David Charles Colwell was born in Norbury, in the London borough of Croydon. After attending local schools, he enlisted in the army reserve forces in 1938, joining the City of London Yeomanry. The call to arms came the following year, 1939, when David was deployed to North Africa with the Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery. He remained there until 1942, when, following the evacuation of Mersa Matruh on 28 June, the city and his regiment were surrounded by German forces, and David, along with his fellow soldiers, was taken prisoner by Axis troops.

Mappa disegnata a mano dell’Italia settentrionale / Hand-drawn map of northern Italy

David was transported by ship to the Italian coast and transferred to the Chieti prison camp, where he remained for about fifteen months. The news of the Armistice on 8 September 1943 was met with fear and agitation inside the camp. Italian guards deserted en masse, and the Senior British Officer issued the directive to remain “cool, calm and collected”. Meanwhile, German paratroopers surrounded the camp and organised the transfer of the prisoners to the Sulmona camp, where David and the other captured soldiers spent five days. On 30 September, British officers announced that the prisoners would be transferred once again, this time to an unknown destination. The men were loaded into cattle trains, divided among the cars, and David found himself travelling with several fellow prisoners he knew, including Bill Magsen, Jim Devenald, Nick Rennie, and Doug Truckle. As the train departed, David decided to attempt an escape during one of its slowdowns. After a few failed attempts, he and several others threw themselves out of the windows, along with some provisions.

In the following hours, the group of prisoners headed into the mountains, walking along steep shepherds’ paths in an effort to find the right direction south. The group, initially five men, eventually split up. Doug and David continued their journey together until the next day, when they reached the outskirts of a village and were stopped by some local shepherds.

Cesare provided David and Doug with water and necessary provisions and later led them to a hut to shelter them from the rain and enable them to spend the night dry. Cesare’s wife prepared a meal of pasta with sauce and bread, and it was all eaten from a large pot shared by the four men present, while the woman kept to herself.

In the early days of October, David met other residents of the small village of Prezza, in the inland Abruzzo region, where he formed a strong friendship with Nino and Domenico, two young anti-fascist men who introduced the British soldier to the customs and way of life in the village. During this period, David was often forced to move from one shelter to another, but was eventually directed to a safe hiding place in a cave near the home of the shepherd who had been with Cesare the day they arrived in Prezza.

His time in the village allowed him to closely observe the extremely precarious lifestyle of the farmers and shepherds, who wore worn-out clothing, had very limited food supplies, and lived in filthy houses.

Despite the poor sanitary conditions and pervasive poverty, David noticed that the locals always wore clean underwear. Most importantly, what never seemed to be lacking for him and Doug was food, which arrived punctually at every mealtime and in decent abundance. On many occasions, David struggled to refuse the dishes offered to him, as the Italians seemed unable to accept a refusal when offering food.

Another detail David observed while spending time with the villagers of Prezza were the large amounts of money some of them possessed, which contrasted starkly with the poverty and hardship of their daily lives. The fact that these Italians had access to such sums of money was, in a way, an advantage for the prisoners of war, for whom the Nazi-Fascists had placed bounties.

Life in the small village of Prezza passed, in David’s view, in a monotonous routine, broken only by agricultural work, especially helping Cesare with the plough, and by the growing concern over the slow advance of Allied troops moving northward through Italy. David had to frequently change shelter, and with the arrival of the first autumn chills, he spent less time outdoors. As a result, spending more time indoors brought out tensions, especially with Nino, who didn’t seem to understand the fears of the escaped prisoners, chief among them the danger of being recaptured by German patrols in the area.

In the following weeks, David contracted an acute form of dysentery that confined him to bed and his health got worse. The locals who cared for him struggled to understand that he needed a diet of liquids, and on occasion, though weak, David found himself quarrelling with the women in the house. During this time, German raids on nearby villages heightened fears that Prezza might also be targeted. As a result, Doug and David, who was still unwell, were advised to head into the mountains and then make their way south to reunite with the Allies.

On 19 October 1943, David, Doug, and a few village shepherds, including Cesare, who offered to accompany them part of the way, set out into the mountains. Several villagers gathered to bid farewell and wish the two British soldiers good luck.

The journey from Prezza to southern Italy proved particularly difficult due to the steep paths, their limited knowledge of the local geography, and the constant fear of encountering German troops, whose positions were unknown. Along the way, they met numerous shepherds and peasant women who all showed a willingness to help and support them. Continuing southward, Doug and David eventually encountered other escaped prisoners in the hamlet of Frattura Vecchia, near Lake Scanno.

Thanks to the help of British military personnel, David and Doug obtained a map of the area and resumed their journey, leaving behind the lake and small villages. They passed through San Lorenzo and approached Roccaraso, by then a well-known German stronghold. To avoid German forces, they followed shepherds’ paths used for moving livestock. With the help of a shepherd, they managed to avoid a German column stationed at a water source. The shepherd then took them to his home and offered them food.

After several more days of travel, David and Doug finally arrived north of Bari, where they were able to rejoin the Allied forces. Initially, David was sent to North Africa, to Morocco, to recover, and was later repatriated to England, where he spent the final years of the war with his parents.