Donovan's Devils

by Albert Lulushi

  The only close contact for the mission became Aminta Migliari, who went by the battle name Giorgio. He had been in charge of the intelligence services for Di Dio’s brigade and offered to help the Americans find secure lodging and collect information about the enemy movements in the area, but he expected to be paid for his services. Giorgio also provided two local men to assist the Americans in their movements and carry their equipment. They were Giuseppe Manini, who called himself Manin, and Gualtiero Tozzini, who went by the nickname Pupo. Later Icardi described Migliari as a thin, small man, quite unlike the other partisans in the area, who were very strong mountaineer types. He was very intelligent, fervently Catholic, and violently anticommunist, like all the men under his supervision. Manini and Tozzini were strong, quiet, and self-controlled men, without an education or profession. Both were in their thirties, had been with the Italian army alpine troops, and knew all the paths and tracks in the area.9

  On October 19, 1944, Migliari came with the news that it was dangerous for the Americans to continue to stay in Coiromonte. He had found a place in a village called Egro, on the western side of Lake Orta. Late at night, the team, guided by Migliari, Manini, and Tozzini, left Coiromonte carrying one change of clothing, the radio, personal weapons, and sleeping bags. They hid all the other equipment and clothes in a small shed high up in the mountains. They crossed the lake that night and arrived at a small house in Egro, about a mile from the lake’s shore. They had to move out soon because the house was isolated, the radio could not get reception, and the family hosting them became increasingly concerned that their presence would leak out.

  After four days, Migliari found a villa on the southwestern shore of Lake Orta, called Villa Maria. It belonged to a Milanese industrialist close to the Fascist regime who wisely stayed away from the property given the partisan activity in the area. After Lo Dolce verified that the radio reception was good from that location, the entire mission moved to the villa. It was located about thirty feet from the lake and it offered a magnificent view of the town of Orta on the other shore and Mount Mottarone behind it. Directly across from Villa Maria was San Giulio, a tiny picture-perfect island with a medieval seminary on it.

  At Villa Maria, the team set up the radio and reestablished communications with the headquarters, transmitting weather observations and the occasional information about enemy movements that Migliari collected from his network of contacts. From the villa, they observed the Germans moving in on Mount Mottarone at the end of October. They received news that the enemy had searched Coiromonte and found the equipment and personal belongings they had hidden before fleeing the area. The Germans now could confirm rumors they had heard about the presence of Americans in the area. Fearing a German search on this side of the lake, the team left Villa Maria and hid in the hills overlooking the lake. The weather was cold, wet, and miserable and they could not last long in it.

  Don Carletto and Don Giovanni, two friendly priests in charge of the seminary at San Giulio agreed to give them refuge there. After three or four days, a group of Germans and Fascist officers came to inspect the island. The priests showed them around and managed to keep them from entering the seminary, but it was clear that the Germans could return any time. At night, the team left the island and went back to Egro, where they found a family who agreed to host them. They had been there for about an hour when a partisan brought the news that the enemy had entered the town after them and was sweeping the houses in search of partisans. They left Egro in the opposite direction and stayed in the woods until the following night when Migliari arrived and took them to Grassona, a town at the southern tip of the lake, where the team found refuge in the attic of the local church. There they hid for six days, subsisting only on bread and apples that the village priest sent for them, while over fifteen hundred Germans and Fascists combed the area, looking for partisans and the American mission.

  * * *

  When the enemy pressure eased, the mission moved from the church attic to a house across the street from the church. Lo Dolce activated the radio again and began communicating with the headquarters to coordinate a supply drop on Mount Mottarone for the partisans who were trying to rebuild their strength after the German drive through the area and against Ossola. Holohan and Lo Dolce remained in town while Icardi and Migliari traveled to Mottarone to determine the status of the partisan units there and to look for a suitable drop zone.

