216569 Pte. Alfred Harris British Army 1st Btn. Worcester Regiment In the summer of 1942 Alfred Harris and the 1st Battalion took part in the Gazala Battle and in the defence of Tobruk, Libya. on 20th June a general surrender was ordered following attack from the Germans and Italians. Alfred was made a Prisoner of War in Tobruk and ended up in Italy 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 Alfred Harris, 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 with a fractured left leg and upon recovery was sent to Stalag 344 in Lamsdorf, Poland.
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