PG 80 Villa Marina

PM 3300

The camp was operational from May 1942. Villa Marina was located near Rome. Research has found that Villa Marina was not the name of a place*, it was possibly a Villa/large house.

The camp list issued by the Royal Army General Staff, Prisoners of War Office, dated 31st December 1942 clearly quote both Villa Marina and Colle di Compito under camp number 60. This is likely to be an error. The numbers on the list dated 31st March 1943 are not so clear. Villa Marina is numbered by all sources as Camp number 80 and Colle di Compito as camp number 60.

* A seaside community called Villa Marina does exist on the east coast of Italy. It is a suburb of Cesenatico, a port town on the Adriatic sea. Province of Forli-Cesena, region of Emilia-Romagna,  It is located about 15 miles (24 km) north of Rimini.

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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.