Lieutenant Anthony John Deane-Drummond
Unit: No.11 Special Air Service Battalion.
Captured: Calabria, S. Italy, 12th February 1941.
Escaped: Florence Hospital, 15th June 1942.
Left: Gibraltar, 20th July 1942.
Arrived: Glasgow, 30th July 1942.
Army Service: 5½ years (Regular)
Private Address: Little Barrington, Burford, Oxford.
I was one of a party of Paratroops who landed near Calabria, in S. Italy, on 10 Feb 41. We were to make our rendezvous over difficulty country; half under snow, and very populated. We hid up for the following day on the top of a hill about 3500 ft high. The next morning (12 Feb) we discovered that our footsteps had been followed, and the hill was surrounded. Major Pritchard, who was in charge, decided that it was hopeless to carry on, and to avoid loss of life ordered our party to lay down its arms.
We were taken to quarters in the aerodrome at Naples, where we stayed for two weeks. Here I was interrogated, first by the Italians and later by the Germans. The only information I gave them was my name and rank.
On 28 Feb we were transferred to the camp at Sulmona. For the first two months all the parachutists were kept separate in a very small compound (30 yds by 3 yds) in which a sentry was posted the whole time. As a result of representations to the American Attache, we were moved to the main officers' compound on 1 May. Conditions here were reasonably good. Food was sufficient during the above dates.
On 15 Jul I attempted to get out of the camp in the garbage wheel-barrows. A very large (12) escape committee existed at the time, and the morning before I was due to make the attempt, the Italians started to search all rubbish. They had been warned.
In Jul about 20 of us under Commander Brown, R.N., were digging a tunnel. We reached the wire and had about another month's work to do when it was discovered. Informers were again suspected, but in this case it would have been easy, as it was impossible to keep the secret from the other officers.
I made another attempt to escape in Dec 41. I had noticed a very small ledge passing across the three rows of wire where the ground changed levels. Searchlights, however, shone on it and a sentry was posted 20 yds away. With the help of a friend (Capt. C.G. Lea) I decided to make use of the ledge. We made a ladder, and decided to leave as Italian electricians. We took the ladder down over the inside walls of the camp to the sergeants' compound from which we were due to start.
On the night chosen we dropped over the inside wall of the camp, and, carrying the ladder, a spare bulb and a coil of wire we went straight through a corridor in a building in which the Italian guard room and canteen were situated. This let us out into the space between the walls and the wire. We marched straight up to the light which shone on the ledge and propping the ladder against the pole, unscrewed the bulb. The sentry called out to us, and we shouted back in Italian, "Electricians". We then sidestepped along the ledge. While we were doing this the sentry became suspicious and fired, hitting Capt. Lea in the leg. He had to give himself up while I continued. During the next three nights I walked to Pescara along the main road, as I noticed it did not pass through villages. During the day time I hid in culverts which ran under the road.
At Pescara I bought a ticket to Milan. I had with me German passes and badges, forged in the camp and only guessed at. On arrival at Milan I found that there was no train to Como till the next morning, so I stayed in the waiting room there all night. This was very convenient, as it was full and badly lit. The next morning I took the train to Como, and decided to get out of the town and lie up for the day. After having gone about a mile, two soldiers stopped me and asked for my pass. Since I could not speak Italian, they took me to the frontier post at Ponte Chiasso and searched me. The soldiers said that they had only stopped me because of my dirty shoes and general tired appearance.
I was taken to Montalbo Camp and given 35 days' confinement. The room used as the officers' prison was very cold. I was allowed one hour's exercise a day, but no books or writing material. On the 20 Jan 42 I was transferred back to Sulmona. After a month here I was moved to the camp at San Romano. Here, under Major Pritchard, we decided to make a hole through the walls of one of the end rooms and get out through the monastery. While we were making the hole, a monk passed the other side (which was a very rare thing indeed) and heard us. The Italians carried out an immediate search and discovered a fair quantity of escape material. They were convinced that outside help was going to be looked for.
The Italians decided to move all the English officers to a special camp south of Naples. I managed to wangle my way to the hospital a few days before the party left. I was sent to Careggi Hospital at Florence. I was kept locked in a room of the fourth floor with a carabinieri permanently outside the door. There was, a small ledge, about 6 inches wide, just below my window. Early on the morning of 15 Jun I sidestepped along this ledge round the corner of the building and in through another window. I then went downstairs and out through a window on the ground floor. I bought a ticket in Florence Station for Milan, and took the Rome-Milan express at 0600 hrs. I remained in the waiting room at Milan that day, and bought a ticket that night for Varese. From here I walked about 10 km towards Porto Cerisio and struck up towards the frontier.
