A Civil War by Claudio Pavone Read Free Book Online Page A

already on 13 September, writing to the Chief of Staff George Marshall, Eisenhower spoke of ‘weak and supine Italians … of little help and inert’. Badoglio’s reply of 11 September had, besides, been unsatisfactory to the point of impertinence: Badoglio had assured the Anglo-American commander-in-chief that he had ordered the armed forces (not at any rate the patriots, as Eisenhower had requested) to ‘act vigorously against German aggression’ (see M. Toscano,
Dal 25 luglio all’8 settembre
, Florence: Le Monnier, 1966, pp. 216, 218). For the pressure exerted directly on the king and Badoglio by Roosevelt and Churchill to do something for the good of Italy, see N. Kogan,
Italy and the Allies
, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961, pp. 42ff).
    55 Churchill,
Second World War: Closing the Ring
, pp. 134–5.
    56 Bloch,
L’étrange défaite
, p. 158. See also, on p. 202: ‘Our leaders did not only allow themselves to be beaten: they immediately found it natural to have been beaten.’
    57 A. Bravo and D. Jalla, Introduction to
La vita offesa
, p. 23.
    58 F. T. Marinetti had spoken of a ‘disastro splendido’ as something desirable in his essay ‘Futurismo e Fascismo’, published in
La civiltà fascista
, Turin: UTET, 1928 (cf. Casucci,
Il fascismo
, p. 106).
    59 See M. Bloch, ‘Réflexions d’un historien sur les fausses nouvelles de la guerre’, in
Mélanges historiques
I, Paris: Écoles des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1983, pp. 41–57 (in particular, p. 54).
    60 See Zangrandi,
1943
, p. 181, which refers to a testimony by J. Di Benigno,
Occasioni mancate. Roma in un diario segreto
, Rome: SEI, 1945, p. 137.
    61 Thus Calamandrei,
La vita indivisibile
, p. 112 (8 September in Venice).
    62 N. Revelli,
La guerra dei poveri
, Turin: Einaudi, 1962, p. 127.
    63 Calamandrei,
La vita indivisible
, pp. 109–10.
    64 Testimony by Carlo Barbaglia, from Como, born in 1910.
    65 Testimonies by Luigi Airaldi, from Milan, stationed at Pegli; of Tullio Benigni, from Umbria, stationed in Vicenza; of Aldo Accorsi, from Carpi, a sailor who embarked on one of the ships that managed to reach Malta from Pola (
CU
).
    66 G. Quazza, ‘Un diario partigiano’, in
La Resistenza italiana. Appunti e documenti
, Turin: Giappichelli, 1966, pp. 133–5.
    67 G. B. Lazagna,
Ponte rotto
, Quaderni di ‘
Il Novese’
, Nuovi Ligure: 1967, p. 17.
    68 Testimony by A. B., from Padova,, who was sixteen years old at the time (
CU
).
    69 Testimony of the attorney Adolfo Gatti (
La Repubblica
, 7 September 1983). The same sentry replied to the present author: ‘We have orders to hand in our weapons as soon as they arrive – The Anglo-Americans? – No, the Germans.’
    70 Artom,
Diari
, p. 76 (10 September). On the first day the diary records (p. 75) the meeting with the captain who, when asked ‘What can those who defend the
patria
do?’, replies: ‘Why are you asking me?’ – ‘Because you are an officer in the army’ – ‘I have nothing to do with it’, he replies, ‘Ask the command of the territorial defence’ – ‘And how will they greet us?’ – ‘They won’t even listen to you’.
    71 Testimony by Uberto Revelli in Bravo and Jalla, eds,
La vita offesa
, p. 80.
    72 Testimony by the Tuscan Giuseppe Bandin (
CU
). On the dissolution of the 4 th army see Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Cuneo e provincia,
8 settembre. Lo sfacelo della IV armata
, Turin: Book Store, 1979.
    73 D. Benelli,
Un Ponte fra due castelli. Fascismo e antifascismo nelle Signe
, Florence: Istituto Gramsci Sezione Toscana, 1983, cited and appropriated in the testimony of private P (
CU
).
    74 ‘Declaration’ of lieutenant Raffaele Sciandone regarding Linate Pozzolo (Gallarate) airport, n.d., attached to a report by the CLNAI delegation in Switzerland, November 1944 (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 3, folder I. Ib).
    75 Testimony by Claudio Locci in A. Portelli,
Biografia di una città. Storia e racconto: Terni (1830–1985)
, Turin: Einaudi,