Allerona

Comune

Comune di Allerona

Coat of arms

Allerona

Location of Allerona in Italy

Coordinates: 42°48′47″N 11°58′26″E / 42.81306°N 11.97389°ECoordinates: 42°48′47″N 11°58′26″E / 42.81306°N 11.97389°E

Country

Italy

Region

Umbria

Province / Metropolitan city

Terni (TR)

Frazioni

Allerona Scalo

Government

• Mayor

Sauro Basili

Area

• Total

82.21 km² (31.74 sq mi)

Elevation

472 m (1,549 ft)

Population (31 December 2011)

• Total

1,859

• Density

23/km² (59/sq mi)

Demonym(s)

Alleronesi

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Postal code

05010

Dialing code

0763

Patron saint

St. Ansano

Saint day

December 1

Website

Official website

Allerona is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Terni in the Italian region Umbria, located about 50 km southwest of Perugia and about 60 km northwest of Terni.

On 28 January 1944, during World War II, the Orvieto North railway bridge at Allerona was the site of the inadvertent bombing by the American 320th Bombardment Group of a train filled with Allied prisoners. Most of the POWs had come from Camp P.G. 54, Fara in Sabina, 35 kilometres to the north of Rome, and had been evacuated in anticipation of the Allied advance. One of the men on the train, Richard Morris of the U.S. Army, had been captured at Venafro, imprisoned at Frosinone, sent to P.G. 54 and had been put on the train, which was presumably heading to Germany. In his memoirs, Morris wrote that the train was halted on the bridge over the river when the Allied bombs started to fall, and that the German guards fled the train, leaving the prisoners locked inside. Many, including Morris, escaped through holes in the boxcars caused by the bombing, and jumped into the river below. Noted Anglo-American historian Iris Origo wrote in her diary, War in Val d'Orcia, that "some of the carriages plunged into the river: there were over four hundred dead and wounded."

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Wikipedia