Find out how you can use this. 78 Infantry Division (1944-45). 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. Below are just some of the wars and conflicts since 1945 that are covered in our records. eastern Friuli and Istria. Trieste was a very interesting place to be at this time and it was not unknown for a lot of black marketing to be going on between the troops and the civilians. were White Russians who had fled to Serbia after the 1917 Revolution. This story has been placed in the following categories. Album of photographs of the British Military Hospital, Trieste, Italy, on completion of re-organisation | Wellcome Collection Find thousands of books, manuscripts, visual materials and unpublished archives from our collections, many of them with free online access. From July the New Zealanders joined the British 8th Army's march east and north towards the Italian plain. Politics, policy and planning: records of high command, 4. [23] On all fronts, the German defense continued to be strong and effective, but Bondeno was captured on April 23. British Military History and the hundreds of refugees running for cover to shut themselves in tents, On April 27, General Gnther Meinhold surrendered his 14,000 troops to the partisans in Genoa. The 78th Infantry Division was also held up that same day on the Reno River at Bastia. Thank you. I remember the dances at the Four Aces and sometimes confined to barracks because of disturbstances in the town. There were a lot like him.''. On the left flank of V Corps, the New Zealand Division would advance to the left of the marshland on the west side of Argenta while the 8th Indian Infantry Division would pass in army reserve. Italy 1943 - 1945: British Infantry Divisions Six British infantry divisions fought at varying stages of the Italian campaign. Scores of accused fascists were paraded daily by the Partisans through the cobblestone streets to Yugoslav military courts. My second responsibility was to keep the squadron leader, Major 'Loopy' Kennard, completely informed at all times as to the state of readiness of all the vehicles under his command. In 1953 Britain and the United States stated their intention to leave Zone A and hand its administration over to Italy. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 46 Infantry Division (1943-45) countries came under Communist control, they left for Trieste. As a potential Cold War flashpoint, the Free Territory of Trieste was established in 1947, administered by British, American and Yugoslav forces, the British . There were suspicions On April 28, Vietinghoff sent emissaries to the Allied Army headquarters. tri.e.stin) in the local language itself. 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. Brief history of Trieste From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Roman Catholic (Chiesa di S. Antonio) and the other Serbian Orthodox (Chiesa A Capital of Science. A search for documents at The National Archives usually begins inour online catalogue. I recall the heavy rains, chilled by the Borah This was accompanied by a pay form that explained that the money in question was two days' ration allowance for escorting a prisoner back to Darlington from a jail in Lincoln! On April 29, they signed an instrument of surrender at the Royal Palace of Caserta stating that hostilities would formally end on May 2. A fair amount of local civilians attended and the service was organised by an Austrian who had been released from a concentration camp and his two daughters, all of whom worked for AMGOT (Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories). The Fifth Army was to make a secondary thrust further west towards Ostiglia, the crossing point on the Po of the main route to Verona. Almost overnight, stones were whitewashed, flagpoles were erected and 'bull' was the order of the day. v3.0, except where otherwise stated, 2. British Element Trieste Force (BETFOR) was the UK organization in the free territory. informations about permission to go to Sweden. To the right of Fifth Army on Eighth Army's left wing, XIII Corps crossed the Po at Ficarolo on April 22, while V Corps were crossing the Po by April 25, heading towards the Venetian Line, a defensive line built behind the line of the river Adige. 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. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. The division left for Egypt on 3 July 1944. These, I hasten to say, were worth at least £100 to anyone who could supply them to the Yugoslav forces. 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. 2/1/06 Hi Olga: Launched with high hopes of exploiting Italian surrender and jetting up the Italian peninsula, it soon bogged down. Gesuiti 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. The next day he saw a group of about 250 prisoners at the mouth of the Basovizza pit. Recently whilst going through some of his things we found a photo album with some of his things from that time and a lot of them have Casarsa 1947 written on it so I was wondering if it was relevant to his time in the war. Slowly abandoned after World War I, the 600,000 sq metres of . rest were Serbians, Bulgarians, Romanians and Serbians from Romania who had Military Government (A.M.G. Samo Pahor, a local Slovene leader, said, ''The stories about the Partisan massacres of Italians are not true.''