WX 3380 Captain Raymond Albert Edward CONWAY, 2/28 Battalion AIF: POW

Army Number: WX 3380 (AIF)
Rank: Captain
Name: Raymond Albert Edward CONWAY
Unit: 2/28 Infantry Battalion. Australian Imperial Force

 

PART I.
GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE FOR BRITISH/AMERICAN EX-PRISONERS OF WAR.

1. No. - W.X. 3380 (A.I.F.)
RANK - CAPTAIN
SURNAME - CONWAY
CHRISTIAN NAMES - RAYMOND ALBERT EDWARD
DECORATIONS -

2. UNIT (ARMY) - 2/28 BN (A.I.F.)

3. DIVISION (ARMY) - 9th Australian Division

4. DATE OF BIRTH - 23/6/1913

5. DATE OF ENLISTMENT - 20/7/194

6. CIVILIAN TRADE OR PROFESSION - Accountant

7. PRIVATE ADDRESS - 9 CECIL DENT LTD., 62 ST GEORGES TCE., PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

8. PLACE AND DATE OF ORIGINAL CAPTURE - TOBRUK, 3/8/1941

9. WERE YOU WOUNDED WHEN CAPTURED? NO

10. MAIN CAMPS OR HOSPITALS IN WHICH IMPRISONED
Camp No. / Location / From / Till
TAHUNA (TRIPOLI) AUGUST 1941
MONTALBO (ITALY) SEPT '411 - MAY 1942
SULMONA (ITALY) MAY '42 - OCT '42
CAMPO PG 5 GAVI (ITALY) OCT '42 - SEPT '43
OFLAG VIII F MAHRISCH TRUBAU (GERMANY) JAN '44 - MAY '44
OFLAG 79 BRUNSWICK (GERMANY) MAY '44 - APRIL '45


11. WERE YOU IN A WORKING CAMP?
Location / From/ Till / Nature of Work
NO

12. DID YOU SUFFER FROM ANY SERIOUS ILLNESSES WHILE A P/W?
Nature of Illness / Cause / Duration
I broke my right shoulder blade and badly dislocated my right army when I jumped from a cattle truck while en route for Germany in Sept. 1943.
12 b. DID YOU RECEIVE ADEQUATE MEDICAL TREATMENT?
My shoulder was reset by an Italian civil doctor, but it caused me trouble for about 6 mos and after my recapture I had an ex-ray taken in March 44 but no treatment was received. It is practically well now.


GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE PART II TOP SECRET

1. No. - W.X. 3380
RANK - CAPT.
SURNAME - CONWAY
CHRISTIAN NAMES - RAYMOND ALBERT EDWARD


2. LECTURES before Capture:
( a ) Were you lectured in your unit on how to behave the event of capture? (State where, when and by whom).
NO. - (Except that before leaving Australia's instructed by unit I.O. hat should one fall into enemy hands only name, rank & number was to be given).
( b ) Were you lectured on escape and evasion? (State where, when and by whom).
NO

3. INTERROGATION after capture:
Were you specially interrogated by the enemy? (State where, when and methods employed by enemy).
In vicinity of TOBRUK AUG 41 - By Germans
DERNA - AUG 41 - By Italians
MONTALBO - SEPT 41 - By Italians
PIACENZA (Italy) - DEC 43 - By Italians, By Germans
General questions asked but no particular pressure exerted & seemed satisfied with name, rank & no. - except at DERNA where Italians threatened to make things hard for my troops but I scorned them and told them no use trying such methods.


4. ESCAPES attempted:
Did you make any attempted or partly successful escapes? (Give details of each attempt accurately, stating where, when, method employed, names of your companions, wherein when recaptured and by whom. Were you physically fit? What happened to your companions?)
1942 MONTALBO (ITALY) - 2 attempted tunnelling episodes with Major WODESON (R.E.) & P/O A MacKAY, both attempts detected.
Attempt to take over a taxi & make SWITZERLAND with Lt. RICCOMINI (R.A.S.C.) & Lt. ? [sic] (Commando) abandoned after leaving camp (MONTALBO) owing to adverse circumstances -
For these attempts I was sent to No. 5 (GAVI) punishment Camp.
Sept. 43 Broke open truck & jumped out while en route for GERMANY (Sept 43). Suffered broken shoulder blade etc. but remained at large for 88 days but was recaptured at PIACENZA when trying to get to SWITZERLAND in Dec 43.
1944 I was a member of the escape party working at VIIIF but the camp was moved before plan put into operation after we had been working on scheme for several months.


