CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THREE – Part One
A Struggle for Survival and the Marring of a Nation’s Honour
Despite there being a difference in flags, uniforms and governments, the lands south of the Alps were wracked by the same destructive conditions that had burst forth within Switzerland in April of 1941. It was that difference, French for German and Italian for Swiss, however, that changed the dynamic of the situation and would colour the perceptions of the world for years to come.
As the Italian people reeled from the loss of Venice to the French on January 24, 1941, small groups of Italian soldiers banded together within the rural areas of the Po River Valley and began carrying out acts of sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the French
7ème Armée under General de Hauteclocque as it moved northward toward the Italian-Austrian frontier and the southward moving the
10ème Armée of General Legentilhomme. The impact these small harassment attacks was negligible upon either of the French armies and the bands of Italian troops suffered from a lack of supplies and support from most of the villages and small towns within the Po Valley, yet the attacks did buy time for Rome to begin a reorganization of the
Regio Esercito and the creation of a defensive line across the top of the peninsula.
Having suffered huge losses in men in the battles of North Africa and across northern Italy, the
Regio Esercito was in dire straits in the late winter months of 1941. Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and
Commando Supremo Pietro Badoglio, Marquess of el Sabotino realized that the Kingdom of Italy was a precipice and desperate measures were in need. During the siege of Venice Mussolini formed the
Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CNL: Committee of National Liberation) and placed MVSN commander Achille Starace in charge to coordinate with the
Regio Esercito to push the French out of the Po Valley. The MVSN,
Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, was an all-volunteers militia created in 1923 to organize The National Fascist Party’s Blackshirts in to organized militia, and at the time boasting seven full strength divisions on the Italian peninsula, each division similarly equipped as a regular infantry division within the
Regio Esercito and were rightly considered to be the Italian equivalent to Germany’s
Waffen-SS. Having extensive service in Italy’s 1935-36 Abyssinian Campaign and having lost a division in the North African battles against the British, the MVSN as a whole were very capable troops and were considered as elite as the
Regio Esercito’s
Alpini divisions. Starace determined that the best way to reach the goal of liberation from the French would be to send
Centuria (company sized unit) into the north to coordinate with the
Regio Esercito units that were already operating in the region. These
Gruppi di azione patriottica (G.A.P., Patriotic Action Groups) were directed by Rome to conduct full scale guerrilla war operations against the French Army while the
Commando Supremo Badoglio mobilized the six remaining MVSN divisions and the rest of the
Regio Esercito into defensive positions across the Apennine Mountains.
Badoglio’s defensive line, the
Garibaldi Line after Giuseppe Garibaldi, started in the west at the Tuscan coast of the Ligurian Sea, crossed the breadth of Tuscany across the Apennine Mountains and through the Umbria and the Marche regions to come to an end at the Adriatic Sea. Using the cities of Pisa and Rimini as anchor points, the
Garibaldi Line followed the path of the Arno River through Florence then into the heart of the Apennines. After cresting the peaks of both Monte Falterona, from which the Arno River springs, and Monte Fumaiolo, holding the springs of the Tiber River, in the Casentino area of the Apennines the
Garibaldi Line wound down along the Marecchia River to the eastern anchor point in Rimini. The
Commando Supremo had a very defensible line; however, he had few troops with which to man the line. With the majority of the
Regio Esercito being decimated by the British Army in the campaigns in Abyssinia and North Africa as well as the disastrous invasion attempt of Malta, and facing not only the continued offensives of the French from the north but the possibility of a Imperial invasion out of North Africa, Badoglio was forced to either spread his available troops across the breadth of Italy and be weak in every position or to concentrate his troops against the French or the British and hope to be able to forestall both until more men could be called up to defend against both powers.
Members of an Alpini
division conducting a stalling counterattack upon advancing French units
Resting the hopes of Italian survival upon the success of the G.A.P. cells working in the north, Badoglio manned the
Garibaldi Line with the
Regio Esercito’s remaining
Alpini Divisions. Keeping the survivors of the 6
Alpini Division Alpi Graie in reserve, Badoglio placed his three remaining Alpini (2
Alpini Division Tridentina, 3
Alpini Division Julia and 5
Alpini Division Pusteria) across the Line from east to west and fortified all routes south with vast mine fields and concentrated artillery.