  On the way, Icardi received news that the partisans in Mottarone had captured four suspicious men hiking in the area. Guessing that they were German spies, the partisans took them to their headquarters for search and interrogation. When the men removed their heavy overcoats, the partisans noticed that two of them had radio equipment strapped around their waists, antenna wire coiled around their bodies, and batteries in their pockets. They were German radio technicians turned into living radio directional finding devices. The third man, responsible for their security, carried a detailed map of the area with various triangulation lines that intersected at the location of another OSS radio transmitter that the Germans had eliminated during the mop-up in Mount Mottarone. The fourth man, a Swiss national, served as the guide and the translator for the Germans.

  Icardi arrived in Mottarone on November 22, interrogated the Germans and took pictures of them wearing and using the equipment, which he eventually sent to headquarters in a report that described the means and methods used by the Germans to track Allied agents. When Icardi inquired about the fourth man, one of the partisans said, “We sent him to Switzerland without shoes.” Perplexed at the expression, Icardi asked for an explanation. The partisan told him that a court martial had sentenced the Swiss collaborator to death. The partisans shot him and buried him headfirst in a grave they had dug in haste. The foxes had dug into the shallow grave at night and had gnawed at his shoes and feet. The expression took hold and was used each time they talked about eliminating someone who could not be trusted.

  In Mottarone, Icardi organized a meeting with partisan leaders to discuss the process for receiving and distributing the supplies. It included Luigi Fusco, known as Cinquanta, the leader of the independent bands, and Arias, leader of the Communist bands in the area. Arias gave Icardi an earful, accusing Giorgio of isolating the Communist partisans from the American mission to prevent them from receiving arms and supplies. Migliari was a fierce anti-Communist and bragged that the Communists would not receive any help from the allies. Moscatelli had grave suspicions about the Americans and their exclusive relationship with Migliari and the Christian Democrats.10

  Icardi returned to Grassona to brief Holohan about the developments. The position of the Mangosteen-Chrysler mission was very precarious at this point, with threats coming from all sides. The people in Grassona and other towns around the lake knew about their presence there. This was certainly due to the propensity of the villagers for gossip, but also due to Holohan’s insistence that they appear at all times in military uniform. People who were close to the mission at the time recalled later that Holohan had been very strict in enforcing this requirement and had chewed Icardi out when he had suggested they change in civilian clothes. Lo Dolce, who had experienced firsthand in Gorgona the ability of Germans to pinpoint radio locations, was terrified to come on air after Icardi talked about the Germans captured in the mountains. Moscatelli’s suspicions about the Americans’ willingness to help the Communists rattled their nerves because Moscatelli had earned a reputation for showing no mercy to those who stood in his path.

  When Migliari arrived that afternoon, Holohan and Icardi confronted him with what they had heard from the Communist partisans in Mottarone. Migliari did not make excuses about his position. He was trying to arm non-Communist partisans to bring them at the same level of strength as the Communists, who, he said, intended to take power by force at the end of the war.

  With these words, Migliari touched a raw nerve for Holohan. In a terse voice, he told Migliari in English, with Icardi translating in Italian, that the purpose of his
mission was to help all those who fought the enemy. “Quit acting like an exclusive contact for the mission,” Holohan said. Migliari quickly assured him that he was in favor of Holohan meeting Moscatelli as soon as he wished. Then he added that he had found a good drop point in the mountains where the first supplies could arrive. He also suggested that the team move to a different location, given that everyone in town knew where they were. The next day, Migliari moved them to another villa by Lake Orta, Villa Castelnuovo, one of the most luxurious villas in the area, about half a mile from Villa Maria. Lo Dolce set up the radio and transmitted the coordinates of the drop point in the mountains, which they called Blueberry. On November 27, the headquarters responded that the drop was being prepared and would arrive on the night of December 2.

