As part of our school's War Memorial project we are researching the life of Captain Patrick Rawnsley Alexander of the 19th Field Regiment who was killed in Italy on the 13th October 1944. http://kidblog.org/whsblog/mrleach273145/whs-roll-of-honour-captain-p-r-alexander/ Casualty
I presume that the purpose of this is for students to learn somersetting about research. The trick is to trace what the unit was doing that day, The unit war diary in the National Archive, or the Firepower archives. may have a definitive answer. They usually mention officer casualties individually, be it takes a visit to Kew or Woolwich . . There is material on the internet which can help.. The formation which 19 Fd Regt was part of can be found here. http://nigelef.tripod.com/regtsumm.htm#fdregt Other parts of that web site will explain what a captain in the RA did and the likely dangers of that job. A summary of what his part of the army was doing on 13 October.1944 canm be found in some of the US histories. There is a detailed history of the 5th Army. This was a classified history written after the war and is available declassified here http://www.scribd.com/doc/36037602/WWII-5th-Army-History The area where his unit fought is quite spectacular, in the Apennines south of Bologna and a few miles east of Monte Battaglia," Battle mountain", named after a battle between the sforzas and Casare Borgia. Lovely in summer noit so nice in winter.