An artillery piece of 3 Reggimento dell'artiglieria di montagna
(Mountain Artillery Regiment) engaging the advancing French 10ème Armée
As the Italians fortified their
Garibaldi Line, General Legentilhomme and de Hauteclocque determined after a month of activity that it was impossible for their armies to both array themselves for the next round of offensive operations and maintain security over the occupied territories. In response to their reports Paris declared on March 1 that all Italian territories under French occupation would be formed into the Protectorat
de Lombardie-Venetia (Protectorate of Lombardy-Venetia, Italian:
Protettorato di Lombardia-Venetia) and the protectorate would be administered from Milan with French Minister of Justice Raphaël Alibert as High Commissioner. It was the creation of Lombardy-Venetia and the appointment of Alibert as High Commissioner that historians have pinpointed as the catalyst for the brutal razing of northern Italy that would take place over the next months, would give birth to a vicious guerilla war, sour Franco-Italian relations to the current day and stain the reputation of France for decades.
Alibert, as High Commissioner, was tasked by Paris to use any means necessary to organize the industrial capacity of northern Italy to the benefit of France and thereby ease the strain the war was putting upon metropolitan France’s heavy industries. In addition the High Commissioner had the mission of ensuring the security of supplies coming from France to Legentilhomme’s
10ème Armée and de Hauteclocque’s
7ème Armée. In the initial days following the formation of the protectorate when the implications began to become apparent to the Italians, the civilian population that had not hindered French forces as they marched across the Po Valley while the region had been tenaciously defended by the
Regio Esercito, began to offer passive resistance to the efforts of the High Commissioner. The majority of the resistance came in the form of labour strikes among the heavy industry factories, railroads and trucking lines. There was also an increase in assistance given to the G.A.P. parties working in the countryside.
A G.A.P. group conducting an ambush on French forces somewhere between Milan and Parma
Unwilling to negotiate with the striking workers and being unable to reach their demands had he been willing to negotiate Alibert, in a calculated step to both insult the Italian proclamation of the
Novum Imperium Romanum (“New Roman Empire” in Latin) and subjugate the civilian population of Lombardy-Venetia, ordered the
decimatio (Latin for decimation) of the striking workers. Decimation was a form of military discipline in the Roman Legions in which a group was divided into bands of ten and each band drew lots with the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed. On March 13, now known as Black Thursday in Italy, Alibert visited the cities of La Spezia, Genoa, Cuneo and Turin and had executed every tenth striking worker. After the deed was done in each city the High Commissioner let it be known that the strikers had twelve hours to return to work or the
decimatio would return and those executed would be family members of the striking workers. Alibert’s brutality and threat of greater brutality had the effect he had desired, namely the cowing of the Italian population and a return to work, although it also had the effect of creating a chasm of distrust between the French authorities and the Italians.
This distrust was further acerbated on March 20 when Alibert ordered the transfer of famous Italian
objets d'art from Lombardy-Venetia to Paris. The excuse provided by the French was that the historical art work was being seized in order to ensure complete cooperation of the Italian people within the protectorate. It was a poor excuse even to the least initiated in foreign affairs and one and all took the step as proof that Alibert was following in the footsteps of Napoleon Bonaparte to seize the treasures to both punish the Italians for invading France and to assist the French in financing the continuation of their war efforts. The French targeted Milan’s
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana art gallery within the cities historic library,
Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and specifically ordered the removal of
The Codex Atlanticus (the largest bound set of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci, twelve volumes in all, the name indicating its atlas-like breadth). Genoa’s famous art colleges,
Musei di Strada Nuova and
Museo d'Arte Orientale,
Orientale holding one of the largest collections of Oriental art in Europe was also earmarked by the High Commissioner to be looted, and as a final insult Alibert ordered, as had Napoleon almost one hundred forty-five years previously, for the removal of
The Triumphal Quadriga (the Horses of Saint Mark) from the terrace of the façade of St Mark's Basilica with the Horses to be sent once more to Paris for enthronement atop the
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.
The High Commissioner’s order was greeted with sullen resentment by the subdued Italian population and kindled a slow fire in the hearts of the occupied people. It also forced action upon the Roman Catholic Church, which had to that point followed a path of neutrality between France and Italy’s war, and following an ignored written protest sent by the archbishops presiding within the resurrected Lombardy-Venetia a deputation of church leaders arrived in Milan to meet with the High Commissioner. Consisting of the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano, the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Pietro Boetto and the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, the group was a strong cell of religious leaders whom were also very pro-Italian, especially Schuster who was an enthusiastic supporter of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and compared it favorably to the Crusades with the view of it being a potential source converts. While no records exist that detail what took place during the face to face meeting on March 24, there are a good number of theories as to what did occur some of which are quite conspiratorial in nature, the result went exceptionally poorly for the four cardinals and in the long term proved to be extremely damaging for the French.
