Raniero Pedica – taken from La Loggetta magazine here, where you can read the full original Italian article with evocative photographs (See English translation below)
Introduction
The opening-up of the files of the Allied Screening Commission at the American National Archives (NARA) has helped create an explosion in grassroots research by Italians into the history of helpers in their area, together with some emotional reunions between the families on both sides of the story.
One example is the research undertaken by journalist Raniero Pedica into the Urbanetti family from Magliano Sabina, 50 miles north of Rome. 95-yr-old Norma Urbanetti tells of her memories of taking food to Norman Hemming, escaped from camp PG54 Fara Sabina and sheltered by her family from November ’43 to June ‘44. By applying to NARA for the Urbanetti file, Raniero has discovered a great deal more about the assistance they gave not just to Norman but also to other Allied escapers.
Norman’s descendants, now resident in Canada and after some initial advice from the Trust, had also been using the internet to look for the Urbanetti family. As a result Raniero made contact with them, and a meeting of both families is hoped to take place soon. Son Eric Hemming says;
My father endured the painful realities of war, yet he rarely spoke about his own experiences. What he did speak about—and with deep affection—was the Urbanetti family and the kindness they showed him when he was at his most vulnerable. He always highlighted their courage, never his own. Knowing that Norma is still alive today would have meant so much to him. He would be incredibly proud that our two families have reconnected and can now share these memories together, so many years later. The Hemming family wishes to thank Raniero Pedica for bringing these 2 families together and telling this important story, and the Monte San Martino Trust for their interest in this subject
Parallel Stories: Vito, Norma and the soldier Norman
Suddenly, after eighty years, fate gives you what you thought impossible! Two families from different continents, 8,400 km apart, bound by faint memories of solidarity and affection during the events of the Second World War, meet again, express deep feelings of friendship and a strong desire to meet again.
She is Norma Urbanetti, a ninety-five-year-old from Civita Castellana, daughter of Vito, a courageous farmer from Magliano Sabina who, from November 1943 until the liberation in June 1944, hid a British soldier in a cave. He is Norman Dudley Hemming, serial number 6516538, private in the 1st Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
During the Second World War Vito Urbanetti, born May 28, 1902, discovered on his land a soldier who had escaped after September 8, 1943, from the prisoner-of-war 54 camp in Fara Sabina. Norman was malnourished, battered, and wounded: he had even been bitten by a dog. The farmer decided to help him: he provided him with civilian clothes, fed him the same food his family ate, treated his wounds, and repeatedly repaired his shoes. Norma herself often took care of the soldier.
The Urbanetti farmhouse in Magliano Sabina, in the Cugnetti area, is located in a picturesque valley where you can enjoy the view of the Sabini Mountains and the misty Tiber Valleys on the left side of Mount Soratte. But this rural landscape, during the Second World War, was above all a German military garrison, with mobile and fixed artillery emplacements, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, which strategically monitored the territory. All this just two hundred meters from the dwelling of the Urbanetti’s!
The tunnels of Mount Soratte had just a few months ago become the headquarters of the Wehrmacht’s Southern Command, under the command of Field Marshal Kesserling, who also managed military operations from Palazzo Trocchi in Civita Castellana. Despite the risk of reprisals, retaliation and death sentences for those who helped Allied soldiers, Italian deserters, and local partisans, Vito took the soldier into a grove of trees. On September 8, 1943, Marshal Badoglio, with a radio message, proclaimed the armistice with the Allies.
Three days later, all the inmates from the prisoner-of-war camp 54 in Fara Sabina escaped en masse. Only one Carabiniere remained on duty at the camp entrance: the sole witness to the escape of approximately 4,000 British and South African soldiers, mostly captured since the surrender of Tobruk, who climbed, without sentries, over the three wire fences. German units and Fascist militias combed the territory in search of Allied fugitives and stray soldiers of the Royal Army who, after the armistice, without superior orders, deserted and joined the Resistance. Vito Urbanetti was also searched. But Private Hemming was well hidden in the pigsty.
