Long Journey Home: The perilous escapes of Anzac POWs from fascists in wartime Italy

Captured at Alamein, used as forced labour on farms in northern Italy, thousands of Australian and NZ diggers escaped their captors when Italy signed an armistice in September 1943, including the author's father. Could they make it over the alps to freedom in Switzerland before winter set in?

After her father's death, Katrina Kittel discovers an old Globite suitcase in the attic, with tiny photos, postcards in beautiful handwriting from a mysterious Swiss woman, and memorabilia from his war.

Katrina Kittel's father Col Booth was captured during the disastrous July 1942 attempt to take Alamein's Ruin Ridge, and he was despatched to Campo 57 in northern Italy. He was among 80,000 Allied soldiers sent to northern Italy as prisoners of war.

They suffered cruel punishments for petty offences, periods of low rations and illness, and they were used as forced labour on farms. When news arrived of the Italian armistice with the Allies on 3 September 1943, an extraordinary 52,000 Allied POWs escaped the camps, scattering in all directions across the countryside.

Col was among those who headed for the Alps in pairs and small groups, aiming for neutral Switzerland. Life in the camps had been challenging, but not nearly as nerve wracking as life in disguise and on the run, as they dodged German soldiers, Royalist sympathisers and fascist loyalists, while scrounging for food and shelter, trying to reach the navigable mountain passes before winter set in. For many impoverished mountain villagers, the 4000 lire German bounty for a captured POW was too tempting.