The Cathedral of Saint Emidio in Ascoli Piceno contains a surprise gem for anyone interested in the stories of escaped Allied POWs in Italy and their Italian helpers.
Located in the apse of the cathedral’s crypt, a mosaic entitled La carità sui monti (Charity on the Mountains) attests to the advocacy role of the Ascoli church during the war.
Under the wartime leadership of Bishop Ambrogio Squintani, Allied prisoners who escaped from POW camps of central Italy—as well as families of Jews saved from persecution and sent to Ascoli by Pius XII—found refuge in the mountains. In the seclusion of the Apennines, they were cared for and fed by priests and local populations.
The Cathedral of Saint Emidio was named for the patron of the city of Ascoli Piceno. Archaeological evidence uncovered during the restoration of the crypt in 1967 established that the first temple was built as early as the 4th or 5th century on a pre-existing Roman building. At the end of the Second World War, Monsignor Squintani had the walls of the crypt decorated with mosaics designed by Pietro Gaudenzi (1880–1955) depicting events of the war, including the protection of Allied POWs. The mosaics were created by the Vatican Mosaic Studio in 1954.
Don Giuseppe Ciabattoni (left), on a 1936 visit to the ninth-century church of Santa Maria di Scalelle; most likely he is accompanied by aspirants of the Catholic Action Youth
I am profoundly grateful to several individuals who have made possible access to the information for this post.
First, a hearty thanks to my friend Gian Paolo Ferretti of Ascoli Piceno, Italy. Paolo contacted me last November about his great grandfather Antonio Ferretti who, on his property in Falciano, sheltered several American POWs who had escaped from PG 59.
In emails with Paolo, I shared a few details about my father’s time on the run after his escape from PG 59. I explained that Angela Bianchini had protected my father (Armie Hill) and his friend Ben Farley in Roccafluvione.
In 2010, I had visited Roccafluvione hoping to learn more about Angela, and I wrote about that visit afterward (see “In Search of Armie’s Italian Angels”). It was during the trip to Roccafluvione that I learned the name of Don Giuseppe Ciabattoni.
Paolo surprised me with news that he had arranged a meeting with Guido Ianni, deputy mayor of Roccafluvione, to discuss our quest. The deputy mayor was eager to help us learn more about Angela and Don Giuseppe Ciabattoni, and during Paolo’s meeting with him he was introduced to Antonio Ferretti, a young man working on a research project in the comune archives.
Antonio immediately began to hunt for information.
First Lieutenant Mario Mancino, a pilot of the Italian Air Force; photo taken in 1943 at the Syracuse seaplane base, from which Mancino carried out his duties as the commander of the air rescue sectionCANT Z.506 seaplane of the 612th Squadron
On 30 April 1943, returning from a raid on the ferry slips at Messina, Sicily, the B-24 bomber on which American airmen John Gaffney and Albert Romero were crew members was shot down over the Mediterranean.
Seven crew members who died included 1st Lieutenant W. C. Swarner and Technical Sergeant Andrew Huska; both initially survived the crash but became panic-stricken, swallowed sea water, and drowned.
Survivors Staff Sergeant Gaffney and Sergeant Romero were picked up at sea by an Italian Air Force rescue plane.
Luigi Fedele recently wrote to me from Italy:
“My uncle—my mother’s brother—was the Pilot Crew Chief of the Italian CANT Z.506 seaplane who saved the two American ‘enemy’ airmen.
“He brought the body of Sergeant Huska on board the aircraft, even though the sergeant was already dead and the air rescue operational procedures did not allow it. In the report, to justify himself, my uncle wrote that Sergeant Huska had died during the return flight. He wanted him to be given a dignified burial as a Christian and a soldier.
When he saw Sergeant Romero crying for the death of his friend, my uncle approached him and kissed him on the cheeks, the way of offering condolences in southern Italy, to share in the pain of a ‘man’ who had lost his own ‘Brother.’
Of course, the rescue at sea by the Italian Air Force also meant capture.
