Campo P.G.53 Italy

My Uncle, Kenneth Clifford Tarr #1277 2ndNZEF 4th Field Regiment. New Zealand
His personnel listing shows him indexed at P.G. 53.
His last letter home was from Crete on 5th May 1941. No correspondence was received after this date.
Also printed in ' Italy -Imperial Prisoners of War Alphabetical List - Section 4 -2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force'.
The Auckland War Memorial Museum Library has a listing stating ' Approx. date or place of capture' as Crete.
Where was he before this Campo started operating?
Was he even there?
Renewed interest amongst cousins...

 

POW list dated 1943.

 

Yes that is the list I have.
His mother wrote to the Campo and to Red Cross, but received either no reply or no confirmation of Ken being there.
Were there New Zealand troops there? Are they included in the British troop numbers?

 

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

His death date is recorded by CWGC as 2nd November 1945. He has no known grave and is recorded on the Cassino Memorial in Italy.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2098830/kenneth-clifford-tarr/

You could apply to CWGC for information from their files and that might fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

You ought to apply to Swiss Red Cross 26th January 2026 for a copy of the information held in their files via this link -

Requests for information about people held during Spanish Civil War or Second World War: Quarterly limit reached


Check the site promptly at the given opening time and a pop up online application form will be visible. Complete and submit the form speedily as the application window can close within 90 minutes due to the limit being reached.


It’s a free service and you can expect a reply by email within 3 months. You may be lucky and get a copy of the capture card postcard he completed on arrival at his first camp. The Red Cross document you will receive should list all the main camps where he was detained but doesn’t usually record any work camps.

You may also find the information in this topic to be helpful -

Campo P.G. 53 and Campo P.G. 56 Italy

Forum member vitellino may come along later in the day.


Steve

 

Thanks for your welcome.
I have read the posts of vitellino. Very interesting.
I shall investigate the link as you suggest. Cheers

 

There is a thread here that gives some information on the regiment, in particular it fought as infantry on Crete. See: 2nd New Zealand Infantry Divisional Artillery

Another Kiwi asked for help. See: 2NZEF - Basic and general questions re Army structure Note the last post on pg.1 by a NZDEF Archivist, have you got his personal file?

There is an indication here that NZ published individual artillery regiment histories after WW2, is there one for 4th Field?

The Online Cenotaph also shows he was also listed at: P.G. 57, Gruppignano, Udine, Italy

An online search with: "PG53" + "prisoner" site:ww2talk.com found a small number of threads; changed to: "PG 53" + "prisoner" site:ww2talk.com found many more. You could also try "P.G. 53" and the variations for PG57.

You will know I expect that most prisoners from Greece and North Africa were held by Italy in Italy following an agreement with Germany. That ceased when Italy declared an armistice in September 1943 and the Germans swiftly arrived to remove to Germany and Poland those POWs that remained in the camps. It is quite a controversial issue and you may find this thread helps: Italy 1943: the 'Stay Put Order'

When I researched a Kiwi POW (in another camp) there was a Senior British Officer who commanded the British & Commonwealth prisoners. Plus, a separate US Senior Officer. My subject followed the order given to 'Stay Put', a small number at that camp left before the Germans arrived. From memory a third of the POWs who escaped reached safety with the Allies or Swiss, a third remained with the Italian Partisans and a third were recaptured. A good number died somewhere in the mountains and a few were killed.

 

Hello Craig.

I think you will have noticed it but in case not the Auckland War Memorial on line has mention of Kenneth being at PG 57 (as well as PG 53) too.



Courtesy of, and all thanks to:

https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C25388?n=Kenneth+Clifford+Tarr&from=/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/search&ordinal=0#gallery

Geoff(mnz) and Janet(Vitellino) will be, if they can spare their time, the folks for you (amongst others of course) on this.

Good luck with your searching. As you already know only too well, the possibility of any casualty that has "missing" associated with them at anytime can be extra difficult to get to certainty with.

Kind regards, always remember, never forget,

Jim.

EDITS twixt 09:40 to O9:55 09/102025

Link to forum member "GeoffMNZ"..

Link to forum member "Vitellino".

"incase" to "in case".

My clarification given the return of "edit boy the post post changer" and their editing propensity to make nonsense of following posts in threads. Any thread!

 

Thanks for your reply. I'll check out the links.

I am still waiting for his personnel file (requested 1st Sept)

The reference to P.G. 57 may not be accurate. The source is an Excel Spreadsheet which we believe is a typo of the list already provided above.
Regards

 

There is also an L.V. Tarr listed as POW with the same 1277 number.

 

Thanks Jim

 

New Zealand Service Person ??

 

Sorry no, further investigation he was Union defence force, probably a South African.

 

The reference to P.G. 57 may not be accurate. The source is an Excel Spreadsheet which we believe is a typo of the list already provided above.

 

Hello Craig,

The Online Cenotaph is right, according to me.

On arriving in Italy from Crete he would have been sent fro a transit camp, almost certainly in Puglia, probably PG 85 at Tuturano, PG 75 at Bari or even PG 65 at Gravina in Puglia. From yhere he would have been moved to PG 53, and then, in the spring or earlh summer of 1943 would have been transferred to PG 57 Grupignano (one p).

If he was in Grupignano then in common with nearly all the other men in the camp he would have been sent to Germany following the armistice of 8 September 1943. I will now check and amend this post.

Vitellino

 

Craig,

I have just checked the Register for New Zealanders held in Germany (WO 392/4) and you uncle does not appear in it. Hence we was not transferred to Germany after the Armistice and so would have died in Italy AFTER THE WAR HAD ENDED.

This suggests he was in hospital, and I note that in the Online Cenotaph there is this comment:

WW2 POW Medically Unfit (R25405151)

This suggests he would have been transferred from PG 57 to a military hospital, probably the Military Hospital in Udine, straight after or even before the armistice.

His service records should clear this up for you, but the problem remains as to where he was buried as an unidentified soldier. The likely cemetery would be at Padua. 32 Unidentifed servicemen are buried there.

Best wishes,

Vitellino

It might be worth obtaining a copy pf the Red Cross inspection of the camp from the National Archives, London, as soldiers who are ill are often, though not always, mentioned.

Reference: WO 361/1893
Description:
Prisoners of war, Italy: Camp 57, Gruppignano; International Red Cross reports on conditions

 

Hi Craig & welcome, a great response already!
To every one who has responded --thanks you.
I first saw Craigs post on a Facebook page Campo 57 Grupignano-Gruppignano, Work Camps & Partisans about a week ago and encouraged him to join us as I am intrigued with a missing NZ POW from my home town of Palmerston North in New Zealand.
I hope we can solve this between us.

 

Janet,
I am very familiar with this document and AWMM shorthand description is somewhat unhelpful. This is a hand written foolscap book ( a bit like a school exercise book) that has the full Title


I believe this was a record initially keep regarding the repatriation of POW in 1942 and 1943 and they are listed alphabetically in pages (file) 3 to 21. Then monthly summaries of escaped POW in Italy and finally this list on page 24 which includes Kenneth Tarr.



He went missing in April/May 1941 and as PG 53 did not open until October 42 where was he?

 

Thank you so much for your fast reply to this query.
The reference R25405151 refers to him being unaccounted for as at 1st May 1946.

 

Thanks Geoff
I'm finding my way around how to post etc. in these forums. Reducing images sizes etc.. All new to me.

 

Thank you for this response. I am only just catching up on the replies....