PG 5 Gavi (Forte di Gavi) / Serravalle Scrivia

Gavi is just under 5 miles (8 km) south of Serravalle Scrivia in the Italian region of Piedmont and some 20 miles (32 km) north of Genoa.

Accommodation was in a fortress (Forte di Gavi) on a hill overlooking the town of Gavi.  It was operational from June 1941 and held 172 officers as at 26th February 1943. Used mainly as a punishment camp and for holding persistent escapees.

PM 3100

There is more information about this camp here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_prisoner-of-war_camps_in_Italy

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Epi-c5-WH2-1Epi-i.html

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=332

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Forte di Gavi – Camp for prisoners of war n. 005
Gavi (Alessandria) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from June 1941
Source: DPG27
History; FORM TO BE FILL IN [see documents on the side]
Research into the Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing. 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.

Note: Notes for the card
The PG field N. 5 of Forte di Gavi was opened in June 1941 and, in March 1943, it was described as a camp for officers with a capacity of 200 places (see DPG27). In the period taken into consideration (March 1942 – March 1943), however, the camp is not present in the lists that go from March to June 1942 (lists that include all the PG fields in operation). The camp is also mentioned in the list of January 26, 1942 (see DPG45)
Interesting: it is indicated as a camp for Allied prisoners of war marked as “turbulent” (these officers will be collected in camp n. 5 as soon as it is ready (see DPG46). From July 1942 to March 31, 1943, the average number of internees was around 200 people. Except for two PCs ex Yugoslavs and 3 Greeks, all others are British and Allied POWs (New Zealanders, South Africans and other nationalities)

In PGFG01 some information on the camp after some complaints from the PCs. In PGFG02 there is talk of two work detachments in the province of Pavia dependent on the camp pg. no. 5 (this takes place a month before the establishment of the PG n. 146 of Mortara on which all the work detachments of the province of Pavia will depend).
Another work detachment employed by the P.G. no. 5 seems to be that of Montechiaro Denice.

An escape of 12 PGs in April 1943 (see PGFG03).

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PG abbreviation

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.