216561 L/Cpl. Reginald Rawlings British Army 6th Btn. Seaforth Highlanders Lance Corporal Reginald Rawlings and the 17th Infantry Brigade including 6th Seaforth crossed the straits of Messina and landed in Italy on September 3rd 1943. By 2nd January 1944 they had returned to the west of Italy to take part in the operations to cross the Garigliano River. Unfortunately, Reginald was captured in Minturno on January 18th and ended up bound for Germany on a POW train. It was on this journey that the Allerona tragedy took place.
On 28th January 1944 at the Orvieto North railway bridge at Allerona, Italy, a train full of Allied prisoners, most of whom had come from Camp P.G. 54, Fara in Sabina, north of Rome, was hit by friendly fire from the American 320th Bombardment Group. U.S. Army member Richard Morris was on the train and wrote that the journey was stopped on the bridge over the river, and that the German guards fled as soon as the bombs struck. The prisoners were left locked inside the carriages. Many, including Reginald Rawlings, managed to escape through holes in the boxcars caused by the bombing, and jumped into the river below. It was a great tragedy of the war resulting in the deaths of hundreds of men.
He survived the wreck but was captured once more and sent to Stalag 344 in Lamsdorf, Poland.
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