It remained in the U.K. re-equipping and refitting until leaving for North Africa on 6 January 1943. ''The killings were, unlike Bosnia today, politically motivated,'' said Mr. Valdevit. into this derelict burned-out rice mill that was a Nazi death camp five years They had reached the Santerno, 5.6km (3.5mi) beyond, by dawn on April 11. The lower the group number the quicker you got out. Freedom, you may say, This is a chapter of the war people in the city are not ready to reopen. Depending on the relative success of these actions, a decision would be made on whether the Eighth Army's prime objective would become Ferrara on the Via Adriatica or remain Budrio. From 15:20 to 19:10, five heavy artillery barrages were fired each lasting 30 minutes, interspersed with fighter bomber attacks. began manifesting itself, with some refugees disappearing. 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. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open Government Licence On March 23, Albert Kesselring was appointed Commander-in-Chief West, replacing General-Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. There is another panaramic virtual site, just as interesting: From 1950 onwards, unit historical records and reports are in WO 305. [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. +44 (0)20 7611 2222info@wellcomecollection.org, Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). 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. "[30], Including lines of communication and support troops. The 1 Infantry Division was a pre-war Regular Army formation, which was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The Cavour entered the Chesapeake Bay on February 13 and docked at Norfolk, Virginia,. Italy, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Duino-Aurisina, The Erma has this inscription: 'Respect the field of death and glory' in memory of the First World War. 1) is of Canal Grande where two churches stand side-by-side, one Italian For any other comments, please Contact Us. 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 Although they managed to breach the formidable Gothic Line defenses, the Allies failed to break into the Po Valley before the winter weather made further attempts impossible. The service was about halfway through when there was a clamour at one of the doors. commerce and culture, and lost influenc--however lately From what I remember we were placed in the annex, where we lived for 4 years. Heavy snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures made our barracks a place of purgatory and there was not a single toilet that worked in the barracks. ''These persons were questioned and tried in the presence of all the populace, who accused them,'' the priest said in the report. Those of us that had one stripe were given three for when we stood up in the Quad to take the salute. In 1975 the Italian army undertook a major reform of its forces and structure: the regimental level was abolished and battalions came under direct command of newly created multi-arms brigades. to the city too. Ron, Hi Ron. The two tyres had been stolen. Lieutenant general Max-Josef Pemsel, Chief of General Staff of the Army Liguria, consisting of three German and three Italian divisions, followed Graziani's orders and declared in a broadcast message: "I confirm without reserve the words of my Commander, Marshal Graziani. Below are just some of the wars and conflicts since 1945 that are covered in our records. The matter was never proven, however, and for about two weeks I sweated on being kept back in Italy as a potential court-martial witness. 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. The U.S. Fifth Army had been reinforced between September and November 1944 with the 1st Brazilian Division, and in January 1945, with the specialist U.S. 10th Mountain Division. IV Corps had continued its northwards advance and reached the Po river at San Benedetto on April 22. The 4 Infantry Division was deployed from Egypt, and arrived in Italy on 21 February 1944. We must have looked pretty emaciated. The 15th Army Group ration strength was 1,334,000 men, the Eighth Army having an effective strength of 632,980 men, and the Fifth Army 266,883. I clearly state "when we were in Rome I went with him to see "The Song of Bernadette". 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. Discovery is a catalogue of archival records across the UK and beyond, from which you can search 32 million records. It landed at Taranto and advanced up the Adriatic coast under the command of XXX Corps. If it was separate, does The system for release from the army at that time was based on a combination of age and length of service. 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. It was the best meal we'd had in to find that this was the welcome for those who, like myself, had given up the closed doors in my life. There are only a few of us ready to investigate this dispassionately.''. Winterton. 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. In the end of summer New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. The Fifth Army began its assault on April 14 after a bombardment by 2,000 heavy bombers and 2,000 guns along with attacks by IV Corps (1st Brazilian, 10th Mountain and 1st Armored Divisions) on the left. very much if you would include "San Sabba DP camp" as one of your many transit For my own peace of mind I asked him to tell me, in all confidence, how hed organised this massive theft, but he merely laughed and said, 'It wasnt me mate !'. It was addressed to San di S. Spiridone), the second is the famed Miramar, the third is Piazza dell'Unita, informations about permission to go to Sweden. On the right of the river's salient was 8th Indian Infantry Division, reprising the role they played crossing the Rapido in the final Battle of Monte Cassino. I had been in the army for four and a half years, and as dad, G-d rest his soul, would have said, 'It's enough already'. 78 Infantry Division (1944-45). She asked me to telephone the police from a nearby bar, because she had no phone in her flat, and I escorted her back to the home we had just left. accomodations as I recall than any prison could ever offer. 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. Army Air Corps' operations record books and war diaries, 1957-1969, are in WO 295. The battle concluded on 21 September and the division returned to V Corps on 1 October 1944. It landed in Sicily on 26 July 1943, moving to Italy on 22 September 1943. For some years now I have been looking at your website and it has been really helpful to me. For almost three months I then kicked my heels until in March I was finally released to return to civilian life. Operation Roast was an assault by 2nd Commando Brigade and tanks to capture the seaward isthmus of land bordering Lake Comacchio and seize Port Garibaldi on the lake's north side. believe our eyes to find that these refugees were now packed like sardines Click on the following series references to search for records within each respective series using keywords and dates. Sabba Annex DP Camp, Trieste. http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/military/rg-331-2.html, Apr 7, 2015 The division was involved in the battle for the Gothic Line between 25 August and 22 September 1944. Sun, Jul 19, 2020 Find out more about the site contributors. It led to a joint allied victory for the Yugoslav