PG 21 Chieti

Chieti is a city and comune in central Italy. It is the capital of the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region.

PM 3300

Operational from July 1942. This was an Officers camp, in an old convent.  After the Armistice, anybody wishing to leave the camp was forcibly prevented from doing so by the orders of the Senior British Officer who was following to the letter the orders of Allied HQ to remain in the camp and await the arrival of Allied forces. Consequently, the Germans were able to capture them all. They were subsequently transferred to P.G. 78 [Sulmona] and thence to camps in Germany where they remained until the end of the war.

More information about this camp can be discovered from these links:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/An-Extraordinary-Italian-Imprisonment-Brutal/dp/1473822696

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=335

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Chieti – Camp for prisoners of war n. 21
Chieti (Chieti) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from July 1942
Source: DPG27
Note: Research on Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing (November 2012). The information reported here is taken from some documents conserved in the Historical Office of the Army General Staff and concerns only the period from March 1942 to March 1943. The data on this sheet are therefore incomplete and still to be verified.

In the city of Chieti (in a place not yet identified) the P.G. prisoner of war camp has been in operation since July 1942. No. 21.

From PGCE01 in August a squad of official prisoners arrives for transfer from the camp pg. no. 75 of Torre Tresca. In February 1943, a work detachment at the Acquafredda di Roccamorice mines depended on this camp (see PGCE02) (to be verified). In March 1943, the camp was described as having a capacity of 1,000 (for officers of higher rank) and was set aside (that is, in masonry buildings and not in barracks or tents).

The internees are overwhelmingly English officers. But there are some P.G. of other nationalities forming part of the allied army. On March 31, 1943 there are 1,296 prisoners of war divided as follows:
54 British senior officers
844 British junior officers
260 English NCOs and enlisted men
3 Canadian junior officers
1 New Zealand senior officer
1 New Zealand junior officer
50 South African NCOs and Men (White)
2 American senior officers
59 American junior officers
22 US NCOs and others

At the moment there is no other information on the P.G. No. 21 of Chieti.

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PG abbreviatio

The full title is ‘Campo Concentramento di Prigioniere di Guerra’ (prisoner of war concentration camp). They were not concentration camps in the normal sense of the word. Camps were normally prefixed PG, but could be referred to as CC, Campo or Campo PG. The exception was the 2 Dulags and 1 Stalag within Italy, which were German controlled transit centres for POWs being transferred to Germany. The camps were originally known by their place names, and numbers were not introduced until early 1942. There are some camps with no numbers, perhaps they closed before early 1942?

PM abbreviation

Camps in Italy were divided into postal areas, each area designated ‘PM [number]’. PM translates to ‘Posta Militare’, meaning ‘military mail’. The number indicated the central postal reception area for the camps’ mail.