Donovan's Devils
Page 28
The parachutes were a prized commodity in Italy at the time, just as they were in France. Vanoncini gave strict orders to the OGs to never give away or sell any chutes. Instead, they were turned over to the zone command to do with them as they wished. The zone command traded them for money or used the material to make clothes for the partisans or sheets for the area hospitals. Sometimes, they gave them to the families whose houses had been burned down, whose sons were killed or injured, or whose daughters had been raped by the Nazis and the Fascists.
Another rule that Vanoncini set from the beginning was that all material coming into the zone was for the partisans unless explicitly marked for the mission. This meant that all the food that came by plane was off limits for the OGs because it was not specifically marked for them. Throughout the four-month mission, the Peedee men received only eight boxes of 10-in-1 food parcels, field rations that provided one meal for ten men. Vanoncini insisted on purchasing food for his staff in towns and in villages nearby or at discounted prices from the partisan organization responsible for distributing the supplies among the partisan units. Partisans tried to give the Americans some of the supplies coming in, but they always refused. “The impression this attitude made on the partisans was everlasting,” one OG wrote later, “even though our stomachs were getting smaller and smaller.”
Even when the OGs were on assignment to the drop zones, they had to pay their way for food and shelter, not only when they could find accommodation in an occasional hotel room but also when they stayed in private homes or even barns with nothing more than straw for cover. A detailed accounting by Vanoncini at the end of the mission noted that the Peedee team spent 1,634 man-days behind the lines, and food costs ran close to six dollars per man per day, which also covered housing when available. When their cigarettes ran out, they bought them at a rate of 110 lire for ten cigarettes. Most men smoked at least twenty cigarettes a day, which amounted to $12 per day or $600 in total spent for cigarettes. Hiring the mules at $10 a day cost $400. Local shoemakers made three pair of shoes for the OGs at $35 a pair. The mission also provided $100 each to two American prisoners of war to carry them through the lines. They paid $600 to couriers, informers, and guides they hired during the four months in terrain. Vanoncini gave $150 each to two families mistreated by Wehrmacht soldiers from the Caucasus, known as Mongols, for sheltering the Americans in their houses. “The ladies of the house were badly beaten about the face and back by waist belt,” Vanoncini wrote. “All dishes were broken and clothes taken away. For this suffering, we gave them the money, only a small token for the damage the Mongols committed.”
Securing the money was the chief worry for the OGs. When Sergeant Caprioli landed hard and hurt himself on the night of January 18, he also lost his wallet with $500 in Swiss francs and 50,000 lire. During German pursuits in the first few weeks, the team lost nine pieces of gold and $400 worth in lire. During a visit to one of the partisan units, two OGs stayed in a hotel to sleep. During the night, someone entered the room through the latrine and took both wallets containing eight pieces of gold and 72,000 lire. The money “gave us more bother than it was worth,” said Vanoncini after the mission ended.
* * *
Between the end of January and the end of April 1945, Peedee organized the reception and distribution of 115 planeloads of arms, ammunition, explosives, clothes, and food supplies for the partisans. The partisans received 1,100 Sten and M3 machine guns, 2,000 automatic and semiautomatic M1 and Mauser rifles, 35 mortars, 73 bazooka rocket launchers, and 25 Piat bomb launchers.8 With the arrival of spring and the intensification of the fight against the Germans, supply drops included propaganda materials, movie reels, motorcycles, gasoline, and even a printing press and printing paper, which the zone command put to use to print daily newspapers for the liberated areas.
At this time, there was a considerable increase of partisan activities in the Sixth Zone and the demand for the services of the Peedee mission far outpaced what Vanoncini and his team of five could provide. In addition, partisan commanders from neighboring regions to the north were asking for Allied teams to parachute into their areas. The Italian OGs headquarters in Sienna decided to expand the size of the Peedee team and to send a new team of thirteen OGs, code-named Roanoke, to the Garibaldi formation commanded by Domenico Mezzadra, known by the battle name Americano. Mezzadra had grown the brigade he commanded at the time when he met Captain Wheeler of the Walla Walla mission into a full division, the Alliotta division.
