Italian resistance movement: Difference between revisions
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The movement was initially composed of independent |
The movement was initially composed of independent tbers of [[Political party|political parties]] previously outlawed by the Fascist regime, or by former officers of the disbanded Royal Army loyal to the [[monarchy]]. Later, the [[Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale]] (CNL; Committee of National Liberation) created by the [[Italian Communist Party]], the [[Italian Socialist Party]], the [[Partito d'Azione]] (a [[republicanism|republican]] "[[liberal socialism|liberal socialist]]" party), [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Democrazia Cristiana]] and other minor parties took control of the movement, in accordance with [[House of Savoy|King]] [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel III]]'s ministers and the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. The [[Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia]] (CLNAI or National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy) was setup by partisans behind German lines and enjoyed the loyalty of most groups in the region.<ref>The Italian Army 1940-45 (3) Osprey Men-at-Arms 353 ISBN 978-1-85532-866-2</ref> |
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The formations were eventually divided between three main groups, the communist [[Brigate Garibaldi|Garibaldi Brigades]], ''[[Giustizia e Libertà]]'' Brigades (related to Partito d'Azione), and socialist [[Giacomo Matteotti|Matteotti]] Brigades. Smaller groups included [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] sympathizers and [[Monarchism|monarchists]], like the ''Fiamme Verdi'' or "Green Flames", ''Di Dio'' ''[[Enrico Martini|Mauri]]'', ''Franchi'' (founded by [[Edgardo Sogno]]), besides some [[Anarchism|anarchist]] and [[apolitical]] formations. |
The formations were eventually divided between three main groups, the communist [[Brigate Garibaldi|Garibaldi Brigades]], ''[[Giustizia e Libertà]]'' Brigades (related to Partito d'Azione), and socialist [[Giacomo Matteotti|Matteotti]] Brigades. Smaller groups included [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] sympathizers and [[Monarchism|monarchists]], like the ''Fiamme Verdi'' or "Green Flames", ''Di Dio'' ''[[Enrico Martini|Mauri]]'', ''Franchi'' (founded by [[Edgardo Sogno]]), besides some [[Anarchism|anarchist]] and [[apolitical]] formations. |
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The Italian resistance movement (in It. Resistenza italiana or simply Resistenza) is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II, also known as the Partisan Resistance (in Italian: Resistenza partigiana) and Italian Partisans.
Origins of the movement
The movement was initially composed of independent tbers of political parties previously outlawed by the Fascist regime, or by former officers of the disbanded Royal Army loyal to the monarchy. Later, the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CNL; Committee of National Liberation) created by the Italian Communist Party, the Italian Socialist Party, the Partito d'Azione (a republican "liberal socialist" party), Democrazia Cristiana and other minor parties took control of the movement, in accordance with King Victor Emmanuel III's ministers and the Allies. The Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia (CLNAI or National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy) was setup by partisans behind German lines and enjoyed the loyalty of most groups in the region.[1]
The formations were eventually divided between three main groups, the communist Garibaldi Brigades, Giustizia e Libertà Brigades (related to Partito d'Azione), and socialist Matteotti Brigades. Smaller groups included Catholic sympathizers and monarchists, like the Fiamme Verdi or "Green Flames", Di Dio Mauri, Franchi (founded by Edgardo Sogno), besides some anarchist and apolitical formations.
Relations between the different groups were not always good. For example, in 1945 in Porzûs (in the province of Udine), Garibaldi Brigade partisans under Yugoslav command attacked and killed partisans of the Catholic and azionista Osoppo band.[citation needed] The Garibaldi Brigade partisans claimed that the Catholic and azionista Osoppo band partisans had refused to accept the authority of Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslavian partisan leader, whose project was to annex the easternmost part of Italy. They were also accused of sharing intelligence with the fascist enemy.[citation needed] This famous fratricide was preceded by several instances where the reverse was true.[citation needed] For example, in the Maritime Alps near Mondovì in autumn 1943 some Communist partisans, fugitive after killing German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) officers in an ambush, were traded to the Nazi-Fascists by monarchist military officers[2][failed verification] from the so-called azzurri or badogliani who exerted command there in an uneasy truce with the enemy.
