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Arthur T. Sayler—Capture and Escape
Arthur T. Sayler “My father was an American who escaped from Camp 59 when the Italians surrendered,” Susie Wickman wrote to me from her home in Colorado last November. “He lived in a cave with help...
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Elwyn “Buck” Vanous—P.G. 59 Escapee
After Elwyn “Buck” Vanous passed away on January 7, 2011, his obituary in the Bismarck [North Dakota] Tribune began, “Today we remember a true American hero and a North Dakota Cowboy.” Like many...
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Sayler Safe After Escape
Possibly from The Wishek [North Dakota] Star Circa April 1944 “Somewhere in Italy for five months, between October, 1943, and March, 1944, a North Dakota man, Sgt. Arthur T. Sayler of Wishek had been...
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Service in Italy for Three Soldiers
Ancona War Cemetery Image—Wikimedia Commons The following graveside rededication service announcement is from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). A rededication service for three soldiers...
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War Crime—the Ponte Dragone Executions
The River Aso between Petritoli and Ortezzano, in Fermo Province—a few miles downstream from Ponte Dragone, where three ex-prisoners of war and an Italian I.S.9 agent were executed in March 1944...
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Ponte Dragone Deaths—A Second Report
A page from the Ponte Dragone Special Investigation Branch (SIB) file On May 16, 1945, Sergeant W. Mottram filed a formal report on investigations into the Dragone Bridge execution of three British...
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Service at Ancona War Cemetery
A rededication service for Private Lionel Brown, 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, and Privates Daniel Hollingsworth and Thomas White, 1st Battalion The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) took place...
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I.S.9 Captain Andrew George Robb
Captain Andrew G. Robb, Commander of No. 5 Field Section, I.S.9 or “A” Force This resumé was prepared by Luigi Donfrancesco, nephew of Andrea Scattini, an agent of No. 5 Field Section, “A” Force. The...
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Mario 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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Robert 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:...
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American 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...
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Onore 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...
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Escaped 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...
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Stanley 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...
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An 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...
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British 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...
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Domenico 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...
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To 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...
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Charles 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...
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Tom 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...
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