PG 77 - Pissignano

Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante

General data

Town: Campello sul Clitunno

Province: Perugia

Region: Umbria

Location/Address: Pissignano - Campello sul Clitunno

Type of camp: Prisoner of War camp

Number: 77

Italian military mail service number: 3200

Intended to: troops

Local jurisdiction: XVII Army Corps

Railroad station: Campello sul Clitunno

Accommodation: tents

Capacity: 1500

Operating: from 08/1942 to 09/1943

Commanding Officer: Lt. Col. Alfredo Zunagli (October 1942 – July 1943)

Brief chronology:
August 1942: 200 British PoWs were transferred from PG 54, Passo Corese (Rieti).
December 1942: about a hundred Montenegrin civilians were housed in the camp with the PoWs.
January 1943: the Montenegrins were transferred to Colfiorito camp.
February 1943: the camp was earmarked intended for French «white Gaullists».
July 1943: the camp was closed

Allied prisoners in the Campello sul Clitunno camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
30.9.1942     20 188 208
15.10.1943     32 189 221
30.11.1942     7 59 66
31.12.1942     7 54 61
31.1.1943     6 54 60
28.2.1943     26 196 221[1]
31.3.1943     201 1171 1372[2]
30.4.1943     176 1149 1324[3]
31.5.1943     87 918 1005[4]
30.6.1943     87 918 1005[5]
31.7.1943       150 150
[1] All French. [2] All French, except for 6 English NCOs and 22 «white South Africans». [3] All French, except for 6 English NCOs and 22 «white South Africans». [4] All French, except for 6 English NCOs and 22 «white South Africans». [5] All French, except for 6 English NCOs and 22 «white South Africans».

Camp’s overview

On 9 August 1942, the PoW office of the SME decided to create a new camp on uncultivated land two km from the Campello sul Clitunno railway station and about one km away from the village of Pissignano. On 14 September, 208 PoWs (168 English and 40 South Africans) were sent from the Passo Corese (Rieti) camp to prepare the ground.
The plan was to accommodate roughly 4,000 prisoners in tents, but this number was never reached. The camp registered its maximum level of occupation in March 1943, housing some 1,400 PoWs.
In December 1942, the camp was used temporarily to house about 800 Yugoslavian civilians (Serbians and Montenegrins). They were later sent to the Colfiorito camp.
Despite the camp’s location, on a hill at the border of an oak forest, living conditions were acceptable.
In February 1943, 60 British prisoners were transferred to other camps, and Pissignano became a camp intended for French «white Gaullist» PoWs. The few Allied PoWs remaining until 30 June 1943 numbered about 30 English and «white» South Africans.
After the Armistice, until 8 February 1944, PG 77 was used by the Germans as an internment and deportation camp. Jews, partisans, captured Italian workers and recaptured Allied PoWs were housed there, awaiting transport to the Third Reich.
Today, no trace remains of the camp. In May 2014, the township of Campello sul Clitunno, in collaboration with the Istituto per la Storia dell'Umbria Contemporanea and the Association of the Montenegrin Combatants in the Liberation War, erected a monument to commemorate the events.

Archival sources

Bibliography

Online resources

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