Lieutenant Horace A. RANSOM

East Surrey Regiment, attached to 1 Bn Green Howards

THE OTHER PRISONERS WERE ALL ESCAPERS WHO HAD LEFT THEIR CAMPS FOLLOWING THE ARMISTICE OF 8 SEPTEMBER 1943.

For ten of them there is information regarding their initial burial but nothing regarding the reasons for death.

To find this out it would be necessary to obtain their service records, or request their prisoner of war records from the International Red Cross, Geneva.

Private Joseph SMITH, 4 Green Howards

Recovered from the Passo di Portula

                           Photo: Fulvio Vigna

For South African Sergeant C.A. VAN NIEKERK, of the military police,  no initial burial place is given. The C.W.G.C. should be able to supply further information.

ESCAPE FROM A TRAIN

Sub/Lieutenant Peter Philip Col Bateman

H.M.S. Hereward, Royal Navy

The body of a male person was lying supine on some grass next to the railway line, at a distance of about ten metres from the embankment, near the level crossing house situated at Km 50 + 335 on the Alessandria-Piacenza line. He was wearing a dark blue woollen pullover over a white vest, long blue mariners’ trousers, brown military-type shoes and short underpants. A leather belt on which was written ‘Sateman’ was holding up the trousers.

On the body were found: a tin chocolate box stamped with the words ‘Emergency Rations – to be consumed only when no other rations of any kind are procurable’ etc.; a matchbox with a trademark of three heads, containing a copper key, a penknife with a mother-of-pearl handle with the words ‘Ricordo di Napoli’ engraved on it, and a steel chisel stamped with the letters B.R. 444-3407, a bar of soap with the words Crest Toilet on one side and on the reverse other words of which only the word Canada is legible, a box of ‘Ovaltine’ sweets (A. Wander, London). Inside the chocolate tin there was a map showing Northern Italy as far as the Swiss border, and next to the locality ‘Campo Ligure’, written in carbon copy, was the number 472.

The body was that of a young man of around 24 years old. Blond hair, pale complexion, high forehead, regular nose, grey eyes, height about 1.76 metres, normal stature, left ear lobe attached. There was bruising on the forehead and on the lips, which were swollen. A wound with a diameter of about 1 cm. was noticed on the left side of the abdomen with a corresponding larger exit wound with jagged edges on the right buttock.

The crossing-keeper of section 50-335, 35-year-old Signora Letizia Montagna, daughter of Cesare, from Pietro de Giorgi, alerted us and gave the following testimony: ‘During the night at about half past three, a train carrying prisoners of war was in transit, direction Piacenza. At a given moment I heard a series of shots being fired. The train continued on its journey. This morning, when raising the level crossing gates, I noticed that close to the railway line, on the grass, there was a human corpse. At that point I went straight to the carabinieri of Casteggio.’

Given that the body could not be identified, once brought into the Prefecture it was photographed (photographer Ernesto Sangiorgi of Casteggio). A copy is attached to this statement.

Salvatore Gallombardo (Magistrate)

Giuseppe Fugazza (Registrar)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Photo: Fulvio Vigna

ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS

THE COLLE GALISIA TRAGEDY

In November 1944, during a blizzard, twenty four British and South African escapers and thirteen partisans, who were acting as guides, died in an attempt to cross the Alps into liberated France.

Initial burial: Fornet, Val d'Isère.

The camp shown is the last in which the prisoner of war  was registered by the International Red Cross WO 391/21 The National Archives, London

The Concentration Form of Commonwealth War Graves Commission, shown below, indicates that the another thirteen  victims, not identified, are buried as follows:

II.C.4., II.C.8., II.C.10.

II.D.2, II. D.4, II.D 6, II.D.10, II.D.12.

II.E.1., II.E.5., II.E.9., II.E.11.,II.E.15.

Private Haydn John ROGERS

 South Wales Borderers

Private Jack Rogers had been in lodgings with Signora Oliva Silini, who wrote the letter reproduced below in response to an invitation to all those who had helped the 'escapers' to make a request for compensation to the Allied Screening Commission.