Five P.G. 59 escapees who were sheltered in the Monte San Martino area; in back (left to right), Peter Calvagno, Edmond Petrelli, and Joe Mandese; in front, Tony Spicola and Phil Vacca
When American Tom Mandese traveled to Italy last September, he went with a dual purpose.
One reason for the trip was to attend the “Paths to Freedom” event in Servigliano and to see PG 59, the camp where his grandfather, Joe Mandese, had been interned during WWII. The other, equally important, purpose was to visit the descendants of Enrico and Rosa Cardinali, who had protected his grandfather from mid-September 1943 to early June 1944.
Enrico Cardinali and his wife Rosa, seated, with Enrico’s three sisters behind them
“One of my aunts, Aunt Rose—Rose Anne (Mandese) Serpa—had been to Italy a number of years ago and met some of the family,” Tom told me. “During that trip, she met the Cardinali granddaughters. So my family had already established a little bit of a relationship.”
When I saw Tom on the first day of “Paths to Freedom,” he had just come from the Cardinali home. He was aglow from the experience and keen to share it.
I received word this morning from Marida Parks that her father, Nicola Lagalla, passed away yesterday, February 15th, in Perth, Western Australia, at the age of 98.
Visitors to this site may be familiar with the story of Nicola and his brother Liberato’s heroic sea transport of POWs through reading “Nicola and Liberato Lagalla—Rescue by Sea.”
Among the soldiers aboard the boats navigated by the young Lagallas was Captain J. H. Derek Millar, PG 59’s chief medical officer and—at the time of the camp breakout—the camp’s commanding officer. (Read “Captain Millar—Valor in the Hour of Crisis.”)
After the camp breakout in September 1943, Captain Millar and Corporal Howard Jones, along with Italian Lino Papiri, led a dozen or more escapees to the Adriatic port of San Benedetto del Tronto. There the men were loaded onto two diesel-powered fishing boats that were owned by the Lagalla family.
Captain Millar wrote in his memoirs, “no one knew how to work a diesel engine, until we got a 16 year old Italian boy who said he could do it ….”
That boy and his brother, Nicola and Liberato Lagalla, skippered the prisoners along the coast to the safety of Allied-controlled Termoli.
After the war the brothers were awarded the British Bronze Medal for Civilian Bravery.
Nicola had a zest for life and a rich sense of humor.
Marida once wrote to me, “Dad & Liberato were clowns & somewhat different to the rigid Italian way of thinking, especially in San Benedetto. They would often get up to no good. Playing tricks on both family & strangers.
“I can tell you without hesitation, that the one to start it would’ve been dad. A rebel his entire life, which I think may have served him well at the time of the escape.”
Last July, Marida wrote, “You would wonder how dad is doing? He’s been amazing given what he’s had to endure. One thing about this man, he’s determined, relentlessly compelled to overcome obstacles.
“Dad feels deeply. Yet, has finite processes—you can see the cogs turning. Not much different to the boy back then, to the man he is today. Resilient.
“Dad never passes up the opportunity to sing and dance during festa time at the residences. Did you know he was an amazing Boogie Woogie dancer? That he has an amazing voice?”
Preceded in death by his wife and their son Robert, Nicola left life in the way he certainly would have wished—with his loving children, Marida, Sabrina, and Paul, by his side.
David Garcia and his Italian protector Umberto Capannolo
Last September, at the “Paths to Freedom” (Sentieri di Libertà) event in Servigliano, I had the pleasure of meeting Linda Quigley, daughter of British POW David Garcia, Linda’s daughters Annabel Heath and Miranda Quigley, and Miranda’s husband Roger Bickmore.
Pte. David Garcia, 1/4 Battalion, Essex Regiment, was deployed to North Africa during WWII, and was captured near Mersa Matruh in June 1942.
Unlike most POWs featured on this site, David had not been an internee in PG 59 Servigliano. Rather, he was interned in PG 102 L’Aquila, nestled in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains some 130 kilometers (around 80 miles) south of Servigliano.
Following the September 1943 Italian Armistice, prisoners of PG 102 left the camp. A War Office document, dated April 1945, in the British National Archives, explains:
“After the Armistice with ITALY had been signed, the Italian Commandant opened the gates of the camp and marched the P/W out into the hills, as it was reported that Germans were approaching. A certain number of escapers were rounded up by German paratroops and taken back to camp, but the majority got safely away.”
