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email: MichaelPetrovich@hotmail.com. began manifesting itself, with some refugees disappearing. But there is a new move, led by Giuseppe Pititto, a prosecutor in Rome, to charge three former Partisan officials who live in Croatia. Launched with high hopes of exploiting Italian surrender and jetting up the Italian peninsula, it soon bogged down. A few days later I called to her home again to find out what had happened and was told that the police believed the dead man had committed suicide by jumping from the roof. Italian search engine: http://search.virgilio.it/. For some years now I have been looking at your website and it has been really helpful to me. I would be very gratefull if you have any info. It left Italy on 27 January 1945 to transfer to Palestine, where it arrived on 2 February. Those of us that had one stripe were given three for when we stood up in the Quad to take the salute. V Corps was ordered to make an attack on the salient formed by the river into the Allied line at Cotignola. A Roman Catholic priest, Don Sceck, told the investigators that a group of 150 fascists were swiftly sentenced and then mowed down by Partisan troops with machine guns on May 2, 1945, in Basovizza, a small Slovene-speaking village just outside Trieste. I got myself good and early to a vantage point in Whitehall and had the pleasure of seeing a contingent of the 4th Hussars march past in the splendid parade, which included the carriage of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. I found this 68, Lower Cross Road Never trust your memory and don't forget to keep a diary! huddle together and try to forget the cold. The battle concluded on 21 September and the division returned to V Corps on 1 October 1944. We as troops got a 'free issue' of 50 a week, plus we were able to buy at least a hundred a week in the NAAFI. Click on the following series references to search for records within each respective series using keywords and dates. On another occasion, a group of British soldiers (BETFOR) decided to When I arrived in 1950, site and I must say its been very helpful for me. ''There were some 800 Italian Fascists listed as war criminals by the Allies, but none were ever brought to trial,'' said Ivan Fumic, head of the Partisan veterans' organization in Croatia. In early January 1945, the British 1st Infantry Division was sent to Palestine and at the end of the month the I Canadian Corps and the British 5th Infantry Division were ordered to north-west Europe. It was so good to discover your web site on San Sabba. In turn the navy invited some of us back to their own units and I was chosen to spend a day on a mine-sweeper in Trieste harbour. He was in the RAF, DLI and RAOL as far as I can tell if thats relevant. Thank you. While we were stationed here I got my first leave home back to England, briefly touched on in my story My Welcome Home. ''Because a large number of Italians in Istria and Dalmatia supported the Fascist Italian state, they were singled out for arrest. GIs (TRUST) took me along with two of my friends to their mess hall to feed It moved onto into Austria on the 12 May. We could hardly It would not be the first time we were led up the garden path by the Recce Squadrons they were quite good at it. And Italy - which only became a . Finding gainful employment was an impossibility for all Yugoslav nationals. at the rate of 800 a day. Heinrich von Vietinghoff returned from the Baltic to take over from Kesselring and Traugott Herr, the experienced commander of the LXXVI Panzer Corps, took over the 10th Army. October 1945: On board a mine-sweeper in Trieste Harbour, From the Regimental Diary for 1 October 1945: 'Major JJ OBrien left to go on a course in UK, also 14 days leave. We left Monfalcone on the Wednesday, got into London on Friday evening and turned up at the dinner on Saturday. The area was known as the Morgan Line and acted as a buffer zone between the Yugoslavs and the Italians, both of whom laid claim to this territory. A treaty signed between Italy and Yugoslavia more than 20 years ago to settle territorial and property disputes was never fully carried out. Today the city has 230,000 people, many of them from Italian families who were forced out of Yugoslavia after the war. 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. There is another panaramic virtual site, just as interesting: She also worked in Trieste - in San Sabba, Opincina and Gesuiti. I heard he ended up in the Basovizza foibe. Regards Frank. But I don't remember losing any sleep over the matter! During this time, Axis shipping was being attacked in bombing raids such as Operation Bowler. By a sheer coincidence, when I eventually returned to England the same Trooper X was on the same draft. Army Air Corps operations record books and war diaries, 1957-1969, are in WO 295. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites Devon EX31 2PJ Back to search Royal Army Medical Corps Muniments Collection It was handed back to Italy in 1954. Thousands more were deported, and many perished in Yugoslav detention camps, according to allied officers and historians who investigated the killings. or the same as the Riseria? The United States Army assigned the mission of providing troops for the Free Territory of Trieste to the 88th Infantry Division which was on occupation duty in Italy along the Morgan Line between Italy and Yugoslavia. [23] On all fronts, the German defense continued to be strong and effective, but Bondeno was captured on April 23. began to resemble a reception center with the influx of new refugees, the You should also provide attribution to the original work, source and licence. The Allied forward formations spent the rest of the winter of 1944 in inhospitable conditions while preparations were being made for a spring offensive in 1945. This was a system whereby, if one had served three years and nine months abroad, you qualified for home posting. Do you know if the Annex was a separate area and when it was served, it was awful. On April 27, General Gnther Meinhold surrendered his 14,000 troops to the partisans in Genoa. The invasion of mainland Italy started with the British 8th Army landing at Taranto on 3 rd September 1943 and an operation named "Baytown". In the next three years, we were The spring 1945 offensive in Italy, codenamed Operation Grapeshot, was the final Allied attack during the Italian Campaign in the final stages of the Second World War. 