Text / Qiuhuang Chunyang
Introduction: During World War II, three Italian prisoners of war escaped from the prison camp after careful planning. Surprisingly, however, they didn't run for a living, but for fun - they ran off to climb Mount Kenya. The most incredible thing is that after they climbed the mountain, they returned to the prison by themselves.
Figure: Three Italian prisoners of war and Mount Kenya
In times of war, the third bad luck for a soldier (after death or serious injury) is being captured by the enemy. Throughout the history of warfare, POW camps have been notorious places of terror, with captured soldiers often dying of torture, starvation and overwork.
However, not all concentration camps were so bad. During the Second World War, in a British POW camp in Kenya (then a British colony), prisoners lived a "miserable" life, not because of torture, starvation, or terrible living conditions, but because of boring . Prisoners in Italy are generally treated better, they eat well and live well. However, they have very little to do, and coping with constant boredom can be quite a challenge.
Photo: Nanyuki concentration camp location
Giovanni Balletto, Vincenzo Barsotti and Felice Benuzzi The three prisoners of the 354 concentration camp at Nanyuki. They came up with a bold and reckless plan to fight boredom: they planned to escape the camp and climb Mount Kenya.
To complete this plan, three challenges await them, all fraught with danger.
First,Of course, to escape from the concentration camp, the risks are self-evident. The second is to traverse enemy territory - not only British territory, but the Kenyan wilderness, which is full of dangerous animals such as lions, elephants, African buffalo , rhinos and vipers. Finally, there is the climb to Mount Kenya, which is also quite a challenge as it is 5199 meters above sea level. This is extremely challenging even for experienced mountaineers.
Pictured: Mount Kenya from a distance from Nanyuki concentration camp, 1936
The prisoner who came up with the idea was Felice Benucci. He first found a prisoner of war who happened to be a skilled and experienced climber. But the man scoffed at his plan, saying such a challenge would be impossible for any inexperienced climber, especially since they didn't have any climbing equipment.
However, Benucci was not influenced by the mountaineer and he was determined to complete his plan. Next, he found Giovanni Barletto and Vincenzo Bassotti, both eager to join the program. Like Benucci, Barreto has some amateur mountaineering experience, while Bassotti has none, but he's hungry for adventure.
Image: Mount Kenya
Success for such a bold project requires careful planning and preparation. It took the three prisoners eight months to get everything ready. They sewed their backpacks together from discarded materials. They stole hammers from prison workshops and cold forged them into ice axes. Items recovered from the trash are used to make crampons. A hammock was taken apart and joined together to form a length of rope.
These people are well aware that their expedition plans will require ample food, so in the weeks leading up to their escape date, they start stockpiling hard-boiled eggs, canned beef, dried fruit and biscuits. Some of it was saved by him himself, and the rest was obtained from other prisoners in exchange for cigarettes and rations.
Picture: some Italian soldiers captured by the British
In a daring operation, Benucci managed to infiltrate the camp commander's tent,And imprinted the key of the prison door on a piece of tar. With the help of a fellow mechanic, he forged a copy. Once they had the keys, they would often sneak out to bury food and equipment outside the camp.
The date of the jailbreak was set for January 24, 1943, in the height of summer in Kenya. They opened the prison door with a key and slipped into the camp garden, which contained a small tool shed.
They hid in the shed until dark, and after dark they disappeared into the night. Later, when the prison guards checked the prisoners' sleeping conditions, they found that the three of them were missing. Meanwhile, the guards also found a note written to him in which Benucci promised that he and the others would return to the prison after the adventure was over, apparently confirming that they had escaped.
Photo: Benucci (far right)
Benucci and his companions had to traverse many places quickly, while avoiding leaving a trail for the British to follow. They do this by traversing ridged bamboo forests in the northwest of Mount Kenya.
The only map they could see was a photo of the mountain that they ripped from an empty can in the trash. Despite the difficulties, they managed to reach the mountain a few days later and began their ascent. Bassotti is an old smoker. During the climb, he was always out of breath. When they climbed to a height of 4,257 meters, they had to stop.
Because, at this time, a violent snowstorm became their stumbling block. But Benucci and Balletto kept going, both determined to get to the top. As it turns out, they almost achieved that, reaching an altitude of 4,999 meters - just 198 meters from the summit - where they planted a small Italian flag they had made and left a bottle before returning .
Picture: Three people climbed Mount Kenya
After 18 days of escaping, they sneaked back to the prison and were soon found by the guards. After being allowed to bathe and eat hot meals, everyone was placed in solitary confinement as punishment for escape. They were initially sentenced to 28 days in solitary confinement, but camp commanders were impressed by the boldness of their plan and the fact that they had returned voluntarily,Reduce the sentence to seven days each.
The Italian flag they planted and the bottle they left were later found by British climbers. This confirmed an incredible fact: the three Italian prisoners of war had almost reached the second highest peak in Africa, poorly equipped, inexperienced and without a real map.
Reference: Wikipedia
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