AID FROM ITALIANS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 7 January 1944, Page 4

AID FROM ITALIANS

ESCAPING N.Z. PRISONERS RETURN T.O DOMINION Wellington, This Day. Tributes to the Italian people for the n help they gave their former prisoners . s of war in escaping from the Germans o were paid by New Zealanders who re- j i cently returned to the Dominion. j c "We would never have got through J j the German lines if it had not been for t their help.” said Gunner M. O’Connor. 1 Karori, who spent weeks hiding in the t Italian mountains and then covered 300 r miles in an eight-day walk before he 1 reached the British lines. After the escape of r large group of men to the mountains, he said, the Italian people looked after them and pro- j vided them with food and civilian ‘ clothes. After a few weeks in hiding } they split up into small parties and . started the long trek south. It was a great risk, as there were Germans all ( around them, but they received | much help from the Italians that they were able to travel in the daytime till f the last two days, when they were ( within the German lines. The Italians t warned them if there were Germans j about. 1 The first troops they met after pass- ] ing the Germans belonged to a famous - British regiment, who treated them ] well. From then on their troubles were ; over. and. after changing from their ; civilian clothes back into khaki, they i started on their journey back to Egypt and New Zealand. Life in the prison camp was not so bad, said Gunner O’Connor, but the food was poor and in short supply. It consisted mainly of macaroni and rice, and had it not been for the Red Cross parcels many of the prisoners would nave died. The Italian people did not fare much better, he said. The Germans had them well cowed, and armed parties would loot the villages and steal all the food available. He was firmly convinced that the Italian people did not really want to fight. Mail facilities at the camp were not good, and during his two years' imprisonment he received only three letters and only a few parcels. There was little discipline in the camp, and apart from two roll-calls a day the prisoners ran their own affairs. They were not forced to work, but occasionally were asked to volunteer. SENTRY EVADED Private Hugh Cameron, of Gisborne, was one of a party of four who also escaped. When he was near the German lines he could hear their motor-cycle patrols on the roads and constant transport movements throughout the night. One night a sentry challenged them. “We heard the click of his rifle but we went to earth. We lay still for 20 minutes and then made our way out. We contacted a civilian, a former sergeant in the Italian army, who said his son would escort us through the German lines. We travelled all that night and met Canadian troops at 7 o'clock next morning. They called the war off for a while and welcomed us.” He then went to a reception camp, where they stayed for two days, and after five days at Bari returned to Maadi camp in Egypt. All the men in his party . were in great health when they reach - I ed the Allied lines, mainly, he said, be- ' cause they had been living in the l mountains for six weeks before the - journey south. They managed to ob--1 tain hundreds of Red Cross parcels [ from the camp they left, and while in the hills Italian women would walk up to five miles to bring them food which he was sure they could ill spare. They ; avoided all villages, and believed that i a -number escaped prisoners were - recaptured, by the Germans because they -kepi..too near the roads and vil- ’ lages...,, J He...t00, paid a great tribute to the ' Italian people and to the Red Cross. ‘ and alsp to the hospitality of the people | of- Australia, which they visited on f their way back to New Zealand.