Italian POW escapee, Francesco Ponzoni

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West-Front

Italian POW escapee, Francesco Ponzoni

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SCANDAL AS MELBOURNE GIRL WEDS ESCAPEE FROM ROWVILLE POW CAMP

On 20 September 1947 the Melbourne Truth newspaper ran a front page story in which it raged against the granting of a leave pass to a detained Italian POW escapee, Francesco Ponzoni, to enable him to marry his Australian sweetheart, June Peterson.
Despite the fact that hundreds of Australian war brides had left our shores to live with their G.I. husbands in America, the Truth attempted to whip up a scandal about this isolated case thus showing that anti Italian prejudices were still running deeply even though the war had ended more than two years previously.

June Ponzoni, now aged 80, lives in a retirement village in North Balwyn. The walls of her unit are adorned with the many paintings created by her talented husband Frank with whom she enjoyed 43 years of a happy marriage.
June is now able to laugh about the Truth’s crude attempts to whip up war-time hatreds but it must have been no laughing matter for her - at the age of 22 and on the eve of her wedding - to be confronted by the Truth hoarding outside her local news agency announcing: CANTERBURY GIRL AND P.O.W. ESCAPEE IN ROMANCE.

June Meets Frank

June was the daughter of Fred and Avis (“Wardie”) Peterson and grew up with her sister Avis in the family home in Rochester Road, Canterbury. Both girls attended MLC and, after leaving school, worked as secretaries in the city. Fred Peterson had established his own business as a painter and decorator employing several workers and he was sufficiently successful to be able to own a race horse that he spelled at the property of a family friend named Burrows. The Burrows’ property was situated on what is now the former site of the AFL’s Waverley Park. When Fred drove out to check on his horse June accompanied him and was allowed to ride the family’s pony on which she explored the district getting to know the D’Andrea family of Heany Park Road. One warm day in 1946 she rode up to the lake at Heany Park for a swim and it was there she met Frank. She knew he was a POW because of his burgundy uniform but he spoke excellent English and soon they had struck up a conversation. Although Frank was fourteen years older than June that didn’t seem to matter and they soon became friends.
Frank told June about life in the camp where, although the food and their treatment by the guards were good, all the inmates were bored and frustrated by the delay in their repatriation to their homes in Italy. Their only other source of complaint was the behaviour of the commanding officer, Captain John Waterston, who was often drunk and aggressive towards the POWS, even, on occasions, firing his pistol into the ground at their feet. After the trauma of the shooting of one of the inmates, Rudolfo Bartoli, by Captain Waterston, Frank was determined to leave the camp no matter what the consequences. Frank was the assistant to the camp doctor, Dr Joseph Galli, who attended the dying man so Frank would have witnessed the distressing aftermath of the shooting.

Fred and Wardie Help Frank to Escape

June had previously introduced Frank to her parents and they were very impressed with him, recognising that he was an intelligent, talented and decent man. Fred and Wardie decided on an extraordinary course of action – they devised a plan to assist Frank to escape from the camp.They drove out to Rowville at midnight and picked up Frank from a prearranged bushy patch of roadside outside the camp and drove him back to their home in Canterbury where Frank spent the night. The following day Fred drove Frank to his warehouse at 33 Lonsdale Street in the city where Frank set up one of the back rooms in the building as his living quarters. Not only had Fred assisted Frank in his escape and provided him with sanctuary but he now employed him as a painter-decorator. Frank shaved off his moustache and wore glasses (with clear-glassed lenses) but knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be discovered because the photographs of all escapees were displayed in the post offices at that time. As it happened, Frank avoided discovery for over twelve months before the police finally caught up with him.Fred was questioned by the police but no charges were ever laid against him.
Frank was detained at Attwood Detention Centre at Broadmeadows where the Petersons were able to visit him on Sundays.

Truth Announces Their Romance

By this time June and Frank knew that their friendship had developed into a loving relationship and they decided to marry. Fred was able to obtain the permission of the authorities at Victoria Barracks to allow their wedding to be solemnized but somehow the Truth got hold of the story and ran a front-page story that opened with this headline: “ENEMY POW, SOCIALITE WON’T WED – YET” and the full page article opened with: “Inmate of a detention camp awaiting deportation, Francisco Ponzoni, 28-year-old Italian prisoner-of-war and escapee, was this week granted a two-days’ leave pass to marry a well-known Melbourne socialite, Miss June Peterson, beautiful 22-year-old daughter of a wealthy Canterbury family.”
June can laugh now about the inaccuracies and distortions in the article – for example, she was no socialite and her family was not wealthy – but at the time the scandal that the Truth tried to create was distressing.
To avoid a media circus June and Frank were married a day earlier than originally planned. They were wed by Fr Moran in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral on 23 September 1947. After the wedding Frank had to return to the camp. He was finally sent back to Italy aboard the Kanimbla in December of that year.

