COLLINS, G.J.H.D. (Geoffrey) – Major

When I first started to find stories written by Servicemen who had been POW’s during World War II, I was immediately disappointed that I had never come across anything put in writing by my father. That’s not to say that he didn’t put pen to paper, but I’ve certainly not found anything so far and it seems unlikely that I ever will.

But, whilst it has been thrilling to stumble upon numerous tales, either written in the form of books or reports and even diaries, I’m beginning to realise that there are probably more stories that haven’t been told or passed on to the families of these men. And it’s only when I receive notification from my website that there are others, like me, who never knew or talked about their father’s involvement in this moment in history that I realise that I am not alone. None more so than the notification I received recently from Nigel Collins:-

“Hi – I have just discovered your website. I have no idea if this information will be of any use or interest.

My father, Major Geoffrey (GJHD) Collins was in PG 49 Fontanellato having been taken prisoner in North Africa. My knowledge is a bit sketchy, as, like so many servicemen who fought in WWll, he didn’t talk about it much.

I do know that at the time of the Armistice he travelled north with fellow prisoner Noel Burdett, eventually reaching Switzerland. The stories of that time are fragmented; I know they were sheltered by a man called Nando (?) and his family (in Parma itself I think). There were a lot of scrapes on the way – hiding under things in lorries, in ditches, cornfields, jumping on to the roof – and crossing the Alps in snow, which as a schoolboy learning Latin, I was disappointed to find was not quite the same as Hannibal’s trip!

He stayed in Switzerland until he returned to England in March 1945, and I have no idea what he did there. My mother thought it was something to do with Intelligence, but I have been unable to find out anything.
Snippets of his story appear in the book Home by Christmas? edited by Ian English which was published in 1997, sadly some years after my father’s death.“

My immediate thought when I received this correspondence was that I needed to see if Nigel’s father appeared on my site, but a quick search drew a blank, which I thought was odd. So, I decided to search for his “fellow prisoner Noel Burdett” and I was quite surprised to find that I had previously stumbled upon his story under the Monte San Martino Trust Archives. And sure enough, a quick search on that story indicated that a Major G.H.D Collins. Q.R.R. [Queens Royal Regiment] had been a travelling companion of Noel Burdett following the release of the POW’s from PG 49 at Fontanellato at the time of the Italian Armistice. Surely this must be Nigel’s father? So, I wrote back to Nigel with my find, thanking him for reaching out to me about his Dad:-

“I couldn’t find your Dad initially when I looked under my Roll Call (I assumed he was British Army) but then I searched through my list of Italian POW’s and found that he was listed as being in PG 38 when that document was compiled, so it’s now useful to know that some prisoners came from Poppi, near Arezzo, in the Tuscany Region of Italy. I hadn’t heard that before so that’s another piece of the puzzle as to how the numbers grew to over 600 at Fontanellato at the time of the Armistice.“

In fact, since then I’ve taken another look at the Continuation of my Roll Call of British Army Officers and noticed that both Richard Carver and Hugh Mainwaring were also at PG 38 at Poppi (near Arezzo) so he was in pretty exalted company and was probably transferred to PG 49 at Fontanellato at the same time as them?

But Nigel wrote back to confirm:-

“I was also unaware of Noel Burdett’s story – thanks for the link. There were certainly bits in there which chimed with what I had heard; the jumping on to the roof, and hiding in a furniture lorry, and getting frostbite in the Alps for instance. The bit about concealment in charcoal drums was news, and I must say I’m a bit confused about that one! It was interesting to see their correspondence too.“

I’ve no doubt that Nigel and I will continue to correspond as it appears that we have so much in common. Especially as it appears that not talking about this period in their lives appears to be a very common theme amongst these men. And I’m guessing that all of them would be incredibly surprised to learn that we really would have loved to have heard more. Especially with regard to who all these wonderful Italian people were who helped them in what can only be described as harrowing times, often under threat of being shot for aiding and abetting prisoners on the run.

So, for the moment I close by saying…

“I’m thrilled that we are in touch and so pleased to hear that you had not come across the Noel Burdett story on the MSMT site. I haven’t managed to read through it all myself, but I thought it fascinating that there were communications exchanged between him and your Dad. So much more to find out about the whole North Africa shemozzle for these 2 men in our lives and what effect it had on them both.”