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. Below are just some of the wars and conflicts since 1945 that are covered in our records. At the same time the artillery group was equipped with the more powerful and more modern M114 towed howitzers. The Eighth Army plan (Operation Buckland) had to deal with the difficult task of getting across the Senio, with its raised artificial banks varying between 6m (20ft) and 12m (40ft) in height and honeycombed with tunnels and bunkers front and rear. 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. In October we moved to the Trieste area, to a small town called Opicina, which sat on the top of a hill overlooking the Bay of Trieste. I clearly state "when we were in Rome I went with him to see "The Song of Bernadette". 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). To induce me to stay he offered, as a bribe if you like, very rapid promotion, mentioning that it was quite common for a Quartermaster Sergeant to be made up to an officer in a very short time. For the service records of individuals from this period go to Veterans UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defence. [5][4], As of 9 April, the Axis in Italy had 21 much weaker German divisions and four Italian National Republican Army (ENR) divisions, with about 349,000 German and 45,000 Italian troops. England was in a state of crisis as fuel was almost unobtainable. From Opicina we now moved to the dockyard area of Monfalcone, just a few miles down the road but still in the Trieste Area. [12] In Phase I, the Eighth Army would cross the Senio and Santerno rivers and then make a dual thrust, one towards Budrio parallel to the Bologna road, Route 9 (the Via Emilia) and the other northwest along Route 16, the Via Adriatica, towards Bastia and the Argenta Gap which was a narrow strip of dry terrain through the flooded land west of Lake Comacchio. Specific operations and campaigns. It was the best meal we'd had in One morning, immediately before roll call, the young lad who was my assistant and who I was training to take over from me came to me in a state of panic. On 11 August 1944, the division transferred to V Corps, and then to I Canadian Corps on 7 September 1944 for the battle of the Rimini Line which commenced on 14 September. I found your story very interesting. I was not to be tempted, however, as the delights of London called and I was looking forward to life as a civilian. Ron, Then we were moved to San Sabba. In March 1943, it was deployed to Tunisia and then used to secure the Island of Pantelleria. During the occupation, at least 3,500 residents of Trieste, along with an unknown number of Yugoslavs, Italians and Germans who washed up there, were killed and thrown into the fissures, or foibes, of the Carso mountain range, the eastern end of the Italian Alps. Samo Pahor, a local Slovene leader, said, ''The stories about the Partisan massacres of Italians are not true.''. I was a child then and became very sick in TBC. Even the The YMCA in Trieste had taken over a leisure centre which offered, amongst other facilities, a chance to have one's laundry done. In the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, independence movements across Europe are seeking their own media moments. The United States Army assigned the mission of providing troops for the Free Territory of Trieste to the 88th Infantry Division which was on occupation duty in Italy along the Morgan Line between Italy and Yugoslavia. dialect are spoken in the city center while Slovenian is partially spoken It participated in the battle for the Trasimere Line between 20 and 30 June 1944, the advance to Arezzo between 4 and 17 July 1944 and the advance to Florence between 17 July and 10 August. The capture of Bologna was looked upon as a secondary task.[12]. set up emergency internment General Harold Alexander, having been promoted to Field Marshal, replaced Wilson as Allied Supreme Commander Mediterranean on December 12. The division left for Greece on 12 December 1944, arriving a day later. Sabba (my grandmother, mother, sister and myself) from Banatsko Novo Selo in 1950. 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. It left Italy on 18 July 1944 to transfer to Egypt for a period of rest and refitting. Joachim Lemelsen, who had temporarily commanded the 10th Army, returned to command the 14th Army. It took part in the Second Battle for Cassino and then the advance up the Liri Valley (Cassino III). Old Soldier's Home (TRUST & BETFOR): [13] Phase III involved the establishment of bridgeheads across the Po and exploitation north. He loved all aspects of the cinema and when we were in Rome I went with him to see 'The Song of Bernadette' and he sent a review of it back to his old firm and later showed me the article in the magazine. general. locals are considered autochthonous into the border region of Trieste, It landed at Salerno in Italy on 9 September 1943, having come from Libya. The two tyres had been stolen. public. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. It was a lovely day and all was going fine until it was pointed out to us that the degaussing equipment aboard (which neutralised the magnet mines in the harbour) had developed a fault. Reporter, Trieste. It is now, and only now, some sixty years later, that I realise what I should have recorded in the family book. The only ref in my records for that time is going on home leave on May 21st. We can either copy our records onto paper or deliver them to you digitally, Visit us in Kew to see original documents or view online records for free, Consider paying for grim-looking stone structure, dating back to the Hapsburg period, that the It would be my guess we were all touched by the Chinese curse as we certainly lived through interesting times plus a bit, it led to an intersting life that is for sure. In the first week of April, diversionary attacks were launched on the extreme right and left of the Allied front to draw German reserves away from the main assaults. [15], The Fifth Army plan (Operation Craftsman) envisaged an initial thrust by IV Corps along Route 64 to straighten the army front and to draw German reserves away from Route 65. Trieste's City Hall, in the Piazza Unita d'Italia informations about permission to go to Sweden. The German Army surrendered to New Zealand army on May 2. International pressure made the Yugoslavs leave the city on June 12. He was captured in Trieste. [24] On April 24, Parma and Reggio Emilia were liberated by the partisans.[23]. ''It is impossible to consider exhuming the bodies,'' said a University of Trieste historian, Gianpaolo Valdevit. An amphibious operation across the lake and parachute drop would bring pressure to bear on the flank and help to break the Argenta position.