Abstract
This chapter analyzes the fraternization of British women with Italian prisoners of war (POWs) during the Second World War. British forces captured nearly half a million Italian servicemen, who were then dispersed to camps across the Empire. Of these, 150,000 were sent to the United Kingdom, where they mainly served as an auxiliary agricultural labor force. British authorities knew that this could lead to contacts with local women, but urgent manpower needs outweighed such concerns, and the Italians indeed began fraternizing with British women shortly after their arrival in 1941 and continued to do so until the final departures in early 1947. Moore and Hately stress that it is very difficult to assess the exact scale of the phenomenon, and that only a very small minority of women had intimate contact with the Italian prisoners. Nevertheless, both the British government and the general public became concerned about the agency and autonomy women revealed in their interactions with the captives.
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Notes
- 1.
Bob Moore, “Axis POWs in Britain During the Second World War,” in Prisoners of War and Their Captors in World War II, ed. Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich (Oxford: Berg, 1995), 29–30, cites the National Archives (TNA) PREM3/363/1 Churchill to Sir Edward Bridges, May 29, 1941. Reply by Robert Hudson, Minister of Agriculture, HC Deb 07 August 1941 vol. 373 cc2089-90. TNA MAF47/54 Hudson to David Margesson (Secretary of State for War), October 28, 1941. Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich (eds.), The British Empire and Its Italian Prisoners of War (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003), 31–32.
- 2.
See, for example, Nicola Tyrer, They Fought in the Fields: The Women’s Land Army: The Story of a Forgotten Victory (London: Mandarin, 1997).
- 3.
Brian K. Feltman, “‘We Don’t Want Any German Off-spring After These Prisoners Left Here’: German Military Prisoners and British Women in the First World War,” Gender & History 30, no. 1 (2018): 110–130.
- 4.
TNA CAB123/136 Draft Memorandum to War Cabinet, November 28, 1941. Moore and Fedorowich, The British Empire, 36–37.
- 5.
Moore and Fedorowich, The British Empire, 40.
- 6.
TNA CAB123/136 Progress Report on the Transfer of POWs, April 29, 1942.
- 7.
For detail on the British rationale for introducing a co-operator status while retaining the Italians as prisoners of war within the terms of the Geneva Convention, see Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich, “Allied Negotiations on Italian Co-belligerency and the Prisoner-of-War Question, 1943–1945,” International History Review 18 (1996): 28–47.
- 8.
Moore and Fedorowich, The British Empire, 228, 230. The precise figure for May 1945 was 153,779.
- 9.
TNA WO32/10755 Minutes of Interdepartmental Meeting on the Repatriation of POWs, October 26, 1945.
- 10.
TNA WO32/9890 Imperial Prisoner of War Committee Minutes, July 1946.
- 11.
TNA HO45/21875 “Discipline. Special Orders to be Communicated to Prisoners of War” 87(c), September 1942.
- 12.
TNA WO32/10737 War Office to all HQs Home Commands, November 2, 1944.
- 13.
TNA MEPO2/6871 Home Office Circular 135/1944 para. 4, May 10, 1944.
- 14.
TNA KV4/84 Statutory Rules and Orders 1939 No. 978 Emergency Powers (Defence), Order in Council amending the Defence Regulations, September 1, 1939, and Statutory Rules and Orders 1939 No. 1681 Emergency Powers (Defence), Order in Council amending the Defence Regulations, November 23, 1939. This replaced the Prisoner of War (Escape) Act of 1812.
- 15.
TNA MAF47/54 Employment of Prisoners of War and Enemy Aliens, p.1. See, for example, the account of a woodcutting camp near Inverness which was attached to a parent camp at Stobs near Hawick in the Scottish borders. J.M. MacLennan, “A Prisoner of War Camp,” The Army Quarterly 41 (October 1940/January 1941): 368–375.
- 16.
The Prisoners of War and Internees (Access and Communication) Order No. 1389, July 27, 1940. Isabella Insolvibile, Wops: I prigionieri italiani in Gran Bretagna (1941–1946) (Napoli: Edizioni Scientifische Italiane, 2012), 57, has argued that these regulations were primarily directed at prohibiting any contact between prisoners of war and women in Britain, but it was probably more aimed at restricting contact with civilian internees.
- 17.
W. Ivor Jennings, “The Emergency Powers (Defence) (No. 2) Act, 1940,” Modern Law Review 4, no. 2 (October 1940), 132.
- 18.
Moore and Fedorowich, The British Empire, 34. “Farmer Won’t Have Prisoners. Why Should Our Wives Look After Italians,” Daily Express, January 9, 1942. “Italians Pampered on Farms,” Daily Express, January 10, 1942.
- 19.
TNA MAF47/54 J.M. Ross Assistant Secretary Home Office to H.J. Johns, Assistant Secretary Manpower, Ministry of Agriculture, March 11, 1942.
- 20.
TNA KV4/123 Fortnightly Intelligence Summary No. 69, October 29, 1942.
- 21.
Mass Observation (MO), March 1943, Cooper (2719), Jennings (2382).
- 22.
MO, March 1943, Haynes (1578).
- 23.
MO, March 1943, Daniell (3369), Jenkins (3005), Hall (2673).
- 24.
MO, March 1943, Hustler (3314).
- 25.
See, for example, “Italians Loot Red Cross Parcels,” Daily Telegraph, May 28, 1942.
