Prisoners of War from New South Wales at Campo 106, Italy, 1943

By Katrina Kittel

In the course of researching my book Shooting Through: Campo 106 Escaped POWs after the Italian Armistice, archival sources helped me to identify approximately 790 Australians who had been transferred from Italy’s Campo 57 to Campo 106 in April 1943. These prisoners of war (POWs) worked rice and maize farms scattered on the Piedmont plain of northern Italy, between Turin and Milan. 

POW group at a Campo 106 farm mid-1943

The NSW-raised cohort of Campo 106 POWs comprised about 135 men from city and regional areas of the state. They were from various military units: 32 from 2/13 Battalion, 9 from 2/17 Battalion; 43 from 2/3 Anti-tank Regiment; 16 from 2/3 Pioneer Battalion; 5 from 2/32 Battalion; and 29 from other units. 

These NSW men found opportunities to escape - or simply walk out - from Campo 106 farms during their five-month stint as farm workers. Most ‘shot through’ following the 8 September 1943 promulgation of the Italian Armistice. Most headed north; some headed south and kept going until reaching allied lines or turned back northward if faced with barriers or having received advice to do so from civilians. Indeed, the response of the Italian populace, on the whole, allowed the vast majority of these men to survive this escape and evasion phase of their war. 

One of the men, Private John Law, 2/17 Battalion, was unfortunate to be the target of an unsympathetic guard. John was shot at close range while climbing a farm’s courtyard wall. Another, Private Ross Mudge, born in Murwillumbah, was shot in the leg in November 1943, and viciously attacked. He died from these injuries in a hospital. 

Author laying poppy for Private Ross Mudge, CWGC Milan

In general, the post-escape outcomes for the NSW POWs of Campo 106 are representative of those for their wider Australian cohort. For the more fortunate NSW escapers of Campo 106, about 40 safely reached Switzerland. A number had encounters or involvement with Italian Resistance, ranging from fleeting contact to intensive activity. A number of the NSW POWs were recaptured by Germans (or Italians who handed them to German patrols) at some point during their journey to find a safe home run. 2/17 Battalion mates Paul Lavallee and Norm Freeberg, both from Sydney, stood at a bridge in the valley below the Monte Moro pass on the Swiss-Italian border but were recaptured there. So close yet so far. They were taken to German captivity to see out the remainder of their war and to wonder whether other POWs in their party had made it across the border safely.

Katrina Kittel BA (History), BSc, MLMEd, GradDipApplSci (InfoMan't&LibSc) is a librarian, author and member of the Military History Society of New South Wales.