Sergeant Arnold Walter Bennetts
Unit : Battalion Headquarters, 1st Parachute Battalion
Army No. : 4202966
Awards : Mentioned in Despatches
Bennetts was wounded and captured after baling out over Sicily on 13th July 1943. He was taken to [unreadable] hospital.
After the Italian Armistice, acting upon the instructions of the Senior British Officer, Bennetts escaped from his hospital in civilian clothes to ascertain the location of the Germans. He discovered that they were already guarding the gates and it would be impossible for all the prisoners to escape. Having imparted this information to the Senior British Officer, Bennetts received permission to leave again alone and by carrying a box of grapes, walked unchallenged past the sentries. He swam the [?] to reach [?] Elisio, where he remained to help to organise guerilla warfare until his recapture on 6th November 1943.
The cell into which he was put was situation on the fourth floor of the [?] prison. By working all night he stripped the plaster from the edges of the window and was able to lift the whole frame into the cell. The next night he made a rope from his blanket... [remainder of the citation is tragically unreadable].