. On May 1, 1945 the Yugoslav army entered Trieste (see Foibe) one day before before the New Zealand army, in a race to decide who would control the city. The division fought at the battle for the Trasimene Line. The territory was split into the Yugoslav-administered Zone B in the South and the British-American-administered Zone A in the north, which included the city of Trieste. The Portal for Public History. I arrived just in time for the worst winter in some people's living memory and spent a large amount of time digging trains out of snowdrifts. United Kingdom, North Devon Website Design by Really Different. The Poles had been desperately under strength in the autumn of 1944, but had received 11,000 reinforcements during the early months of 1945, mainly from Polish conscripts in the German Army taken prisoner in the Battle of Normandy . He was captured in Trieste. Zagreb offered the Italians a $35 million share in its hotel industry in March as part of war reparations. The rest of the division followed in December along with the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade. By Monday we were on our way back, arriving back at camp on Wednesday evening. In June, the Yugoslavs withdrew to the hinterlands. At times, when I found myself signing for half a dozen tanks at a time, I used to say to myself: 'Hold on therethat's 180,000 pounds worth of equipment you've just become responsible for!' Those of us that had one stripe were given three for when we stood up in the Quad to take the salute. [1], On 15 September 1955 the Grouping "T" was reduced to 22nd Zonal Military Command and the 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino" entered the Infantry Division "Folgore", which was given the task to defend the Yugoslav-Italian border between Gorizia and Trieste. You have done a massive job. 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. Within a short time I was put in complete charge of all the technical stores in the squadron. It took part in the Second Battle for Cassino and then the advance up the Liri Valley (Cassino III). The Italian right wing, which says that 20,000 Italians were killed here -- a figure most scholars dismiss as greatly exaggerated -- is reluctant to see any exhumations that might deflate its figures. This state was de facto dissolved in 1954 as un-governable and in 1977 in the Treaty of Osimo officially subdivided between the two countries: the city of Trieste went to Italy, while the southern part of the territory went to Yugoslavia. There were no harsher The Race for Trieste, [8] was a battle during the Second World War that took place during early May 1945. The Trieste Synagogue was built between 1908 and 1912, designed by architect Ruggero Berlam in collaboration with his son Arduino. For pertinent records please consult the finding aids and reference staff in the consultation area in Room 2400. "Opicina" soon We spent all day digging trains out of snowdrifts and as virtually everyone in the camp was on the point of being de-mobbed, rank meant nothing at all. 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. But the best part was yet to come. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. 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. at the American mess hall, needless to say. It fought through the battle for Anzio and onto the battle for Rome. The photos in my album capture it all. I found your web site most interesting. As the older and longer-serving members started to leave there was a frantic effort by those of us remaining to get into a reasonable position so that we would not be obliged to take part in the 'demilitarisation' that was taking place. 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. the American Military Government had more than 1,000 single boys and men Alternatively, search The National Archives library catalogue to see what is available to consult at Kew. American and British forces immediately began to withdraw from Zone A and on 26 October 1954 the last TRUST commander, Major General John A. Dabney handed over control of Zone A to the Italian 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino" which was transferred from its base in Forl to Trieste and formed the core of the provisional Grouping "T". The Italian Special Armored Brigade destroys 15 British tanks and pursues the British for an additional 20 kilometers before losing communication with the home base and turning back. V Corps was ordered to make an attack on the salient formed by the river into the Allied line at Cotignola. 12,411 British, and Commonwealth, Free French and French colonial, Polish, and Brazilian troops, Italian Service Unit members, and Jewish Brigade volunteers from Palestine (who served under British command) killed 54,700 Italian partisans killed (44,720 Italian partisans in combat, 9,980 in Axis reprisals) It would not be the first time we were led up the garden path by the Recce Squadrons they were quite good at it. The move has been bitterly denounced by many Slovenes and Croats. 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. Italian-speaking and Slovenian-speaking 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 a Jesuit prison appropriated and, almost without facilities, turned into They were left alone.''. 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. 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. mother died shortly after that, very young, and I was never able Cigarettes in particular were in great demand by the civilian population. +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). 