Dear National Liberation Committee for Piedmont, Turin

The undersigned Silini Oliva, resident in Colleretto Castelnuovo, via Castelletto n.13, province of Aosta, claims to have hidden in her house, and provided with accommodation and food the following British prisoner of war:

Jack Rogers, 28 Middle Street, Pontygwaith, Rhondda Valley, South Wales

He belonged to the infantry and had been taken prisoner in Tobruk. He was then taken to Castellamonte to work at the Giraudo 'Alta Italia' tannery from where he escaped on 8 September 1943. He was hidden in the house in early Nov. 43 and provided with food, accommodation and clothing uninterruptedly until 4 Nov. 1944. He was supplied several times with money, and in particular upon his departure, the total amount being approximately of L.800 (eight hundred). She exposed herself to those risks common to all helpers.

On 4 November Rogers left for the French border in a group with several other prisoners, led by the partisan lieutenant Vittorio. Since then there has been no news of him.

Yours faithfully

Oliva Silini

Turin, 2 June 1945

Sources:

Turin, Archivio ISTORETO, Fondo Borghetti CFB 1b

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

See also : Claretta Coda, Helpers & POW, Orco Anthropologia, Edizioni Corsac, Cuorgné, 2016

IN HOSPITAL

Before the Armistice New Zealanders Signalman George C. Darroch and Private Percy H. Bartrum were being held in Campo PG 106 Vercelli, and British Gunner John M. Burdett in Campo PG 73 Fossoli (Carpi di Modena). Lance boombardier R.LGrace, a South AFrican , was in PG 52, Pian di Coreglia, Chiaveri.

Lance Bombardier R. L. GRACE

1 A/Aircraft  Regiment  South African Artillery

According to Italian website museo_resistenza_ piacentina_it  a partisan by the name of  J. W. Greys, from Cape Town, wounded in action at  Bettola on 3 April 1944,  died in  hospital at Castelsangiovanni on 11 May  1944. 

Private Percy Harold BARTRUM

23 Battalion 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force

The New Zealander died in the Ospedale Maggiore in Vercelli on 31 March 1944. His parents were told that he had been 'Shot by enemy guard after escaping from POW camp', but when the Graves Registation Unit of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission collected him from Vercelli municipal cemetery for transfer to Milan they recorded that he had died of meningitis.

A compatriot of his, 17035 Signalman George Caldwell DARROCH, New Zealand Corps of Signals, died in the same hospital on 22 December 1943. The Graves Registration Unit was not given cause of death. He is buried in Section III, Row B, Grave no. 10 next to Private Bartrum.

Sources:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Percy Harold Bartrum: Bereavement card, North Auckland Research Center, Takapuna Library, McVeagh collection, T7663, New Zealand

WITH THE PARTISANS

In Document WO 417, British Army Casualty Lists 1939-45, the cause of death of four  of the following escaped POWs was given as death in combat. For the fifth,  information comes from a website and a newspaper article.

Private Leslie A. PARKER

2/32 Battalion, Australian Imperial Force

Private Leslie A. Parker, after having been wounded during a guerilla action near Issime in the Val di Gressoney was taken to Baita Amici where he was given first aid. He was then transferred to Torazzo to the home of the priest, don Pastoris , where he died on 13 August.

Sources: https://www.bocciodromodellaserra.it/LiveinTorrazzo.pdf

The Daily News Perth  Sat. 23 Feb. 1946 Page 9.

KILLED BY THE NAZI-FASCISTS 

The circumstances in which all the prisoners in this list were killed were considered as consitituting a possible war crime. The enquiries into their deaths, carried out by the British judiciary authorities, (the Judge Advocate General) may consulted in the National Archives, London, or ordered on line.

Gunner Robert Dickinson

60 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

Lance Sergeant Frederick W. EDWARDS, 7 Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery

Corporal Arthur A. FARROW, Royal Army Service Corps

 Private John F. TERRETT, 1 Battalion Sherwood Foresters

Photos. Fulvio Vigna

Soon after the Armistice, whilst the Germans were preparing to send all the prisoners from PG 73 Fossoli to Germany, Austria or Poland, the three above soldiers were in a group which was trying to escape. Below are two testimonies:

5251607 Private D.S. Goodchild, Worcester Regiment.

The evening of 25 September was dark and rainy. He and some others, one of whom he recognised as being Lance Corporal Edwards, emerged from their hiding place and made for the fence which ran along the side of the canal. Having cut the wire they went through, but immediately afterwards a guard was heard to shout ‘Halt’ and began shooting. Private Goodchild testified that a sergeant, a friend of Lance Corporal Edwards whose name he did not know, was killed.

