Recently, Luigi Donfrancesco—nephew of I.S.9 Italian agent Andrea Scattini—and I have been in touch with Nancy Lewis, the wife of Captain Richard W. B. Lewis, an American officer with I.S.9 POW rescue operations in Italy during the war.

Richard Lewis served his role during the war admirably, and was discharged from service in 1946 with the rank of major.

After the war, he had a long, distinguished career in teaching at Smith College, and Princeton, Rutgers, and Yale Universities. A profic writer, recognition for his work included a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for Edith Wharton: A Biography. He retired from Yale in 1988. He died in 2002.

Richard Lewis is mentioned in a number of posts on this site, including I.S.9 diaries, situation reports, and other documents.

Mrs. Lewis has kindly given permission for us to share a section of her husband’s book The City of Florence: Historical Vistas and Personal Sightings (1995, pp. 64-68), in which he recounts his experiences with the I.S.9 rescues.

We are very grateful to Mrs. Lewis.

Notes in brackets were written by Luigi Donfrancesco.

“My own knowledge of the Casentino [province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy] began in the autumn of 1944. The first stay in Florence had, after all, been a short one, and during it I housed our little headquarters – two American officers, two British sergeants, and half a dozen Italian agents – in a luxurious apartment on Lungarno [Riverside] Vespucci (it had belonged to the former Fascist mayor of Florence, who had fled with the Germans and was later brought back and tried). It was a time of curious contrast, for while the German shells whistled about the Bailey bridge being thrown up below our windows, we inside, having for the moment nothing to do, indulged in a mild and continuous orgy.

“In early September, the front line had sufficiently established itself across the Apennines to permit us to go back to work, and we moved to a farmhouse just beyond the village of Rufina, about fifteen miles northeast of Florence and a few miles into the hills above Pontassieve. From here we could dispatch agents through the relatively unguarded mountain areas north toward Imola and Forlì and east into the Casentino.

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British researcher and author Phil Froom recently told me about his new book, Evasion and Escape Devices Produced by MI9, MIS-X, and SOE in World War II.

The book concerns the profusion of covert E & E devices produced during WW II by the British intelligence agency M.I.9 (Military Intelligence–Section 9, the parent organization of I.S.9, or Intelligence School 9), its mirror U.S. agency MIS-X (Military Intelligence Service–X), and SOE (British Special Operations Executive).

These organizations were responsible for the invention, production, and distribution of a huge variety of these ingenious devices issued to Allied air crew and Special Forces, which would enable them to evade capture after being forced down, or cut off behind enemy lines in occupied Europe.

Published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, the book was released in the UK in January of this year.

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First page of Captain Robb’s seven-page periodic report

The transcription and notes in this post—a January 1944 “periodic report” filed by Captain Andrew Robb—are by Dr. Luigi Donfrancesco, nephew of I.S.9 agent Andrea Scattini.

Our original access to this document (from the British National Archives) was courtesy of researcher Brian Sims.

This document is a treasury of information, including details on operations and future plans, POWs and evaders recently brought across the lines, and a list of Italian agents at work for I.S.9 at the time.

In a remarkable passage of the report, Captain Robb refers to the outstanding service of these agents:

“In the performance of their extremely difficult and dangerous tasks, the incentive to turn back is great; the incentive to stay on the other side of the line is greater. And yet, of the nine most recently returned, two are hospital cases, three others are receiving daily medical attention. One walked for twenty-four hours through the snow, despite a case of malaria and a bullet wound; another crossed the [Mount] Maiella with a foot too swollen and infected to permit the wearing of a shoe. Only unusual loyalty and determination would produce such results, which, were it allied personnel, we believe would win them immediate military awards.”

Luigi Donfrancesco wrote, “This report gives a perfect idea of all the efforts and risks of rescue operations. It shows the excellent organizational capabilities of I.S.9 officers of the 8th Army and the tremendous job done by Italian agents and guides in helping and saving the POWs.

“We have to remember that winter 1943-1944 was particularly severe in that part of Italy and there was a lot of snow. That made harder the transfer at night and by foot of POWs across the front to the Allied lines.”

See additional I.S.9 reports at “I.S.9 Progress Reports for November 4–21, 1943,” “I.S.9 War Diary—November 17–20, 1943,” “I.S.9 Situation Report—November 3–4, 1943,” “I.S.9 War Diary—December 16–29, 1943,” and “I.S.9 Situation Report—November 12–13, 1943.”

For background information on Captain Andrew Robb, see “I.S.9 Officers—Biography.”

Some corrections in spelling have been made in the transcript below, including the corrected spelling of the comune of Paglieta for Paglietta; Alberto Pietrorazio’s name, which is spelled Pietrorazzo throughout the original document; and the comune of Manoppello, which is spelled Manopelle in the document.

MOST SECRET

PERIODIC REPORT OF No. 5 FIELD SECTION 15 Jan – 25 Jan [January 15–25, 1944].

Following the interrogation of my agent by 5th Corps on Jan 8, and the interest his information aroused, I have, whenever possible, supplied formations with such items of information as were of immediate interest to them. This finally culminated in 4 Ind. Div. [4th Indian Division] sending to me a Cpl. [Corporal] Bjorkman who was about to penetrate to find certain information required by them. Fortunately, as it happened I could give them some indication of where to look and a route through the enemy lines, one of those used by my agents. This was immediately followed by inquiries by 13th Corps; they were contacted. I returned to Lanciano. I was phoned and then told that some of my agents were at 13th Corps H.Q. [Headquarters] where they had been held for interrogation. This meant another visit to Corps at Paglieta and I foresaw that these calls for information, the holding back of agents for interrogation might get out of hands and seriously impede our only object – that of getting exP/Ws [ex prisoners of war] out.

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A one page I.S.9 “SITREP” (situation report) for November 12–13, 1943

The transcription and notes in this post are by Dr. Luigi Donfrancesco, nephew of I.S.9 agent Andrea Scattini.

Access to this document (from the British National Archives) was courtesy of researcher Brian Sims.

See additional reports at “I.S.9 Progress Reports for November 4–21, 1943,” “I.S.9 War Diary—November 17–20, 1943,” “I.S.9 Situation Report—November 3–4, 1943,” and “I.S.9 War Diary—December 16–29, 1943.”

This report is particularly interesting in that it contains lists of POWs rescued on these two dates, including several from P.G. 59.

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