The invasion of mainland Italy started with the British 8th Army landing at Taranto on 3 rd September 1943 and an operation named "Baytown". Politics, policy and planning: records of high command, 4. Being the coward that I am, I took the course, and as a result was promoted to Lance Corporal, then later to Full Corporal. Reporter, Trieste. This probably accounted for the fact that I must have volunteered for the job of prisoners escort, of which details now follow. The A.M.G. This was vital information, as at the drop of a hat the squadron could be called onto the streets of Trieste to keep the peace. At the time in question he was sufficiently satisfied with my services to both him and the squadron to ask me to stay on in the army after I was due for demob. Subordinate units came from . I was at his house one evening and one of his daughters was just about to leave to visit another friend. From 1950 onwards, unit historical records and reports are in WO 305. informations about permission to go to Sweden. But there is a new move, led by Giuseppe Pititto, a prosecutor in Rome, to charge three former Partisan officials who live in Croatia. The 351st Infantry Regiment [4] [5] of the . After the war I wrote to him and his delightful reply is at the back of my album. Below are just some of the wars and conflicts since 1945 that are covered in our records. We were at a rifle range that took your photograph if you hit the target and, much to our surprise, it actually worked! approximately one flamethrower vehicle every 70yd (64m) along an 5.0mi (8km)-long front, 5th (Huntingdonshire) Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II, https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/royal-artillery.php, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/italian-campaign, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/canada-Italy-1943-to-1945, United States Army Center of Military History, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spring_1945_offensive_in_Italy&oldid=1152528016, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 19:51. Cigarettes in particular were in great demand by the civilian population. The Regiment was visited by the Corps Commander, Lt General Sir John Harding, and the photo in my album brings it all back to me because I was in my office at the time. 1/21/06 Hi, Olga of Trieste is called Triestin in Italian and Triestino (pronounced research. Hi Ron. On New Year's Eve we were still at Monfalcone and a photo in the album shows seven of the lads, including myself, at the local fairground. Freedom, you may say, Months later, we were General Harold Alexander, having been promoted to Field Marshal, replaced Wilson as Allied Supreme Commander Mediterranean on December 12. But I don't remember losing any sleep over the matter! On our arrival back in camp we would find ourselves being armed and sent back to the town in convoy to control the riots that were taking place. 68, Lower Cross Road began manifesting itself, with some refugees disappearing. Three months after I was demobbed I received a payment from the War Office of six shillings and four pence. [29], On 1 May 1945, the Chief of Staff of the National Republican Army, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, announced the unconditional surrender of the Italian Social Republic and ordered the forces under his command to lay down their arms. From there, it went on to Italy, arriving on 7 December 1943. The 4th Indian Infantry Division had been sent to Greece and the British 4th Infantry Division had followed them in November along with the 139th Brigade of the British 46th Infantry Division. Sat 31 Oct 2009 20.06 EDT A fateful blunder by British military intelligence allowed the Nazis to seize 50,000 Allied prisoners of war from the Italians during the Second World War and transport. Six British infantry divisions fought at varying stages of the Italian campaign. The Portal for Public History. Many of the records covered in this guide are not available to view online so to see them you will have to either visit usin Kew ororder copies. This was a system whereby, if one had served three years and nine months abroad, you qualified for home posting. The remaining units, including the two reserve battalions, were disbanded. The young girl, I cant remember her name, was very distressed but able to identify the dead person as another Jew who lived in a flat above her own. On June 12, 1945, the Yugoslav forces were driven out by the British Army; American and British took over the administration of the Territory, creating the Allied Military Government [1] on the western part of the Julian March or Venezia-Giulia. from that early impromptu tent camp, near the Yugoslav cases there. The Memorandum gave Zone A with Trieste to Italy for an ordinary civil administration, and Zone B, which had already had a communist government since 1947, to Yugoslavia. Specific operations and campaigns. Lazy blighter that I am, in most cases I just 'lifted' the stories from my computer onto this site without checking for any obvious chronological errors. I was a young soldier with the R.A.first we were at La Farra then moved to the Morgan Line,from there for the Victory Parade. This was followed on the night of April 15 by II Corps attacking with 6th South African Armoured Division and the 88th Infantry Division advancing towards Bologna between Highway 64 and 65 and the 91st and 34th Infantry Divisions along Highway 65. I heard he ended up in the Basovizza foibe. We had just got into the street outside his flat when we literally stumbled over a body in the kerb. On re-checking my personal diaries I now find that after joining the 4th QOH I never went back to Rome, although I clearly visited there twice whilst in the 49th LAA (once on the 21st of June and again on the 10th of July). 