Escape from the Italian Colditz
How six ageing heroes used knives & forks to flee Mussolini’s fortress
As some of the highest-ranking allied commanders held in the Third Reich’s prisoner of war camps, they were Adolf Hitler’s most prized captives.
And after being thrown in an Italian fortress as formidable as Colditz, their guards probably expected little trouble from a group of top brass aged 48 to 63, riddled with an array of war wounds and not in the peak of fitness.
But the six comrades – Sir Philip Neame, Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart, Sir Richard O’Connor, Owen Boyd, John Frederick Boyce Combe, James Hargest and Reginald Miles – had other ideas.
In 1943, they made a dramatic and daring escape after digging a tunnel using nothing more than the knives and forks they ate with.
Four of them managed to stay on the run for a week, with two even making it to neutral Switzerland, as the Gestapo hunted them down.
Now, their remarkable story has been told in a new book called Castle of the Eagles by historian Mark Felton and is being made into a Hollywood epic to rival The Great Escape.
He says: “The Italians underestimated the sheer resourcefulness, pluck, and determination of men who refused to let age, injury or disability stand in their way. They hatched escape plans that would have taxed the energy and nerves of men half their ages.
“They refused to be kept prisoner and eventually pulled off one of the war’s most daring escapes.”
The men were captured during 1940 and 1941 and imprisoned at Vincigliata Castle near Florence. Mussolini’s hilltop fort boasted a seven-storey stone keep surrounded by 30 feet high walls topped with barbed wire, a dry moat, and 200 heavily armed guards.
As officers, they were treated well and lived in luxury, lounging in leather armchairs, playing backgammon and allowed to pursue hobbies such as gardening or breeding rabbits.
Yet they refused to see out the war in comfort and saw escape as their duty. To build their fitness and stamina, they puffed their way up steep stone staircases 75 times a day when the guards’ backs were turned. The group started digging from a bricked-up chapel beneath the keep, using their cutlery to carve through the rock and solid clay. It took them seven months to tunnel 35 feet under the outer wall. One rainy day in March 1943, they emerged on the other side of the castle and began the 200-mile journey north to Switzerland. The men were equipped with homemade maps and ID papers and civilian outfits stitched together from old uniforms.
Brigadier Combe, 48, Air Vice Marshall Boyd, 54, Brigadier Hargest, 52, and 51-year-old Brigadier Miles – both New Zealanders – took a train to Milan. Combe was caught there by police for having false ID and Boyd got to within a quarter of a mile of the border before being held.
Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian, 63, and Lieutenant-General Sir Richard, 54, trekked towards Switzerland, sleeping rough and each carrying a 25lb rucksack full of provisions. They covered 150 miles in eight days before they were caught.
Hargest and Miles made it to freedom but there was to be no happy end for either. The journey across Europe to try to reach Britain was slow and tortuous.
Miles succumbed to depression as a result of the delays and shot himself in Spain. Hargest did reach Blighty but was killed by a German shell at Normandy in August 1944.
Neame did not escape himself but oversaw the breakout and ensured it was not discovered until the next day, giving his comrades time to get clear of the castle.
While their escape was incredible it was perhaps no surprise. The six were battle-hardened war heroes, with the medals – and scars – to prove it.
Sir Adrian was shot in the stomach and groin during the Boer War. His left eye was blasted out and part of his ear torn off in a First World War raid at
They refused to let age or injury stand in their way and refused to be kept prisoner MARK FELTON HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR OF BOOK ON THE ASTONISHING ESCAPE
modern day Somalia in 1914. He wore a black patch and was regarded as invincible by his fellow soldiers owing to his survival of so many wounds.
The officer was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and later went to the Western Front, where he commanded three infantry battalions.
He was wounded seven more times and even tore off two of his fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them after his hand was shattered by a shell.
Sir Adrian was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroics.
During the Second World War, Sir Richard, along with Sir Adrian, led the British to victory over the Italians in Africa and captured 130,000 prisoners before they were overpowered by Hitler’s forces and caught themselves.
Sir Philip was also a VC winner after holding back the Germans single handed for 45 minutes with grenades made of empty jam tins at Neuve-Chapelle while comrades rescued the injured.
Today, Vincigliata Castle is one of Europe’s most desirable wedding locations, attracting celebrity couples. Arsenal’s Theo Walcott wed childhood sweetheart Melanie Slade there in 2013.
Castle Of The Eagles by Mark Felton is published Icon Books and is available to buy now.