  Preparations to receive the drop got complicated when the Fascists arrived in Orta on November 29 and began searching the hills and forests around Mottarone. December 2 brought worse news. Commandant Cinquanta had revealed himself as a Fascist provocateur and had led the enemy in rounding up his former comrades. The Fascists rewarded him with a captain commission in the Fascist army and now Cinquanta roamed the streets of Novara in Fascist uniform. Cinquanta knew personally Holohan and Icardi and the news of his betrayal added to the stress under which team Mangosteen-Chrysler operated.

  Late in the day, Moscatelli sent word that he wished to meet that evening. Around 2000 hours, one of his men came by Villa Castelnuovo in a car and drove Holohan and Icardi along dark country roads. The men felt that Moscatelli had sent the car, a rare luxury in those areas, as a show of strength and to impress the Americans. The car stopped at the entrance of a secluded gravel path that ended in a cul-de-sac where a group of silhouettes were barely visible. The driver pointed at the figures in the dark and said, “Moscatelli is waiting for you.” Icardi later described the encounter:

  True to his evasive and mysterious personality, our meeting was arranged so that we never got a good look at Moscatelli. As we walked the short distance to the group of men, they came toward us. The puff of a cigarette threw a momentary glow on a thin, rugged face. The face was Moscatelli’s. The other men walked away from us, leaving Moscatelli, Major Holohan, and me alone.

  I tried to peer through the shadows to see what he looked like, but the moonlight was only strong enough to throw his body into outline, nothing more. An “alpine star” metal insignia glinted on his lapel. This was the distinctive emblem used by the Communist Garibaldini partisans. Moscatelli was wearing a uniform, and his hat was the peaked felt of the Italian Alpini, with an eagle feather jutting up along one side.

  He spoke softly, steadily, and surely. This was not the quick, dynamic genius we had felt in Alfredo Di Dio. Here was maturity and confidence, based on experience and the ability to produce and control his calculated position.11

  Holohan and Moscatelli discussed at length the partisan situation, with Icardi translating for the two men. Moscatelli complained that he had heard from Migliari that all the American supplies were going to the Christian Democrats. Holohan responded that only a small drop was for the partisans of Migliari to compensate for the heavy losses they had suffered in Ossola. Other drops were in the works, and they would be distributed equally among all the partisans, without regard of their political orientation. Holohan said bluntly that his mission was not to establish a Communist regime in Italy but to kill as many Germans as possible.12 If the partisans wanted supplies, they had to prove their ability and intentions to use the arms against the Germans. For this, Holohan said, he needed specific information about the operations Moscatelli intended to carry out, his actual forces, and their equipment.

  Moscatelli promised to send this information, although he must have perceived Holohan’s request as a stalling tactic to gain time. Moscatelli’s misgivings about Holohan’s attitude toward the Communists must have gotten only stronger when, as they were speaking, two airplanes lumbered overhead and dropped the first supplies at Point Blueberry for the Christian Democrat partisans of Migliari. They parted ways with vague promises of collaboration in the near future. Holohan doubted it, but he felt that they had taken some steps in the right direction.

  * * *

  Two days later, in the evening of December 5, the American team was in Villa Castelnuovo when the friendly priests from the seminary of San Giulio arrived. A thick fog covered the lake, but Don Carletto and Don Giovanni were expert rowers. They knew the waters like the palms of their hands and could make the crossing by compass in total darkness. The reason for the urgency was that they had heard people in the market of Orta mention that the American mission was located at Villa Castelnuovo. A Fascist unit was stationed in Orta at the time and the priests were certain that it would hear the same rumors soon and send a patrol to search the place. The Americans needed to move again. They sent word to Migliari to find them a new location. Giorgio arrived the next day and told them to be ready to leave at 2200 hours. He would display a light signal from the island of San Giulio when it was safe for them to move.

