Research on WW2 airman

[Florio]

I would like some info on where to start a research on an airman whose plane was shot down over Italy during the latter part of WW2.
This man was interned near Aviano in northern Italy (north of Venice) and escaped into the mountains.
My mothers family and others hid him and looked after him in a shack that they had built for him in the mountains above a village called Vallorch for two winters before he left and was never seen again, I have just returned from Italy and my uncle took me to the place where the shack was situated and the place is still called "the casson dell Inglese". I also spoke to another lady who was a partisan in the area and was one of the last to see him in the village of Fregona at the base of the mountains. All they recall that he was a south African name John and also may have been in a reconnaissance aircraft
Thanks

[thewideeyedowl]

Hi Florio and a very warm welcome to Brit Gen..

This is a very interesting and very difficult question, but we will do our best to help a bit at a time in the hope that some definite info emerges.

I have found this list of WW2 POW camps in Italy on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_POW_camps_in_Italy. Now you know the geography of the country - and I don't! - so you could work out which camp or camps it might be worth investigating. You will see that there are notes with some entries about the nationalities they held and whether ranks or officers. This could be a starting point.

Once you have identified the camp, you would need to see if you could find a list of the men held there, and then try to research each one called John...... or with the initial 'J'..... . This will be a long job (!), but if you ask many questions and sometimes work on a hunch you might start to get somewhere.

I will leave more definite answers to the military experts here.

Please keep us posted because this is going to be such an interesting piece of research.

Swooping off now.

Owl

[timbo58]

Hello if you let me know the names of those airmen we can check on FWRS exclusive Italian POW camps database?
FWR also has a German/Italian camps guide (I wrote myself!) which goes into some depth on each camp we found any details on.

[Florio]

Thanks for the info, I had a look at that list whilst still in Italy but could not find any reference to Aviano or Sacille. I did however after looking at the list a second time a camp called Avio which is approx. 100 klms east near Lago di Garda (Garda Lake). He may have also been passing through Aviano on a way to a camp and escaped. If you google "Leda Azzalini" you can see a picture of her as an 18 year old partisan. I recently visited her. She is still driving (nearly 90 ) a small Fiat she bought 50 years ago, amazing woman.

[Florio]

Hi timbo58, Unfortunately They only knew him as John. Said he was a South African, Have you got a list of POws for Avio or any camps North of Venice.
Thank you

[Florio]

Hi timbo58, I had a look at this site about camp P G 107 Torviscosa which is East and slightly south. The article mentions one airman. Towards the end of 1942 all New Zealanders and South African disappeared but the lone airman remained. By August 1943 the airman had gone. https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rc...ysZG05Dd8KGg5A

[thewideeyedowl]

Have just run a search for (South African nationals AND RAF) and this page was included in the results, which were otherwise not very helpful. I cannot post it as a clickable link, because there is advertising, but I am sure you can work out the internet address from this:
Www dot funtrivia dot com//ensubtopics/The-South-African-Air-Force dash dash dash WWII-154654 dot html. You will see that the SAAF served as far north as Italy. So I was wondering whether the mysterious John might have been in the SAAF.

One of our military experts might be able to tell you whether there is a database of South African nationals who served in the RAF.

Owl

[thewideeyedowl]

Hi Florio

Have now had a more thorough search and have discovered that the SAAF had 17,271 personnel in Italy by the last months of WW2. In September 1944, they had four Wings there and more personnel were attached to RAF Wings there. Have a look at this interesting site: https://www.af.mil.za/about_us/history.html#3

It is my guess that the mysterious John might have been one of the South African airmen. 'John' might/might not have been his real name but just used as cover; however, he would not have been able to disguise his South African accent - so that is what the people in the area would have picked up on and remembered. Though folk-memory has him as an Englishman, it might simply be because he spoke English.

IF my wild surmise is correct - big IF - then it might be productive to try to trace SAAF in South African archives.

Owl