David and another escaped prisoner, whom the family believes was named Patrick, made their way to San Giacomo, where they were protected by the family of Umberto Capannolo.
The exact dates that David and Patrick were with the Capannolos is not known to the family. However, David retained a slip of paper certifying that he had “rendered a statement of his experiences to the British Section, C.S.D.I.C., C.M.F. [Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, Central Mediterranean Forces].” The document is dated 5 July 1944, therefore David may have been on the run in enemy-occupied Italy for as long as 10 months.
On returning home to England, David attempted to contact the Capannolo family in order to let them know he was safely home and to thank them for their kindness.
When the letter was returned to David, he wrote to the British Red Cross asking if they would assist in his contacting the family.
Louis VanSlooten’s son Tom VanSlooten and daughter Karen Miersma embrace Antonello Palmoni
Last September, during the “Paths to Freedom” (Sentieri di Libertà) celebration to honor the 80th anniversary of the Italian Armistice and the breakout of Allied POWs from Italian camps, several attendees had the thrilling experience of meeting descendants of the Italian families who protected their father or grandfather.
This post is about the meeting of two of escaped POW Louis VanSlooten’s children, Tom VanSlooten and Karen Miersma, and Antonello Palmoni.
Antonello’s grandmother Iginia and grandfather Luigi Palmoni hid and fed Louis and fellow PG 59 escapee Luther Shields.
Antonello’s father, Marino Palmoni, was a 10-year-old boy when the desperate soldiers emerged from the woods near his family’s home to ask for food.
My friends here in America tend to regard the holiday season as beginning on Thanksgiving Day and ending on January 1. However, my British friends, well versed in old lore and traditions, realize that Christmas begins on Christmas Eve and ends on the night of January 5th—Twelfth Night, or Epiphany Eve—the twelve days of Christmas being the span of days between.
Therefore, to celebrate the close of Yuletide, I’m pleased to share with you a gift I received from Derek Porter on New Year’s Day: the scan of a Christmas postcard sent from PG 59 during the war.
Dated 1 October 1942, the card reads:
Dear Joyce,
No Flowers, No Presents, But just a card, To carry my Greetings to you, May every hour of your Christmas be gay, And every year to come bring joys anew.
All my love Albert
The card was sent by Albert Frank Myhill to his fiancée Joyce.
Albert Myhill was not soon to return to England and his beloved Joyce. Records show he was transferred to the work camps of PG 146 in northern Italy; after the Italian Armistice in September 1943, he found himself a prisoner of the Germans in Stalag IVB Muhlberg.
The return address on the card is:
Albert Frank Myhill Gunner 1557752 23/7 P.G. 59. P.M. 3300 Italia
It is addressed to:
Miss J. Hammond 18 Short Brackland Bury St. Edmunds Suffolk England
I’m looking forward to learning more about Albert from his son-in-law Derek and Albert’s daughter Sarita.
Follow the Camp 59 Survivors for future posts on Albert.
The figure of a wounded warrior caps the Servigliano war memorial
This is the last of four posts concerning the 2023 “Paths to Freedom” (Sentieri di Libertà) event in Servigliano, Italy. The September event was a celebration of both the 80th anniversary of the Italian Armistice and the subsequent breakout of thousands of Allied POWs from camps across Italy—including camp PG 59 in Servigliano.
“Paths to Freedom” (Sentieri di Libertà)—10 September 2023
Italian Senator Francesco Verducci speaks at the commemorative ceremony
Our final day together began with commemorative speeches at the war memorial in Servigliano’s Piazza Roma. Wreaths were laid at the base of the memorial by representatives of the three event-sponsoring organizations.
An additional, a hand-made herbal wreath to represent “Wales, Australia, and the Camp 59 reunion” was laid by Linda Veness and Rona Crane.
Wreaths at the base of the memorial
After the ceremony, church bells rang out invitingly, and all were welcome to attend Sunday Mass in the Church of San Marco, just a few steps away from the memorial.
Camp 59 Survivors 