5. SABOTAGE
Did you do any sabotage or destruction of enemy factory plant, war material, communications, etc, when employed on working-parties or during escape? (Give details, places and dates.)
-


6. COLLABORATION with enemy:
Do you know of any British or American personnel who collaborated with the enemy or in any way helped the enemy agains other Allied Prisoners of War? (Give details, names of persons concerned, camps, dates and nature of collaboration or help given to enemy).
NO

7. WAR CRIMES
If you have any information or evidence of bad treatment by the enemy to yourself or to others, or knowledge of any enemy violation of Geneva Convention you should ask for a copy of "Form Q" on which to make your statement.
(NOTE: Form Q is a separate form inviting information on "War Crimes" and describes the kind of offences coming under this title.)
-


GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE PART II TOP SECRET
(continued)

8. Have you any other matter of any kind you wish to bring to notice?
Signore INZANNI?, MONASTERO, MORFASSO, PIACENZA, ITALY, helped me and a number of other British officers, with food, shelter & money while I was free in ITALY. *His wife was taken by the Fascists (he, Signor I., escaped) for harbouring Britishers, & was in German hands (after 8 weeks) when I was recaptured in Dec 43.

Signora Ghiaietta ONGERI, Pedina di Arda, MORFASSO, PIACENZA also helped me with food, clothing & shelter. (This lady & her family were very generous indeed & helped many other Britishers to my knowledge),

*This lady Signora INZANNI was taken prisoner by the Fascists when during a raid an English soldier was found sleeping in her barn. He was captured and his haversack & belongings found inside the house.


SECURITY UNDERTAKING
I fully realise that all information relating the matters covered by the questions in Part II. are of a highly secret and official nature.

I have had explained to me and fully understand that under Defence Regulations or U.S.A.R. 380-5 I am forbidden to publish or communicate any information concerning these matters.

Date 24 April 1945
Signature RA Conway, Capt.

 

See also:

• Raymond Albert Edward Conway
• 

• Same helper Giannetta Ongeri, Arda di Pedina di Piacenza, Italy mentioned
• 26752 Major John DUTHIE, 74th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery: POW

 

Interesting to see that he was sent to PG 5 Gavi (the Italian version of Colditz Castle). Presumably he escaped from there at the Armistice and was helped by Signora Ongeri before being recaptured and sent to Berlin. I will see what I can find out about her.

 

Same Ongeri family...? Same Gianetta?
osteria del peppo

 

From an Italian website:

In the 1930s Giovanna Guarnieri, known as Giannetta, born in London to Italian parents, returned for a holiday to Morfassa, their place of origin, where she met and subsequently married Peppo Ongeri. In 1937 Peppo inherited the Osteria dell'Arda at Arda di Pepina from his mother. (Note that Giannetta's certificate is in her own name, Guarnieri. Italian women do not change their surname on marriage - her husband's surname was Ongeri)

After 8 September 1943, with the arrival at the tavern of Lieutenant Tom Tuffnell RTR in the company of other officers who had escaped from PG 29 Veano, the Osteria dell'Arda became an operational base for the Resistance and was equipped with a radio transmitter for communicating news and coordinating airdrops for the partisans. Well hidden during the day in the cellar, the two-way radio was put into operation in the evening. Giannetta played a decisive role in this exchange of communications through simultaneous translation.

For assistance given to the escaped prisoners of war she was awarded the 'Certificato di Benmerito'. (See above).

Lt. Tuffnell maintained contact with the Ongeri family who kept his letters. Then, twenty years later, in the early 1960s, he retured to Pedina as a tourist to revisit the places he had known and to meet up once more with his friends, bringing his young son with him.

Thanks to the Internet Liam Tuffnell, Tom's grandson, tracked down the Ongeri family and he and his partner Emma paid them a visit on 10 February 2019.



Gianetta Liam Lt. Tom Tuffnell

 

He was the CO of a party of D Coy 2/28 Battalion who were marooned in post S7 in the Tobruk siege lines that had been retaken the night 2/3 August 1941. When the post couldn't be reinforced he had to surrender the position. Below his last message out. This appears to have been a vertable sh*tshow with the battalion biting off far more than it could chew. The Germans sent in engineers with flamethrowers to retake the position in the end.



All the best

Andreas