On top of the hill I suddenly saw what I thought was the frontier with sentry boxes about 15 yards apart. (I have since seen on a large scale map that this was not the frontier.) I decided, however, to try the Ponte Chiasso portion of the frontier. I walked back to Varese on towards Como. While passing through a village at 0100 hrs a Mareschalle (R.S.M.) stopped me and asked for my pass. I had none, but told him I had one waiting for me in Como and that I was a shipwrecked German sailor and had lost everything. After telling him that if he put me "inside" I would not be able to go on leave to-morrow to my poor mother waiting for me in Germany, I produced some German money, and after a lot of hesitation he allowed me to proceed. I hid up the next day and continued on to Ponte Chiasso at night. During the next day I moved up close to the frontier under cover, and observed where the sentry boxes were. They were spaced about 150 - 200 yards apart with a 12 foot diamond mesh wire on the far side of the boxes. I did not see any guards, but heard them talking. At 2300 hrs (19 Jun) I closed up to the wire, and in 20 minutes had scooped out enough earth to allow me to get under the wire.
The following morning I came down the hill to Chiasso. I decided to try to get to Berne direct without giving myself up. I succeeded in changing my Italian money and buying a ticket at the station. Five minutes later a Swiss policeman on the platform asked me for my pass. I told him who I was, and was taken to Berne the same day.
For this escape I was dressed in battle-dress trousers and a navy blue roll-neck pullover. In Berne I was questioned by the Swiss police, and informed them I was an escaped P/W from Italy.
Lieutenant Deane-Drummond was posted to 1st Airborne Divisional Signals of the 1st Airborne Division. In September 1944, now a Major, he was once more taken prisoner during the Battle of Arnhem, and again escaped.
National Archives catalogue reference - WO 208/3324/198
Name: 71076 Major Anthony Deane-Drummond M.C.
Unit: Royal Corps of Signals, 1st Airborne Division.
Captured: Near Arnhem, 22nd September 1944.
Escaped: Velp, 4th October 1944.
Left: Eindhoven, 24th October 1944.
Arrived: Barkston Heath, 24th October 1944.
Date of Birth: 23rd January 1917.
Army Service: Since 28th January 1937.
Peacetime Profession: Regular Army.
Private Address: Little Barrington, Oxford.
NOTE: On 13 Jan 42 Major (then Lieut.) DEANE-DRUMMOND escaped from Careggi Hospital, FLORENCE, reaching SWITZERLAND on 19 Jun 42. See M.I.9/S/P.G.(It) 801.
I was dropped by parachute with my Battalion at 1400 hrs on 17 Sep 44 about eight miles West of ARNHEM (N.W. EUROPE, 1:250,000, Sheet 2a and 3a, E 7578).
On 18 Sep at 1700 hrs L/Cpl. TURNER, two Privates (names unknown), and I took shelter in an empty shop in ARNHEM near the pontoon bridge. Later that evening two German snipers were posted on the roof of the shop and an A.A. gun was placed just outside. The four of us remained in hiding in the shop until midnight on 21 Sep, when we left, as the Germans appeared to be asleep. We swam across the RHINE and became separated.
I then walked West and fell into a slit trench which contained a German, near the railway bridge. I shot this German, but another German in a nearby trench made me his prisoners at 0530 hrs on 22 Sep.
I was taken to a church in ARNHEM, where I met several others of my Division (names unknown). We were then marched to the 9th S.S. Panzer Division P/W camp, which was a house at VELP (E 7979). I arrived at the camp at about 1400 hrs on 22 Sep.
I discovered a cupboard in this house, the door of which was covered by wallpaper. On the morning of 23 Sep I went into this cupboard and locked the door from the inside. I remained there, living on one-third of a loaf of bread and a bottle of water, until the evening of 4 Oct, when the room into which the cupboard opened was temporarily vacant. I opened the cupboard and left the house through a window. I discovered that the house was not then being used as a P/W camp. I hid in some bushes under the window until dark, when I walked to a nearby orchard, where I ate a large quantity of apples.
I then approached a house on the outskirts of ARNHEM and waited until daylight (5 Oct), when the occupier (name unknown) came out. I asked him for help and he hid me in an outhouse. I remained there until evening, when the outhouse was searched by a party of Germans. I was not discovered, and I left the outhouse soon afterwards. I walked N.E. for about two miles and then approached a building, where I was given help. I was moved later that evening to a house in VELP, where I remained until 10 Oct, when I was taken to another house in VELP. I remained there until 21 Oct.
I met Lt. John CLARKE, 10 Parachute Bn., 1 Airborne Division (S/P.G.(H)2779), and L/Cpl. WHITMAEL, 1 Brigade, C.M.P., and a Private (name unknown), 3 Parachute Bn., 1 Airborne Division, in VELP. On the morning of 22 Oct the four of us were taken by Red Cross car to a wood near RENKUM (E 6277), where we joined the main party. [Note: this refers to Operation Pegasus, the mass escape of 138 evaders, mostly of the 1st Airborne Division, across the River Rhine and into the Allied lines on the 22nd October 1944.]
The remainder of my experiences are as related by Major TATHAM-WARTER in his report (S/P.G.(H) 2777).
See also: Major Anthony Deane-Drummond.