The second episode of a two-part documentary on the WW II breakout of Allied prisoners from Italian prison camps aired on the BBC yesterday.
The documentary was created by veteran journalist and author Edward Stourton.
Listen to Part 2 of “The Italian Freedom Trail” (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039dbjp)
The BBC yesterday broadcast the first episode of a two-part documentary on the WW II breakout of Allied prisoners from Italian prison camps. The programs are the work of veteran journalist and author Edward Stourton.
This documentary was planned to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the September 1943 camp breakouts and the protection of the escapees by the Italian contadini.
Listen to Part 1 of “The Italian Freedom Trail” (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038zcqh)
The far reach of the BBC ensures that this story will be heard not only in the UK, but around the world.
Stay tuned! Part 2 of Edward Stourton’s report is scheduled for broadcast next Friday, September 6.
This article is from Peter Grillo’s son Roy.
He explained, “Digging through lots of papers, I found another item which is very interesting. This is the story my dad used to tell me as I grew up and was asking questions.”
We know that Peter was interned at Camp 59 in Servigliano through a letter from the War Department to Peter’s wife dated July 24, 1943 (See “Peter Grillo—Captive“).
The article suggests the surgery was done in an Italian POW camp. However, there only two British medical officers in the camp at that time, no German doctors. Perhaps at one point Peter was interned in another camp or hospital in Italy where the surgery was performed by the German doctor.
It seems even more likely the surgery was actually done after his transfer to Germany. According to the U.S. National Archives, Peter was last interned in Stalag 2B Hammerstein in Germany.
A few days ago Mario Vacca, one of Phil Vacca’s sons, sent me this information on the Virgili family during WW II.
The information, provided by Egisto Virgili, is below in both Italian and English.
Egisto and his family will be visiting Mario and his brother Tony here in the U.S. next month.
Con molto piacere cercherò di spiegarvi come era composta la famiglia Virgili. Mi pare di aver capito che le vostre conoscenze sono limitate a Elena, Sergio, Luigia ed alla loro mamma, Maria in quanto erano quelli presenti nel periodo in cui vostro padre, Felice, è stato loro ospite. In realtà i componenti erano otto (8). I genitori: Settimio e Maria con sei (6) figli: Nicola (1905), Erminia (1909), Elena (1910), Sergio (1914), Emilio (1916) e Luigia(1917).
With pleasure will I try to explain to you the makeup of the Virgili family. I think I understand that your knowledge is limited to Elena, Sergio, Luigia, and their mother, Mary, as they were the ones present at the time your father, Felice, was their guest. In reality there were eight in the family. Parents: Settimio and Maria with six children: Nicola (born 1905), Erminia (1909), Elena (1910), Sergio (1914), Emilio (1916), and Luigia (1917).
Above left: the formerly unidentified Italian, now revealed to be Romano Maglioni, who lived in Premilcuore, Italy
Above right: Tom Ager, after war and imprisonment
See “Thomas Ager—Escapee from Italian Camp 82” for the story of Tom Ager’s escape from captivity.
When Gill and I were working together on her father’s story last February and she sent me the photo of Romano Maglioni, she wrote, “There is a bit of a mystery about this last photo. It was amongst the letters, and has a name and address on the back. As far as I can read it: Maglioni (and I cannot read the other name, something like Oronuoso) No 1, Via Roma H10 Premilcuore Forli Italia. I wonder if it was someone who helped him when he was on the run.”
Soon after that, I discovered online the name of a woman named Annarita Maglioni at an address on Via Roma in Premilcuore. “Maybe she is a relative,” I wrote to Gill, “Perhaps you should write to her (in Italian) and send a copy of the photo and scrap of paper with the address.”
Official letter concerning Armie Hill’s destroyed military records
An inquirer to this site wrote to me last fall that in his search for military records concerning his father, he had come up short. He explained, “I do have a copy of the SF-180, but since the fire in 1973 his official army records may never be known.”
In 1991, my own father, Armie Hill, learned of that fire when, in response to my family’s urging, he wrote to Congressional representative Toby Roth about possible eligibility for a medal he had not received but might be entitled to—the Silver Star.
When I interviewed my dad about his war experiences in 1976, he had told me that after leaving Camp 59, he and fellow escapee Ben Farley were among the first to reach the Allied line—having traveled some 300 miles from Servigliano through the mountains of central Italy to Termoli in just 31 days.
