A letter to the Mayor

Another document linked to prisoners of war, but for once it’s not a picture nor a photograph. It’s indeed a letter, dated July 23, 1915 and written by the tenente colonnello of the 5th reggimento alpini, a famous Italian unit. The letter is written to the mayor of the small town of San Siro, in Como province. The mayor is asked to inform the family of soldier Romualdo Muga Ruga, born in 1891, that he was wounded during the battle of the Lakes of Presana of June 15 and is now a POW at the reserve hospital of Kufstein.

I have checked the database of the fallen soldiers of Lombardy and wasn’t able to find the name of this soldier, this means that he probably survived the war, after having spent the whole duration of the war in Austria (war was declared on May 23).

Barrack 7A

You know I love pictures of prisoners of war and this one is one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen. I suppose 7A is the name of their barrack. This is truly a high-quality picture, probably taken by a professional. The picture was sent as a postcard by a soldier named Richarme to his family in French Haute-Savoie, we can suppose he was one of the portrayed chasseurs. There are not only French soldiers (chasseurs, but soldiers of the colonial troops, etc.); I was able to identify Belgian ones, British and even Russian ones!