Hutchinson, Richard Charles

One original prisoner of war airmail letter, written in 1943 by QX1232 Private (Pte) Richard Charles Hutchinson, 2/32 Battalion, to his sister Ella whilst he was a prisoner of war in Italy. Pte Hutchinson was captured in El Alamein, North Africa in July 1942 and handed over to the Italians. He was taken by ship to Italy, landing in Taranto and then a prisoner of war camp #57, outside Udine. After a period he was taken by cattle truck, travelling several days to Vercelli on Lombardi Plains where he performed work on a farm for the Italians. Pte Hutchinson reportedly escaped from the farm with a friend and headed to the foothills of the Alps. Aided by an Italian woman they were taken to a hotel where they stayed and joined the partisani, assisting with the smuggling of guns, cigarettes, passports and other goods over the Swiss border. He was later involved in an unsuccessful raid on a blanket factory supplying the Germany army, and Pte Hutchinson fled for the border where he crossed the Alps through the Monte Moro pass and spent the next year in Switzerland.