Author Archives: Dennis Hill

“Servigliano Calling” Camp Poem #10

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“The Mirage” is one of eight poems by Cpl. D. Nevitt in Robert Dickinson’s Camp 59 journal, “Servigliano Calling.”

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The Mirage

T’was in a lonely desert outpost,
Where a sunburnt sentry lay,
Looking o’er towards the Jerries,
Not so very far away.

The flies for ever buzzing,
Converged upon that spot,
And the burning sun above him,
Made those yellow sands quite hot.

For hours he lay there watching,
But he didn’t mind that day.
For he’d just received a letter,
From a thousand miles away.

For thirteen weeks he’d waited,
Waited so patiently,
And now at last it had arrived,
That note from oversea.

Continue reading →

Robert Dickinson’s Last Letter

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Robert Dickinson at home.

This letter from Robert to his brother Jim and Jim’s wife Olive must have been sent after September 1944, as the breakout from Camp 59 was on September 14, 1943, and Robert writes that he has not been a POW for over a year.

Jim must have been glad to receive the letter, as he had not been in contact with Robert since he left camp.

Eve, who is mentioned, is Olive’s sister. Known in the family as Auntie Eve, she turned 90 in 2008.

Ida was Robert’s girlfriend. It is to Ida that he dedicated his journal, “Servigliano Calling.” Had Robert returned home, he and Ida would likely have married.

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Dual Purpose Deck of Cards

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On this set of American Red Cross “Aviator” playing cards Luther Shields recorded the names and addresses of his friends in Camp 59. Most of them are likely from his camp section.

He carried this “address deck” with him when he escaped.

Note that a couple of the cards bear colorful descriptions: “Hill Billy Sheep Hearder” and “Honkey Tonk (Kid).”

There are 55 addresses in all. They are:

James L. Rogers
R.R. #1
Madison, Indiana

(U.S. National Archives on-line POW database indicates Pvt. James L. Rogers, Army Infantry, of Indiana was returned to military control, liberated or repatriated from CC 59 Ascoli Picenzo Italy 43-13.)

Gus Teel
507 S. Richardson
Roswell, New Mex.

(U.S. National Archives on-line POW database indicates Pvt. Guss O. Teel, Army Corps of Engineers, of New Mexico was returned to military control, liberated or repatriated from a POW camp, but no camp name is indicated.)

Paul Wakeland
601 Walnut Street
Dawson Springs, Ky.

(U.S. National Archives on-line POW database indicates Sgt. Paul I. Wakefield, Army Infantry, of Kentucky was returned to military control, liberated or repatriated from CC 59 Ascoli Picenzo Italy 43-1.)

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Robert’s Calendars

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The last few pages of Robert Dickinson’s journal, “Servigliano Calling,” contain calendars for the years 1941–44. Each of these calendars is meticulously drawn and accurate; the 1944 calendar includes February 29th, as it was a leap year.

On each of the four calendars one date has a heavy outline, February 28—Robert’s sweetheart Ida’s birthday. Robert’s journal entry for February 28, 1944 reads:

“Feb 28th—Ida’s Birthday; Oh for a letter.”

The strikes-throughs marking each passing day begin on Sunday, November 23rd, the day Robert was captured by the Germans. The last strike was through June 6, 1944. But, curiously, Robert continued to record daily events in his journal through September 3, 1944. Why did he decide to stop marking out the days?

His entry for the last struck-though date is:

“Jun 6th—The invasion is on; news of big landings in France!!”

An Article on Luther Shields’ Escape

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The following article by Graham Kislingbury, entitled “Escape from Nazis in Italy Close Call for D-1 Soldier,” appeared in the Thursday, April 26, 1945 edition of The Bealiner. The Bealiner is the newspaper of the Beal Air Force Base in Yuba County, California.

Capture in North Africa, escape from Italy, and a game of hide-and-seek from the enemy in the high mountains of northern Italy is but a small portion of the adventure story told by Pfc. Luther C. Shields, 25, of D-1, PRD.

