Australia
P.O.W. Aerogramme / Camp Myrtleford

Aerogramme A2 sent (cds MYRTLEFORD 9 AU 46) to Palermo, Italy, by an Italian prisoner of war.

On the left hand side of the aerogramme, there is a faint impression of the h/s "Approved for Transmission by Camp Commandant / No. 5 P.W. Camp Myrtleford", see enlarged detail (turned 90 degrees clockwise) below.

"Australia, at the request of Britain, took a total of 18,432 POWs between April 1941 and February 1945, approximately one quarter of whom were shipped directly to Australia from Egypt during 1941, and three-quarters via POW camps in India between 1943 and 1945." [1]. About 3,500 were Italians. By mid 1947 most P.O.W's were repatriated.

According to the records kept for the prisoners of war in Australia, the sender of the aerogramme was captured on Jan 4, 1941 at Bardia, a city in eastern Libya. He was transferred on the Queen Mary to Sydney on Aug 16, 1941 and marched into Camp Murchinson the next day. On June 9, 1942 he was transferred to Camp Myrtleford, where the above letter was written. He was repatriated on December 14, 1946 from Moreton Bay.




References
[1] O'Connor, From Tobruk to Clare: the experiences of the Italian prisoner of war Luigi Bortolotti 1941-1946. Flinders University Languages Group Online Review, Vol. 1, Issue 3, December 2003