WITH ITALIAN PARTISANS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 226, 23 August 1945, Page 6

WITH ITALIAN PARTISANS

ESCAPED NEW ZEALANDERS. (Rec. 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 22. Gunner H. J. Banton, of Whangarei, and Private S. B. AlcEarlane, of Wellington, who are now in London awaiting repatriation, joined the Italian partisans and waged guerrilla warfare against the Germans and Fascists after escaping from prison camps in the Yercelli Province on September 8, 1943. Both were captured at El Alainein and taken to Northern Italy. They escaped with Privates G. A. Schultz, of Taranaki, R. V. Howe, of Auckland, and W. J. Clements, of Masterton, and two Australians. They all linked with the Biella partisans and fought and sabotaged behind the enemy lines. Later they joined the British Military Mission lor Upper Piedmont with which they remained until the Allied occupation of North Italy. . ... Gunner Banton, dressed in civilian clothes and aided by a knowledge of the Italian language picked up in prison camps, lived for a long period in Biella and was then taken prisoner ao-ain by the Germans and Fascists. He slipped out at frequent intervals to transmit information to the .Mission’s mountain headquarters. Ihe work of Gunner Banton and his fellow escapees has been highly commended by the commander of the Mission.