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World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

229499

Sgt. J "Jock" Cargill

British Army 2nd Btn. Cameron Highlanders (Queens Own)

My great-uncle, Patrick Kerr, wrote a memoir about his experience as a POW in Italy, and his subsequent escape. I am paraphrasing a small part of it here, as it may be interesting for the relatives of those he encountered.

My uncle mentions being held for a few days at or near a railway siding named Stazione di Manopello. It appeared to be a holding place for POWs, until there were sufficient in number to transfer them elsewhere.

There, he was joined by more prisoners. Three of them had been taken in desert campaigns, and spent a year in Italian POW camps. They had been released in September 1943, when Italy concluded an Armistice with the Allies. Since then, they had been living very well in the villages, making a leisurely journey south expecting to meet Allied troops. However, the German winter line had been formed, and in an effort to pass through they had been recaptured.

When one of the prisoners (a well-built paratrooper from London) escaped, the guards threatened to shoot them all, if they did not tell what they knew of his escape. The prisoners were inclined to believe him, however one of the three (from the desert campaigns), Sergeant Jock Cargill of the 2nd Camerons, saved the day by saying "[Expletive] him! He is only bluffing, tell him nothing." Sure enough, it was a bluff.

The prisoners were then transported about 25 miles to a village called Bussi. They were hustled into a former school building surrounded with barbed wire entanglements - obviously a POW Transit Camp. There were already a number of Allied prisoners in the building. There, they were given a very thin soup and some pieces of bread for tea.

Escape was uppermost in the thoughts of my uncle, along with Sergeant Cargill and L/Cpl Donnelly (also of the 2nd Camerons). They went to bed in some straw. The building walls were covered with inscriptions from Allied prisoners. Cargill and Donnelly added their names. The date was 10 December 1943.

My uncle describes how the three escaped by climbing down a sheet hung out of an unfastened window. Cargill and Donnelly escaped ahead of him into the night as planned, and he never saw them again. They were certainly not retaken that night. He ends that chapter hoping they had a safe passage to Allied-held territory.






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