PG 60 - Colle di Compito

Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante

General data

Town: Capannoni

Province: Lucca

Region: Toscana

Location/Address: Colle di Compito - Capannoni

Type of camp: Prisoner of War camp

Number: 60

Italian military mail service number: 3200

Intended to: NCOs – Troops

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale di Firenze

Railroad station: Colle di Compito

Accommodation: tents

Capacity: 4000

Operating: from 07/1942 to 11/1943

Commanding Officer: Col. Gravino Di Pietro (July – November 1942); Major. Nicolò Nocastro (August – September 1943)

Brief chronology:
July 1942: the camp was opened.
2 September 1942: Private Sidney Fawcett was killed during his second escape attempt.
November 1942: the camp was effectively closed.

Allied prisoners in the Capannoni camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
1.8.1942     315 2150 2465
1.9.1942     427 3533 3960
30.9.1942   5 426 3536 3967
31.10.1942   5 413 3408 716
 

Camp’s overview

PG 60 Colle Compito was opened in July 1942 as a tent encampment in a swamp. Despite the less-than-ideal location, it soon housed 4,000 PoWs. At the end of September, out of 3,970 PoWs, 2,224 were English, 1,737 South Africans, 3 «Middle-Easterners», 2 Indians, 3 Serbians, and one of unspecified nationality.
The Red Cross delegates who inspected the camp denounced the precarious living conditions of the camp and the PoWs’ problematic existence. The camp was overcrowded, and space inside the tents was limited; there was no sewer system, and the hay mattresses had not been changed for 50 days, even though they were placed on the ground. PoWs did not have bedsheets or towels, only a blanket; the hygiene services and the infirmary were inadequate. Mail and Red Cross packages arrived late; there were no books, utensils, games or spaces to practise sports.
This abysmal situation was compounded by the area in which the camp was located, as rain caused the ground to flood, despite the PoWs’ efforts to build some drainage. Moreover, as noted by the delegates, the camp was teeming with insects, and many PoWs suffered from bouts of malaria. In just a few days, 180 British PoWs were infected and had to be sent to Lucca military hospital. The delegate added that, while they were inspecting the camp, two bacteriology and hygiene professors were taking samples and, to avoid the propagation of malaria, the infirmary’s windows were covered with mosquito nets.
Perhaps because of this precarious situation, four PoWs tried to escape from the camp. Two of them were wounded and taken to hospital, while, on 2 September 1942, during his second escape attempt, a British private, Sidney Fawcett, was killed by a guard. He was 24 years old.
When the autumn rain came, conditions in the camp got even worst. Considering the mud and the lack of lighting or heating, the Protecting Power delegates asked for the immediate evacuation of PG 60 before the winter. All these problems were known to the PoW office of the Italian Chief of Staff, which, already in August, had marked the camp for closure during the winter. The camp was eventually closed at the end of October, and the PoWs were transferred by mid-November. The tents and other materials were preserved, as the camp was expected to reopen in the spring.
In August 1943, PG 60 was indeed reopened under the command of Major Nicolò Nicastro. We do not know if any PoWs ever returned to the camp before 8 September, but it is unlikely because the works to reopen it were still ongoing as of that date.
On 10 September 1943, Col. Vincenzo Cione, who had been the commander in Gravina, was killed by the Germans in Colle di Compito. It is unclear whether he was there to replace Nicastro as the camp commander.
After the Armistice, the camp was plundered by the local population. At the end of November 1943, the Italian Social Republic (RSI) partially reopened it as an internment camp for civilians. After some restructuring works carried out by the Vincenzo Vannucchi firm (Lucca), the camp could house between 250 and 300 people. Surveillance was entrusted to the National Republican Guard and the «Mirio Ferrari» battalion. It held political prisoners, Jews, and common criminals. In June 1944, the camp was finally closed after an air attack, and the internees were transferred to Bagni di Lucca.

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