Hiding History: The Allies, the Resistance and the Others in Occupied Italy 1943-1945

Roger Absalom

Of the almost 80,000 prisoners-of-war held by Italy at the time of the Armistice with the Allies of 8 September 1943, more than half succeeded in escaping and almost 18,000 were not recaptured, largely due to the help offered spontaneously by Italian civilians. The records of the Allied Screening Commission preserved in Washington, and other official papers available in England, South Africa and Australia, complemented by oral history fieldwork among former escapers and their Italian helpers, reveal an Anglo-Italian epic of anti-heroism, whose protagonists nevertheless displayed great courage, ingenuity, perseverance and humanity. Exploration of this neglected but critical dimension of the secret history of the years of occupation and resistance between 1943 and 1945 throws new light upon the characteristics and the long-term potential of a submerged nation of peasants, charcoal-burners and shepherds. The article is an attempt to historicise their expression of an often overlooked but universal peasant culture of survival, far deeper at the time than political commitment, but not without ultimate political importance.

The Historical Journal – Cambridge University Press

One of the earliest documents that I stumbled upon in the Monte San Martino Trust archives was a Diary written by Mike Goldingham and it was here that I discovered that my Dad was “On the Run in Emilia-Romagna” and “treading grapes” in September of 1943.

The “four, all Indian Army, who stayed for six weeks in a small village near Bardi” were (at the time of their release from PG 49 at Fontanellato):-

• BRUEN, E.J.D. “Paddy”, Lieutenant, 6th Rajput Regiment, Indian Army¹
• GOLDINGHAM, M.J.D., Michael (Mike – “The Forger”) John Dalrymple, M.C., Lieutenant, 18th King Edward VII’s Own Cavalry – 3rd Indian Motor Brigade
• MEARES, J., John, Captain, (I.A.C.) Indian Armoured Corps (18th Cav.), Indian Army
• WILLIS, A.G.R., Andre Graham Romain, 2nd Lieutenant, 4/11th Sikh Regiment, Indian Army

1. “Paddy Bruen, whose boots were bad, and Andre Willis stayed behind.” Could Don Giuseppe BEOTTI have donated his boots to Paddy Bruen? ↩︎

Extract of a letter, dated 14th November, 1946, from Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon de Bruyne of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in support of the good works of Don Giuseppe Beotti.