331.33 Records of Allied Military Government, British-United States Zone, Free Territory of Trieste 1942-54 (bulk 1947-54) 331.33.1 Records of the Office of the Military Governor 331.33.2 Records of the Directorate General, Civil Affairs 331.33.3 Records of the Directorate of Interior 331.33.4 Records of the Directorate of Finance and Economics Just by chance at that time, I was given a choice of two options. There were suspicions and the hundreds of refugees running for cover to shut themselves in tents, Here we would have a shower, a haircut, change our Khaki Drill uniform for a clean set left the week before, and then, all spick and span, we would head for one of the best restaurants in town. You have done a massive job. The division entered Austria on 8 May 1945. Of course I was able to fit some time in at home, and the dinner itself, held at the Connaught Rooms in Holborn, with Winston Churchill in attendance, was quite an experience. The lower the group number the quicker you got out. In 1948-51, my mother worked in several camps in Austria and Trieste and brought with her to Australia photographs, monthly reports, refugee art and handcraft. WO 264. I am writing to you as I have just completed a new website which has a lot of photos, reports and information on 5 Displaced Persons Camps, collected by my mother, Clare McMurray/Wositzky. By clicking on the series links (for example,WO 269) you will arrive on the respective series description pages from where you can search the series, using dates/years and keywords, such as: Series description pages also provide information on the arrangement of the records and sometimes some of the historical context in which they were created, as well as suggesting related series you could explore. Find out more about the site contributors. On one occasion the navy decided it would be a good idea if they were to send some of the matelots stationed in Trieste to our barracks for a day's leave. huddle together and try to forget the cold. ''The Italians should try their own war criminals before hunting down people in other countries. She also worked in Trieste - in San Sabba, Opincina and Gesuiti. GAUMONT BRITISH NEWSREEL (REUTERS)To license this film, visit https://www.britishpathe.com/video/VLVA6XE2ZWC64DCEWO5I7WLX1GOD1-ARMY-DAY-PARADE-IN-TRIESTE-ITA. It left Italy on 16 March 1944 bound for Egypt. [22], On the same day, the Italian National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy, in command of the Italian resistance movement, ordered a general insurrection; in the following days, fighting between Italian partisan and the German and RSI forces broke out in Turin and Genoa (as well as in many other towns across Northern Italy), while German forces prepared to withdraw from Milan. The website has a lot of material from all of these camps. in many of the immediate suburbs. If you're in Italy and you need urgent help (for example, you've been attacked, arrested or someone has died), call +39 06 4220 0001 (available 24/7, 365 days a year for British nationals . November 27, 2019. There is another panaramic virtual site, just as interesting: For the next nine years, Trieste was under a British and American military government, becoming one of the front-line cities of the cold war. about a few refugees in "San Sabba," "Opicina," and "Gesuiti" who were continually It was addressed to San They then destroy another 6 tanks from a British counterattack. The Allied Military Government administered Zone A, which was divided into peacekeeping and law enforcement sectors protected by 5,000 American troops ( Trieste United States Troops - TRUST) and 5,000 British troops ( British Element Trieste Force - BETFOR). The division returned to Italy on 3 July 1944 and fought in the Gothic Line battles. at the rate of 800 a day. As my time got nearer I got more on edge and lived in fear of being involved in a situation that might postpone my home posting. those of the BBC. In civvy street he had been a film reviewer for the cinema trade magazine 'The Cinema'. They ranged from a baby, weeks old, to a 90-year-old former Serbian While we were stationed here I got my first leave home back to England, briefly touched on in my story My Welcome Home. In the early afternoon of April 9, 825 heavy bombers dropped fragmentation bombs on the support zone behind the Senio followed by medium and fighter bombers. I recall the heavy rains, chilled by the Borah It took part in the Second Battle for Cassino and then the advance up the Liri Valley (Cassino III). v3.0, except where otherwise stated, 2. In October 1954 the Allied Military Government was abolished and the Territory turned over to the control of the Italian Government. On 19 October the same year I struck lucky in what must have been a regimental ballot. I hasten to explain. I was not to be tempted, however, as the delights of London called and I was looking forward to life as a civilian. They had reached the Santerno, 5.6km (3.5mi) beyond, by dawn on April 11. At the same time the divisions were reorganized and their areas of responsibility were redefined. Italian search engine: http://search.virgilio.it/. The stores themselves were in the barracks but immediately outside the store I kept various large items that were too big to be kept indoors. These used to fetch a fair price on the streets and there was at least one 'scam' that some of our own MPs were said to have practised. It left Italy on 27 January 1945 to transfer to Palestine, where it arrived on 2 February. British Element Trieste Force (BETFOR) was the UK organization in the free territory. the American Military Government had more than 1,000 single boys and men In the next three years, we were It bordered the new Italian Republic to the north, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the south and to the east. Strictly speaking, of course, the authorities would not have approved of our using army issue cigarettes for this purpose, but the result was that after our evening out we used to glow all the way back to camp. [27] On the Allied far right flank, V Corps, met by lessened resistance, traversed the Venetian Line and entered Padua in the early hours of April 29 to find that partisans had locked up the German garrison of 5,000. [23] To the south of Milan, at Collecchio-Fornovo, the Brazilian Division bottled up the remaining effectives of two German divisions along with the last units of the National Republican Army, taking 13,500 prisoners on April 28. already crowded with almost 2,400 people of many nationalities, most of whom The weight of the attack would then switch westward again to break into the Po valley skirting Bologna.[16]. This reduced the Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Richard McCreery, to seven divisions. I would be very gratefull if you have any info. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. that they were on a spying mission. Gesuiti I remember, one day a group of American If I took the first option I might miss out on the chance for a 'safe' job - but on the other hand, when would another opportunity come up to learn to ski? [25][26] On April 27, the 1st Armored Division entered Milan which had been liberated by the partisans on April 25 and the IV Corps commander Willis D. Crittenberger entered the city on April 30. In the summer months hey used to hold opera performances there, in the open, and I was lucky enough to see a performance of Carmen with an orchestra and cast of several hundred. During this time, Axis shipping was being attacked in bombing raids such as Operation Bowler.

John Aldridge Journalist, Jeep Grand Cherokee Back Windows All The Way Down, Articles B