Page 55 - NONOSTANTE IL LUNGO TEMPO TRASCORSO…Le stragi nazifasciste nella guerra di liberazione 1943–1945

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also among the Italian troops deployed abroad, In Autumn 1944, the Allied offensive ceased
among those soldiers who could not concretely and the battlefront established itself along the
“go back home”: we should mention Kefalonia, Gothic Line, which had been breached eastwards
where the Italian Acqui Division fought against but was still resisting westwards: the Allied troops
the superior German Army for one week. The had a certain success in the east, conquering
motivations that encouraged them were numer- Forlì (November 9th), Ravenna (December 4th)
ous: military honour, the oath of loyalty to the and Faenza (December 16th). On the western
King, the hope to get somehow back to Italy, front, Tuscany was totally freed except for the
antifascist sparks - signs of redemption for their district of Apuania (today’s Massa Carrara), from
Country. After their surrender, many surviving which the defensive line originated. After the
soldiers and Officers were executed. There were winter break, the Allied troops attacked again in
similar battles between Italians and Germans in April, breaching the Gothic Line and anticipating
Corfu, Rhodes, Leros and Kos in Dodecanese, the German surrender, signed in Caserta on April
and in these latter three locations the German 29th 1945.
troops executed the Italian survivors. In Greece In those months, Italy was also facing an in-
and Yugoslavia many Italian soldiers joined the lo- ternal war between fascists and anti-fascists: Be-
cal movements of Resistance. The “Nation in dis- nito Mussolini, disempowered by the King on July
array” was defending itself in the best way possi- 25th 1943 and locked up in Gran Sasso’s shelter,
ble, and the fallen people demonstrated it. was freed by German commandos and brought to
On September 9th 1943, the Committee of Munich: from there, he announced the creation
National Liberation (Comitato di Liberazione Na- of the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale
zionale) formed in Rome out of the Committee of Italiana - RSI). RSI was a scarcely autonomous
Opposition, after having heard of the King’s es- State, subjugated to Germans, acknowledged
cape. They called the Italians to action “to recon- only by Germany and its allies, that counterposed
quer Italy and give our Country the place it de- the legitimate Italian State of the King and Gener-
serves among the free nations”. al Badoglio.
After September 8th, Italy experienced one The fascists, that merged into a new party
of the most difficult moments in its recent history, - the Republican Fascist Party (Partito Fascista
with foreign armies fighting on its soil: the Allies Repubblicano) - were opposed by a wide political
were advancing so slowly, that the Germans had front, and militarily speaking by a well organised
all the time to organise defensive lines. The most armed resistance, coordinated by the Commit-
famous one was the Gustav Line, south of Rome, tees of National Liberation, supported by anti-fas-
established from October 1943, which originated cist parties. In February 1944, the Committee of
from the mouth of river Garigliano and reached National Liberation in Milan, the most important
the city of Ortona, 25 km south Pescara, passing in the North, transformed itself -by appointment
through Cassino. of the Central Committee- into the Comitato di
Rome would be occupied by the Allied Forc- Liberazione Nazionale per l’Alta Italia (CLNAI - Na-
es only on 4th-5th June 1944, and the Germans, tional Liberation Committee for Northern Italy). Its
retreating both in a disorganised and “aggres- duties were to politically and militarily coordinate
sive” way, deployed their troops along another the resistance in the North; Ferruccio Parri (rep-
defensive line, the so-called Gothic Line (or Green resenting the Action Party), directed its military
Line): it stretched from Marina di Massa to Pesa- operations and so on June 9th 1944 the Commit-
ro. The Italian campaign was really tough, for the tee became a military command for the occupied
land’s configuration - mountainous and hilly - with territories in Italy. Thus, a general command of
many rivers to cross, and slow because the Allies Corpo Volontari della Libertà (CVL - Volunteers
did not have the Italian Liberation as their main of Freedom Corps) was born, whose head was
target. In the same days of Rome’s liberation, in General Raffaele Cadorna (parachuted in Berga-
fact, many important operations were carried out mo in August); it was an attempt to downsize the
on the northern-western European front, with the political impact of resistance, reducing it to mere
landings in Normandy and in southern France on military operations. However, the two vice-com-
August 15th 1944. Italy hence experienced anoth- manders in CVL were Ferruccio Parri and Luigi
er harsh winter characterised by war, with ene- Longo, a respected representative of the Italian
my armies and bombings on occupied cities, de- Communist Party: the military heads were repre-
struction and lack of basic resources for survival. senting both the largest formations (“Giustizia e

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