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. [28], Secret surrender negotiations between representatives of the Germans and Western Allies had taken place in Switzerland (Operation Crossword) in March, but had resulted only in protests from the Soviets that the Western Allies were attempting to negotiate a separate peace. I am a minister in the The division fought in the battles for the capture of Naples, the Volturno Crossing and the capture of Monte Camino, all under command of X Corps. city (Trieste) snapshots that I have found in my research is the following ostensibly to revisit their families, but always raising the possibility There were another 91,000 German troops on the lines of communication, and Germans commanded about 100,000 Italian police. Find out more about the site contributors. I have been looking for infomation or I SHOULD have written "Eddy and I both saw the film in Italy on separate occasions, but he sent a review back to his old firm etc, etc, etc.". It served in Palestine until the end of the war. The corpses, he said, were thrown into the huge Basovizza foibe, now a memorial to the victims. If you are looking for war diaries or other records related to specific British Army regiments and other units these are often recorded in our catalogue using abbreviations so try a variety of terms when searching (for example, Regt as well as Regiment, Bn as well as Battalion, Bty as well as Battery), Anthony Farrar-Hockley, The British Part in the Korean War: Official History (HMSO, 1990-1995), Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign (Routledge, 2005), Arthur S White, A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army (The Naval and Military Press, 1992). those of the BBC. camps to house about four thousand of this tragic army, who were fleeing Associated places Western Desert, Libya, Tunisia, Sicily, Catania, Italy, Austria. http://www.tergeste.net/PzSAntonioJ.htm. British Army, XIII Corps (13th Corps) & British Element Trieste Force (BETFOR) Associated events Relief of Tobruk, Alamein, Husky, Catania, Po Valley, occupation forces. The 351st Infantry Regiment [4] [5] of the . The U.S. Fifth Army was to launch the Army Group's main effort at 24 hours notice from two days after the Eighth Army attack, and break into the Po valley. 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. 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. Devon EX31 2PJ Hed just finished his sentence (two years) and I as 'Corporal in charge of Escort' plus one other trooper were to meet up with him at the prison and escort him back to the army at Darlington. After its activation the Trieste Military Command came under the 5th Army Corps and consisted of the following units: On 1 December 1968 the command was renamed Trieste Troops Command. United States National Archives (NARA) The sights in Trieste include Miramare, a romantic castle built in the 19th century for Austrian Archduke Maximilian and his wife. the Annex but a lot about the Riseria San Sabba. dialect are spoken in the city center while Slovenian is partially spoken I clearly state "when we were in Rome I went with him to see "The Song of Bernadette". 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. Army Air Corps operations record books and war diaries, 1957-1969, are in WO 295. Use theadvanced catalogue search to restrict your search results to the records of a specific government department, including its predecessors (for example, the War Office or the Ministry of Defence). 'Loopy', or to give him his full title, Lieutenant Colonel Sir George Arnold Ford Kennard, 3rd Baronet, was quite a character then, and even now and his biography entitled simply 'Loopy' makes very good reading. Thanks for a wonderful web site and if you know where I could get more info and pictures please let me know. [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. With some of my friends, I also discovered the joys of gracious living. Among the few civilians I knew in Trieste was the Austrian AMGOT worker I had met at the Passover service. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites 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 . In March 1943, it was deployed to Tunisia and then used to secure the Island of Pantelleria. 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. 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. Most of them, Slovene-speaking Italians, teach their children in local Slovene schools about the fascist repression, when their language was banned and Slavs were purged from Government jobs. From 1950 onwards, unit historical records and reports are in WO 305. In the end of summer To our shame, the local Jewish Army Chaplain, who was present, wanted to keep them out, insisting that army rations had only been issued for those expected. Bologna was entered in the morning of April 21 by the 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division of the II Polish Corps and the Friul Combat Group of the Italian Co-belligerent Army advancing up the line of Route 9, followed two hours later by II US Corps from the south. The 6th Armoured Division linked with the 10th Mountain Division the next day at Finale some 5mi (8.0km) upstream along the river Panaro from Bondeno. The service was about halfway through when there was a clamour at one of the doors. 1) is of Canal Grande where two churches stand side-by-side, one Italian Major General Terence S. Airey was the first Zone Commander and Military Governor, followed by Major General Sir T.J.W. [24] On April 24, Parma and Reggio Emilia were liberated by the partisans.[23]. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. 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. The Cavour entered the Chesapeake Bay on February 13 and docked at Norfolk, Virginia,. 