PG 54 - Passo Corese

Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante

General data

Town: Montelibretti

Province: Roma

Region: Lazio

Location/Address: Borgo Santa Maria - Montelibretti

Type of camp: Prisoner of War camp

Number: 54

Italian military mail service number: 3300

Intended to: NCOs – Troops

Local jurisdiction: XVII Army Corps

Railroad station: Fara Sabina

Accommodation: tents, huts

Capacity: 6000

Operating: from 08/1942 to 09/1943

Commanding Officer: Col. Andrea Porta (August – September 1942);

Brief chronology:
August 1942: the camp was established and the tents were erected. The first PoWs arrived.
September 1942: 400 South African PoWs were transferred to Pietrafitta and Colfiorito.
24 October 1942: the “Ditta Casaluce” began the construction of the camp’s huts.
January 1943: 700 South African PoWs were sent to Sardinia to work in the Bacu Abis detachment.
27 March 1943: four English PoWs escaped.
11 May 1943: English Corporal Charles William Bowman was killed in the camp.

Allied prisoners in the Montelibretti camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
1.9.1942   3 243 2380 2626
30.9.1942   5 249 2373 2627
31.10.1942   4 342 3546 3892
30.11.1942   4 334 3408 3746
31.12.1942   4 364 3432 3800
31.1.1943   4 388 3675 4067
28.2.1943   4 357 3427 3788
31.3.1943   4 396 3754 4154
30.4.1943   3 381 3308 3692
31.5.1943   3 392 3122 3517
30.6.1943   4 376 2782 3162
31.7.1943         3090
31.8.1943 1 6 512[1] 2585 3103
[1] Including 20 American NCOs.

Camp’s overview

In some testimonies and occasionally in official documents, PG 54 was identified with the nearby town of Fara Sabina (Rieti), of which Passo Corese was a district. In fact, PG 54 was built on a plot of land 4 km away from Passo Corese, in an area called “Tenuta Montemaggiore”, which, after the war, became Borgata Santa Maria. This area was in the Montelibretti municipality, in Rome province.
The camp was established in the summer of 1942 as a tent encampment. The first group of roughly 1,700 British PoWs arrived in mid-August while the construction works were still going on. Another group of 1,000 men was transferred at the end of the month. Among the PoWs, the largest group were the South Africans.
During this period, the camp was divided into two sections, each 150 x150 metres wide and with 31 tents. They were separated by a double barbed wire fence and a vegetable garden cultivated by the PoWs. The camp’s estimated total capacity was 4,000. A third section, with huts, was being built. It was supposed to increase the camp’s capacity by 2,000 and accommodate the PoWs housed in the tents. Although the accommodation was temporary, the Red Cross delegates who inspected the camp in September 1942 deemed it well-built. In this initial period, the PoWs complained mainly about the lack of clothing to face the cold winter, as many wore the worn-out battledresses they had when they were captured.
On 24 October, the construction of the wooden huts with Eternit (asbestos) roofs and the restructuring of the camp was subcontracted to the “Ditta Casaluce Angelo” of Rome. The firm also received 2,000 PoWs who were gradually employed to work on the construction site to avoid fraternisation with the civilian workers.
In December, the work on the huts were still unfinished. Moreover, the drainage canals in the tent encampment were not ready, and although the tents themselves remained dry, the surrounding terrain, wet with rain, became muddy, limiting the PoWs’ activities. There were also other deficiencies in the camp’s services, like the lack of water, or the outhouses, which were inefficient and poorly made. Moreover, as more PoWs arrived, the camp became overcrowded, and the space and supplies for the PoWs were inadequate. During the following months, these issues were compounded by the poor diet of the PoWs. So much so that the Military Health Directorate noted the presence of a «particular oedema-related illness». Although work on the huts continued, these problems remained a constant in the camp’s life.
PG 54 was also used by the Italian military authorities to find workers for other camps. In September 1942, two groups, formed by 200 South African PoWs each, were assigned to the camps of Passignano and Colfiorito. In January, the Azienda Carboni Italiani requested 700 South African PoWs who were sent to the work detachment of Bacu Abis, in Sardinia, while in the following month, 250 more South African PoWs were employed to build a detachment in Sesto San Giovanni (Milan). In February 1943, at least 900 PoWs had been sent to work in other structures, and most of the PoWs at PG 54 were working either on the huts or the surrounding farmlands.
In May, 50 more PoWs were assigned to the Morgagno (Perugia) camp and 170 to Avio.
Smaller work detachments were also directly subordinated to PG 54. During the summer, some PoWs were sent to work as builders in Spoleto province, others in Collescipoli (Terni) to work for the Ing. Droghetti e Masotti firm, and some more to Rota Castello (Rome), where they worked for the Orfeo Pasticci administration.
In March, the PoWs numbered 4,154 (2,328 English, 1,810 white South Africans, five black South Africans, one Australian, eight New Zealanders, one Cypriots, and one Middle-Easterner). On 27 March, four English PoWs (Horace Fosser, John Cairns, Edmond Milnes, and Maurice Newey) escaped. A few days later, thanks to the help of some farmers near Rome, they were recaptured in Vannio, a district of Ponte Mammolo.
After this escape, the PoW office increased the surveillance, and a third fence was built around the camp.
On 11 May 1943, English Corporal Charles William Bowman was killed. Italian sources claimed it was an «accidental» shot fired by a guard, Private Giuseppe Danna.
After 8 September, most of the PoWs managed to escape. This was possible thanks to the local population’s help and the camp’s commandant and vice-commandant, who guided them personally to safe places where they could hide.
At the end of the war, the camp was dismantled, and refugee families were housed in the camp’s huts. In time, these families turned the huts into their homes, and in the 1950s, the place became Borgata Santa Maria.

Archival sources

Bibliography

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