Any idea what this is? (One for manda?)

Hallo,

Back from a cross country trip so just checking in.

Sounds like that POW camp matches what I found. I know there were quite a few small Italian camps around Gloucestershire - there was one at the back or Northleach prison and the old huts were used for post war housing for years after.

Quite a few stories told to me by glider pilots how they'd have a bit of "sport" sneaking silently up on the POWs working in fields and scare them off the top of hay ricks.

The picture is of a Coy camp number 554 set up by the Pioneer corp.(1944). It had a capacity of 350 Italian POW’s and was organised, like all series 500 camps on special lines for Italian Co-operators. The entire camp was organised in sections of 20 to 26 men and commanded by a British sergeant. No compound, no barb wire and freedom of movement for the prisoners.
Hope this little bit helps. It is part of my research into POW Camps of Gloucestershire.
Bloodaxe

Thanks bloodaxe. Keep an eye on AiX for other POW queries; you will probably be able to help answer some of them.

I wonder if Italian POW Camps were described as 'retreats'