After a short twenty minute meeting the citizens of Milan and the crowds that had gathered to witness the results of the meeting experienced another very public display of brutal heavy handedness when Alibert had the four church leaders marched into the middle of
Piazza del Duomo, and after decrying the revelation of their crimes against the Protectorate, had all four cardinals executed by firing squad. Despite the lack of large scale riots breaking out across the breadth of Lombardy-Venetia and the almost sullen lack of response from the inhabitants of the major cities within the Protectorate, the frequency and brutality of
Gruppi di azione patriottica attacks rose drastically in the days that followed, some G.A.P. cells audaciously conducting acts of sabotage occurring within the occupied cities.
A resistance group fighting within the streets of Genoa after the execution of the four cardinals.
In an effort to prevent the Protectorate from becoming uncontrollable, Alibert was authorized by Paris to reinforce his security forces with the
Milice française (French Militia), simply called Milice, the paramilitary force under the command of General Joseph Darnand.
Darnand and his Milice were given only two tasks by High Commissioner, neither of which were easy to accomplish nor were able to be accomplished separately. Expressly given free reign by Alibert to do whatever it took to accomplish the tasks, the Milice were to eliminate G.A.P. activities within the cities and prevent the Italian resistance from establishing safe havens within Lombardy-Venetia’s urban centers, while working with the High Commissioner’s security forces to create safe travel zones through the countryside of the Protectorate.
A squad of Milice near Milan, spring of 1941
Using information provided by Italian collaborators who had been threatened, extorted or attacked by the G.A.P. groups that were Communist-dominated, as well as intelligence provided by those with less exalted reasons, such as petty criminals who were promised that their crimes would be overlooked if they cooperated, Darnand and his Milice embarked upon a series of summary executions and assassinations as well as the arresting of large groups of civilians. These apprehended civilians were subsequently subjected to rape and torture to extract information and confessions, from which the Milice conducted further operations. In short order Lombardy-Venetia was awash blood as the French meted out their brutal suppression of the Italian population and the G.A.P. reacted by conducting their own vicious reprisals upon the French.
G.A.P. Cells members such as these were highly sought after by the Milice as they were considered a weak link. Sadly, many of G.A.P. members would pay the ultimate sacrifice to prove the Milice wrong.
At the time that Lombardy-Venetia was groaning under the pressure, since Alibert was either unwilling or unable to prevent the news of both the
decimatio and the execution of the cardinals from being made known outside of Italy, the shockwaves from the High Commissioner’s actions reverberated around the world. An overall sense of appall from around the world flooded Paris and whatever subduing Alibert was able to inflict upon the occupied Italian territories quickly became overshadowed by the reactions his exploits created. The United States, the Netherlands and the majority of Latin America countries recalled their ambassadors from Paris in protest for the French Government’s failure to take action. It was the responses from Spain and the Holy See, however, which were far more troubling and problematic for the government of Marshall Pétain.
On France’s southwestern boarder Spain, having emerged from the Spanish Civil War through the guidance of Nationalist leader General Franco as the Kingdom of Spain, was awash in strong anti-French feelings following the news of the cardinal’s executions and the recently crowned Juan III made more than diplomatic protests to Paris. In addition to recalling the Spanish Ambassador from Paris after issuing a harsh condemnation of the High Commissioner’s actions, the Spanish Crown took several aggressive steps that caused great concern not only in Paris but also, surprisingly, in London. Having remained strict neutrality since the outset of the war and militarily remaining unobservant, the return of the Ambassador from Paris coincided with the full mobilization of the Spanish Army in the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish Morocco and Spanish Sahara. The mobilization, while coming as a very alarming surprise to the allied nations, paled in comparison to the provocative placement of the mobilized Spanish troops. In the Western Sahara the Spanish Foreign Legion and the Moroccan infantry and cavalry called
Regulares, which comprised the Spanish Army of Africa, marched into key positions on the boarders of French Morocco and Algeria, both territories being very lightly defended by France due to troop transfers to the battle fronts in Europe, Tunisia and Libya. Far more alarming to Paris, and by extension to London, was the Spanish Army’s closing of the Pyrenees from Cap Higuer on the Bay of Biscay to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean, along with the seizure of the Principality of Andorra, and the dispatching of diplomats to Rome and Budapest.
