My father, Andre Graham Romain WILLIS, was a 2nd Lieutenant with the 11th Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army and taken prisoner of war during the Desert Campaign in North Africa and held in Prigione di Guerra (PG 49) Fontanellato during the Second World War.
Dubbed “The Most Hospitable Camp in Italy” the Fontanellato camp, situated in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, was opened using the local orphanage in the Spring of 1943 to detain Allied officers.
He escaped from the camp, together with around 600 other Allied Soldiers, in September 1943, shortly after Italy signed the armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943.
Although the Italian government had capitulated, much of Italy was still held by the Germans. Escapees from prison camps across central and northern Italy found themselves on the run in enemy-occupied territory—and were at the mercy of local Italians for protection.
The Italians themselves were divided between Fascists, who cooperated with the Germans, and Partisans, who fought for liberation of their country. Rural laborers and farmers, the contadini, were faced with an ethical dilemma when ragged POWs turned up at their doorsteps asking for food, shelter, or directions.
My father was helped by local Italians—he was fed, sheltered, given directions, and warned of impending dangers. His experience with the local Italians was not at all unusual, and this Weblog hopes to document and centralise, some of the stories I have encountered in researching my father’s experiences during this period. And the fascinating stories of some of these men who were released from this POW Camp and who were attempting to make their way home, either to the north and the safety of Switzerland or to the south where the Allied forces were advancing through Italy.
When I was a child, I briefly recall my father telling me about the difficulty he had after his release from P.G.49 at Fontanellato telling the difference between the Italian people he could trust and those that were still loyal to the Germans and the Italian fascist regime. Prior to the outbreak of war it had been simple to spot the fascist uniform, whether it was the Black Shirts of Mosley in England or the Brown Shirts of Hitler in Germany. But in the Italian countryside, whilst it was blindingly obvious that they needed to avoid running into those uniformed German forces who were hunting them down, it was far more difficult to spot which Italians were still sympathetic to those fascist ideals.
Whilst he had spent a most enjoyable period in the safety of one Italian family, I recall my father saying that some time later he had been recaptured by the Germans and spent some time in Milan Prison before being transferred to Germany where I know he was held in Stalag VIIA near Moosburg.
A number of commemorations have taken place in Fontanellato in recent years, not only to remember the fortitude of these men as they attempted to reach the safety of either neutral Switzerland to the north or the Allied advance through Italy from the south, but also the many acts of bravery of the local population in helping them survive.
[In 2023 the 80th Anniversary of this event was organised in the Le Marche region of Italy, co-sponsored by UK-based Monte San Martino Trust and the Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS), in conjunction with Casa della Memoria in Servigliano.]
PG 49 at Fontanellato in Italy - The Story of allied servicemen who were held prisoner of war in this town in Italy in World War II 