British POW Ethiopia 1941

[Neil Williams]

Folks,

The attached envelope from Dover is addressed 'Prisoner of War Post' to Flt Sgt Arthur Francis Wimsett, c/o The Italian Red Cross, Rome, etc. Wimsett's 47 Sqn Wellesley from Senna, Sudan, was damaged by ground fire and crash-landed at Burye, Ethiopia, on 28 February 1941, the crew of three being captured. The Italians had evacuated Burye by 6 March.

British and Italian censor tapes, Italian Red Cross receiver - and clearly the word 'Libere' (ie freed).

PW mail not being my forte, grateful for any guidance as to:-

the censor mark circle 148 - I
the routing of the envelope both to Rome and back.
hints etc as to the other manuscript marks.
whether Wimsett was freed on the 'liberation' of Burye, or moved to a more formal PW camp in the interior. I've trawled the internet and could find nothing about Italian-run PW camps in the AOI. (Plenty the other way round....)

Sorry it's a list!

regards
Neil Williams

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Neil,

Great cover and thank you for sharing this with us.

I have a couple of comments, but would be good if any others could help out?

I think the word Libere refers to 'Free' post rather than Italian for Freed, I know this is not a literal translation, but the language would also suggest this.

The 148-1 mark is Italian, again no expert, but Civil censor, likely applied in handling, either when the label was applied or another point in Italy. I would think the cover and the POW were in main land Italy at this date, the Italians could well have sent him back to join allied prisoners from North Africa at this time.

I wondered if anyone might know what RPolo 214 on the reverse might refer to?

Peter

[Neil Williams]

Hi Peter

many thanks for these comments and observations.

Wimsett was Gazetted Warrant Officer wef 14 December 1942, so I presume he'd been freed by then. Later commissioned and won a DFC with 627 (Pathfinder) Squadron.

Hope we get some more feedback!

Neil

[Nick Colley]

Hmm, interesting one, this. At present, I'm with Pete Harvey wrt to meaning here of 'libere' - ie free as in free postage. Freed, or liberated, if you wish, is (so Google translate tells me)  liberato. Which leaves us with the conundrum of his award of the DFC with 627 Squadron.

Pure speculation, this, but perhaps he was one of the lucky ones to be liberated when the Allies invaded Italy in 1943? That would, perhaps, have allowed him time to be repatriated, re-acclimatised, re-trained (as necessary) and returned to operational flying? Just a thought.

chrs
N

[Nick Colley]

Well, the London Gazette has him down as promoted to Flying Officer wef 14/6/43. I'm not sure of the significance of this, since the Allies didn't land in Sicily (mainland) until September 1943. Annoyingly he hasn't made it into the list of more-or-less notable RAF characters to be found in www.unithistories.com:

https://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_W01.html

and
https://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAF_officers_W01.html

This might be one for Alan, if we can abuse his access to Forces War Records?

chrs
N

[Alan Baker]

First pass - on Ancestry he got married in Dover in second quarter 1942. Suggests he was free by then

The stamp on the reverse "Ufficio Prigionieri Ricerche" translates as "Office Prisoners Searches" (Googly), so perhaps the letter was returned when they found out he was not still held. Doesn't help much

[Neil Williams]

Many thanks for the further comments.

My view from the Gazette dates and the wedding is that he was freed whilst in Ethiopia. My understanding of the East African campaign is that once the British forces invasion started, the Italians were effectively cut off from Italy and Libya. Maybe some urgent stuff by air, but I doubt they'd have flown out PoWs.

having been held by the Italians there'd be no issues with him flying against the Germans later in the war.

Neil W

[Neil Williams]

All

to add, a contact of mine specializing in the Italian East Africa campaigns has identified that the principal PoW camp for British and Empire military was at Adi Ugri in Eritrea. This was liberated shortly after the Battle of Karen in March 1941. Amongst the PoWs liberated was Captain Eric Wilson, awarded the VC (presumed posthumously at the time!) for actions during the 1940 invasion of British Somaliland, and a number of shot-down RAF aircrew.

So if Wimsett was not liberated at Burye shortly after being shot down, he was liberated at Adi Ugri a few weeks later.

Neil W