POW Camp 52 Chiabari Italy.

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Tim L, Sep 15, 2020.

  1. Tim L

    Tim L Member

    Hi all, just joined.
    I have been looking around the different sites and came upon this one on FB and thought I might share and do some more digging, please bear with me.

    I had an uncle who was taken prisoner at Tobruk and ended up in this camp. He, and many others, escaped from this camp, I say escaped, more like just walked out. There were himself and three others who travelled and stuck together and were sheltered by an Italian farming family near the small village of Casteletto De Erro by the name of Baresone. The three other prisoners were Driver 235510 E.H. Pell (Eddie) (RASC). Trooper 4276655 R. Frizzell (Robert) (Royal Northumberland Fusiliers) and Gunner 941158 L. Hutty (Les) (Royal Artillery).
    Les wrote an account of his experiences as a POW, their escape, time on the run and eventual recapture. I transcribed this and sent to the Monte San Martino Trust for them to include in their archives on their website.
    If there is any chance that any of these men that I have mentioned here have living relatives or descendants that may read this, please go to the Trust's website and go into 'POW stories' and scroll down to 'Hutty Les', click on that name and you can read the complete account. All four stayed together so this account is theirs also. Also please post and add to this thread.
    Thank you.
     
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  2. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    The thread cited is: Hutty, Les - Monte San Martino Trust

    In summary:
    None of the three POW escapees have appeared here before.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
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  3. Tim L

    Tim L Member

    No, they would not have appeared here before as what I have referred to has never been publicly available or published anywhere else other than on the Trusts website, the Trust having been the only ones to date that I submitted the account to and given my copyright permission to publish as I felt that being a group that specifically related to POW's held in Italy and the Italians that helped and protected them. The aim of posting what I have is in the possibility that any of the three others that escaped with my uncle have relatives or descendants that may read this, as I sad in my initial post, may be interested in the account that Les Hutty wrote as it was in the main their account also. Anyone can read it but are not permitted to reproduce either in part or in full without the permission of the copyright holder.
     
  4. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    Tim L,

    Perhaps my error. None of the three men named in your post appeared on the Forum before today. A number of members are well aware of the Trust and several are POWs in Italy experts.
     
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  5. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Thank you for posting, Tim L and Davidfpo.

    For the record, PG 52 was at Pian di Coreglia in the commune of Coreglia Ligure, 14 kms inland from CHIAVARI ( I don't know where Chiabari comes from though I have, unfortunately, seen this mis-spelling before).

    Please see my website powcamp52.weebly.com and also campifascisti.it for correct information regarding the name of the camp.

    Vitellino
     
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  6. Tim L

    Tim L Member

    I have the records for all four men and that is how the name is printed, Chiabari, I assume that is how the records office at that time spelled it. My uncle, Harold as we knew him but always called Bill by his friends and associates, would never really talk about his experiences, it was only when they all got together, the other three men and their wives would come to his and his wife's house and stay for a week or so in the summer for several years running and they would all come to my parents on a Sunday and over the tea table loaded with home made fruit cake, scones and cream and jam sandwiches and numerous cups of tea would reminisce about their wartime experiences, my mother told them that they should write it all down, nothing more was ever said until one day there came a thick brown envelope through the post containing a neatly typed 18 page on A4 paper the afore mentioned account, that's how it all came about. They all remained great friends and kept in contact right up to the time of their deaths.
     
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  7. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    WO 392/21 (based on information from the International Committee of the Red Cross) is the guilty party.

    names  POW camps.jpg The Camp Inspection Report from the Red Cross names the town correctly as does the War Crimes File. Both files in The National Archives.

    WO 311/1209 Ill-treatment and shooting of British prisoners of war at Camp PG 52, Chiavari, Italy, November 1941 to June 1942
    WO 361/1890 Prisoners of war, Italy: Camp 52, Chiavari; International Red Cross reports on conditions 1942 May 01 - 1943 Nov 30

    Vitellino
     
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  8. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    I have just tried to open the Les Hutty files and can't.
     
  9. Tim L

    Tim L Member

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  10. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Thank you. A very interesting testimony.
     
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  11. Tim L

    Tim L Member

    Here is a photo of my uncle, most probably a studio photo taken in his desert uniform just before being sent to N. Africa. It was very common for a soldier to have an 'official' photo taken of him to send back home.

    W.H.L.jpg
     
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