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The War Cemetery forms part of the locality of Rivotorto in
the Commune of Assisi, in the Province of Perugia. From Rome,
take the Autostrada A1, Rome-Milan. Come off at Orte and go
along the SS3 bis to Perugia following the signs for Assisi.
Take the road to Rivotorto and at a crossroads, from which a
church is visible, turn left and the cemetery is about 500 metres
down this road. Cemetery address: Via Sacro Tugurio - 6080 Rivotorto
di Assisi (PG) Umbria. GPS Co-ordinates: Latitude: 43.046561,
Longitude: 12.609357
On
3 September 1943 the Allies invaded invaded the Italian mainland,
the invasion coinciding with an armistice made with the Italians
who then re-entered the war on the Allied side. Progress through
southern Italy was rapid despite stiff resistance, but the advance
was checked for some months at the German winter defensive position
known as the Gustav Line. The line eventually fell in May 1944
and as the Germans withdrew, Rome was taken by the Allies on
3 June. Many of the burials in this cemetery date from June
and July 1944, when the Germans were making their first attempts
to stop the Allied advance north of Rome in this region. The
site for the cemetery was selected in September 1944 and burials
were brought in from the surrounding battlefields. Assisi War
Cemetery contains 945 Commonwealth burials of the Second World
War.
[Taken
from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website]
Maurizio
De Ponti, of Villastrada, Italy, is researching the battlefield
of the Trasimeno line June 1944, and is trying to build a web
site called “Walking the Trasimeno Line”. He discovered
that Privete William
George Kerley was the first Allied soldier killed in action
at the doorstep of his village, on the hill, while fighting
the Germans. He visits the Assisi War Cemetery to pray at the
grave for his young life lost during those hard days. |