Two to two thousand: captured by a nominal roll of 2nd AIF POWs in Italy

It started with a list. In 2012 a fellow researcher, Bill Rudd, sent me a copy of the British War Office (WO) lists of WW2 prisoners of war in Italy. Bill had begun constructing a nominal roll of Australian Imperial Force prisoners of war (AIF POWs); I was an enthusiastic recruit, but a rookie in researching such a large POW cohort. My 2011 starting point had concerned only two Australian prisoners in Italy, my father and his mate. Bill, ex-VX39694, brought that number to three. I enlisted in Bill's campaign, and awaited further orders. Would this objective be met? Surely it would a straightforward mission, to compile a nominal roll from the official War Office list with reference to a number of other sources in our arsenal?