Archive

5 09, 1944

Fiume Archiano, tra Partina e Soci

Maurizio Coda2021-11-17T17:14:12+01:00

Little Adriano Ceccherini was following his mother Natalina Cordovani from Partina (an area still occupied by the Germans) to Bibbiena, a town already liberated by the partisans and firmly in Allied hands. On their way along the Archiano river, the two were shot at by German soldiers on guard near the headquarters. The child lost his life.

Fiume Archiano, tra Partina e SociMaurizio Coda2021-11-17T17:14:12+01:00

3 09, 1944

Monte Pomponi

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:30:44+01:00

Born from the disintegration of the Nembo Regiment, after September 8th 1943 the Folgore Division placed itself at the service of the Allied Forces and was incorporated in the 1st Canadian Division. The F Squadron was entrusted with the most delicate exploratory missions behind enemy lines, with the job of opening the way for the Anglo-American troops. To this end, in September 1944 a small unit was sent to the Casentino to obtain information on German activity around the Consuma Pass and Mount Falterona. In the meantime, a large part of the Arno Valley and the city of Florence had already been liberated. In Caiano, in the municipality of Castel San Niccolò, the presence of the Command of the 334 Infanterie Division is attested in those days. On September 2nd, Eldo Capanna and Otello Boccherini were sent on a mission to the Monte Pomponi sector, where they were hit by machine-gun fire and captured, still alive, by Wehrmacht soldiers. Taken to a nearby house, they refused to give information about the British positions. For this, they were brutally tortured to death. Reinforcements from the Folgore sent the next day to rescue them, could only take cognizance of the sacrifice of their fellow soldiers.

Monte PomponiMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:30:44+01:00

31 08, 1944

Poppi

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:15:26+01:00

On the evening of August 30th, the German troops left the town of Poppi to withdraw definitively to their positions on the Gothic Line. The next morning, news of the German retreat filled people’s hearts with joy. Little groups of jubilant women and children (partly inhabitants of Poppi, partly evacuees from neighbouring towns) came down from the Abbacy towards Ponte a Poppi, along the old Via della Costa, at times forming little queues to collect water in demijohns and flasks from the nearby spring. Spotting the unusual throng of people near the bridge over the Arno and perhaps fearing that the enemy was preparing to wade across the river, German artillery batteries at Montanino and Vetrignesi launched heavy and accurate artillery fire on Via della Costa, causing the death of 15 people and the wounding of dozens of civilians. The next day the town was liberated by the Allies.

PoppiMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:15:26+01:00

30 08, 1944

Chiusi della Verna

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T07:32:07+01:00

Event, circumstances and troops responsible: unknown.

Chiusi della VernaMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T07:32:07+01:00

29 08, 1944

Quorle

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:13:43+01:00

In the days when retreating forces were concentrating in the Quorle area, German soldiers captured and executed an evacuee from the Marche region (born in Pieve Torina in the province of Macerata). There is no more news of clashes or killings near Loscove on that day. All that is recorded is an order for the immediate burial of the corpse in the cemetery of Quorle.

QuorleMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:13:43+01:00

28 08, 1944

La Selva di Avena

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:13:14+01:00

Baccani died in unspecified circumstances the day after the deportation and evacuation operations. In all probability the man was spotted in an area that had become the front line and was mistaken for a partisan. He was immediately killed by German soldiers.

La Selva di AvenaMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:13:14+01:00

27 08, 1944

Avena

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:12:30+01:00

On August 27th, a large German contingent moved into Avena together with its camp kitchens, as it hastened to retreat to the mountain positions of the Gothic Line. In the morning, a group of 25 “policemen and gendarmes” ordered the inhabitants to evacuate their homes and assembled them in the Mausolea, a farm of the Camaldolese monks near Soci, actually to await forced deportations towards Romagna. When one married couple reached the farm, the husband immediately ran away, preferring to go straight home instead of repairing to Poppi with his wife. He was found 17 days later near his home, having bled to death, his body by now decomposing. In the same village there was another dramatic episode that is worth mentioning, although it is not strictly attributable to the German forces. Shocked by the violent handling of the deportation, a woman had an attack of hysteria. It led to her death a few months later, in the Poppi Hospital, without her showing any signs of recovery.

AvenaMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:12:30+01:00

26 08, 1944

Ortali di Moggiona

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:11:50+01:00

The village of Moggiona, situated close to the large-scale fortification constructions around Montanino, received the order to evacuate its inhabitants as early as mid-July 1944. On August 26th, German troops came to arrest and deport the villagers who had stayed behind. Among other things, they repeatedly fired into the cornfields in order to kill any fugitives. During these operations, a man probably suffering from Alzheimer’s disease was shot; the circumstances are unknown. The body was buried on the soldiers’ orders by the miller of Lierna. Later, on October 3rd 1944, the miller told the victim’s son (who had just returned from deportation to Romagna following the events of that day) how to exhume his father and give him a more dignified burial. What happened on August 26th was the precursor of the tragedy of Moggiona, which reached its climax with the massacre of September 7th 1944.

Ortali di MoggionaMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:11:50+01:00

25 08, 1944

Serravalle

Maurizio Coda2021-11-17T17:13:12+01:00

No information is available about the causes of the event. However, given what was going on in the area, it is likely that Cipriani was killed for disobeying or being unable properly to obey the evacuation order that day.

SerravalleMaurizio Coda2021-11-17T17:13:12+01:00

23 08, 1944

Lierna

Maurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:11:23+01:00

A German squad shot a man on the road that runs through Lierna. The ill-fated person, who had probably been in hiding to elude the evacuation order, bled to death a few hours later.

LiernaMaurizio Coda2021-11-18T08:11:23+01:00