When Italian soldiers wanted to be caught by American forces during World War II, they would play cards. The loser of the card game had to crawl out of the bunker and surrender — in case they were fired upon. His fellow soldiers would often willingly follow.

"They didn't want to be soldiers. They were farmers, craftsmen and artists," said Master Sgt. Brad Staggs, public affairs officer at Camp Atterbury. The prisoners were sent to one of 700 prisoner of war camps in the United States, including Atterbury in Johnson County, Ind. On April 30, 1943, 767 Italian soldiers arrived at the camp. An additional 400 Italian POWs arrived the next day. By September, there were 3,000.