Solvitur Ambulando
Eric MossEric Moss served in the RAF as a Wireless Operator/Gunner. His story recounts his initial training in England, operations in North Africa where he was shot down, his capture and subsequent experience as a POW in
- Author
- Eric Moss
- Publisher
- Amberwood Publishing
- Published
- 2015
Solvitur Ambulando by Eric Moss
Eric Moss served in the RAF as a wireless operator/gunner. His memoir recounts training in England, operations in North Africa, the mission that brought him down, and his subsequent captivity in Italy.
The narrative captures the hardship, danger, confusion and sheer luck that shaped the experiences of many aircrew. Moss describes life as a POW in North Africa, the grim voyage to Italy and his incarceration in PG 70 near Monte Urano, where some 8,000 prisoners were housed in concrete “sheds” holding 500 men apiece. The buildings still stand, although the factory has long since closed.
He conveys the deprivation endured by other ranks—everyone except the camp commandant and medical officer—and the support networks that helped them survive. Moss and a comrade escaped in the days following the Italian Armistice and found shelter with villagers in Monte Giberto, roughly ten miles from the camp. He stayed in the area until late May 1944, when he and other escapers were evacuated by sea from the beach near Porto San Giorgio.
Moss returned to the UK, remained in the RAF until his demobilisation in April 1946 and, in 1989, revisited Italy to seek out those who had helped him and to walk the grounds of PG 70 once more.
ISBN 0951367633. Amberwood Publishing. (Likely out of print; sourced via Amazon.)