While the largest contingents operated in mountainous districts of the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, there were also large formations in the Po plain; in the main towns of Northern Italy, like Piacenza and surroundings valleys next to the Gothic line, where in Montechino castle there was an important partisan headquarters, the Gruppi di azione patriottica (G.A.P., Patriotic Action Groups) regularly carried out acts of sabotage and guerrilla warfare, and the Squadre di azione patriottica (S.A.P., Patriotic Action Squads) arranged massive strike actions and campaigns of propaganda. Not unlike the French Resistance, women were important leaders and couriers both in the armed groups as well as in the industrial areas.[3]
Resistance by the Italian Armed Forces
The earliest acts of armed resistance must be credited to Italian soldiers, although technically they cannot be defined as "partisans", i.e. paramilitary forces, since they were part of the formal Italian Armed Forces. In the days following 8 September 1943 most servicemen, left without orders from the higher echelons were disarmed and shipped to POW camps in the Third Reich, often by much smaller German outfits. However some garrisons stationed in Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and in Italy proper, engaged in armed fighting against the Germans. Admirals Inigo Campioni and Luigi Mascherpa led an attempt at defending Rhodes, Kos, Leros and other Dodecanese islands from their former allies. With reinforcements from SAS, SBS and British Army troops under the command of Maj. Gen. F.G.R. Brittorous and Brig. Gen. Robert Tilney, the defenders held on for a month, but the Wehrmacht ultimately managed to take hold of the islands through air and sea landings performed by infantry and Fallschirmjäger supported by Luftwaffe aircraft. Both Campioni and Mascherpa were captured and later executed at Verona under the charge of high treason.
On 13 September 1943, the Acqui Division stationed in Cefalonia was ordered by Comando Supremo to attack the Germans in spite of negotiations going on between the Italian headquarters and Wehrmacht senior officers. After the battle raged for ten days, the Germans executed a great number of officers and enlisted men as a retaliation. The death toll, estimated at as high as 10,000, included the Division commander, General Antonio Gandin.
The best known battle of those days broke out in Rome on the same day the armistice was announced. Regio Esercito units such as the Sassari Division, the Granatieri di Sardegna, the Piave Division, the Ariete II Division, the Centauro Division, the Piacenza Division, the "Lupi di Toscana" Division, besides Carabinieri, infantry and coastal artillery regiments, were deployed around the city and along the roads leading to it. Fallschirmjäger and Panzergrenadiere were initially repelled but, despite being outnumbered and enduring heavy losses, they slowly got the upper hand, aided by their experience and superior Panzer component. Moreover, the defenders were decisively hampered by the escape of King Victor Emmanuel III, Marshal Pietro Badoglio and their staff to Brindisi, which left the Generals in charge of the city without a coordinated defence plan. This also caused Allied support to be called off at the last minute, since the Fallschirmjäger were not prevented from taking the DZs where the 82nd Airborne Division was scheduled to be airdropped (Brig. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor crossed the lines and went to Rome in person to supervise the operation himself). The Centauro II Division not participating in the battle also contributed to the defeat: the StuG IIIs, Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs it was equipped with could have easily turned the tables of the battle. But, given its dubious allegiance (it was mostly formed by ex-Blackshirts), it was not fielded. By 10 September, the Germans had penetrated into downtown Rome. Granatieri, aided by civilians, made their last stand at Porta San Paolo. At 4 pm, General Carlo Calvi di Bergolo signed the surrender. The Italian Divisions were disbanded and their members captured. Although some of the officers participating in the battle later joined the Italian Resistance, the clash was not motivated by anti-German sentiment but only by the necessity to defend the Italian capital and resist the Italian soldiers' disarmament. For instance, General Raffaele Cadorna, Jr. (commander of Ariete II) and Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (later shot in the Ardeatine massacre), joined the underground; General Gioacchino Solinas (commander of the Granatieri) instead opted for the Italian Social Republic.[4]
The Italian soldiers captured by the Germans numbered around 700,000. Most of them chose to refuse cooperation with the Third Reich, chiefly to maintain their oath of fidelity to the King, in spite of being subject to all kinds of hardships, both direct and subtle. Their former allies designated them Italienische Militär-Internierte ("Italian military internees"), to deny them POW status and the consequent benefits granted by the Geneva Convention. After decades of oblivion, theirs has been recognized as an act of unarmed resistance on a par with the armed confrontation sustained by other Italian servicemen.[5]
More Italian forces remained stuck in Montenegro when the armistice was announced. The Taurinense Division, the Venezia Division, the Aosta artillery Group and the remains of the Emilia Division were assembled in the Italian Garibaldi partisan Division, part of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army. When the unit finally returned to Italy, at the end of the war, half of its members had been killed or were listed as missing in action.
