Talk:Servigliano prison camp

14 September 1943 Breakout

I find it strange that the mass breakout and escape of some 2,000 prisoners from this camp on 14 September 1943 is dismissed as "the prisoners fled"! In fact, with the Italian armistice, the allied prisoners, instead of being released, were informed by the camp commandant that there would be no release, that as Fascists, the Italian authorities in the camp would hold them for the Germans. Despite having some tunnels, the prisoners, aware that only a few could escape that way, decided on a mass attack on the camp gates. At 10.30pm on the night of 14 September 1943, about 2,000 men charged the gate. They were met with rifle and machine gun fire, and many were killed or wounded. The escape took about 20 minutes until the last living prisoner cleared the camp. Most were eventually recaptured by the Germans who at this time had taken over the countryside. An account of the camp and breakout can be found in "Keith Argraves, Paratrooper" by George W. Chambers, The Southern Publishing Association, 1946, pp67-78. Argraves was one of those who took part in the breakout. The account s based on his eyewitness account. Ptilinopus (talk) 21:10, 7 March 2014 (UTC)