Sergeant Allan Lee Downed in Greece
Bristol Type 142m Blenheim I aircraft of the Royal Air Forces in flight. Image from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. I heard this week from Thanos Antonelos, who lives in Athens, Greece....
View ArticleRonald Streatfield in Switzerland
Ronald Arthur Streatfield The photos in this post were sent to me by Tracy Jayne Streatfield, whose grandfather, Ronald Arthur Streatfield, was a prisoner in Camp 59. “Ron married Sylvia Shrubb and...
View ArticleRonald Bertie Bones—An Album
“A portrait of Bertie from an unknown time,” says Jeremy Bones, “but given he looks young, it could be pre-WW2.” I received an email last month from Jeremy Bones. He wrote, “I am currently conducting...
View ArticleCharles Stewart—Mediterranean and Pacific
Charles J. Stewart I’ve been in communication recently with Donna Stewart Prato, whose uncle, Charles Stewart, was a POW in P.G. 59. She wrote, “My cousin, Charles Stewart Jr, and I are researching my...
View ArticleRecognition of Bastiano Crescenzi
Sebastiano “Bastiano” Crescenzi I received an email this week from Maurizio Roscetti, who lives with his wife, Valentina Crescenzi, near the village of Canneto Sabino, between the city of Rome and...
View ArticleLouis VanSlooten’s Story
Louis VanSlooten before going overseas I have known Louis VanSlooten’s son Tom VanSlooten since 2008. Tom was one of the first family members of Camp 59 POWs I met when I began my research into the...
View ArticleThe Camp 59 Tunnelers
Thick, well-guarded walls must have seemed an impenetrable barrier to the prisoners of P.G. 59. But miners in the camp envisioned another way out. In his dissertation on Allied Prisoners of War in the...
View ArticleYoung Partisan William Scalabroni
William Scalabroni in 1942. Mattia De Santis says, “One year later he would be a partisan in this place.” Mattia De Santis from Ascoli Piceno, Italy, wrote to me two weeks ago, “I’m the nephew of two...
View ArticleTom Alman—Back Home in Western Australia
Ray Worthington (son of P.G. 59 escapee Les Worthington) and Linda Veness (daughter of escapee Jim McMahon) discovered and shared this 1944 news article with me this week. Kalgoorlie Soldier Escaped...
View ArticleCharles H. Ebright
Charles Herbert Ebright On January 28, I posted on this site a list of 51 escapees who were helped by Domenico Mancini, an Italian. (See “Domenico Mancini—A Key Italian Assister.”) According to Allied...
View ArticleTo Talk or Not To Talk
Tomorrow is my father’s birthday. He died in 2000, but had he lived, he would have been 100 years old. He was born on February 9, 1918, to Finnish immigrants in a lumber camp in Michigan’s heavily...
View ArticleDomenico Mancini—A Key Italian Assister
The letter shown here and an accompanying list of Allied servicemen referred to in the letter are among many documents from the British National Archives that Brian Sims shared with me during our...
View ArticleBritish Captives Drank Champagne
The following two newspaper articles were provided by Vanda Jessopp, daughter of Stanley Thomas Dunn, a POW was interned with Jimmy Peters in Camp 59. (See “Stanley Thomas Dunn.”) The Germans Got...
View ArticleAn Address in Switzerland—Christmas 1943
The following address from among Stanley Thomas Dunn’s papers from the war appears to be remarks given before a Christmas evening dinner at the Sonne Wolfertswil—the Sonne Restaurant—in Flawil, a...
View ArticleStanley Thomas Dunn
At left, Stanley Thomas Dunn, 5th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment; at right, James (Jimmy) Peters, Royal Army Medical Corps. Photo taken in Camp 59, Servigliano. My friend Anne Copley met Vanda Jessopp...
View ArticleEscaped Prisoners and Airman at Fontanaluccia
A page from the register of the Partisan Hospital of Santa Lucia I received valuable information from Italian researcher Michele Becchi several days ago. He wrote, “I’m sending to you a page from the...
View ArticleOnore al Merito—Search for a Long-Lost Film
I would like to draw readers’ attention to an interesting article that appeared last week on The Text Message Blog, on online publication of the U.S. National Archives. “‘Let’s Make a Movie:’ The...
View ArticleAmerican Escapers from P.G. 59
The “Scheda Personale P.G.” Italian personal identification card for my father, Sgt. Armie S. Hill. Greg Bradsher describes these prisoner of war cards, now held at the U.S. National Archives, in his...
View ArticleRobert Newton Story in Kindle Edition
Robert A. Newton’s biography of his uncle, Corporal Robert Alvey Newton, Soldiers of the Strange Night, is now available in a Kindle edition through Amazon. Here is the Amazon description of the book:...
View ArticleMario Mottes
I.S.9 agent Mario Raoul Mottes Belgian-born Mario Mottes served as a parachutist and radio operator agent for Allied I.S.9 operations. His task was to locate escaped Allied POWs in enemy-occupied...
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