2696687 Lance Corporal Geoffrey Johnstone, Scots Guards

A German guard ordered me and two sergeants to dig a grave for three dead soldiers near to the road, on the north side of the football field used by the Italians. None of us was given any food for the entire day...We finished up digging the grave...that afternoon the three soldiers were buried. One of the British officers led the ceremony whilst the Germans planted a cross on which were written the following words: ''Three unknown British soldiers''.

The parish priest of Fossoli (Mo), don Francesco Venturelli, wrote in his diary:

30 September 1943. I received permissioni from the Mayor of Carpi and the Prefect to exhume the three British soldiers who had been buried without a coffin in a field near the road (Strada dei Grilli).

2 October 1943 […]. Today, with the permission of the authorities they were exhumed and were found to be in the first stages of putrefaction and without any form of identity in their pockets...they were numbered N° 1, 2 and 3... after the funeral rites... they were transferred to Carpi Municipal cemetery.

The three were then taken to Milan to be  reburied.  The Grave Registration Card on the cwgc website shows them to have been buried in a common grave, but in fact there are three separate headstones as shown above. 

Sources: The National Archives, London:

TS 26/456: Carpi: Mass Murder

WO 310/20: PG 73 Carpi: shooting of British POWs

Gunner Leslie G. BATT, 14 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery

Private John T. CLARK, 25 Battalion, 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Private Douglas J. SMEDLEY, 2/23 Battalion, Australian Imperial Force

Photos: Fulvio Vigna

The three 'escapers' listed above were killed in April 1944 by fascists belonging to the 115 ° Reggimento 'M' Montebello, a unit whose task it was to hunt down partisans and escapers. One of their comrades, Australian NX2777 Private Raleigh Edward Hoy, 2/3 Pioneer Battalion, called to testify on his return to Australia, explained that he had escaped from camp 106/2 Vercelli after 8 September and had met up with Private Smedley in the village of Coggiola beyond Trivero in the biella district of Piemont.

He explained in his affadavit that they continued to hide in the mountains waiting for a favourable opportunity to cross the Alps. In mid-April 1944 they met several other escaped prisoners of war in a village about halfway between Andorno Micca and Mosso Santa Maria, amongst whom were Private John T. Clark and Gunner Leslie G. Batt. There were seven of them in all, and they lived in a stone shelter about a mile north of the village.

In the shelter where they were staying there were four bedrooms on the first floor and Clark, Batt and Smedley slept in a room at the north end. Private Hoy and the other three - WX77218 Private J. Brennan and WX/6905 Private Fogg (both of 2/28 Battalion) and QX/7639 Private E. Albert (2/15 Battalion) slept in a room on the other side of the farmhouse. On the morning of 24 April 1944 they were awakened by the sound of gunshots. Private Hoy jumped out of bed, looked out the window, and saw about fifteen fascist soldiers outside. He knew a few words of Italian and understood that their leader was telling them to go into the farmhouse to see if there was anyone inside. They were to bring out whoever they found and then set the place alight. The four began to dress but  before they had finished the fascists came up the stairs to their room, ordering them to go outside with their hands up. Three armed fascists then escorted them out of the house and told them to stand against the wall of the small cottage next to the farmhouse. A machine gun was pointing at them. They told the fascists that they were British prisoners of war and the officer, who was a short distance away from the farmhouse, shouted in Italian: "Don't shoot these four. We'll take them prisoner." He yelled about four times at the fascist sergeant. As they were dragged away they noticed the bodies of Clark, Batt and Smedley.

Two of the soldiers of the Montebello regiment were tried in Bologna on 26 August 1946 and found guilty. One, Pietro Mussetti, was sentenced to death by shooting, the sentence being carried out on 20 December 1946, the other was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. He was freed by the Italian government for good conduct in August 1949.

R.E. Hoy. Affidavit, Sydney, New South Wales, 17 01 1946. The National Archives of Australia

The National Archives:

WO 310/65: Biella Italy. Shooting of New Zealand and Australian POWs.

WO 311/338: Biella Italy. Killing of three re-captured allied POWs.