“I remember that young soldier well,” Norma explains. “I was thirteen, and Dad, whenever possible, sent me to Norman to bring him food. Given his difficulty with the language, we understood each other with simple mimed and intuitive body gestures. As the months passed, he also learned to express himself in Italian. I always considered him my older brother, and to Dad, he was another son. He slept in a cave near the house, next to our pigs, on a warm straw bed. Sometimes he would leave his shelter for a short walk and help out with some farm work. Dad Vito died in September 1973 and was always proud of the help he gave that soldier.”
I conducted this brief interview in September 2025, together with Norma’s son, Stelvio Paiella, who had provided me with a certificate from the British Government issued to his grandfather, Vito Urbanetti, son of Antonio, as a “certificate of gratitude and recognition for the assistance given to members of the Allied Armed Forces which enabled them to escape and avoid capture by the enemy.”
The document, front and back No.62327-9244, is signed by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Mediterranean, General Alexander. I inform Stelvio that I am able to retrieve the file supporting the certificate.
Shortly after writing to Suzane Zoumbaris, Archivist of the Textual Reference Branch (RRAR) at the National Archives in College Park, I received the email with the requested correspondence. And the surprises don’t end there! I discover, analysing the relevant documentation, that in addition to Private Hemming, Vito Urbanetti helped two other British soldiers, one of whom was a medical officer who escaped the bombing of the bridge over the Paglia River in Allerona, near Orvieto, on January 28, 1944. The 320th American Bomber Group, unaware that the train was packed with British, South African, and American soldiers, dropped the 27 airplane bombs dropped on their comrades: a “friendly fire” that caused the deaths of hundreds of Allied prisoners and German soldiers escorting the train to Germany.
Norma and her husband Terenzio Paiella have always expressed to their children, Stelvio, Fabrizio, and Rosita, their desire to learn more about this family episode. Imagine their happiness when I told them I had found information about the soldier! In fact, on a historical research blog, I discovered Eric Hemming who was looking for information about his father and
“that Urbanetti family for whom my father had a deep affection for having saved his life during the Second World War.”
I wrote to him immediately, explaining that I had important documents on his father’s Italian past. Despite the time difference between Italy and Canada, we established regular contact, exchanging news, documents, and photos. Eric, his family, and that of his sister Val Lastiwka live in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada; his other sister, Helen Neilson, lives in Edmonton, and his eldest sister, Sue Hallam, lives in Australia.
I therefore learned Private Norman was born in London on February 3, 1916, the seventh child of William Hemming and Margaret Potter. He was already in the army when the Second World War broke out. From the Lahore area (British India), along with his unit, he was transferred by ship to Basra in November 1941, where he was employed in the first events of the North African War (1940-43) to control the desert territory, strategic cities, and ports between the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
His division crossed Iraq and Palestine towards the Egyptian deserts. Eric recalls:
“The 1st Light Infantry Battalion was defeated southwest of Tobruk by Axis forces on June 5,1942. Dad and the other prisoners marched many kilometres into Egypt before being handed over to Italian troops. They were held in a prison camp fenced with barbed wire. The heat, hunger, and thirst, after the gruelling forced march, were unbearable! My father and another comrade managed to escape, but their escape was short-lived. They were tracked down by Italian soldiers following their footprints in the sand, captured, and placed in solitary confinement, under the scorching sun, for three days.”
Sue Allam adds:
“Dad rarely told us children about his wartime experiences. I believe the trauma he suffered was immense, vivid, and bitter. During the fighting for the German reconquest of Tobruk, his battalion suffered heavy losses, including dead, missing, and approximately 33,000 prisoners. He remembered the frantic attempts to escape aircraft fire during the Luftwaffe raids and the exhausting marches through the desert as a prisoner, subsisting only on cactus seeds.”
The Allied prisoners, after being transferred to Libya, were loaded onto Axis ships bound for Italian ports. Norman was assigned to PG 66 in Capua, where he remained for about 18 months. From Capua, he volunteered for a work camp for the Droghetti-Masotti company in Collescipoli (TR), and was then transferred to PG 54 in Fara Sabina, from where he escaped. He abandoned his fellow escapees, believing, as indeed happened, that he had a better chance of survival. A report from the Allied Screening Commission C.M.F. certifies that Hemming received assistance from Vito Urbanetti from November 6,1943 to June 12, 1944: the other two soldiers, on the other hand, were given help in their flight from February 2 to 6, 1944.
