Major D’Arcy Mander was captured in Ain el-Gazala-Derna, Libya, on 1 June 1942, while he was commanding the IV battalion Green Howards. He was an expert officer, 33-years-old, and had already fought in France and Belgium; he spoke German, and, during his imprisonment, he learnt Italian as well. 

After being imprisoned for a few days in North Africa, between Derna and Bengazi, he was transferred to Italy by plane, passing through PG 75, Bari, to reach PG 29, Veano, on 8 July. PG 29 was a camp intended for officers, and he spent there, in good conditions, the following 14 months.

News of the Armistice reached the camp on 8 September, a few hours before the official announcement, and was greeted with loud cheers by the officers. However, the Senior British Officer of the camp, Colonel Younghusband, instructed them not to move, waiting for the Germans to act. Two days later, fights erupted in the nearby town of Piacenza between Italians and Germans. As the Italian guards opened a way to escape, the colonel told his fellow officers that they are free to choose what to do: many decided to flee, leaving the camp right before the arrival of the Germans.

Some of the escapees decided to remain in the area, others to go towards Switzerland or Genoa (where the Allies were expected to land). D’Arcy, leading a small group, told them he wanted to march southwards: 

D’Arcy and his comrades marched «in the dark» in the Apennines, following less-beaten paths and avoiding villages and towns. Every evening the local farmers provided help, and the escapees, during their stays at isolated farms and huts, discovered that the poorest were often the more inclined to share what little they had. At the same time, the richest were usually indifferent and reluctant.

During October, the escapees decided that their group was too large and that moving around had become too dangerous. Bill and James continued marching south towards the Abruzzo region, but they were the victim of an avalanche on the Gran Sasso. D’Arcy and Joseph headed towards Florence, reaching the southern slopes of Mount Giovi, above the town of Fiesole.

Here, D’Arcy met the men of the Action Party, who had organized a rescue network, and discovered that hundreds of former PoWs were now sheltered by the Italian population. He decided to help them manage guides and transport to bring these men south (as he would do in the Mount Morello area), as they represented a severe danger to those who were housing them.

D’Arcy also managed to reunite with his aunt Eillen, an active anti-fascist, who brought him to Villa Diana in Fiesole, where he met a group of Action Party members who provided him with counterfeit documents and planned his journey to Rome:

After the arrest, the Germans loaded the prisoners on a train heading to Germany. D’Arcy decided again to try and escape. As the convoy was leaving the station, taking advantage of the darkness, he climbed down from a window and, with the paratroopers Playford and Hull, who had joined him, jumped down as the train was slowing while it was approaching the Prato station. Joseph, instead, decided not to follow him.

They went back to Mount Morello only to discover that D’Arcy’s aunt and the Action Party group had been arrested and sentenced to death (which was commuted to 30 years of prison; they were all released in the summer of 1944).

D’Arcy left the area definitively on 26 November with two new companions: a South African Jack Selikman and Sandy Stewart, who had escaped from the camp in Modena. Their idea was to cross the Allied lines, passing through Rome. On their way, they met other prisoners, who put them in contact with a Communist partisan band in Soriano, a village near Viterbo. Thanks to them, the three received assistance and a guide to reach Vignanello, where they took a train to Rome. Finally, they reached the capital, occupied by the Germans, on 9 December 1943: «we reached Rome safe and sound. Three officers wearing a jumble of clothing, who did not know anybody, with a grand total of two pennies between us.» As they were without contacts and badly needed assistance, D’Arcy decided to visit the Swiss embassy, where he met Robert Wilson, another escaped PoW. The latter put him in touch with Branko Bitler, a member of the “Bandiera Rossa” Communist movement, actively helping escapees and in close contact with the Rome organisation[1]. Thanks to Branko’s network D’Arcy, Jack, and Sandy managed to find lodging at a house in via Chelini in the Parioli, where many escaped PoWs and Jews already lived. The Vatican priests brought them food every day.

However, D’Arcy was not satisfied with this accommodation, as he found it unsafe and asked to be moved together with his companions. The transfer never happened. Thanks to a tip-off, the Gestapo captured all the residents, except D’Arcy, who managed to escape. Branko, who was separated from the group, was tortured in via Tasso and later murdered in Forte Bravetta.

During the following months, dynamic and willing to take risks, D’Arcy created his own network, intercepting German conversations, establishing links with a pro-Allies intelligence network, and proving capable of providing important information to the British to forestall the enemy’s moves. Moreover, he provided the Allies with a list of all Nazi agents in Rome. «In Rome, I was known with different names. For the VIII Army I was a generic “Volontario” [“Volunteer”]. For the clandestine group I was “Orso” [“Bear”] and for my friends I was Pietro Bartoli, or Dario.»

When the Allies entered Rome on 4 June 1944, D’Arcy hoped he could soon return home, but instead he was asked to stay and negotiate with German agents. He remained in uniform and continued his covert activities.

Before leaving the city, on 1 July, he transmitted a message on the Italian radio: «Mariel sta bene» («Mariel is fine»). It was the name of his three-year-old daughter, whom he had never met, as she was born after he left home. He showed her picture proudly to all who helped him during his escape. 

Major D’Arcy Mander was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his counter-espionage activities. He served in the army until retirement, taking part in many international missions.

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