I was with the 16th Combat Engineers, attached to the First Armored Division in North Africa, when captured in Dec. 10, 1942,” said Shields. “My platoon was building a road block about 18 miles west of Tunesia to delay the enemy counter attack, when a whole German Panzer Division moved in on us, with their tanks sweeping right by. The few of us that lived were surrounded by German Infantry and had to give up.”

Continue reading →

Luther Shield’s Story

Prior to being drafted, I attended Garrett Ridge High School in the Cortez area of Colorado during my freshman and sophomore years. My mom and dad had no money to pay tuition for me to finish high school, so I went to Kuna, Idaho where I lived with my granddad and grandma Walker. I milked cows in Boise, Idaho. My granddad had an old radio in the barn that he played when milking cows. He swore the cows gave more milk when the radio was playing.

I was drafted in fall of 1941 to serve one year. Beginning in September 1941, I spent 13 weeks in basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky, and I also trained at Fort Bliss in Texas.

Then Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 7, 1941 and World War II broke out.

World War II was everywhere. Yugoslavia and Greece had fallen to Nazi troops, Russia was being heavily attacked by powerful German artillery, American forces had whipped a Japanese fleet in the Coral Sea, and Mussolini was fighting for control over Italy in an alignment with Hitler. By November of 1942, most of the Allies’ concentration was on the European theater. Rommel masterminded a series of surprise advances in North Africa. On November 8th, our 16th Combat Engineers were attached to the First Armored Division of the U.S. Second Corps.

Continue reading →

“Servigliano Calling” Camp Poem #9

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“To Mother and Dad” is one of three poems by Denis Crooks recorded in Robert Dickinson’s diary, “Servigliano Calling.”

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To Mother and Dad

All my thoughts are for you, dear Mother and Dad,
And I dream of you both day and night;
Our our little white home
And the old sitting room,
And the things that are now gone from sight.

Of a night spent at home by the old fireside
With the wireless, a book and you two,
Of all the good things
And all the kind love
That you’ve always given me too.

And I pray every night to the good God above
To comfort you, not make you sad;
That one day quite soon
He’ll send me back home
To old England, my Mother and Dad.

A Timeline of Armie Hill’s Service

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The above mimeographed certificate indicates that Armie Hill was deloused on March 29, 1943. At the time Armie was being held in Le Bardo, a Tunisian city west of Tunis in North Africa. He had been at the camp since March 3, and on the day after the delousing, March 30, he was flown to Camp 98 on Sicily.

Translated from German, the certificate reads:

“Prisoner-of-War Camp Le Bardo
The prisoner-of-war Sgt. Hill
was on 29.3.43 deloused
[signature] Camp Commander [signature] Camp Doctor”

Timeline

Here is a timeline of Armie Hill’s service in the United States Army, from induction to discharge:

1941

January 20—accepted for active military service at Induction Center, Milwaukee, and sent to Reception Center, Fort Sheridan, Illinois

January 23—assigned to 19th Engineer Corps, Fort Ord, California

Continue reading →

Huts and Sections

Italian historian Giuseppe Millozzi, in his dissertation Allied Prisoners of War in the Region of the Marche and Prison Camp at Servigliano, offers this description of Camp 59 as recorded in the Swiss Red Cross inspection report of May 1, 1942:

“The camp is formed of 16 wooden huts on concrete foundations. The rooves are tiled. Of those 16 huts (30m. X 10m.) 14 are occupied as dormitories, one as a store house, and another for recreation […] There are also three brick buildings; one used as a sick bay, another for shower baths and the third as a kitchen.”

Millozzi goes on to say, “Dormitories were sufficiently lighted thanks to 14 shutter windows, they had electric lights but there was no means of heating. Other ranks dormitories had 70 bunk beds, those for NCOs [non-commissioned officers] had 62 bunk beds. Each prisoner received a pillow, sheet (washed once a month in laundry), three blankets and a straw mattress which was regularly changed.”