At that time, the Sabina region was considered strategic by both sides, both due to the presence of the Rome-Orte-Florence railway line and the logistical and military importance of the Salaria and Flaminia consular roads.
As early as May 1944, Allied air raids had severely affected the area. Civita Castellana was the target of eight heavy bombing raids, with an A-36 being shot down at 11:00 a.m. on the 21st. Magliano Sabina, on the other hand, was the scene of eleven flight missions with continuous air raids against sensitive targets. At 6:50 p.m. on May 9th, German Flak, with positions also near the Urbanetti farmhouse, hit and shot down an A-36. Who knows what Norman Hemming must have endured through this period shortly before his liberation!
Hitler himself ordered Kesserling to abandon the Soratte bunker, free of German garrisons since June 3, 1944. The following evening, the Allies entered Rome. The German 14th Army under General Lemelsen, while retreating in disarray, mined and sabotaged everything possible to cut off the Allied route to Umbria. At dawn on June 13, 1944, a column of armoured vehicles from General Clark’s 8th Army troops proceeded toward Magliano. At 9:00 a.m., a small group of Magliano residents welcomed the Allied troops into the town. Norman was finally free!
A few days later, Vito had a photo taken to commemorate the event. With his address written on the back, he handed it to the British soldier. I showed this photo to Stelvio Paiella who comments:
“In the photo I recognize Grandpa Vito and Grandma Annamaria, Mom Norma and Uncle Giorgio. I believe that the man holding a copy of the newspaper (with the headline “The Liberation of Rome by the Allies”) and the other are municipal officials acting after the liberation of the Sabine territory.”
Hemming left the Urbanettis a handwritten note which states:
“Vito Urbanetti. This man has provided me with assistance for the past seven months. He fed me every other day, repaired my boots on three occasions, and helped me in many other ways. He also helped me find lodging during this period and provided me with medical equipment when I was bitten by a dog. Norman Hemming 6516538- former P.O.W. The day after meeting this man, it is said that two fascists went to the house where I was staying.”
After hardship, fatigue, ferocious episodes of war experienced firsthand, and two risky escapes from prison camps, Norman Hemming returned to England in the summer of 1944. But the world conflict was not yet over! What did he do in the last year of the war? He never mentioned to his family his military service record during the Battle of Berlin (April 25/May 2), which ended with Hitler’s suicide on April 30 and the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich on 8th May 1945.
After the war, in 1946, Norman married Grace and joined the British Postal Service, where he remained until 1980, the year of his retirement. He lived in Suffolk, England until 1981. In April of that year, he emigrated to Canada, to Darwell, Alberta, about three hours from the Rocky Mountains of Banff and Jasper. Five years later, he and his wife moved to Onoway, a small town in central Alberta. One day, knowing that he was dying, Norman gave his old watch to his son Eric:
“He told me he had nothing else to leave me. I was 30 years old, and I thought that if it weren’t for people like him and the courage of the Allied soldiers, our life would have been different. For him, the war was something he had to do, his destiny, over which he knew he had no choice. He always remembered Vito Urbanetti with affection and infinite gratitude: a courageous and just man who, like his father, passed those values on to his family for generations. It’s a shame they never met again after the war, but I believe that today, Vito and Norman, are smiling down on us from heaven! He accepted everything in his life with serenity including death.”
Norman Dudley Hemming died the next day, November 14, 1995. He is buried in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, next to his wife, Grace, who passed away ten years later.
In recent months, through the ongoing dialogue I have established with Eric Hemming and Stelvio Paiella, these families, children, and grandchildren have expressed the desire to get to know each other and visit together the sites of this incredible story. There is already a plan for next year! The painful experiences of war, therefore, today give way to the affection of two families bound by a common memory of human solidarity during the Second World War. Unknown stories of parallel lives that I would like to share in a future issue of la Loggetta.