- 26.
TNA INF1/292 Fortnightly Intelligence Summary (FIS) No. 144, June 8, 1943.
- 27.
TNA INF1/292, FIS No. 203, August 24, 1944, and FIS No. 207, September 21, 1944.
- 28.
TNA INF1/292, FIS No. 207, September 21, 1944.
- 29.
Doreen Lingard, cited in Tyrer, They Fought in the Fields, 181.
- 30.
Pamela Ruffoni, cited in Jenny Hartley, Hearts Undefeated: Women’s Writing of the Second World War (London: Virago, 1994), 208–209.
- 31.
Western Gazette, February 9, 1945.
- 32.
MO, March 1943, Haynes (1578), Weiss (3380).
- 33.
Tyrer, They Fought in the Fields, 147.
- 34.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/police+court. Accessed May 9, 2019.
- 35.
News Chronicle, July 8, 1942.
- 36.
Western Daily Press, July 8, 1942. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, June 26, 1944.
- 37.
News Chronicle, April 30, 1942. Moore and Fedorowich, The British Empire, 41.
- 38.
TNA MAF47/117 Minutes: Fraternization with Prisoners of War by Members of the Public, August 20, 1942. Ministry of Agriculture to A.V. Hunter (War Office), August 24, 1942.
- 39.
TNA HO45/21875 “Discipline. Special Orders to be Communicated to Prisoners of War” 87(c), September 1942.
- 40.
TNA KV4/123 Fortnightly Intelligence Summary No. 69, October 29, 1942.
- 41.
HC Deb 08 October 1941 vol. 374 cc967-8 Question by David Mort (Lab. Swansea East). Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, October 8, 1941.
- 42.
Northampton Mercury, July 2, 1943.
- 43.
Hull Daily Mail, September 1, 1943.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Bury Free Press, September 4, 1943.
- 46.
Northampton Mercury, July 2, 1943.
- 47.
Daily Mirror, February 13, 1943.
- 48.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, October 31, 1946.
- 49.
Lucio Sponza, Divided Loyalties: Italians in Britain during the Second World War (Bern: Peter Lang, 2000), 276–278.
- 50.
Winifred Percival, Not Only Music, Signora! (Altrincham: John Sherratt and Son, 1947), 156.
- 51.
Ibid., 159, 160.
- 52.
TNA INF1/292 FIS No. 203, August 24, 1944, and FIS No. 206, September 14, 1944.
- 53.
TNA INF1/292 FIS No. 207, September 21, 1944.
- 54.
Skegness Standard, April 3, 1946.
- 55.
The newspaper report goes on to disclose that a girl of 15 from the same family was also absent from home that weekend and was deemed to be in need of care and protection, together with a younger brother, aged 9, who had been “left alone in the house until their return” and was deemed to be “in moral danger.”
- 56.
TNA MEPO2/6871 Memorandum DAC No. 2 Division Metropolitan Police, January 7, 1945.
- 57.
TNA HO45/21875 C-in-C Western Command to General Headquarters Home Forces, January 16, 1945.
- 58.
TNA MEPO2/6492 Report from Richmond Division, July 1945.
- 59.
TNA HO215/357 Home Office Memorandum, May 10, 1944.
- 60.
TNA HO213/847 W.L. James (War Office) to Graham Harrison (Home Office), August 25, 1945.
- 61.
TNA HO213/847 W.B. Lyon (Home Office) to Major D.W. Logan (War Office), November 14, 1945.
- 62.
TNA HO144/23269 Circular sent by Revd. W.G. Hargrave Thomas, September 1946.
- 63.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, July 4, 1946.
- 64.
In this regard, see the inquiry into Revd. Hargrave Thomas from Needham Market, Suffolk, who published advice to men and women wanting to marry enemy nationals in early 1946. TNA HO144/23269.
- 65.
Author correspondence with Colin Moorman, February 2020.
- 66.
The authors’ work on Italian prisoners has generated several inquiries from children in this situation who discovered their true parentage only through researching family history.
- 67.
Sponza, Divided Loyalties, 312–313 cites TNA FO371/60568 “Custody and Welfare of Italian POWs,” minutes of April 9 and April 13.
- 68.
Moore and Fedorowich, The British Empire, 217. By this stage, the regulations were more aimed at restricting contact with the much larger number of German prisoners in the United Kingdom.
- 69.
Statistics from Sponza, Divided Loyalties, 313–314, who does not provide a source.
- 70.
Penny Summerfield and Nicole Crockett, “‘You Weren’t Taught That with the Welding’: Lessons in Sexuality in the Second World War,” Women’s History Review 1, no. 3 (1992): 436.
- 71.
Ibid., 450.
- 72.
Sonia Rose, “Sex, Citizenship, and the Nation in World War II Britain,” American Historical Review 103, no. 4 (1998): 1147–1176, especially 1175–1176.
- 73.
TNA MEPO2/6871 Report by J.H. Durham, Metropolitan Police Superintendent S Division, Golders Green, January 6, 1945.
- 74.
Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War (London: Hutchinson, 1971), 480.
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Moore, B., Hately, B. (2022). “Undesirable Familiarity”: British Women and Italian Prisoners of War, 1941–1946. In: Reiss, M., Feltman, B.K. (eds) Prisoners of War and Local Women in Europe and the United States, 1914-1956. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83830-0_6
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