PG 29 - Veano

Sheet by: Isabella Insolvibile

General data

Town: Vigolzone

Province: Piacenza

Region: Emilia-Romagna

Location/Address: Veano - Vigolzone

Type of camp: Prisoner of War camp

Number: 29

Italian military mail service number: 3200

Intended to: officers

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale Milano

Railroad station: Ponte dell’Olio

Accommodation: military quarters

Capacity: 200

Operating: from 05/1942 to 08/09/1943

Commanding Officer: Lt. Col. Enrico Poggiali (5.1942-3.1943), Lt. Col. (later Col.) Giancarlo Cornaggia Medici (4.1943-8.9.1943)

Brief chronology:
Spring 1942: the Allied prisoners were brought to the camp.
8 September 1943: the Allied prisoners left the camp. Many took part in the Resistance.

Allied prisoners in the Vigolzone camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
1.5.1942   15   60 75
1.6.1942   96   60 156
1.7.1942   86   61 147
1.8.1942   182   50 232
1.9.1942 2 199   61 262
30.9.1942 3 201   60 264
31.10.1942 3 195   58 256
30.11.1942 4 207   59 270
31.12.1942 4 206   59 269
31.1.1943 4 205 2 61 272
28.2.1943 4 205 2 60 271
31.3.1943 2 189 1 60 252
30.4.1943 2 179 1 59 241
31.5.1943   205 2 60 267
30.6.1943   206 2 60 268
31.7.1943   202 62 264
31.8.1943   206 2 60 268
 

Camp’s overview

PG 29 was established in a villa which had previously been used as a summer residence for the students of the Collegio Alberoni of Piacenza, a seminary for aspiring priests. Until the end of 1942, the reports of the Red Cross and of the Protecting Power described the camp as «excellent», despite small issues such as temporary overcrowding and some shortages of water and sanitary materials (which were also obsolete). During the summer of 1942, the diet of the prisoners was largely based on Red Cross parcels, as was noted by the delegate report of July 1942 [TNA, FO 916/369]:

Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: Seasoned rice (from the Red Cross parcels); Carrots, salad, cheese, plums
Tea: Tea (from the Red Cross parcels)
Dinner: Tomato soup; Meat pie (from the Red Cross parcels); Potatoes and peas; rice dessert

As time passed, the situation deteriorated. In 1943, accommodation for the PoWs was still inadequate, and so were the outhouses, the lighting, and the water supplies. There were no spare lightbulbs to replace broken ones, nor enough water to allow more than one shower per month for each prisoner. The lodgings were overcrowded and under-equipped, and there was no room to study or conduct recreational activities. Moreover, the captors arbitrarily confiscated the prisoners’ goods – for example, all the books concerning mathematics, engineering, and mechanics – and they did not forward the prisoners’ letters of complaint to the Protecting Power. However, since the camp was at least heated and the food was good (although expensive) the situation in Veano remained better than elsewhere, keeping the PoWs and the guards on good terms as well.
The officers in Veano organised many different activities in the camp, as recalled by Admiral Walter Cowan, captured in May 1942 and repatriated in the spring of 1943 because of his old age (he was 71, which did not prevent him from returning to the Italian front in 1944):

Every sort of lecture went on every day and to almost all of them everybody went. Then once a week after dinner there would be a very cleverly prepared digest of the week’s news as gathered from the Italian papers, and another as gathered from the private letters of as many as were good enough to contribute items of general interest, and so very many did. News about foxhunting, farming, racing Parliament, well known public men, high service appointments – every sort of varied facts and to be of interest to every sort of mentality. Such a lot of them in real life were not soldiers at all that it made the whole community a much larger reservoir of varied interests than most people would ever foresee. Then there were debates now and then on many unexpected subjects; one initiated by an old Etonian to urge and prove that public schools should be done away with – tremendous interest and clever argument. Another in defence of foxhunting (by a Northumberland Blackett). Another urging that divorce should be made more difficult. [TNA, WO 224/112].


The main activity of the prisoners was, however, planning and executing escape plans, which were numerous but never successful. In the summer of 1942, a prisoner attempted to escape hidden in a barrel:

However, the corporal who was watching the transport noted that the three PoWs who were working were making a disproportionate effort to move the empty barrel. Without hesitation, then, he ordered the barrel to be brought to a storehouse, where its lid was opened and the PoW was extracted from it, rather battered. He was wearing a pair of purple-brown trousers he claimed he had received from a sailor and a light blue sweater. He was also carrying some chocolate tablets, bread, and a pack of biscuits. The attentive and perceptive sentry was awarded for his acumen, which helped foil this escape attempt which had been cunningly devised with the help of the other PoWs who, naturally, were all punished with the mortified aspiring escapee. [AUSSME, N1-11, b. 1243].


Another attempt was made by Lt. Col. Stray in July 1943. Stray dyed a pyjama shirt blue, to make it resemble an Italian worker’s overall, put on an Italian army coat and a pair of khaki trousers. The colourful jumble was noticed by the guards and the attempt failed.
After each escape attempt, the prisoners were subject to searches and, sometimes, collective punishment (in violation of the Geneva conventions): the escape of Brigadier G. H. Clifton, a New Zealander, through a hole in the wall of the room where he was lodged with other PoWs, caused the generals to be put temporarily in solitary confinement. Clifton managed to reach Como before being recaptured. He was later transferred to the punishment camp of Gavi, where he would try to escape three more times, the last one after the Armistice. Later, he would escape from German custody as well.
In the spring of 1943, heavy rain filled the water tanks of the camp, and this improved the PoWs’ hygienic conditions. However, they still did not have any quinine, and their protests were ignored. These conditions remained unaltered until the end: on 8 September 1943 the camp was overcrowded, water was scarce because of the summer drought, and there were severe hygienic issues (the prisoners did not shower for two months).
After the Armistice, the majority of the prisoners left Veano and managed to disappear. Among them, there were Gordon Lett, one of the protagonists of the “international” soul of the Italian Resistance, and Desmond Young, who instead would reach Switzerland and became, after the war, Rommel’s biographer.
In camp 19, the collective punishments and the refusal to forward the prisoners’ complaints to the Protecting Power were clear violations of the Geneva conventions. Other than these, however, no war crimes were reported.
After the war, the villa returned to its previous function. Today, it is used by the Fondazione Opera Pia Alberoni to host institutional and cultural events.

Archival sources

Bibliography

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