Partisans and 2nd New Zealand Division and a joint occupation of Trieste, but relations soon deteriorated and led to a nine-year dispute over the territory of Trieste. The division fought at the battle for the Trasimene Line. The New Zealanders had reached the Santerno at nightfall on April 10 and succeeded in making a crossing at dawn on April 11. Roman Catholic (Chiesa di S. Antonio) and the other Serbian Orthodox (Chiesa It left Italy on 27 January 1945 to transfer to Palestine, where it arrived on 2 February. Today Im 63 years old and trying to open As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He was captured in Trieste. Best wishes, Andronik Kedidjan niclas.kedidjan@telia.com. 1952 my mother and I was transported to Sweden. It emerged that Kesselring had his authority as Commander of the West extended to include Italy and had replaced Vietinghoff with General Friedrich Schulz from Army Group G on hearing of the plans. take us to their mess hall but their food, a little better than what we were The move has been bitterly denounced by many Slovenes and Croats. Food was at a premium there 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. The Allies had launched their last big offensive on the Gothic Line in August 1944, with the British Eighth Army (Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese) attacking up the coastal plain of the Adriatic and the U.S. Fifth Army (Lieutenant General Mark Clark) attacking through the central Apennine Mountains. "Gesuiti" or "the Black Hole of Calcutta" was, according to Jevtic,"a This reduced the Eighth Army, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Richard McCreery, to seven divisions. Scores of accused fascists were paraded daily by the Partisans through the cobblestone streets to Yugoslav military courts. moved to another camp, some seven kilometers away called "Opicina," high up on a high overlooking Trieste. smallest information would be very helpful to me. No campaign illustrates the gulf between what you hope to get in war, and what you actually get, than the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943. The 1st Motorized Infantry Battalion "San Giusto" was transferred to the Mechanized Brigade "Vittorio Veneto", and the 14th Field Artillery Group "Murge" to the Artillery Command of the 5th Army Corps. On another occasion, a group of British soldiers (BETFOR) decided to huddle together and try to forget the cold. 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. [21], By April 19, on the Eighth Army front, the Argenta Gap had been forced and the 6th Armoured Division was released through the left wing of the advancing 78th Infantry Division to swing left to race northwest along the line of the river Reno to Bondeno and link up with the Fifth Army to complete the encirclement of the German armies defending Bologna. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed. [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. Archives, Open Government Licence 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. Because the streets of Trieste were not altogether safe after dark, he asked me to escort her to her destination and I was happy to oblige. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites 4 Infantry Division (1944-45) of Trieste is called Triestin in Italian and Triestino (pronounced In support of the New Zealand operations, 28 Churchill Crocodiles and 127 Wasp flamethrower vehicles were deployed along the front. 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. In the first place I was responsible for seeing that all the stores necessary to run a squadron of Sherman tanks were kept up to date and I was the liaison between the mechanics and the Base Store Depots. Italian and the local venetian Clark succeeded Alexander as commander of the Allied forces in Italy (renamed 15th Army Group), but without promotion. We were at a rifle range that took your photograph if you hit the target and, much to our surprise, it actually worked! During the same reform the Cavalry Brigade "Pozzuolo del Friuli" was split and the Regiment "Piemonte Cavalleria" (2nd) was used to form the new Armored Brigade "Vittorio Veneto", which took over the defense of the area between Trieste and the Timavo river. [17][18] The 8th Indian Infantry Division, 2nd New Zealand Division, and 3rd Carpathian Division (on the Polish Corps front at Route 9) attacked at dusk. email: MichaelPetrovich@hotmail.com. This information will help us make improvements to the website. Best wishes It was invented as a port town and turbo-charged its fortunes after Austrian Emperor Charles VI declared its port "free" in 1719. Thousands more were deported, and many perished in Yugoslav detention camps, according to allied officers and historians who investigated the killings. The website has a lot of material from all of these camps. 09:00 to 17:00. After a period of confusion, during which the news of Hitler's death arrived, Schulz obtained Kesselring's agreement to the surrender and Vietinghoff was reinstated to see it through. Subordinate units came from . Among the cultural treats available in Trieste was an old Roman Castle named Castello San Giusto. Archived post. A Capital of Science. family's experience as refugees of the early Cold War period, if you're interested. Trieste in May 1945 was a chaotic city filled with cornered German, Croatian and Italian soldiers who continued to fight despite Italy's capitulation in 1943. 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. 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. I would be more than happy to share my The division fought in the battle to secure the bridgehead, sustaining heavy casualties. The division left for Greece on 12 December 1944, arriving a day later. I found your story very interesting. It sustained heavy casualties during the battle for Anzio. 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. By late morning of April 12, after an all-night assault, the 8th Indian Infantry Division was established on the far side of the Santerno and the 78th Infantry Division started their pass through to make the assault on Argenta. crowded and crammed from the dungeons to the rafters. eric721. Just by chance at that time, I was given a choice of two options. From there, it went on to Italy, arriving on 7 December 1943. The 56 (London) Infantry Division was a pre-war, first line Territorial Army formation. Jevtic went on to spend four years in Trieste before emigrating to Quebec (Canada) via France. 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. Italy will become the third nation to begin flying the fifth-generation aircraft from an aircraft carrier. The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. 56 Infantry Division (1943-45) ''He burned our village. It served in Palestine until the end of the war. He was in the RAF, DLI and RAOL as far as I can tell if thats relevant. [13] Phase III involved the establishment of bridgeheads across the Po and exploitation north. On 8 June I was home on leave again, and this time it coincided with the official victory celebrations. It would not be the first time we were led up the garden path by the Recce Squadrons they were quite good at it. While I was fighting in Italy, somebody who shall be nameless had apparently been a naughty boy back in England and had been sentenced to a term in Lincoln jail.
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