Brief extracts from the Italian article:
The article explains that the Italians were not prepared for so many Brits to be taken prisoner at the time of Tobruk and they constructed seven new POW camps, among them this one at Benevento, in the area of Cardoncelli, in the middle of the countryside.
The first 1874 prisoners entered the camp on 1 September 1942 followed by many more during that month. They were mostly English but there were also Canadians, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders and Indians. The camp commandant was Colonel Amleto Garattini
(note the name!!)
The POW Donald I Jones in his book “Escape from Sulmona” explains he first was in a camp in Benghazi , then a brief transit through a camp at Capua followed by 6 weeks "of misery" at Benevento. At the beginning of October 1942 [the party he was in] was marched to the station at Benevento and they were sent 100 miles north to Sulmona.
It is suggested that the reminiscences of Vincent Roberts, taken prisoner at Tobruk and in Benevento for some months, can be found on the internet
The only building that still remains of the camp is the hospital building It has since been used for other purposes, including a restaurant but at the time of writing the article (2014) , was unused.
The picture of a long white building is of the camp hospital. The pictures of a tented camp and huts with a line of men are from a similarly constructed camp in Croatia.
MaxD
