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Memories of an Italian Naval Signalman Part Five — From Poona POW Camp to POW camp at Ramghar.

Part five of an oral history interview with Mr. Artemio Ettore Torselli conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

“Since late 1941, 1942 when Japan attacked United States there was an increasing number of American soldiers in India and the contractors, they used to say, can’t get hold of anything. The Yankies just buy up everything, we just can’t get hold of anything. But then what we did, the old Kangra Valley and as I say in northern India, an Officer who was an engineer with a big Italian firm, built a distilling plant. There was a several store places in the cook house and there was a small one and he used to distill and make Grappa, the Italian equivalent to whiskey. I was the agent because I didn’t drink you see and I used to sell it. Every week there was an inspection from a British Colonel, he used to come in with a couple of assistants. There was a Sergeant in the camp he used to love that drink, when he used to come in, in the morning, ‘Morning Sarg, how about a drink?’ ‘oh, I’ll have a drop.’ With the Colonel weekly visiting, the Sergeant would say, ‘Sorry, Sir, lost the key can’t get in.’ Because in the corner store there, because then the Sergeant and everybody would be sent to … Kingdom come. We were doing pretty well like that. And for a period we had an Australian Captain in camp, he was quite a friendly chap, I was in the kitchen then. He to used to come in and say, ‘Oh,’ because it was a military place as well, they’d got bungalows that they used to sleep with their families just outside the camp. One night they found an Italian looking in the windows of the bungalows. When they brought him in the camp somebody said, ‘What the hell was the idea?’ and they nabbed him, one of the patrol, he said, ‘I used to go out regularly every night to have a look around where the officers live.’�

It was pretty good until one day by something unforeseen, it was a National holiday or something like that we were singing National songs and evening time it was quite a sort of show. Now I think Head Quarters possibly suspecting something to go wrong they put a patrol on the road in between the camps, well coming by our camp somebody was singing and one of the patrol aimed a rifle and shot one of our men dead! Of course you see that was against the International Convention. Because in the camp we had got a low single strand barbed wire, we had got that but beside there was a big tall (linked wire fence) … but we could go as far as the single strand by Regulations. It was some chap, trigger happy who just shot and he was going to shoot again. But the Sergeant in charge, when he was going to aim, he knocked the rifle up in the air and the bullet … Well, that was a nasty shock because things were going quite nicely in there. The Italian Supervisor which there was in every camp, he contacted the Head Quarter and they said, ‘Don’t send any men in the morning to the camp because there could be big trouble.’ So the Head Quarter called the Supervisor and they had a meeting like that and then things carried on normally, but that was a nasty happening. You know, when you are in camp, well it was two or three years we were there and British Head Quarter, the General, he regretted very much what had happened. It was understood that it would be reported to International Committee, that was a black spot on our time.

At that camp I was in charge, I was an Able Seaman, I was in charge of the troops shall we say, place, dormitories and sometimes we organised a poker game. And on some occasions we used to have a light, put a blanket round that so we didn’t disturb the others, until somebody in the morning who was due in the kitchen or something like would get up early, ‘Hey, you miserable lot, still playing cards!’ ‘Shut up!’ we used to say, ‘keep quiet and get dressed.’ We were doing pretty well until one night - there was a sentry post not far, oh, 30 feet or something like on the corner of the camp. An Indian sentry, ‘Hey, Jack!’ It was very warm, I was sitting outside on a boulder, ‘Hey, Jack’ he said, I thought what the hell is he on about. I said, ‘What do you want?’ he said, ‘have you got anything to sell me?’ I said, ‘Here?’ he said, ‘I’ll be on here again on nights between two or three or four days, something like that.’ Well, I thought you are going get me humbugged up because I am not going to risk my life. When he came on again he say, ‘Have you got anything for me?’ I said, ‘yes, I’ve got a pullover and a pair of trousers’ something like that. ‘Alright!’ he said, ‘I’ll come down’ he was on the gate, ‘I’ll come down and get it.’ I thought I’m not going to go over that single strand (of wire) so I said, ‘Alright, come down.’ There was a gate where we used to have the roll call outside the camp, the gate was actually single because the other part was the single strand and then the high wire, he came down and we did the business. In the camp we only used to have the coupons, no currency and he paid me in currency and every time he was on duty he used to call. I did quite a bit of trade until somebody in the Barrack, when I used to see to somebody, ‘Want to sell that pullover or those trousers?’ they got a bit nosy, ‘what the hell do you want buy that for?’ ‘never you mind, forget it!’ I didn’t want them to know that I was doing trade with a bloomin’ sentry you know, but I did quite a bit. Then I lost the money!

