The dawn of Sunday, June 21, 1942, saw Tobruk in flames. Corporal Hyams and other members of the RLI Composite Company started a 100km trek eastwards towards Egypt’s eastern borderline. After several narrow escapes avoiding Axis Forces, and suffering from a shortage of food and water, the group reached the Egyptian-Libyan border, and fate intervened. On June 27, Danny and his fellow troopers were captured by Mussolini’s fascist insurgents. A series of transfers to various prisoner-of-war camps took place until they were sent to “Campo Concentrate to Grumellina” in Bergamo.

With the September 8, 1943, Badoglio Proclamation announcing the armistice between Italy and the Allied Forces, the POWs at Grumellina walked out of the unguarded camp (the guards having abandoned their posts) and escaped to the mountains behind Bergamo. To their relief they were well-looked after by the local population, who shared what they could with the escapees from their own meagre resources. The POWs had kept remarkably well during the first winter, but later a nasty boil developed below Danny’s chin.

Palmina, a local villager who was allocated the responsibility of looking after Danny, insisted that the corporal get help from La Signora Elvira Rota — Domitilla’s mother — in the neighbouring village of Albenza.