Preface: Capture at Anzio.

Some additional notes were added by Dr Middlemiss at the time of transcription, in April 1987 from his first copy. These are shown in brackets. Also, some Editor's notes have been added for the Website.

1944

17th February, Thursday.

Sailed from Pozzuoli in landing vessels at night.

18th February, Friday.

Landed at Anzio. Temporary bivouac by side of main road leading north-west. At night marched eastwards to the oak woods [Padiglione Woods].

19th February, Saturday.

Constructed mud sangaro* in the oak wood (water table too high to dig in).

*Editor's Note: We do not understand this word. We assume it means a mud wall.

21st February, Monday.

At night marched up via the Flyover* and the Wadis to the caves south of Aprilia (2nd battalion). In wadis dressed several wounded; lost my jack-knife after cutting off a wounded mans boots. Night uncomfortably luminous because of a blazing farmhouse on Buonriposo Ridge and we were machine-gunned by the Irish Guards in error - nobody hurt! Johnny Flood, going back with a message, was taken prisoner by a German forward patrol near the Flyover. A few minutes later a British patrol bumped into them in the darkness and released him, upon which he was able to rejoin us in the Wadis.

A map of the local area, showing the 2nd Battalion cut off behind German Lines near the wadis.

* Editor's Note: Several other war accounts refer to the Flyover bridge at Anzio, which was a major tactial point, as it controlled road traffic in the area.

An old photo of the flyover Frank refers to. The railway runs north-south and the road east-west. It has been totally rebuilt since the war.

23rd February, Ash Wednesday.

The extensive cave system contained a heterogeneous mixture of British and American troop, including many wounded; also several refugee Italian families. The Germans had completely surrounded the caves and had a large gun pointing straight into the main entrance*. Because of this, and in view of the fact that food and water had run out, orders were given as follow: (1) medical personnel were to march out in the daylight carrying the wounded and ask the Germans to let them through; (2) armed personnel were to fight their way back to the main British position under cover of night.

*This may have been a field gun, but about 70 years later, after Frank's death, it was suggested by one of his friends that it might have been a Tiger Tank..

We marched out of the caves late afternoon in good order, carrying some 50 wounded on stretchers, and under the command of a very inexperienced young American captain. We marched straight up to the German captain waiting to meet us on the next rise, but on no account would he let us through, especially as British shells were continuing to fall around us thick and fast. The American captain had no German whatever, neither had the German captain any English; I had to act as interpreter to the best of my ability! *


*Editor's Note: This may be the same negotiation refered to on the link below, about half way down.

The Germans were particularly anxious to know whether the Allies had any useful stores. What I said Yes, lots, they wanted me to lead them to them; but when I explained that I meant in Anzio they lost interest!

After a good deal of discussion, we were all declared to be Kriegsgefngererand and we marched on with the wounded to the German Regimental Aid Post, which was in some very small caves in the northern part of the Wadis, west of the Factory. Here we spent the night. Medical personnel went with the wounded into the small caves. but there was not room for everybody and some spent an uncomfortable night outside, with British shells falling all around.

24th February, Thursday.

Goebbels-like young German officer made us all surrender our leather jerkins; this, he insisted, was on the orders of General von Mackensen. Several of our people were given the job of burying German dead, which were lying around everywhere, some already starting to decompose.

At night, we marched further on to a larger cave devoted solely to prisoners of war. This must have been somewhere north of the Factory. Here we were joined by a number of Irish Guards and other infantry. As far as I am aware, none of the infantryman in the caves of Aprilia and got back to the Allied positions. All were taken prisoner (apart from those who were killed).

25th February, Friday.

In the morning we marched to the official prisoner of war cage, which was in some farm houses beside a road in the Roman Campagna. As we left the cave we were given a final send-off by a large-calibre British shell landing immediately on the other side of the road.

Here we spent a week locked in a small garage like the Black Hole of Calcutta. Food here consisted of:

Morn: 1/8 loaf, jam and coffee.

Midday: thick stew of (e.g.) macaroni,

barley, carrots, cabbage.

Eve: 1/8 loaf, cheese or sausage.

3rd March, Friday.

Marched by road to the main POW concentration camp*, situated in the great sound stage of the famous film studios of Cinecitt, in the southern outskirts of Rome, close to the ruins of the great Roman aqueduct and with a good view of the Alban Hills, with their sparkling white villages.

*Editor's Note: Mr Middlemiss uses the term "concentrat ion camp" but in later years this has been taken to have a different meaning. Now we would say POW Camp.