Well one day after Italy changed side, on 8th September 1943, amongst us Navy, Airmen and Army men there were some Blackshirts of the Fascist party. We were all Prisoners of War and I think some Italian Supervisor, Officer got perhaps the wind that some of them were trying to be bit of a rebel and there was a fear that perhaps that they were sort of armed themselves with knives and things like that. I think, I wouldn’t be sure, that the Italian Supervisor advised the British Command to make an inspection in the camp. So one day, everybody out, out of camp to where we used to have the roll call and they sent in a party inspecting everything. Now, at the gate, we went to the empty camp, I took my money, the currency in rupees with me because I thought if they make the inspection they find it they take it away. Well, when I got to the gate there were two or three Italian Officers between the camps and we said, ‘What’s up?’ ‘well’ he said, ‘there is going to be an inspection.’ So I said, ‘Ooh, I wonder if they are going to do a personal inspection they’ll find my money there.’ There was an Officer, a friend of mine, a Milanese from Milan, ‘Here’ I said, ‘I’ve got a bit of rupees’ ‘alright’ he said, ‘give it to me.’ I handed it over and an English soldier noticed we were doing something so he came along and he said, ‘Come on, own up. What is happening?’ So he took the money away, I lost the bloomin’ money. I got a weeks punishment, well, I didn’t like to be punished like that.

Then one day they said, ‘Right, line up. Tomorrow morning you are going on a train.’ Well, nobody knew where. When we got to the station, which was about oh, about a mile away, they said, ‘Right, take your shoes off.’ ‘What the hell for?’ ‘Take your shoes, off. Everybody tie them together with a label, name and … ‘ ‘what’s the idea?’ Well, on a previous journey four men got away so now we get the order, take your shoes off, put them in a goods wagon and if you think of running away with no shoes, you had got a problem! All the toilet doors were nailed open, like that. That’s how it goes. Well, it just happened one our chaps, he brought a bugle on board, he couldn’t go the toilet with the door open, he just couldn’t. Somehow, I don’t know how they organised that they stopped the train after two days at Vardar(?), a town where the one that organised all the rebellions, Ghandi, it was where he lived. Anyway they got him out of the train and he came, he followed up to the camp a few days later, we said, ‘How did it go?’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘it was paradise,’ he said. ‘Oooh, all nice nurses looking after me and a nice bed, I wish I could have stopped there.’ Anyway we had four days journey, four nights. Oh, yes from Bangalore to the north where we were, some did travel from Bangalore in the south to the centre of north India, they did seven days and seven nights journey! We did four nights and we got to the east, not far from Bengal, Ramghar. A place called Ramghar, that’s where a Petty Officer, a friend of mine (Chief Gunner Agnes) he used to live about 10 miles away from where I lived in Italy. (Perhaps two or three years ago I wrote the Mayor of the town, made in contact with some niece or a nephew, something like that). He was a specialist electrician on board and they were digging a tunnel to escape and he went to fix an electrical POWer for light and he got electrocuted. He was buried there and eventually, in 1960 I think, some organisation in our Government they exhumed and transferred him to the town. They couldn’t find any of his family. Anyway we got to this Ramgar and they said, we were talking to some English troops there and they said, ‘Well, you are alright here, Bengal is not very far, only a couple of people have been eaten by these tigers recently!’ Laughter!

They had built camps, they had cleared the jungle, they had built quite a number of camps there. And what they had done to build, shall we say, where we used to sleep, dormitory like that. They’d dug the soil and built it a bit up so that the dormitories were a bit up and left the stumps of the trees like that, sticking up and I got a scratch and it formed an ulcer. I nearly lost my leg! But it wasn’t too bad you know. Well, what happened they formed camps with 460 Officers and 140 other ranks, sailors, airmen to look after and do everything in the camp. We had got some quite good cooks and they organised to make the bread, cooked pasta and we were pretty well, they make some quite good food, we had some damned good cooks, it wasn’t too bad.�

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