Roll Call

ROLL CALL – took place in “a small, wired-in compound behind the building in which we assembled twice a day to be counted, or more frequently if the Italians suspected that someone had escaped.” from ‘Love and War in the Apennines‘ – Eric Newby.

It has been difficult to establish EXACTLY how many men broke out from PG 49 at Fontanellato on 9th September 1943, but I have listed a few sources here and the screenshot below, from a diary entry made by then Lieutenant T.D Vickers, would appear to indicate the figure is 610 – “490 officers and 120 other ranks.”

But also in that diary entry he mentions that “The daily evening roll call at 6.30 pm took 25 minutes because of the recent arrival from P.G.29 at Viano near Reggio of 29 senior officers with names unfamiliar to the Italians.”

SECTION	ARMY	NUMBER
1	BRITISH	326
	BRITISH (CONT.)	19
2	AUSTRALIAN	1
3	CANADIAN	1
4	NEW ZEALAND
5	SOUTH AFRICAN	1 + 37
6	INDIAN	18
	from P.G. 29 at VIANO?	27
7	NAVAL FORCES
8	AIR FORCE
9	MISCELLANEOUS
TOTAL		430

I have so far entered (as at 28th August 2025) a total of 430 men as being identified in Camp No. 49 (including the 5 identified in PG21, 38, 66 and H202). If the above data is correct, I am currently short by just under 200!

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Having received the page sent to me by Dennis Hill confirming that my father was indeed an inmate at PG 49, I set about trying to locate the full volume that it was a part of. And thanks mainly to Ancestry, I was soon able to track down this magnificent document that appeared to provide me with a complete list of all those POW’s who had been in Fontanellato.

In order to try and identify each POW I have broken down this massive publication into the 9 Sections shown above identifying all Imperial Prisoners of War in Italy in their Alphabetical Lists shown in the drop-down headings alongside this page.

RANK/SECTION	1	1 (Cont)	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	TOTAL
Lieutenant-Colonel	3	4									7
Major	13	4									17
Captain	109	5		1			13				128
Lieutenant	173	5				1	2				181
Second Lieutenant	31						3				34
Reverend	2										2
S. Cndr.							1				1
Trooper/Pte.	1		1			37					39
TOTAL	332	18	1			38	19				409

My Running Total

So far entered (as at 21st August 2025) a total of 7 Lt.-Col’s.; 17 Maj’s.; 128 Capt’s; 181 Lt’s.; 34 2nd Lt’s.; 2 Rev’s.; 1 S. Cndr. and 39 Trooper/Pte. have been identified as being in Camp No. 49.

I’d be thrilled to hear from anyone who knows that their father, grandfather, uncle, great uncle, cousin etc., was in Fontanellato but does not appear in this list and what if anything they know about this time in their history.

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In order to try and establish the true number of POW’s in Fontanellato (PG 49) I have also come across a website which appears to record the number of Allied Soldiers that were held in this Camp from when it was opened, in March 1943, to the time of the Armistice in September 1943.

ALLIES IN ITALY

The website claims the following numbers:-

Commanding Officer: Lieut. Col. Eugenio Vicedomini
Senior British Officers (S.B.O.):

1. Lieut. Col. D.S. NORMAN (14022 – East Yorkishire Regiment)
2. Lieut. Col. N.E. TYNDALE-BISCOE (11409 – Royal Artillery)
   • Wheeler writes:-
     • “A well known, cheerful, rather easy going character.”
     • “He was S.B.O. for a very short part of my time at Fontenellato; but I think one should say he really made no attempt to ‘command’ the camp.”
     • “Though he was only S.B.O. for a short time. He was cheerful, popular; kept spirits up.”
   • Newby writes of him “a nice, high spirited old man much too old to have been captured fighting in the Western Desert”.
3. Lieut. Col. H.G. De BURGH (1229 – Royal Artillery)

DATE	GENERALS	OFFICERS	NCO’s	TROOPS	TOTAL
31.3.1943		266	9	110	385
30.4.1943		331	9	80	420
31.5.1943		419	1	115	535
30.6.1943		489	1	128	618
31.7.1943		492	129		621
31.8.1943		486	1	128	615

Brief chronology:
March 1943: camp’s opening
April 1943: officers from the dissolved camps of Montalbo and Rezzanello are transferred to the camp
May 1943: the camp is operational

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On 14th May 1943 a Swiss Legation inspected the Camp

National Archives, London; Foreign Office, 916/652

	Officers	Non-Com officers	Men	Total
English	410	1	68	479
South African	3		45	48
Australian			1	1
New Zealand	1			1
USA	4			4
Canadian	5			5
Cypriots	2			2
TOTAL	425	1	114	540
ARMY	397	1	104	502
NAVY	1		9	10
AIR FORCE	27		1	28
In Hospital	2
War Correspondents	2

• It was reported that Officers from Camp No. 41 (Montalbo) and Camp No. 17 (Rezenello) had been transferred to Camp No. 49.
• The War Ministry was asked, at the request of Lt. Col. Sam Wilkerson Agee (right) of the U.S. Army, for the 4 American internees to be transferred to a Camp (possibly P.G. 21 – Chieti?) for American Officers*.
  • He was commander of the 319th Bomb Group in England and North Africa from November 1942 until he was shot down in a B-26 Marauder while flying his 1st combat mission on December 4, 1942.
  • He was immediately taken as a Prisoner of War of Germany, and was held until he escaped while being held in Italy on November 7, 1943.
• The Swiss Legation recommended that 1 Medical Officer, Captain Eric Davey Trounce LEWIS (118303) R.A.M.C. be repatriated, as the 12 Medical Officers interned in the camp were not all busy.
• May 1943: attempted escape by a group of prisoners (2 according to the Swiss Legation), they are all recaptured.
• The 2 War Correspondents were identified as:-
  • American, Larry Allen, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 for his war reportages.
  • and the Briton, Ron “Ronnie” Noble who, according to a report in Istituto Nazionale Parri, was unfortunately never properly identified? Although a Google Search identifies him as a Camera Man at the Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947!

*WEAVER, Claude (Warrant Officer – R.83374) – National Archive catalogue reference – WO 208/3315/6. Story confirms being moved from P.G. 49 to P.G. 21 (Chieti) presumably with the other American Officers above. Escaped from Chieti on 17th September 1943 with Lt. Col. RIDEOUT.

10 September 1943: the prisoners leave the camp in agreement with the Italian Command

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