /21 Prisoners of War of the Italians, (register date August 1943 but the list is of the last camp the serviceman was known to have been in) as having been held at one time in PG 53 Macerata (known to the men as Sforzacosta). They may have escaped from this camp at the armistice or may have been transferred from there to another camp before that date. The only was to find out is to apply for their Red Cross records as Tullybrone has suggested.

- After the armistice both men clearly escaped and were recaptured on a date unknown.
Shaw is registered in the German Register WO 392/1 (dated September 1944 but as with the Italian register the camp is the one the serviceman was last known to have been held in). On checking the location of Feldpost F31979 in the index we read:


Hence Guardsman Shaw was being held in Italy and not in Germany as the register would suggest. Other sources confirm that this was indeed Laterina. Hence he did not go to Germany. Robertson does not appear in this record at all.
- WO 361/777 - the PRESUMED DEAD THOUGH NOT PREVIOUSLY DECLARED MISSING POW register from which you have posted the excerpt, describes the deaths of both men as having taken place whilst evading/ or after having escaped. The key though is the date - not as CWGC give it, a straight 15 June 1944, but on or shortly after 15/6/44.

Between 16- 19 June 1944 the recaptured and newly taken prisoners were taken on a route march from Laterina to the station on the first leg of their transfer to Germany. SEE MY WEBSITE
There are no less than five war crimes files on this episode held in the National Archives. Some witnesses indicate that there were eight victims. Those temporarily buried in Laterina cemetery were transferred to Arezzo War Cemetery. Two were identified, two were not. The dates of death of the unidentified were given as 16 June, the dates of the two identified as 17 June.

It is not possible to say that the two were Shaw and Robertson, but neither can it be excluded.

Both men are remembered on the Cassino Memorial. Given that they were last in action in North Africa they should have been remembered on the Alamein Memorial. It would be worth contacting the CWGC to ask why this wasn't adhered to in their case.

You will be wondering where the date on or after 15 June came from. It would have resulted from research carried out by the missing men team, based in Liverpool. That is another story!

Vitellino

Have edited to show why the two POWs would have not appeared in the Regimental missing men register

 

Thanks very much for all of the information Vitellino.
It's certainly added a really interesting, if tragic, episode to his story.
Dave

 

Has anybody looked at WO 361/786 Coldstream Guards Missing Men Italy?

 

Likely nothing in there because -

A. Taken POW in N Africa

B. Confirmed POW by Italian & German lists.

I’d expect ICRC record to have notification of death from German authorities along the lines of “shot while trying to escape”.

Subject to what vitellino may say the War Crime file may assist - although search of UK NA search engine over the weekend for details of Shaw drew a blank.

Steve

 

I have read parts of several of the war crimes files in a translation into Italian but none in its entirety. Undoubtedly it would be worth sending for the following to be absolutely certain that there is no reference to either man:

Judge Advocate General's Office War Crimes Group.

WO 309/1798
WO 309/1799
WO 309/1800
WO 310/12
WO 311/679

Out of interest, I have the Italian translation of the Statuary Declaration of Canadian A.J.Olender - unfortunately without the War Crimes file reference, which I found in a book by Enzo Droandi 'Le stragi del 1944 nella Toscana orientale' p. 129:

'' When we entered Levinia (not sure of the spelling) ...four of us, Lofty Callan, a Scotsman nicknamed 'Chuck', another Englishman named Jim Woods and myself, slipped away down a side street. Lofty Callan and the Scotsman were killed in an alleyway. Jim Woods and I fled and in the dark and managed to conceal ourselves in a group of German reinforcements until we joined up with the rest of the POWs.''

Will check on Callan's burial and edit

Edited: Callan/Callam/Callum/McCallum not found with date of death between 16-20 June 1944

 

See above edited post regarding men presumed dead not missing.