John Jenkins

Lieutenant, Royal Engineers (RE)

John Jenkins was captured by the Germans in North Africa on 26 June 1942 during the siege of Tobruk. He was then handed over to the Italians and went through the camps in At Tamimi, Derna, Barce Media, and, finally, Benghazi. From there, he was transferred to Italy, to Bari, and then to PG 65, Gravina. His next transfer was to PG 21, Chieti, on 4 August 1943. He remained in this camp for about one month before learning of the Armistice between Italy and the Allies on 8 September 1943.
Despite the Senior British Officer ordering the prisoners not to leave the camp, Jenkins and others, after waiting for a few weeks, decided to escape. The group split into three and, after climbing the camp’s external walls, they dispersed in the surrounding countryside.

Buck and I went back across the river to the friendly woodcutters this morning to try and scrounge some food. They apparently expected us because they had prepared a large cauldron of macaroni, potatoes and tomatoes for us. We also took as much fruit as we could carry and a huge loaf. We had decided to keep in this area provided we could get food and a place to sleep and await the arrival of our own troops.

In the following days, Jenkins’s group attempted to secure food and a place to stay by approaching the local farmhouses, confident that Allied troops would arrive shortly. During their pregrinations, Jenkins met a young boy, who welcomed the escapees into his house.

At first light we were wet through and decided to make for the nearest house and ask for shelter until the rain stopped. We struggled up a hill and through the mud and came to a barn at the top with other farm buildings scattered around. Soon an old woman came in. She looked a bit frightened and called someone else. Then a younger man came in. We explained that we were English POWs, he seemed a bit doubtful and called in his father who had been to America and could speak a little English. After a little chatting, they become more friendly. They took us to another barn and gave us food.

During the following weeks, as a guest of the Genovini family, Jenkins was often forced to change his hiding spot, alternating between nearby caves and huts in the woods. In October, he was told of the possibility of Allied operations in the area to rescue escaped PoWs. In particular, he learned that, on the night of 7-8 and 9-10 October, the Special Air Service would conduct raids to rescue Allied escapees along the river Foro.

Our first problem was to cross the Chieti-Rome road. This was patrolled and we could hear odd shouts and bursts of LMG fire. All the Ites we met said it was impossible to cross the road. However, we went a little further down and after some false starts got across safely. Then began a nightmare journey mostly across ploughed fields up almost vertical slopes. Finally, at 03:00 we got to a house and Genovini knocked up the owner. They were friends of his. We had arrived! I was never so thankful for sleep. The owner was very dubious about us at first but later became quite friendly and gave us vino.

Once they reached the designated location, Jenkins said goodbye to Genovini and headed toward the beach, waiting for the arrival of the agents assigned to recover the prisoners. But after hours of waiting, Jenkins, reluctantly, realised that help would not be coming. The group headed East into the valley and stopped at a farmhouse where other PoWs who had escaped from the Chieti camp were hiding. Meanwhile, Jenkins returned to the beach multiple times, waiting for the rescuers to arrive. However, danger was high, and he was forced to change hideouts from one stable to another because of German patrols.

We left at first light and tramped over the hill. It was still early, and we decided to have a much-needed bath. We met a small boy who apparently remembered our visit to the area. He brought down a couple of females who had also been there on our previous visit, so we were soon OK for food.

At his new hiding place, Jenkins was provided with new civilian clothes and was informed by a British Colonel that a rescue operation was imminent in the area. However, this too amounted to nothing. At this point, Jenkins abandoned the idea of being rescued by sea and headed South, meeting Count Luigi, also known as “Lewis”, a Yugoslavian Naval Officer who was in charge of rescuing escaped PoWs in the area. Luigi brought Jenkins to a farmhouse where, thanks to him and the farmer, several escapees were hiding.

The farmer had a family of 10 and arranged for us to sleep in the kitchen. We got up early (the next day) and walked along the track after food and had some new bread at one house. Later we visited two more chaps who were billeted farther down the road and arranged a tea party for the morrow. The family which was very shy at the first are now coming out of their shells.

Jenkins remained with the family where they had the tea party for a few days, visiting the local pub and working in the fields. During that period, his companion Baxter went missing and did not return to the farmhouse, and Jenkins suspected a German patrol had recaptured him. Nonetheless, his agrarian life continued:

We had meat today, large lumps of it. We worked on the grapes again and completed the patch. We must be eating three or four pounds of grapes a day. It would be wonderful if we could get a few home.

In mid-October, Jenkins learned that Allied troops were in Campobasso, which meant the frontline was nearby him. After a discussion with other escapees, they decided to head South. The group, however, got lost and found itself near the town of Villa Grande, where they encountered a young girl who greeted them and invited them into her house.

After a couple of hours whilst I was having a rest Crap rolled up having got mixed up in a valley and unable to find the way out. We decided to carry on together for a way. We crossed the road near Villa Grande and were just passing a house when we were hailed by a girl. We went up to the house and discovered four more POW and two SAS there.

The two SAS in the house explained to them that, after a first failed rescue attempt, they were organising another one soon. In the meantime, Jenkins met an Italian-American named Joe, who offered the group shelter for the following days while they waited for the SAS rescue operation.

We picked grapes for the rest of the day. We slept in a bed at the padrones’ house that night and were bored by a very voluble American but charmed by the padrones’ daughter. We returned to Joe’s early for more grape picking, all the padrones’ family picked too. We went back to the padrones’ house in the evening and had bacon and eggs and lots of vino. We then slept there again.

On 21 October, Jenkins and his companions were guided by some local women to the designated meeting spot for the rescue operation, where the SAS agents informed them that the spot had been moved to another place. After marching all day and sleeping in makeshift shelters, the group learned of two escapees who had failed to cross the frontline and decided to stop in the town of Jelsi, where they were aided by a local farmer, named Nick.

We helped Nick (our host) to hoe a piece of ground in the morning but soon it rained and we returned to shelter. A villager brought news that our troops have captured Isernia. Crab, Reg, and I decided to move tomorrow morning, but this news made us wait another day.

On 28 October, the three men, after saying goodbye to Nick, resumed their journey, being forced to deviate multiple times to avoid the withdrawing German troops. The next day, Jenkins was sheltered by a family who was already hiding a few other escapees. The Italians offered to guide him along the river, following a safe path through the German minefields. Jenkins and his companions thus managed to cross the river, exhausted and covered in mud, and reached another farmhouse, where the owner greeted them.

We came to a farm and the farmer said he would guide us to our own troops at Montenero. He offered us eggs and such which we refused but we accepted a chicken, killed, plucked, and fried all in half an hour. We trudged for seven kilometers to Montenero occupied by the Argyles. We had a warm reception with beer, food, and cigarettes.

Once behind Allied lines, Jenkins was interrogated and brought to Camp 75, the very same camp where his Italian imprisonment began. Soon after, he was sent to Taranto and then to Algiers. In Bou Ismal, near the Algerian capital, Jenkins was given time to recuperate from the hunger and exhaustion he had suffered in the previous months. On 28 November, after a week in Algeria, he was finally repatriated.