Paybook photograph of VX45756 Private (Pte) James Campbell McCracken, 2/24th Battalion. Pte ...

Paybook photograph of VX45756 Private (Pte) James Campbell McCracken, 2/24th Battalion. Pte McCracken was captured on 22 July 1942 during the attack by the 26th Brigade on German positions immediately north east of Tel el Eisa, probably around Trig point 25. Pte McCracken was held in an Italian POW Camp in Italy, until he managed to escape after the Italian surrender in 1943. In February of 1944 he joined an Italian partisan group fighting the Germans around Milan but on 15 April 1944 he was captured wearing civilian clothes along with two British soldiers, Corporal Brown and Gunner Miller (probably 847083 Fred Miller, 1 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery), and a number of other Italian partisans at Varallo, north east of Milan. The three soldiers and the other partisans were lined up facing a wall with their hands tied behind their back and shot in the back by members of the 63rd Tagliamento Battalion (Italian fascists). Before he was executed Pte McCracken was allowed to write a letter to his family in Bendigo: "Just a line to tell you that I will not see you again as I am going to be shot...". Pte McCracken's body was recovered from the Varallo cemetery and is now buried in the British Military Cemetery in Milan. This paybook photograph was copied by the National Archives of Australia from Pte McCracken's file. (Series Number, B883, accession number 2002/5080133).