PG 51 Altamura, Villa Serena (Bari)

Altamura is situated in the Italian region of Apulia, also known as Puglia, in southern Italy. It is located about 28miles (45km) south west of Bari.

PM 3450

Camp operational from July 1942.

More information can be discovered here:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=346 

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Altamura – Villa Serena – Camp for prisoners of war n. 51 Altamura (Bari) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from July 1942
Source: DPG27
Note: Research on Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing (November 2012). The information reported here is taken from some documents conserved in the Historical Office of the Army General Staff and concerns only the period from March 1942 to March 1943. The data on this sheet are therefore incomplete and still to be verified.

The PG field N. 51 of Altamura is also indicated in the documents as Campo di Villa Serena. It came into operation in July 1942 and was described (except in March 1943) as a camp for non-commissioned officers and troops, made up of tents and with a capacity of 4,000 places (see DPG27). In July 1942 it was established that, in anticipation of winter, camp no. 51 must be transformed from tents to wooden or masonry barracks.  (see PGVA05 and PGVA06). The first prisoners of war arrive in Altamura in August 1942. The schedule of September 1st shows the figure of 505 PG, and they are almost all of Indian nationality (part of the British army) (see DPG17). In just one month they arrive at the P.G. No. 51 more than another two thousand prisoners, thus bringing the total figure to 2,546 (see DPG23) (probably due to the massive arrivals of prisoners of war from North Africa in those same months, see for example the camp PG No. 151 of Tarhuna in Libya). From that moment on, the camp progressively emptied until it reached only 53 prisoners of war on 31 March 1943 (see DPG35). Sanitary inspection in February 1943 in PGVA15 Field research P.G. No. 51 of Villa Serena di Altamura is still in progress.

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PG abbreviation

The full title is ‘Campo Concentramento di Prigioniere di Guerra’ (prisoner of war concentration camp). They were not concentration camps in the normal sense of the word. Camps were normally prefixed PG, but could be referred to as CC, Campo or Campo PG. The exception was the 2 Dulags and 1 Stalag within Italy, which were German controlled transit centres for POWs being transferred to Germany. The camps were originally known by their place names, and numbers were not introduced until early 1942. There are some camps with no numbers, perhaps they closed before early 1942?

PM abbreviation

Camps in Italy were divided into postal areas, each area designated ‘PM [number]’. PM translates to ‘Posta Militare’, meaning ‘military mail’. The number indicated the central postal reception area for the camps’ mail.