A young Bermudian pilot and Second World War prisoner, shot dead while attempting to escape, now lies in an Italian military cemetery with his name and Island home for an epitaph.

The plain-chiselled tombstone of James Outerbridge differs little from the countless others around the world marking the lives lost in the global war that claimed 34 other Bermudian lives.

Now, more than 70 years after his death, a historian in the city of Rimini is seeking help from Bermuda in uncovering the true story of James Outerbridge.

“His name is engraved on a tombstone in the military cemetery of Ravenna, but it shouldn’t rest just as an inscription, because behind that name is a story and a face,” Daniele Celli told The Royal Gazette.

“He died in Rimini but a few people know the truth about that day. That’s why I’d like to let people of my town know his story.

“We must not forget our past and all the young men that lost their lives so far from home.”

Mr Celli speculated that James may have been attempting to reach a safe haven when a guard spotted him and opened fire on May 1, 1943.

“A train, carrying some prisoners of the Allied army from the prisoner camp PG21 in Chieti to the camp PG49 in Parma, stopped near Rimini,” he said.

“During the stop, a young man managed to leave the wagon and escaped. Maybe he meant to get San Marino, a neutral state 20 kilometres away.”

A friend of Mr Celli’s by the name of Gino Muratori recalls a story depicting James’s grim fate.

The tale passed on by Mr Celli comes from Ilio Mulazzani, a childhood friend of Mr Muratori’s. Both men were born in 1929.

He described seeing the corpse of “a British soldier in the morgue of the Murri, then used as a military hospital for Italian soldiers returning from the front”.

On learning that a prisoner had been killed while fleeing the prison train, curious locals went to have a look.

“He was lying on a table in the room used as a morgue, located on the north side of the building, the one that gave the square Gondar,” Mr Mulazzani recalled. “He was wearing only his pants and his bare chest was visible.” The body bore five or so gunshot wounds.

“He was very young,” the witness added.

“As I watched, I thought about his mother, who still knew nothing about what had happened. It was said that the train the young Englishman was travelling on had to stop, or slow down in the vicinity of Colonia Novarese, at Miramare.

“There, the young soldier had tried to escape and was killed.”

According to an inscription at St Mark’s Church in Smith’s, James Outerbridge was born on September 5, 1922 — the son of Enith Urma Outerbridge of Flatts, where his family lived.

He was schooled at the Whitney Institute, followed by the UK’s Rossall School. He had been accepted for a Rhodes Scholarship when the war intervened.

Joining the Royal Air Force, James was assigned to the 458 RAAF squadron, which flew initially over Europe.

According to a website dedicated to its memory, the 458 switched later in the war to North Africa, Malta, Sardinia, Italy and Gibraltar. The squadron was engaged in bombing, anti-shipping and anti-submarine strikes in support of the North African and Italian campaigns.

Mr Celli said the squadron had been based in Malta at the time of James’s capture.

Rimini itself was badly damaged in the war, taking heavy bombardment until it was captured in a massive Allied offensive, Operation Olive, in September, 1944.

Mr Celli, an amateur historian of the Second World War, said he was keen to hear from Bermudians who could furnish him with more of the story of James Outerbridge.

“I’d like to get in touch with James’s relatives to collect as many information as possible, like pictures,” he added.

Readers who maybe able to help are asked to contact us with details at news@royalgazette.com.