Ippolito Moscatelli

Ippolito Moscatelli, known by everyone as Peppino, was born in Ospitaletto di Cormano in the province of Milan in 1917 and worked in an insulation factory until he was called up to do his military service.

At the time, Peppino was engaged to Cecilia Curti, a seamstress from the province of Lodi, who worked in Milan. When war broke out, the two said their goodbyes without knowing that they would not see each other for over 10 years.

Peppino boarded the cruiser San Giorgio shuttling between Taranto and Libya and was captured by the Allies when the Libyan city of Tobruk fell.

He was taken aboard the Queen Mary II sailing from Suez on 24 September 1941 and arrived in Sydney.

Upon arriving in Australia, he was sent to New South Wales, to a camp barely larger than an encampment which soon grew into a small town made up of shacks and sheet metal.

After being registered as a prisoner of war in Australia, he was able to contact his family and start working: he began to paint, mainly portraits of women, which he copied from photographs obtained in exchange for cigarettes, which he used to barter for paints and other things. On the 11^th June 1943, Ippolito painted the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a handkerchief.

Soon, like other Italian prisoners of war, he was working on farms all over Australia. He injured himself, fracturing the big toe on his right foot, and was forced to stay in hospital until 28 May 1945. At the end of the war, the Italian prisoners were embarked on the Alcantara, destination Naples, where the ship docked on the 23^rd of January 1947.

Back in Italy, Peppino resumed his life. Of his Australian experience, he had kept some poems he had written along with a length of cool wool which he had made up into a suit which he wore to his wedding to Cecilia, his children's weddings and his own funeral.

Story collected in collaboration with Joanne Tapiolas, 'Italian Prisoners of war - Finding Nonno' project.