New territorial structures
In 1944, with the Allied forces nearby, the partisan resistance in Italy staged an uprising behind German lines, led by the Committee of National Liberation of Upper Italy (CLNAI). This rebellion led to the establishment of a number of provisional partisan governments throughout the mountainous regions of northern Italy, of which Ossola was the most important and received recognition from Switzerland and from Allied consulates in Switzerland. By the end of 1944, German reinforcements and Benito Mussolini's remaining forces had crushed the uprising, and the area's liberation had to wait until the final offensives of 1945.
List of partisan governments
- Alto Monferrato (September – 2 December)
- Alto Tortonese (September–December)
- Bobbio (7 July – 27 August)
- Cansiglio (July–September)
- Carnia (July–October)
- Friuli Orientale (30 June – September)
- Imperia (August–October)
- Langhe (September–November)
- Montefiorino (17 June – 1 August)
- Ossola (10 September – 23 October)
- Val Ceno (10 June – 11 July)
- Val d'Enza e Val Parma (June–July)
- Val Maira e Val Varaita (June – 21 August)
- Val Taro (15 June – 24 July)
- Valli di Lanzo (25 June – September)
- Valsesia (11 June – 10 July)
- Varzi (19/24 September – 29 November)
Field organisation
The nature of the partisans meant that unit sizes varied with bands reaching 450 men and women. The size of units also depended on logistics, such as the ability to arm, clothe, and feed the members as well as the amount of local support. The basic unit was the squadra or squad with three or more, usually five, making a distaccamento or detachment. Three or more detachments made a brigata or brigade of which two or more made a divisione or division. In some places several divisions formed a gruppo divisione or divisional group. These divisional groups would be responsible for an zona d'operatione or operational group.
Weaponry
Just like their European counterparts, Italian partisans seized whatever guns they could find. The first weapons were brought by ex-soldiers willing to carry on the fight against the Germans and fascists, and came from the Regio Esercito inventory: Carcano rifles, Beretta M 1934 and M1935 pistols, Bodeo M1889 revolvers, SRCM and OTO hand grenades, Fiat-Revelli Modello 1935, Breda 30 and Breda M37 machine guns. As time went by, captured K98ks, MG34s, MG42s and of course the iconic potato mashers, Lugers and Walther P38s were added to partisan kits. Submachine guns such as the MP 40 were initially scarce and, usually, reserved to squad leaders. Automatic weapons became more common as they were captured in combat, or RSI soldiers started to defect to the underground bringing in their own gear. The much beloved Beretta MABs started to appear in larger numbers since October 1943, when they were spirited away en masse from the Beretta factory which was producing them for the Wehrmacht.
Additional weapons, chiefly of British origin, were airdropped by the Allies: PIATs,[6] Lee-Enfield rifles,[6] Bren light machine guns,[6] and above all Sten guns.[6] US-made weapons were provided in a smaller scale courtesy of the OSS: mostly Thompson submachine guns (both M1928 and M1), M3 Grease Guns, United Defense M42s, and some scarce examples of folding stock M1 Carbines. Besides this, supplies included explosives, clothing, boots, food rations and even cash that the partisans would use to pay for their weapons or hand over to civilians as a compensation for the confiscations they had made for their survival.
April 25
On April 19, 1945, concurrent with the renewal of the Allied offensive, the CLN called out a general insurrection, the April 25 uprising. Bologna was liberated on April 21 by the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and the Polish II Corps under Allied command. Parma and Reggio Emilia were liberated on April 24. Turin and Milan were liberated on April 25 through a general insurrection. Over 14,000 German and Fascist troops were captured in Genoa on April 26 and 27, when General Meinhold surrendered to the CLN.[7]
Nazi and Fascist retaliation
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The resistance showed the world that not all Italians agreed with the Fascist rule. It proved that Italians were prepared to fight against Fascist rule at high cost. Casualties from the resistance mounted to tens of thousands of Italian partisans, civilians and prisoners of war killed.
