Camp tab | Allies in Italy

PG 49 - Fontanellato

Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante e Isabella Insolvibile

General data

Town: Fontanellato

Province: Parma

Region: Emilia-Romagna

Location/Address: Via IV Novembre 21 – 43012 - Fontanellato

Type of camp: Prisoner of War camp

Number: 49

Italian military mail service number: 3200

Intended to: officers

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale Milano

Railroad station: Castelguelfo

Accommodation: military quarters

Capacity: 500

Operating: from 03/1943 to 08/09/1943

Commanding Officer: Lieut. Col. Eugenio Vicedomini

Brief chronology:
March 1943: camp’s opening
April 1943: officers from the dissolved camps of Montalbo and Rezzanello are transferred to the camp
May 1943: the camp is operational
May 1943: attempted escape by a group of prisoners, they are all recaptured
10 September 1943: the prisoners leave the camp in agreement with the Italian Command

Allied prisoners in the Fontanellato camp

Date	Generals	Officers	NCOs	Troops	TOT
31.3.1943		266	9	110	385
30.4.1943		331	9	80	420
31.5.1943		419	1	115	535
30.6.1943		489	1	128	618
31.7.1943		492	129		621
31.8.1943		486	1	128	615

Camp’s overview

The Fontanellato camp was opened using the local orphanage in the Spring of 1943 to detain Allied officers. The building had been erected recently and this fact, together with the friendly attitude of the Italian Commander and personnel, made it probably the most hospitable camp in Italy. In Fontanellato, there were not recorded any war crimes or violations of the Genève Convention by the Italian captors.
Among the prisoners there were some of the most famous witnesses of the internment experience in Italy, thanks to the literary works they later produced. Eric Newby, author of Love and War in the Appennines (Hodder & Stoughton, 1971, published in Italy by Il Mulino in 1995 as Amore e guerra negli Appennini) and, particularly, Dan Billany who wrote with David Dowie The Cage, and, as a single author, The Trap. Both books are set against the backdrop of war and captivity. Significantly, The Cage was supposed to be titled For you the war is over. The novel, clearly autobiographical, is not only important because of its literary qualities, but also because it offers a perspective on a homosexual love story in the context of military captivity. After the armistice and their escape from the camp, the two officers entrusted the notebooks with the drafts of the two books to some farmers in the Parma province, the Meletti family, who had sheltered the escapees for a long time. The Meletti later sent the notebooks to the United Kingdom after the end of the war, while the two authors, instead, disappeared on the Apennine mountains in the late Autumn of 1944. Moreover, in May 1943 Fontanellato housed also two war correspondents, albeit for a short time: the American Larry Allen, and the British R. Noble. The former won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 for his war reportages. The latter, unfortunately, was never properly identified. Another writer-prisoner in Camp 49 was Michael Gilbert, transferred from Camp 21 (Chieti), and author of Death in captivity (Hodder & Stoughton, 1952).
Many prisoners attempted to escape from the camp, with the approval of the internal Escape Committee. However, all attempts ended in failure until the armistice and the subsequent mass escape of the 10 September 1943, when the Italian personnel let the prisoners out of the camp and supplied them with civil clothing and money. The success of this ‘liberation’ (almost a unicum in Italy) was due largely to the cooperation between the Lieut. Col. Vicedomini, the Italian Commander, and the British Lieut. Col. Hugo de Burgh, the camp Senior British Officer. The two of them had agreed upon a plan to release the prisoners already in August 1943. Vicedomini was later captured by the Germans and brought to Mauthausen. A similar fate befell many of the Italian soldiers of the garrison. He returned to Italy after the war, only to die shortly after as a result of the conditions of his imprisonment.
The escapees split on their way to reach safety. Roughly two thirds headed south to hide in the hills or to reach the Allied Armies; the rest headed north, to cross the border with Switzerland.
The camp went back to being an orphanage after the war and today the building houses a rehabilitation centre.