PG 5 - Gavi

Sheet by: Isabella Insolvibile

General data

Town: Gavi Ligure

Province: Alessandria

Region: Piemonte

Location/Address: Forte di Gavi - Gavi Ligure

Type of camp: Punishment camp; Prisoner of War camp

Number: 5

Italian military mail service number: 3100

Intended to: officers; mixed

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale Alessandria

Railroad station: Serravalle

Accommodation: military quarters

Capacity: 190

Operating: from 06/1942 to 08/09/1943

Commanding Officer: Lt. Col., later Col., Giuseppe Moscatelli

Brief chronology:
June/July 1942: the Gavi fortress was repurposed as a prison/punishment camp for Allied officers.
Summer 1942: first escape attempt by Sergeant Mandel.
Winter-spring 1943: some PoWs were assigned to work detachments.
April 1943: Brigadier Sterling managed to escape with 11 comrades.
9 September 1943: the camp was occupied by the Germans.

Allied prisoners in the Gavi Ligure camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
1.7.1942   84 2 49 135
1.8.1942   175 3 50 228
1.9.1942   181 3 50 234
30.9.1942   106 4 54 164
31.10.1942   130 4 54 188
30.11.1942   144 4 54 202
31.12.1942   140 4 76 220
31.1.1943   160 4 57 221
28.2.1943   167 4 57 228
31.3.1943 1 163 4 56 224
30.4.1943 1 167 4 146 318
31.5.1943 1 168 4 251 424
30.6.1943 1 172 4 351 528
31.8.1943 1 177[1] 4 464 646
[1] Including 3 US Soldiers.

Camp’s overview

PG 5 Gavi was installed in a fortress built in the tenth century and was intended to be a punishment camp for unruly PoWs. It was labelled by Roger Absalom and others «the Italian Colditz». As noted by a delegate of the Protecting Power: «the many high and thick walls, the vaults and turrets make a certain impression on the prisoners of war transferred from other camps enclosed only by a light wire fence, and it seems as if a closer watch was to be kept over them.» [TNA, WO 224/106]
Indeed, the fortress was supposed to give that precise impression. Since Italy’s unification, the castle had been used as a prison, except during the First World War, when it became a PoW camp for Austro-Hungarian PoWs. During the Second World War, the fortress was returned to this use as a camp intended for officers, and any other rank of prisoners, considered to be «problematic», or «unruly», «difficult to manage or who have already tried to escape several times» [TNA, WO 224/106]. The appearance of the camp and its austere internal physiognomy were part of the punishment. As Captain Tommy S. Macpherson wrote home in June 1942, when he had just arrived in Gavi:

My dear Mother. Here is my first letter from my new camp. It is a delightful spot, an ancient fortress & disused jail on the top of a steep pinnacle of rock: thus it commands a splendid view, in vain, as our few windows look out on the narrow, sunless court that is our exercise ground. However, we are well off in that we have running water, and despite the damp and incidental animals we are nearly as comfortable as at the famous Koenigsberg [where a German PoW camp was]. The food is good too, for we have had two whole plates of cabbage soup, a bowl of coffee, and 150 grams of bread each day. There is no library here: this is not as bad as it might be, as there is no light to read by in the evening anyway. In any case, I think the change does one good in dislodging the wheels of our day to day existence from their deepening rut: though it was the wrong time to leave Montalbo when the Red Cross parcels had at last begun to arrive, and messing was benefitting accordingly: of course, we cannot hope for any here for some months. The actual journey, too, was a pleasure in itself in giving a glimpse of the wide world, though it was quite short, about three hours, which were naturally extended to twelve by the usual searches etc. I am afraid our incoming mail will be somewhat delayed by our move: I trust, however, that this reaches you in the usual swift way. The people here – eighty odd – are very pleasant on the whole, as we are made up of those, like myself, who have desperate criminal characters. [TNA, WO 361/1878]