During the war, German and Italian Fascist soldiers committed a number of other war crimes including summary executions, rape of female prisoners, ransacking, and retaliations against civilians; most of these were common practices. Some of the most notorious events were the Ardeatine massacre, the Marzabotto massacre, and the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre. Captured partisans or civilians were often tortured. The Decima Flottiglia MAS, an Italian unit under German command, the Black Brigades and the Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana are especially remembered as the most ruthless military formations of the war.
The Germans profited greatly from the weakness of the Fascist puppet state in Northern Italy. The Germans determined that they would annex Italian territories into the Third Reich. Two new German regions were to be established. One was the Alpenvorland, to comprise the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and the Province of Belluno. The other was Adriatisches Küstenland, to comprise Istria, Quarnero, and most of today's region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In the valley of Carnia, the Germans used anti-communist forces from the Soviet Union under the command of ataman Timofey Domanov; they were promised a Cossack republic to be established in Northeastern Italy, to be called Kosakenland.[8]
Capture and execution of Mussolini
On the morning of 27 April 1945 Umberto (nom de guerre "Partisan Bill") a Partisan of the 52nd Garibaldi Brigade (Communists) was checking lorries at Dongo on Lake Como carrying retreating German Troops to the Swiss border. He became suspicious of a man in the fifth truck. His unit had been warned that Mussolini was attempting to flee the country. There was an agreement with the Partisans that the convoy would be given safe passage providing no Italians were being concealed among the retreating German soldiers. A German soldier explained that the man was a drunken colleague, but Lazzaro remained unconvinced.
Lazzaro called out to the man, who twice ignored his shouts. Climbing into the truck he went up to the man and said "Cavaliere Benito Mussolini" — the man's reaction was a physical jolt. The man was Benito Mussolini (Il Duce). The political commissar of the unit was called in — the official partisan version of events thereafter is the decision to have Mussolini executed was taken by a small group including the leaders of the three main 'branches' of the Resistance. One of the representatives of the Communist Garibaldi Brigade was its Commander, Luigi Longo, (born Fubine 1900, died Rome 1980) who would later become a Member of the Italian Parliament and Leader (Secretary) of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972. Earlier in the Spanish Civil War, Longo, as Inspector General of the International Brigade, had fought against Franco.
The task of carrying out the execution of Mussolini was given to 'Colonel Valerio', conventionally identified as a Garibaldi Communist, Walter Audisio. However, Lazzaro in his 1962 book about the incident clearly states that the 'Colonel Valerio' he saw in Dongo was not Walter Audisio, but Luigi Longo. The identification of such a senior figure personally organizing a summary execution was politically explosive. This didn't later stop Lazzaro from further contradicting the official partisan version that Mussolini and his mistress (Clara Petacci) had been killed the following day, the 28th, at 4.10 pm at the gates of a villa at Giulino di Mezzegra overlooking the lake. He stated that they were killed the same day the 27th, at 12.30 pm when Petacci tried to grab a gun from one of the resistance fighters who were escorting them to Milan for a public execution. Shots were fired and when Mussolini was hit "they finished him off on the spot and then shot Clara Petacci for causing the accident".
Many of the corpses, including those of Mussolini and Petacci, were later taken to Milan and hung up-side down in Piazzale Loreto, a square not far from the Milano Centrale railway station; the square was chosen because it had been the site of a massacre of anti-Fascists by Fascist militia under German orders the previous year. Fifteen Fascists were exhibited in the square; this number had significance seeing as 15 anti-Fascists had been displayed in the square in 1944.
The Fascists executed in Dongo included: Benito Mussolini (Il Duce), Francesco Barracu (Undersecretary in cabinet office), Fernando Mezzasoma (Ministry of Popular Culture – Propaganda), Nicola Bombacci (a personal friend of Mussolini), Luigi Gatti (Mussolini's private secretary), Augusto Liverani (Minister of Communications), Alessandro Pavolini (ex-Ministry of Popular Culture), Paolo Zerbino (Minister of Interior), Ruggero Romano (Minister of Public Works), Paolo Porta (Head of Fascist Party in Lombardy), Goffredo Coppola (Rector of the Bologna University), Ernesto Daquanno (Director of Stefani press agency), Mario Nudi (President of Fascist Agriculture Association), Colonel Vito Casalinuovo (Mussolini's adjutant), Pietro Calistri (Air Force pilot), Idreno Utimperghe (a participant in the March on Rome and leader of a Black Brigade, and Clara Petacci (Mussolini's mistress).
