John Grasby
British Army 4th Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment
John Grasby (1911-1975) was born on 13 May 1911 in Glanford Brigg, Lincolnshire. In 1927, he enlisted in the Territorial Army, where he served until 1933. During this period, given his excellent academic results, John worked as a schoolteacher.
On 16 January 1939, he enlisted in the army as a Corporal in the 4th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment. His first operation was the evacuation of Dunkirk in June 1940. Afterwards, in 1942, he was deployed in North Africa with the 50th Infantry Division and was eventually captured by the Germans during the battle of Bir Hacheim. He was soon handed over to the Italians and brought, at first, to PG 66 Capua, and then to PG 53 Macerata. Finally, he was transferred to PG 112, Gassino, where he remained until the Armistice of 8 September 1943.
I escaped the 10th of September from the working camp at Gassino, Torino, and up to the 30th of September I along with 13 fellow prisoners hid in a wood about 3 miles from the Campo. The first of October seven companions and myself went to join the partisans in the mountains near the Valle di Lanza.
On his first day as a partisan, John witnessed a German attack employing seven tanks that scattered the partisans. The group was forced to retreat and hide in their original hideout, and John had the opportunity to move in with a family from Turin who were currently living as refugees in the village of Forno Canavese.
Except in very rare cases, all allied POWs were treated exceedingly well by all classes of population in Piemonte. We have always been given food, shelter, clothing, money in numerous places, despite the death penalty imposed by the Nazi-fascists. The mass of the population is definitely antifascista.
John remained with this family in Forno Canavese for a few days (7-10 October) but soon was forced to flee as a German column of more than three thousand men occupied the area, patrolling night and day and leaving behind a considerable number of spies among the civilians.
My Italian friend (Amato Milano) took me to Favria (13 km from Forno) where I lived with his sister until April 1944. By this time the partisans had obtained arms and transport and had begun to carry out molesting raids so I decided to go with them.
Thus, in April 1944, John joined the dell’Orco Garibaldi Brigade, where five other former PoWs were already fighting. He was put in charge of this small group of Allied partisans, but they were not allowed to carry weapons or take part in any action against the enemy, instead being confined to taking care of the camp in the mountains.
On the 30th of July, I left the mountains and came down into the plain, where on the 31st of July, I joined a squad of saboteurs headed by a Sicilian named Angelo of St Antonio, Favria Canvese. I stayed with the squad until August 20th. In the weeks of my stay with the squad the Germans and fascists were carrying out large-scale mopping up operations and we destroyed three bridges, electric polygons and also cut telephone wires.
Eventually, as they ran out of targets to sabotage, the group disbanded on 20 August 1944, and John returned to Forno Canavese, where partisan activity, despite their lack of organisation, was still intense. In this period, John realised the difficulties the partisans had in facing the Germans, compounded by the presence of many enemy spies among the population. As he needed some protection, he returned to Amato Milano’s house in Forno Canavese, where he remained hidden until the end of the war.
The partisans were badly organized and had no desire to put up any resistance against the attacking Germans and as it was becoming increasingly difficult to move around because of spies, I returned to the house of Amato Milano at Forno, where I remained hidden from august 20th until the end of the war.
In 1945, John finally managed to signal his presence to a South African unit in the city of Turin and, in the same year, was repatriated to the United Kingdom. His military career continued after the war, as he served in Malaysia, Austria, and Germany. On 31 August 1957, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him a Long Service and Good Conduct medal.
Camps related to this story
Helpers
Bibliography/Sources
- The National Archives, WO 344/123/2
- wartime memories project.com, The Green Howards Association website