Even though Gavi was intended to hold PoWs who had shown a propensity to escape and to prevent them from attempting to break out, escape attempts took place in this camp just as they did at Colditz. In summer 1942, shortly after the camp’s opening, Sergeant Mandel dug a tunnel from his room to the sewers. However, the plan was discovered before the prisoner could use it. This was only the beginning: by September 1942, in fact, at least six escapes were attempted from the fort. Another escape occurred at the beginning of 1943, this too unsuccessful. The methods used by the PoWs were various: tunnels, ropes made of tied-together bedsheets, and Italian uniforms, both originals and those produced by the PoWs. Escape attempts, as the case of Gavi demonstrates, were among the principal activities carried on by Allied PoWs in the Axis’s hands.
In April 1943, Brigadier Douglas Arnold Stirling, Commander of the 1st Armoured Brigade in North Africa, and 11 comrades tried to escape. Stirling was stopped by the guards and, according to him, by the camp’s commander, Moscatelli, who hit him on the face, perhaps involuntarily. The PoWs had prepared a series of tunnels inside the walls and the water tank. Stirling and three others were captured during the attempt, but the rest managed to get away. Four were recaptured a few hours later, while the rest remained at large for days, some even for a week.
Among the PoWs in Gavi, there were also senior officers, including General Richard O’ Connor, who had been transferred from Vincigliata as a punishment (he attempted to escape multiple times). After his time in solitary, O’Connor sent a protest to the Protecting Power, complaining about the poor treatment he had received in the fort. Despite this complaint, other sources agree on the fact that «sunny rooms» were reserved for senior officers, where two to six prisoners slept and where «each officer can pursue his favourite occupation: painting, sculpture, cabinet-making, etc. A little court-yard is at their disposal. Everything is very well arranged». [TNA, WO 224/106]
However, according to neutral observers, the fort’s rooms were quite dark, wet, and unhealthy. Moreover, the PoWs were confined in cells that housed from six to 12 of them. The rooms were cold and were heated using only a modest quantity of firewood – despite the captors’ reassurances during the summer. Collective punishments were also inflicted on the PoWs – contrary to the Geneva conventions – consisting of the confiscation of bedsheets. Outhouses were dirty and insufficient, unsuitable for prisoners who regularly suffered from dysentery. Naturally, things improved a little during the summer, even though the hygienic situation was still a problem. There was often insufficient running water, a common occurrence in Italy. The prisoners complained multiple times about these issues. Still, their complaints were regularly rejected by the PoW office of the Italian Stato Maggiore del Regio Esercito (Royal Army Chief of Staff), which blamed the problems on the fact that the camp was still «under construction», the standard excuse used in Italy to cover any issues that could arise in PoW camps. The main problem in Gavi remained the heating. While Allied PoWs suffered the cold in every camp in Italy, Gavi remained the worst in this regard. The British authorities tried to press charges concerning this point, presenting it as a crime of war:

This P.O.W. campo, being in an exposal position in the North of Italy, is extremely cold in the winter; the surrounding country being under snow for several months continuously. It is fully exposed to the glacial north winds from the Alps. Heating is by individual wood stoves in some of the cells, but very little wood is provided for this purpose. It is scarcely enough to warm the cells slightly for a few hours in the evening only. For the rest of the day, the P.O.W. have to keep moving about, wrapped in overcoats and blankets to keep warm. Many P.O.W. remain tucked up in bed most of the day, in the winter, to keep warm. No fuel at all is provided until late in the autumn when the very cold weather has already set in. [TNA, TS 26/95]


At the beginning of 1943, two work detachments were assigned to Gavi: Rocca de’ Giorgi and Montalto Pavese. However, the PoWs who worked there did not come from the castle but rather from the camp in Pian di Coreglia (Lucca). Another detachment, for a brick factory, was located at Montechiaro Denice (Alessandria), and this one perhaps used some PoWs from Gavi.
After the Armistice, on 9 September 1943, the camp was occupied by the Germans. Apparently, three Italian guards were killed, and the rest, including Col. Moscatelli, were captured and deported (a few possibly managed to escape). The PoWs were deported to Germany, mainly to Colditz. According to sailor Jack Tooes, who managed to run away, Gavi was occupied by the Germans on 12 September, after the camp commander had surrendered the PoWs to the Germans. [Absalom]
Under German occupation, the castle became at first an internment camp intended for Italian soldiers to be deported to Germany, but also partisans and captured Allied PoWs. The local Resistance managed to facilitate some breakouts, including the one of General Raffaele Cadorna, who in 1944 became the military coordinator of the Corpo Volontari della Libertà.
After the war, an enquiry for war crimes was opened concerning the terrible living conditions in the camp. Col. Moscatelli was identified as the man responsible for this situation. According to the sources, Moscatelli allowed the carabinieri to beat the PoWs, and he also took part in the beatings, given a chance. However, there is no information on the outcomes of those investigations.
Since 1946, the fortress has been managed by the Piedmontese Soprintendenza ai monumenti, and it is a well-known tourist site. In some of the cells, there are still graffiti made by the PoWs.

Archival sources

Bibliography

Online resources

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