Achille Starace (Secretary of Fascist Party 1931–1939) was arrested and executed earlier in Milan. He was one of the fifteen Fascists exhibited in the square. Marcello Petacci, Clara Petacci's brother, was captured with the others. But, rather than being executed in Dongo, he was shot while trying to escape.
Shortly after World War II it was said that the modern Republic of Italy was founded on the collective achievements of the Partisan leaders, whose political allegiance was mixed and sometimes caused friction. It should not therefore be surprising that credible differing versions of these events were widely promoted then, for politically expedient reasons.
Foreign contribution
Not all members of the Italian resistance were of Italian nationality. There were also many foreign soldiers who had escaped POW camps or had joined guerrilla bands as leaders of the so-called "military missions". Among them Yugoslavs, Russians, Ukrainians,[9] Dutch,[9] Spanish anti-fascists,[9] Greeks,[9] Poles,[9] as well as some Germans disillusioned by national socialism.[9] And of course British and Americans, either ex-prisoners or advisors deployed by SOE, SAS and OSS. Some of them later became well-known to the public, such as climber and explorer Bill Tilman, reporter and historian Peter Tompkins, former Royal Air Force pilot Manfred Czernin, and architect Oliver Churchill.
Collateral activities
Another task carried out by the Italian resistance was the assistance of escaping POWs (an estimated 80,000 were interned in Italy up until 8 September 1943[10]): they were assisted in reaching Allied lines or were escorted to Switzerland through paths previously used by smugglers. Jews were aided by DELASEM, a secret network which extended throughout occupied Italy and included Jews and non-Jews alike, Roman Catholic bishops, clerics, laity, policemen and even some German soldiers. Since Jews were considered "enemy aliens" by the fascist government, they were left with little or nothing to live on, DELASEM contributed to their survival by offering food, shelter, and even money, of which vast amounts were donated. Many of its members would be later designated Righteous among the Nations. Sometimes fugitives were hidden in safe houses, usually by women (the less likely to arise suspicion), even several at a time. After the war, Field Marshal Harold Alexander issued a diploma to those who did this at the risk of their lives.
See also
References
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- ^ The Italian Army 1940-45 (3) Osprey Men-at-Arms 353 ISBN 978-1-85532-866-2
- ^ [1], pp. 22–23
- ^ H-Net Review: Andrea Peto <petoand@ceu.hu> on Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943–45
- ^ Sanna, Daniele (2005). Da Porta San Paolo a Salò. Gioacchino Solinas comandante antitedesco. AM&D. ISBN 88-86799-86-1.
- ^ Natta, Alessandro (1997). L'altra Resistenza. I militari italiani internati in Germania. Einaudi. ISBN 978880614314.
{{cite book}}
: Check|isbn=
value: length (help) - ^ a b c d Balbo, Adriano (2005). Quando inglesi arrivare noi tutti morti. Blu Edizioni. ISBN 88-7904-001-4.
- ^ Basil Davidson, Special Operations Europe: Scenes from the Anti-Nazi War (1980), pp. 340/360
- ^ repubblica partigiana della carnia
- ^ a b c d e f Incerti, Matteo (2011). Il Bracciale di Sterline - Cento bastardi senza gloria. Una storia di guerra e passioni. Aliberti Editore. ISBN 978-88-7424-766-0.
- ^ [2]
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Template:It ANPI – Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia
- La mappa delle Repubbliche partigiane provides a source for the list of partisan governments
- ANPI Section of Rimini
- ANPI Section of Pesaro-Urbino
- Template:It ANCFARGL – Associazione Nazionale Combattenti Forze Armate Regolari Guerra di Liberazione
- Template:It INSMLI – Istituto Nazionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione in Italia
- Template:It Il portale della guerra di Liberazione
- Articles on Anarchist resistance to Italian Fascism
- 1943–1945: Anarchist partisans in the Italian Resistance
- European Resistance Archive
- Book: War In Italy: By Richard Lamb
- E-Book: Il Partigiano D’Artagnan: By Alberto Cotti
- The Life of Basil Davidson by James Currey