A dispatch rider receiving orders as the mobilized Spanish Army closes the passes through the Pyrenees.
The Holy See, as is well known, is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see (the official seat of a bishop (Latin:
sedes) of the Roman Catholic Church and forms the central government of the Church. Diplomatically the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic Church and is recognized as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope. In that capacity and overlapping the troubling response from Spain, France also faced the outraged response from the Holy See for the executions of four members of the
Sancta Romana Ecclesia, the Sacred College of Cardinals. His Holiness, Pius XII, having very little true diplomatic pressure to bring to bear against France was able to inflict a great deal of pressure upon Paris by citing High Commissioner Alibert’s violation of canon law (specifically canon 1370 §2 which prohibits physical violence against a bishop of the Church) and the resulting automatic
latae sententiae (a Latin term used in the canon law of the Catholic Church meaning literally "given (laid down) sentence" to signify punishment taking place immediately following the violation of the law) of interdict.
In the Roman Catholic Church, an interdict is an ecclesiastical penalty that may be real, local or personal. A personal interdict is, as can be surmised, aimed toward an individual while a local or real interdict is the equivalent of excommunication against an individual and causes all the churches within the interdicted local (or country) to be closed and the prohibiting of giving almost all the sacraments (i.e. marriage, confession, anointing of the sick, and the Eucharist) with exceptions being allowed for baptism, anointing of the sick, and providing the sacraments on holy holidays.
The Holy Father signing the official interdict against France, March 28, 1941.
As a predominately Roman Catholic nation, the rise of the anti-religious Socialists and Communists in the major urban areas notwithstanding, the interdict was a very hard blow for France. Despite the government of Marshall Pétain having the ability to shield the majority of the diplomatic fallout from reaching the average Frenchman, it was quite impossible for the interdict to be hidden from the populace and when the reason for the Holy See’s laying of the interdict was determined, the outcry from within France soon eclipsed that coming from the outside.
Despite the removal of heavy handed Alibert from Lombardy-Venetia on April 4, proceedings within the Protectorate had moved the situation to the point that only total subjugation of the Italians by the French or a total elimination of the French from northern Italy would cease the turmoil within the region. Each new day witnessed an increase in brutality exercised by both parties upon the other, all in the name of reaching their stated goal. And with each escalation, further carnage arrived in the wake.
In a matter of a handful of weeks, General Legentilhomme was forced to respond to the battles waging across Lombardy-Venetia between the G.A.P. and the Milice, and deploy
10ème Armée’s XX
Corps D'Armée to secure his supply lines as well as the supply lines of General de Hauteclocque’s
7ème Armée which was marching through Tirol into Dalmatia. Paris, also forced to react to the political and diplomatic morass that had become Lombardy-Venetia, scrambled to recover by sending two delegations to Madrid. The first to meet with the Court of Juan III in order to ease the building Franco-Spanish relations with the second meeting with a delegation from the Holy See to work toward lifting the Papal Interdiction. In an effort to appear contrite Paris also made it known that troops were being redirected into Lombardy-Venetia to supposedly take over the suppression of the G.A.P. from the Milice. However, nowhere was it found that there were orders issued to recall the Milice from Lombardy-Venetia.
For Rome, despite both the fundamental shift in French activities in northern Italy coinciding with the possibility of hostilities erupting between France and Spain, the situation for the Italians was far from improving. Northern Italy was still under French control and
Commando Supremo Badoglio and the
Regio Esercito were far from being in a position to launch a counter offensive to push the French out, despite the handicapping the French were suffering at the hands of the G.A.P. And to make matters even that much worse, Rome’s
Novum Imperium Romanum breathed its final breath when the fortifications in Tripoli fell under the combined might of General Jan C. Smuts’ Imperial South African Army and General Alan Brooke’s British Army of North Africa on April 6, becoming the last Italian territory in Africa to fall to the allies. Badoglio knew that it would only be a matter of time before Imperial forces in northern Africa began transitioning to the preparation for an invasion of Italy.
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Up Next: Operation Barclay
Stay Tuned and thanks for waiting!!!