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. I found your story very interesting. It was time to go home. These are records that broadly fall into one of two categories: This is not the place to find advice on records of individual soldiers and officers. From 1950 onwards, unit historical records and reports are in WO 305. From what I remember we were placed in the annex, where we lived for 4 years. The Trieste Troops Command was an Italian Army brigade-sized command located in the city of the Trieste and tasked with the defense of the city in case of a Yugoslav-Italian war. Under the terms of the Peace Treaty of 1947 with Italy, the territory under the administration of the Allied Military Government for Venezia Giulia was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia except for a specified area around Trieste. 5 Infantry Division (1943-45) The large hall where I made my goodbyes was packed with hundreds of men trying on the latest that Montague Burton had to offer, although if I remember rightly you could have any colour suit providing it was navy or brown and any style providing it was single breasted or double breasted! The camps mum worked in Austria were Eisenerz, Kapfenburg, Reid Rehabilitation Centre, and the YMCA Simmer Camp program in Waiern and Ebanesse. the closed doors in my life. research. It was so good to discover your web site on San Sabba. 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. email: MichaelPetrovich@hotmail.com. I heard he ended up in the Basovizza foibe. It remained in Austria on occupation duties until it was disbanded in August 1946. It remained in Greece until the end of the war, and was disbanded there in March 1947. 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. Browse or search the following specific series to get started: In the First and Second World Wars, unit records were generally in the form of war diaries but by 1950 unit diaries had been largely superseded by alternative forms of record keeping. It bordered the new Italian Republic to the north, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the south and to the east. The pits, covered with tons of debris, are believed to hold hundreds, perhaps thousands, of corpses. 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. 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. 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. Makes me feel good to share this experience. By a sheer coincidence, when I eventually returned to England the same Trooper X was on the same draft. Trieste's location at the top of the Adriatic has always defined it. 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. After World War II the city of Trieste and the surrounding territory became the Free Territory of Trieste under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council. For both his peace of mind and my claim to accuracy I am glad to admit my error. The barracks we moved into had formerly belonged to an Italian army unit and were quite spacious. that they were on a spying mission. Discovery is a catalogue of archival records across the UK and beyond, from which you can search 32 million records. On 1 April 1962 the 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino" moved to Gorizia and was replaced in Trieste by the 151st Infantry Regiment "Sassari".[2]. Catalogue search results provide short descriptions of our records and a document reference for each one you will need the document reference to see the record itself. To find records revealing the decision making behind British Army operations, government policy on a specific conflict and all kinds of other high level thinking around the operations, conflicts and wars involving the British Army, search within Cabinet (CAB) and Ministry of Defence (DEFE) departments. The link is www.displacedpersoncampcollection.org, Thanking you, Katherine Wositzky katherine.w@optusnet.com.au, Hi! grim-looking stone structure, dating back to the Hapsburg period, that the Clark succeeded Alexander as commander of the Allied forces in Italy (renamed 15th Army Group), but without promotion. 1946-1950. It landed at Salerno in Italy on 9 September 1943, having come from Libya. 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. "Gesuiti" or "the Black Hole of Calcutta" was, according to Jevtic,"a The 10th Mountain Division was directed to bypass Bologna on the right and push north leaving II Corps to deal with Bologna, along with Eighth Army units advancing from their right. Italian search engine: http://search.virgilio.it/. As Allied forces pushed across the Po, on the left flank, the Brazilian Division, 34th Infantry Division, and 1st Armored Division of IV Corps were pushed west and northwest along the line of Highway 9 towards Piacenza and across the Po to seal possible escape routes into Austria and Switzerland via Lake Garda. 1 Infantry Division (1944-45) From the Regimental Diaries: '8th Oct The Rgt was inspected by the Corps Commander Lt General Sir John Harding.'. When Tito broke with the Soviet Union in 1948 the Western allies, no longer wishing to antagonize Belgrade, did not press the Yugoslavs about the killings. ''The killings were, unlike Bosnia today, politically motivated,'' said Mr. Valdevit. These seemed idiotic and insuperable difficulties that we encountered, but in the thick of this maelstrom of chaos we found individuals with whom we could share our common fate as we waited to re-enter Canada. The British plans were prepared under the direction of Brigadier General JHV Crowe, assisted in Italy by the British Military Mission, Italian staff officers and representatives of the British and Italian . WO 264. A TB epidemic had broken out at about that time, and representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO) came to monitor the situation, and report on its containment. crowded and crammed from the dungeons to the rafters. [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. [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.
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