Award MiD 134493 Lt. Anthony Robert Morton PALMER, 2 R.T.R., POW, Camp 49 Italy

Award Mentioned in Despatches Lt. Anthony Robert Morton Palmer (134493), 2 Royal Tank Regiment

WO 373/96/475

 

I know a lot about Lt. Palmer. His testimony provided the key piece of evidence - a map reference - which enabled the identification of the temporary burial place of Ldg. Tel Victor James Crosby and the subseqent correct identification of Crosby's grave in Cassino War Cemetery. I will send a copy down to my friends at Fontana Liri who first "introduced" me to Palmer.

 

On Sunday 15 December , in Fontana Liri, a piazzale (square) was dedicated to Lt.Palmer.

Fragments of an older plaque, on which the names of some other escapers had been engraved but which had been demolished, were collected by retired Italian Ten.Col. Carlo Venditti, a Fontana Liri resident, with whom I have been collaborating for ten years, and have been remounted on an adjacent wall.

It should also be mentioned that a plaque to submariner Ldg.Tel Victor James Crosby, HM submarine Saracen, who was killed by the occupying German Troops near to Fontana Liri in December 1943, can be found on a wall in a small garden named in his honour. Ten.Col. Venditti discovered Ldg/Tel Crosby's burial place thanks to the testimony given by Lt. Palmer to the War Crimes enquiry which was investigating his death, and I used this evidence to claim that the grave of the only sailor in Cassino War Cemetery, described as being that of an unknown serviceman, was actually his. The claim was accepted and a new tombstone was erected in 2017.

In my opinion no Italian town has done more to recognise the presence in its midst of escaped prisoners of war, and to dedicate public spaces to them, than Fontana Liri.


The mayor lays a wreath beneath the plaque to Ldg/Tel. Crosby


The plaque to Lt. Palmer


The wall on which the fragments of the old plaque have been placed. Ten.Col Venditti is reading out the list of escaped prisoners' names.



Vitellino