Coda Claretta, Helpers & POW, CORSAC, Cuorgné , 2016

Private Richard Brindle, 5 Battalion Green Howards

Killed by some fascists at San Gillio (Province of Turin) on 25 July 1944

The testimony of Piero Castelli, brother of partisan Sergio:

Sergio had joined the partisans in March 1944, or perhaps even earlier, but I first saw him armed at that time. He was in Val di Lanzo in the 19th Brigade and was killed on 25 July of the same year in an ambush. The group of 8-10 partisans, including two Britishers, to which he belonged, was on the wanted list and was constantly on the move from one farmhouse to another. That time they went down to get some supplies of butter to take up the mountains, someone had spied on them and the fascists...with their telescopes, saw the dust raised by the car as it passed along the dirt road. They calculated how long it would take to get to Via Principi and then left in two large cars, all wearing red shirts. Our lads stopped in Piazza Bovetti: Mario Castagno and two others got out to fetch the butter, and Sergio and on of the British stayed close to the car. The fascists, were disguised as partisans...Sergio raised his weapon to greet those he thought were partisans from the Val di Susa, and then the shots started: they were killed in via Roma. Mario and the others, on hearing the shots, made off in the opposite direction. The Britisher died immediately; they told me that my brother fought on, despite being wounded. He threw the last two hand grenades he had...

Sources:

https://www.anpialpignano.it/joomla30/doc-pdf/TESTIMONIANZA%20di%20Davide%20Cambiano.pdf

https://www.anpialpignano.it/joomla30/doc-pdf/fratelli_sergio_castelli.pdf

OTHER PRISONERS OF WAR WHO DIED AS A RESULT OF NAZI-FASCIST AGGRESSION

Private Ross Harold  MUDGE

2/3 Pioneer Battalion. Australian Imperial Force

Four unidentified escapers were killed by some fascists. Their bodies were found in the River Stura.

Sources

The National Archives, London WO 311/1278

WO 208/3352/2745   E &E Report  Sgt T. Powell R.A.

Fulvio BorghettI Diario clandestino, ARCHIVIO ISTORETO, Fondo Borghetti, C FB 9. p. 774

WAR CRIMES FILES

The following war crimes files relating to Milan burials are held in THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, LONDON

KILLED BY THE PARTISANS

3778030 Private Thomas JONES

4 Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment

There was a rumour current in the district that Rosalia Bettini, the wife of the family, had betrayed several escaped British POWs to the enemy before she had met Jones, and that she had befriended him and sheltered him in order to clear herself in the eyes of the local partisans. In August 1943, a local partisan leader, Giovanni Battista Gardoncini, ordered her arrest. Though initially cleared of these charges she was picked up once more, and on this occasion Jones insisted opn accompanying her to her ‘trial’. She was sentenced to be shot, whereupon Jones said that ‘if she was to be shot, he wished to be shot also’. Both the woman and Jones were thereupon executed by one of Battista’s lieutenants.

For some days after the second arrest there was no news of them. Domenico Bettini searched for a fortnight and on August 27^th he learnt that his wife and the British soldier had been shot at Pessinetto, in front of the Villa Rosa. The two bodies were buried in the cemetery of Pessinetto. The Bettini family had them brought to Fiano and the funeral took place there on 30 September.

There is however another more plausible reason for Rosalia’s arrest by the partisans. An extract from an Italian newspaper (undated) explained that whilst Private Jones was living with the Bettini family a partisan called Mazzini, nicknamed ‘Colonel Barbaro’, came to live in an apartment in the same building. The Bettini family and Mazzini shared the garden. The Bettini cultivated it, Mazzini took the best of the produce. One day a violent dispute arose. Mazzini slapped Mrs Bettini and uttered direct threats with his revolver. She complained to the police superintendent, who took away the pistol. The newspaper account goes on to relate how both Luciano Bettini (son of Domenico and Rosalia Bettini) and Bettini himself were later liquidated after accusing Mazzini of the murder.

It later transpired that the man suspected of having shot Rosalia and Private Jones was in fact partisan ‘Pino’, who had himself been summarily executed by the Germans. In any event, it was decided that the killing of Private Jones did not constitute a war crime, though Mazzini was to be tried under Italian law for the deaths of the father and son. He received a thirty-year sentence.

Sources: https://www.anpi.it/donne-e-uomini/1521/giovan-battista-gardoncini

WO 311/1241, Shooting of Private T. Jones, (escaped prisoner of war) at Ciriè near Turin, Italy, 12 August 1944.

Trooper C. G. Smith, Royal Irish Hussars

 Trooper Smith was accused of betrayal by the partisans. After the war the War Crimes Commission opened an enquiry.

WO 311/34: Pinetti, Italy: killing of British soldier by partisans