EN ROUTE HOME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21550, 1 November 1944, Page 4

EN ROUTE HOME

I3OMINION TROOPS ESCAPED FROM ITALY PRISON CAMP~TREATMENT BOMBAY, Oct. 30. A party of 800 New Zealanders and Australians, homeward bound after three years in German and Italian prison camps, has arrived at Bombay, where the men are being entertained. Approximately 100 are Australians repatriated from Germany for health reasons and the remainder escaped from Italy after the armistice through the Alps to Switzerland. The New Zealanders were conducted from Switzerland by Major R. S. Orr, oi Sti Hilda, Dunedin. Stories of the treatment in Italy varied considerably. Some have not a good word to say for the Italians who, in the notorious prison camp PGS7 and Udine, rewarded guards who shot escaping prisoners with 900 lira and 10 weeks’ leave. Others tell of guards who connived at attempted escapes and then shot prisoners they caught in the act. On the contrary, most agree that Italian women, particularly in the northern districts, were undaunted by the threats (if Nazi reprisals which cowed their menfolk and consistently gave help. Lance-Corporal M. Knight, of Victoria, had a rare experience of Italian generosity. He lived 10 months with a family who worked .in Australia before the war. When he contracted pneumonia two doctors were called and he was given special foods which were then unobtainable. Spies reported the man who owned the house and he was taken out and shot. Another Victorian, Corporal R. Funston, was rescued on the YugoslavAustrian frontier by Partisans who saved 84 Allied prisoners from a labour camp where he was working. All the men agreed that, without the Red Cross parcels, they would not have survived on the meagre Italian diet. .