I was recently sent a copy of Katrina Kittel’s book; “Shooting Through: Campo 106 escaped POWs after the Italian Armistice”. At first I wasn’t too sure if this was a book I wanted to read, I had so many other books sitting in my library waiting for my attention. However I picked it up a few times and had a browse and that was enough to get me interested in reading this book on Australian POW's struggling to find freedom after Italy's armistice in 1943.

I was surprisingly hooked on the book after only a few pages, mainly due to the author's use of first-hand accounts from ordinary Australian soldiers to tell the story. Sometimes the stories of our POW’s are lost in the greater story of the Allied victory in WW2. I also think that many people believe that their experiences don't count in the overall scheme of things; after all they were captured and didn’t really do much fighting.

This book shows that idea is wrong, that these men fought a hard and courageous war and were captured due to no fault of their own and then were thrown into a totally alien environment in which they had to survive. Working on farms scattered throughout Italy they used their keen wits to foil the enemy by little acts of sabotage, to gain extra rations and to gather news on how the wider war was progressing.

Then in September 1943 Italy dropped out of the war, the POW’s enemies were now their allies. Camp gates were left open, former guards became friends but the war wasn’t over, Italian fascists and Black Shirts were still operational in the area of the camps and German forces were flooding into the country heading south to confront Allied forces landing on the toe of Italy.

This period of flux and confusion opened the door to many POW’s to make a run for freedom, north to the harsh mountainous area of the Alps and the Swiss border or south and across the Po River to the allied lines, both directions had risks. Who to trust in the population, who was a fascists and who was a royalist, who wanted to turn you in and who would help.

Sometimes a former enemy became your best bet for survival as in this case;

"The Italian colonel gave a 50 Lire note to each POW, and retrieved two folded maps from his coat pocket. He tore off the covers to remove his name and handed the maps to Joe Newbey as senior officer. The maps detailed roads and trails west of Genoa to France, to the central north of Italy, and into Switzerland."

As the author explained:

"Rules of war changed once they stepped out of prison camps. Italians proffered tips about being Italian. To look like peasants, walkers must not walk abreast nor talk to each other. Better still, one should adopt a slouch and walk slowly with hands down or in pockets. No military bearing was to be conveyed by the walker. Men with red hair must source hats. If a POW's unusual Italian accent was queried, a POW could pretend to be mute, or to hail from south of Rome. Northern Italians were mostly unfamiliar with southern Italy, akin to another country. Italians swiftly spotted a on-Italian. One British escaper, a medical officer, was aghast that Italian peasants recognised him as British despite best efforts to pass himself off as a local. Locals told him that his hair was parted the wrong way, that he walked and sat the wrong way, and that anyone as scruffy-looking as him would not have possessed glasses."

Throughout the book we follow a number of former Australian POW’s along with Kiwis, South Africans and Brits as they make their way south or north to seek sanctuary across the Swiss border or safety back across Allied lines to the south. The author uses numerous first-hand accounts sourced from Australian and British archives, as well as memoirs and oral accounts by ex-POWs and Italian witnesses to tell the story. Accounts like this are spread throughout the book:

"Col Booth and another POW, probably Peter Erickson, met l'americano Francesco 'Frank' Secchia at Rovasenda, 15 kilometres east of Biella. Frank, who'd spent time in New York before the war, put the POWs up in the family barn under the living quarters. Ten-year-old Piero Secchia was sworn to secrecy about the strange fugitives stored with the family animals.

In 2012, aged ninety-nine, Frank's wife Nina regretted that she had little food to share with the POWs under her living room. But respite and compassion were enough to sustain Col's trust and gratitude, and he made a point of noting Frank's name and place in his notebook. To acknowledge 'assistance given to Allied soldiers during wartime that enabled them to evade recapture from the enemy', after the war Francesco 'Frank' Secchia received a certificate from Field Marshal H. R. Alexander, commander of Allied troops."

Many of the POW’s mentioned the beauty of the area they were traversing to the south, the majestic scenery of the Alps, of the friendly Italian civilians in villages and towns who nearly always helped the POW's with food, shelter, transport and information. There are numerous accounts of the how poor Italian villagers gave the POW’s food; sharing what little they had to help these men escape the clutches of the Germans and fascists.

There are also numerous accounts of the desperate struggle against the elements and terrain as they scrambled up peaks in the Alpine region to gain the safety of the Swiss frontier. I was amazed at how some of these men, in there weakened condition and without the proper clothing, boots or equipment managed to cross over the Alps and regain their freedom, this was nearly always done with the assistance of the local population.

There are many funny accounts as well. Usually like this one when many POW's are close to crossing over into Switzerland but are taken aback by the uniform of the Swiss border guards:

" ... 'Then I saw the coal-shuttle helmet and grey uniform suddenly appear from behind a rock, casually but firmly cradling a rifle in one arm. I almost burst into tears.' Flabbergasted, Bill panicked, 'All this way and a bloody German frontier guard!'

The guard beckoned Bill, tapping his chest with his free hand. Bill picked up a stone as a weapon and slowly stepped forward. The buttons on the guard's uniform lit up Bill's eyes. 'He was a Swiss frontier guard and I had made it. My tears were those of joy!' Bill exhaled his inner relief: 'Thank God!' The guard responded in English: 'Ah, English is it? I have been watching you for some time. You'd better come on down and have a cup of tea'."

Not all accounts had that happy ending:

"Lismore's Ross Mudge, a stretcher-bearer in the 2/3rd Pioneer Battalion, was at a farmhouse near Donato when a German/fascist rastrallamento round-up hit on 13 November. He was shot in the leg by a German soldier to slow him down for recapture, but the soldier added a shot to Ross's abdomen. It was reported that the soldier also kicked and spat at Ross, and left him in agony for over two hours before an Italian soldier helped him. Taken to hospital in Ivrea, Ross died. He was just twenty-three years of age. Ross's grave, until re-interment in Milan's Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery, was tended to by Ivrea woman - acknowledged by Ted Peachey as a 'Number 1 underground worker' - Selina Roffino."

The book has two maps covering the area of the Campo 106 farms and the Italian/Swiss border region. The book is 338 pages in length of which 271 pages is narrative, the rest is Acknowledgements, Notes, Bibliography and Appendix (1. – nominal roll of Australian POW's at Campo 106, 2. – New Zealand POW’s reaching Switzerland) and Index.

Overall this is a very engaging and interesting book and I would recommend it for anyone who would love to know more about how men struggled to regained their liberty in Italy during the war or who just enjoy a good book on WW2 history. For her first book Katrina Kittel has provided a solid piece of literature that should be enjoyed by many.