WORK COMMENDED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23287, 24 August 1945, Page 2

WORK COMMENDED

New Zealanders With Partisans LONDON. August 22. Gunner H. J. Banton tWhangarett and Private S. B. McFarlane <Wellington >. who are now in London awaiting repatriation, joined Italian partisans and waged guerrilla warfare against the Germans and Fascists after escaping from prison camps in Vercelli province, on September 8. 1943. Both were captured at El Alamein and taken to North Italy. They escaped with Privates G. A. Schultz, of Taranaki. R. V. Howe, of Devonport. Auckland. W. J. Clements, of Masterton, and two Americans. All linked up with Biella partisans and fought and sabotaged behind the enemy lines. Later they joined a British military mission for Upper Piedmont, with which they remained until the Allied occupation of North Italy. Banton. dressed in civilian clothes and aided by a knowledge of the Italian language picked up in prison camps, lived for a long period hl Biella. He was then taken prisoner again by the Germans and Fascists but slipped out at frequent intervals to transmit information to the mission's mountain headquarters. Tile work of Banton and his fellowescapees w'as highlv commended by the commander of the mission.