  Marina Duelli, a young girl of twenty-three who acted as a secret courier for Giorgio, visited Villa Castelnuovo in the afternoon of December 6. She recalled after the war sitting with Holohan in the villa’s drawing room looking out at the lake and Mottarone in the distance. The afternoon was miserable and sheets of rain came down from thick dark clouds that hung over the gray lake. “He was gloomy and gray like the landscape,” said Duelli about Holohan, “as if he knew what awaited him.”13

  * * *

  The OSS headquarters in Sienna did not hear from the mission for the first two weeks in December. Then on December 14, it received a brief radio message that the team had come under attack and Major Holohan had disappeared. Then silence again. The biweekly report covering the OSS activities for the period December 1–15 noted for the team, “This team recently was forced to suspend contacts because of enemy action in the zone. It is believed that the mission is moving to a safe zone.” The report for the activities in the second half of December noted, “No intelligence since December 17.” Headquarters asked an Italian secret agent operating in the area to inquire about the team’s whereabouts. His report noted that “the mission was fraught with danger because its presence was known to the residents of the nearby villages, its transmissions could be heard by the enemy, and its movements were hampered by the fact that its personnel was operating in US military uniforms.”14

  Finally, in early January, a pouch arrived from the OSS office in Switzerland that contained Icardi’s detailed description of the events. In the evening of December 6, the Chrysler team, Holohan, Icardi, Lo Dolce, and their two Italian fixers, Manini and Tozzini, had waited anxiously for Migliari’s light signal from San Giulio. A thick fog descended on the lake, and it was impossible to see any lights. Around 2230 hours, Holohan decided to wait no longer and move out. “It is better to be out in the open than to end up in a trap in this villa,” he said.

  Within a few minutes, they collected all their belongings and cleaned up any sign of their presence from the villa. Then they exited through the back door and crossed the backyard toward a rowboat on the lake’s shore. After Tozzini and Manini had loaded the equipment in the boat, Holohan sent Manini to the villa for a final check to make sure everything was in order. They were waiting for Manini to return when gunfire erupted from the villa. Icardi returned fire with his .45-caliber pistol then ran in the dark on the path along the lake. As he was running, he could hear shots being fired. Then, the shooting stopped as suddenly as it had started. Icardi kept running until he arrived at the house of Giorgio, a couple of miles away from the location of Villa Castelnuovo.

  Icardi wrote in his report that he was reunited with Lo Dolce and Tozzini three days later. They said they too had fired in the dark toward the house when they had heard the first bursts of gunfire. Then they had run along the lake in the opposite direction from Icardi until they had reached Villa Maria, a half mile further, where they decided to hide until things quieted down. M
anini reappeared five days later, on December 11. He said that when he had gone toward the villa for a final check, he had heard steps on the gravel path of the gardens. He called out to the people in the darkness but received gunfire in response. He too returned fire and then retreated toward the lake. He jumped on the boat and rowed in the dark to the opposite shore of the lake. He hid the radio and the team’s other equipment in a cemetery and laid low until he was certain the danger had passed.

  Icardi reported that when Major Holohan had failed to show up, he had searched the area for his body. The friendly priests from the seminary of San Giulio had taken a group of children in the area pretending to be on a field trip and had spent an entire day looking for any traces of the major. Icardi concluded his report saying he assumed Holohan was captured by the enemy. He had included in the report a map of the Lake Orta area indicating the location of the attack that lead to Holohan’s disappearance.

  The disappearance of Holohan was seen at the OSS headquarters as an unfortunate incident not out of line with the nature of secret operations. A thorough investigation into Holohan’s fate would have to wait until the end of the war. But the OSS had to avoid situations in which its missions were caught between the competing interests of the different political currents that made up the Italian resistance. It pushed the leaders of the CLNAI to take responsibility for the distribution of supplies sent in to their partisan units. In the Mangosteen-Chrysler area of operations, an Italian Army career officer took charge of the distribution of any future supplies among the Italian partisan units. The American mission, now under the command of Icardi, assumed the sole role of coordinating the drop of supplies between the Allied headquarters and the CLNAI representatives. “We were no more than a telegraph agency, watching only to see that no abuses developed,” said Icardi later.15