Category Archives: The Partisans

Robert Dickinson—A Banner Year for Discovery

Although we are only six months into 2023, Steve Dickinson will no doubt look back on this year as a banner year for discovery of information about his uncle, POW Robert Dickinson.

Robert Dickinson (Lincoln, UK) joined Lincoln Territorial Battery 237, Royal Artillery, as a gunner in 1938. He first saw action in France, where in 1940 he was involved in the evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk. He then served in North Africa, where he was taken prisoner in 1941.

Robert was interned in PG 59 Servigliano (18 January 1942–24 January 1943), PG 53 Macerata, and finally PG 112/IV in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, from which he escaped in 1943.

For 13 months, Robert was sheltered by the Bauducco family of Gassino Torinese. In October 1944 he joined the local partisan resistance and fought against the fascists and German forces. He was killed while fighting with the partisans on 3 March 1945.

Robert is buried in Milan Commonwealth War Cemetery.

After Robert’s death, the diary he kept, Servigliano Calling, was sent to his family in Lincoln. It reached the family in November 1946, some 18 months after Robert’s death.

The authorities provided the family with general information concerning Robert’s death, but for years Steve has yearned to know more about his uncle’s final months and greater detail about his death.

At the end of the war, the deaths of many POWs killed while on the run were investigated as war crimes. Steve wondered—had Robert’s death been investigated?

We didn’t know the answer. Until this year, that is.

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Escaped Prisoners and Airman at Fontanaluccia

The Partisan from Brooklyn

My father, Armie Hill, kept a clipping from Yank magazine for many years. The article, dated September 1, 1944, is “The Partisan from Brooklyn,” by Sgt. Harry Sions. It tells the story of Manuel Serrano’s involvement with the Italian Partisan underground movement after his escape from Camp 59. Links to the three-page article are below.

What I know about Manuel Serrano is limited to information available through his enlistment and POW records at the National Archives:

Manuel S. Serrano was born in 1919. He enlisted in the army on February 5, 1942 at Fort Dix, New Jersey. His term of enlistment was “for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to the law.” He is listed as single and his education is given as “grammar school.” According to the record, he was Puerto Rican and a resident of King’s County, New York.

Serrano’s POW record at the Archives indicates he was a first sergeant in the Army Parachute Infantry, and that he served in the North African Theatre. The record confirms he was a prisoner at “CC 59 Ascoli Picenzo Italy 43-13.”

Yank magazine was published weekly by the U.S. Army during WW II. The magazine was written entirely by enlisted rank soldiers and it was available, for five cents per issue, to servicemen overseas.