WW2, GSM (Clasp – Palestine 1945-48) and LS&GC Prisoner of War Medal Group of Six – Colour Sergeant P.H. Burton, South Wales Borderers, taken prisoner during the retreat from Tobruk and escaped from Italy during the Bridge at Allerona massacre in July 1944.

A group of six awarded to 3906890 Colour Sergeant Philip Henry Burton, South Wales Borderers, who was taken prisoner during the retreat from Tobruk and escaped from Italy during the Bridge at Allerona massacre in July 1944.

1939-45 Star unnamed as issued 
Africa Star unnamed as issued 
WW2 Defence Medal unnamed as issued 
War Medal 1939-45 unnamed as issued 
General Service Medal (Clasp – Palestine 1945-48) named to 3906890 W.O.Cl2. P.H. Burton. S.W.B. 
Army Long Service & Good Conduct Medal named to 3906890 Sjt. P.H. Burton. S. Wales Bord. 

Thedals are in good condition and are swing mounted for wear.

Philip Henry Burton was born in Portsmouth in 1910 and enlisted into the 1st South Wales Borderers in
Newport, Monmouthshire 1926. He served in the battalion in Egypt, Hong Kong and India.
Having spent the latter years of the ‘30s in India, the 1st battalion were posted to Iraq in November 1941 in
anticipation of a German attack. When it became apparent that no such attack was coming, they moved
overland the following May to a position just outside Tobruk, which they were ordered to hold in cover of
the general British withdrawal of forces from the area. This order, however, was almost immediately
countermanded and a chaotic retreat ensued, exacerbated by lack of transport and the capture of the
battalion’s reconnaissance officers by the Germans. Under heavy attack, and in unfamiliar and hostile terrain,
over 500 men were lost, most taken prisoner including Burton. Sgt Burton was held prisoner in Italy Camp
P.G. 54, Fara in Sabina. Included are group photos when a Prisoner. He was moved by train to Germany after
the Italian Surrender.

Escape from the Bridge at Allerona

On 28 January 1944, during World War II, the Orvieto North railway bridge at Allerona was the site of the
inadvertent bombing by the American 320th Bombardment Group of a train filled with Allied prisoners.
Most of the POWs had come from Camp P.G. 54, Fara in Sabina, 35 kilometres to the north of Rome, and
had been evacuated in anticipation of the Allied advance.
The train was halted on the bridge over the river when the Allied bombs started to fall, and that the German
guards fled the train, leaving the prisoners locked inside. Many, including Burton, escaped through holes in
the boxcars caused by the bombing, and jumped into the river below. It was a massacre and some of the
carriages plunged into the river: there were over four hundred dead and many more wounded. The dead were
not put into marked graves but thrown into craters by the Germans and then filled over. Burton was one of
the men who eventually managed to escape back to Allied lines evading the Germans for six months
surviving in the hills with other former prisoners and with the assistance of partisans, he eventually found his
way back Allied Lines in July 1944.

After returning to the UK, Burton was not fit enough to see further service overseas in the War but latterly
served in Palestine with the battalion.

He left the Army in 1951 and worked in the Ministry of Defence Constabulary at Woolwich and Hilsea Lines
until 1970 and retired in Southsea. 

Comes with original documents and photos including his Red Book and St John’s sertificate. 

Please see photos. 

Regiment: South Wales Borderers

Era: WW2