From Armie Hill’s record of the men in Hut 4–Section 11, we can deduce:

There were 36 men in a section (including one man who was given the responsibility of overseeing the other 35). Men in the huts, or dormitories, were identified by “B. No.” (which might indicate bed number). Armie’s section numbering starts at 361, which is evidence that each of the preceding 10 sections were composed of 36 men.

The Red Cross report indicates the camp had a capacity of 2,000 men.

Men of Hut 4–Section 11

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my father, Armie Hill, was put in charge of a section of 35 men (Hut 4–Section 11) in Camp 59. The first page of his camp notebook contains a roll of the men.

Armie listed them according to B. No. (perhaps an abbreviation for bunk or bed number), Rate (rank), Surname–First Name–Middle Initial, and Serial Number.

Interestingly, I noticed that three of the men (Edgar J. Curttright, Allen A. Coombs, and Claude J. Cole) had consecutive serial numbers. On investigation, I learned that the three were inducted at Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the same day—February 10, 1941—into the Army National Guard Infantry. I assume they knew each other, served in the same unit in North Africa, and were captured together.

All 35 men are listed in the U.S. National Archives WW II POW records. Armie’s address book contains addresses for a number of them. In future individual posts I will document all I know about each of these men.

B. No. 361—Sergeant Armie S. Hill—Serial No. 36200720
B. No. 362—Sergeant Kenneth E. Gaddy—Serial No. 20701847
B. No. 363—Corporal Michael M. Sterm—Serial No. 2703555
B. No. 364—Private Morris Scianna—Serial No. 33147188
B. No. 364—Private Rochester F. Nettles—Serial No. 34059817
B. No. 366—Private Joe Maly—Serial No. 16000460
B. No. 367—Corporal William S. Kornrumph—Serial No. 12020628
B. No. 368—Private First Class William W. Hurley—Serial No. 38064103
B. No. 369—Private First Class Gilbert D. Loonam—Serial No. 32019660
B. No. 370—Corporal Warron A. Colver—Serial No. 20705564
B. No. 371—Private First Class Lawrence F. Hunt—Serial No. 14038487
B. No. 372—Private First Class James Guillary—Serial No. 6959286
B. No. 373—Private First Class Earl C. Linaweaver—Serial No. 13023638
B. No. 374—Corporal Edgar J. Curttright—Serial No. 20701885
B. No. 375—Corporal Les J. Cratty—Serial No. 10600080
B. No. 376—Corporal Robert D. Chandler—Serial No. 15059956
B. No. 377—Private First Class Ray W. Dentler—Serial No. 37073082
B. No. 378—Private First Class Allen A. Coombs—Serial No. 20701884
B. No. 379—Private First Class James Collins—Serial No. 13022149
B. No. 380—Private First Class Claude J. Cole—Serial No. 20701883
B. No. 381—Private First Class Willis Largent—Serial No. 13023021
B. No. 382—Private First Class Alvie D. Cochran—Serial No. 15055130
B. No. 383—Private First Class Fredric G. Busky [Frederick G. Buske]—
Serial No.37038102
B. No. 384—Private John E. Buchanan—Serial No. 20701816
B. No. 385—Private First Class Stanley Bentley—Serial No. 15055095
B. No. 386—Private First Class Harold S. Arneson—Serial No. 39602619
B. No. 387—Private First Class Dillard W. Anderson—Serial No. 33090088
B. No. 388—Private First Class Arnold L. Anderson—Serial No. 20714955
B. No. 389—Private First Class Harold Adkins—Serial No. 33090536
B. No. 390—Private Anthony P. Fiore—Serial No. 32003230
B. No. 391—Private Ray Felcle [Felchle]—Serial No. 37025587
B. No. 392—Private Benjamin F. Farley—Serial No. 15054958
B. No. 393—Private Chris J. Facchina—Serial No. 33189164
B. No. 394—Private First Class John O. Everett—Serial No. 34138090
B. No. 395—Private August C. Erdbrink—Serial No. 33067286
B. No. 396—Private Billy V. England—Serial No. 6956161