June decided not to accompany Frank on the Kanimbla but flew to Perth where she stayed with an aunt before joining Frank aboard an American liberty ship, the General Heintzleman at Fremantle. .Aboard the ship June shared a cabin with two German women who had been internees in Australia but she and Frank were at last able to enjoy their honeymoon - under the upturned life boats on the ship’s deck.There were a number of German prisoners aboard but they tended to keep to themselves. However, there was one internee whom they got to know well. He was an Austrian, Dr Gruber, who had been the leader of the Viennese Boys’ Choir whose members had been on a tour of Australia when WW2 broke out. (Archbishop Mannix arranged for the boys to be billeted with Melbourne families throughout the war and many of them remained on in Australia when hostilities ceased.) Dr Gruber was a member of a very musical family and his grandfather was the composer of the most famous of all Christmas carols, "Silent Night".

Life in Italy Proved to be very Difficult

The Italians disembarked at Naples leaving the ship to the Germans who sailed on to Hamburg.
June had been not been issued with a passport in Australia because by marrying Frank she had forfeited her Australian citizenship. Instead she had been given a Document of Identity which was only valid for the trip to Italy.
After struggling ashore with their luggage they were greeted with refreshments - bread rolls and wine - before catching a train to Rome.

The journey to Frank’s home town of Brescia (near Milan in Northern Italy) was a nightmare taking three days with frequent change of trains - including a stage in a cattle wagon. They finally arrived at Brescia railway station on Christmas Eve to be very warmly welcomed by Frank’s family who had not seen him for twelve years. June has a vivid recollecton of her arrival at Brescia as snow was falling – it was the first time in her life that she had seen snow.Frank’s father was Arturro who was skilled ebonista, that is, one who makes inlaid decorative furniture. Sadly, Frank’s mother Maria. had died while he was in the army in Africa. Frank had two sisters, Elena and Rina, and a brother, Paride. Rina’s husband and Frank were fresco artists but there was very little work in that line after the war. The family were cultured and had been comfortably off but their fortunes had suffered badly during the war.Frank had been conscripted into the army in the 1930s when Mussolini invaded Eritrea. When the truce was finalized he stayed on in the capital, Asmara, and worked there as a commercial artist. However, when WW2 broke out he was conscripted again and sent to the western desert area in North Africa where he was captured by the British. He was sent to India for two years before heading to Australia aboard the Mariposa. It was while in India that Frank had studied English.He disembarked at Melbourne and was sent for a short time to Murchison before coming to Rowville. On his arrival Frank was asked by the camp doctor, Dr Galli, to become his assistant although he had no medical training. Frank was happy to comply and was never required to go out on any of the daily work parties.

Return to Australia

Within a year of their arrival in Brescia, Frank and June decided to apply to return to Australia as there was no work at all in Italy.They sailed from Genoa on the Napoli and were greeted by June’s family (who had sponsored their immigration) when they landed at the Melbourne docks. They went to live in a small house in Hawthorn and Frank obtained work as a commercial artist. Eventually they were able to buy their own home in Mont Albert. After they had established themselves in Melbourne, they flew home every five years or so to visit the family and when Frank retired at the age of 65 in 1976 they returned to live in Brescia. June was very happy to live in Italy where she liked the people, the culture and the food. “Some of the happiest days of my life were spent in Italy,” said June.

Frank died in 1990 and is buried in Brescia. June lived on in their apartment in Brescia until 1997 before returning to Australia. Her will stipulates that after her death her ashes will be taken to Italy to be interred with Frank.

Interviewed by Bryan Power



First published in the May 2006 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News.
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missyd
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Re: Italian POW escapee, Francesco Ponzoni

Post by missyd »

Interesting Story. Thank you for posting it here! :wink:
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Daniela

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alpino
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Re: Italian POW escapee, Francesco Ponzoni

Post by alpino »

By far, the best Italian WW2 POW escape story is the book "No Picnic on Mount Kenya" by Felice Benuzzi. Three Alpini escape imprisonment to climb Mt Kenya. An amazing story if you get a chance!
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