Frammenti di Storia poster—courtesy Matteo Pierro, Salerno 1943 Air Finders
Tomorrow in the commune of Pietragalla, Italy, community members will gather for a memorial service in honor of the crew of the American B-24 bomber known as the Fyrtle Myrtle.
The plane crashed 70 years ago this summer—on July 16, 1943.
A group of Italian avian archaeologists of the Salerno 1943 Air Finders group in Italy recovered the wreckage of the Fyrtle Myrtle last year.
The full story of the Fyrtle Myrtle is told on the “B-24 Bomber Fyrtle Myrtle Discovered” post.
Three men survived the crash. Staff Sergeant Edward T. Dzierzynski is listed in the WW II POW database of the U.S. National Archives as having been interned in Camp 59. Although the camp that Staff Sergeant Cyrus F. Johnson Jr. was in is not specified in the database, he likely was held in Camp 59 as well and escaped with Edward Dzierzynski (official records indicate the two men returned to the Allied forces on the same day).
The third survivor, Staff Sergeant Robert E. Dulac, who was badly injured in the crash, was taken to a hospital in Potenza, Italy.
Cyrus F. Johnson is survived by his sons Ron and John Johnson. Lloyd Eldon Kile, who died in the crash, is survived by a nephew, Dennis Heter. I am unaware of any relatives of the other crew members.
Several years ago, Mario Vacca attempted to discover what happened to the four men with whom his father, Felice “Phil” Vacca, escaped from Camp 59.
He sent one inquiry to New Haven, Connecticut.
Mario explained, “A kind doctor from New Haven, Dr. E. Anthony Petrelli sent me a letter with Edmund’s obituary and it had a photo. It was only by coincidence that he had just received my letter and saw the obituary.”
New Haven Register
Thursday, Febuary 10, 2005
Death Notices
In the Mary Wade Home, Feb. 9, 2005. Mr. Petrelli beloved husband of the late Margaret Petrelli was born in NYC, Jan. 18, 1910 was educated in area schools, served our country honorably during WWII for the US Army and relocated to New Haven and married, he was employed as a gemologist for the former Spectors Jewelry Shop. Mr. Petrelli is survived by his in-laws Mrs. Charles Celotto, Mrs. Jennie Mauro, Dominic and Frank Amore, nieces & nephews, great nieces & nephews and his brother Edward Petrelli. He was predeceased by 3 sisters and 2 brothers.
Above left, Adele Virgili—also known as Lelena, or Lena
Above right, Virgili siblings Luigia (also called Gigetta) Sergio, and Adele (Lelena)
After his return from captivity in Italy, Felice “Phil” Vacca exchanged letters with several members of the Virgili family—the Italians who protected him after his escape from Camp 59. (See Felice “Phil” Vacca, Part 2—Camp 59 and Escape.)
These letters continued at least into the 1950s and 1960s.
In the first of two letters below, Virgili family matriarch Maria asks Phil about Giuseppe Montesi and Antonio Petrelli. Phil’s son Mario and I assume that Maria is in fact inquiring about Joe (whom the Italian family would have called Giuseppe) Mandese and Edmond Petrelli. Peter Calvagno, Edmond Petrelli, Joe Mandese, and Tony Spicola were the four prisoners with whom Phil escaped from Camp 59.
J. Keith Killby, in his London flat, holds a copy of his memoir on the day the books arrived from the printer
The initial plan for publication of In Combat, Unarmed: The Memoir of a World War II Soldier and Prisoner of War goes back several years, when Keith’s nephew, Malcolm Angus, approached him about recording his story.
Malcolm lives in New South Wales, Australia. In the epilogue of the memoir, he writes of the challenging process of writing the book when he and Keith were separated by great distance:
“It is June 2011, two weeks before Keith’s ninety-fifth birthday.
“I am writing this epilogue under my uncle’s close direction in his London flat, where we have been hard at work revising and editing his memoir. I started work on his story some years ago, attempting to do so by Royal Mail from my home in Australia. This proved rather difficult, and so I decided to complete the memoir by his side. Knowing that I was planning the visit, he telephoned me and said, ‘You better hurry up!'”
Camp 59 Survivors 