On March 7, 1945, Lieutenant Rawleigh Taylor, commanding officer of Roanoke parachuted alone into a drop zone the Peedee team prepared. He traveled with two OGs from Vanoncini’s group to the Oltrepò Pavese area to assess the partisan movement there, which he found stronger than originally thought. Americano’s Alliotta division was the best in the zone. It counted six hundred men organized in three brigades. Taylor described Americano as “an aggressive leader, very quiet, who fought only for liberty, and was well loved by his men and the people in the area.” In addition to the Alliotta division, three other divisions operated in the area with another 1,200 partisans in their ranks.
The overall commander of the partisan divisions was Italo Pietra, battle name Edoardo, who had just been nominated deputy-commander of the Sixth Zone under Miro. Taylor described Edoardo as “an effective band leader who claimed he was no politician,” although later events would make clear to the American mission that Edoardo was a politician first and a partisan second. Italo Pietra was born in 1911 and served in the Italian army during the war in Ethiopia in 1935 and in Albania in 1940. He joined the resistance after September 8, 1943, and functioned as the inspector general of the Communist-affiliated Garibaldi brigades in the Oltrepò Pavese before assuming command of all the partisan units in the zone.9
Upon making his initial assessment, Taylor radioed for the full Roanoke team to arrive as soon as possible. They parachuted in two drops on March 21 and April 9, 1945. With these same drops, another eleven OGs arrived to reinforce Vanoncini’s Peedee team. Thus, by the beginning of April 1945, about thirty OGs were organizing supply drops and supporting close to ten thousand partisans in a one-thousand-square-mile area between Genoa, Pavia to the north, and Piacenza to the northeast.
* * *
In addition to coordinating supplies, the OGs set up weeklong training schools that they held at each partisan brigade location. The focus of the schools was the maintenance, use, and practice of firing the weapons supplied by the drops, especially mortars, machine guns, bazookas, and Piat guns. The goal was to make the partisan crews operating these weapons familiar to the point of being able to strip and put them together blindfolded. The instruction also included teaching of sabotage techniques, manipulating explosives, and setting up booby traps. In addition, the OGs covered tactical topics related to guerrilla warfare, such as setting up ambushes, positioning weapons for maximum effect, and withdrawing quickly to minimize losses.
Frequently, the OGs joined the partisans in action to demonstrate in practice what they taught during training and to instill courage and confidence in their men. On one occasion, on March 24, 1945, the partisans attacked an enemy stronghold in the village of Loco, which controlled the important Route 45 between Piacenza and Genoa. The attack had been bogged down because the Germans had fortified a building and taken civilian hostages for protection. One of the OGs, Sergeant Mario Tarrantino, took a bazooka, exposed himself to enemy fire, and fired two rounds near the target to draw the Germans’ attention. Observing carefully the return fire from the Germans, Tarrantino was able to pinpoint one of their defensive strongpoints. Still under fire, he fired two more rounds directly at this position, killing five Germans and forcing the remaining thirty-two to surrender without harming the civilians. Eliminating this stronghold removed the last point of control the Germans had on this important highway, which remained in the hands of the partisans until the end of the war. After the war, Vanoncini recommended Tarrantino for the Silver Star award for the courage h
e displayed in the action.
The efforts of the Peedee and Roanoke missions to equip and train the partisan units had a strong effect on the morale of the partisans and on their ability to stand up to the Germans and the Fascists. Vanoncini compared the remarkable change in the performance of one partisan division in the zone, the Garibaldi Pinan Cichero division, between the end of January 1945 when he first met them and the end of April. In January, “thirty Germans came through the entire division and got as far as the Zone command headquarters, absolutely raising havoc among the partisans,” Vanoncini wrote. “Three months later, 1,500 Germans and Mongols made the same attack against only one brigade of this division, and after six days of heavy fighting, the enemy retreated leaving behind many dead and wounded.”
By this time, the division had 1,400 men in uniform organized in three brigades; another six hundred sympathizers in civilian clothes worked in the cities and towns around the area to collect information on the enemy movements and to secure provisions for the armed fighters. Between January 18 and April 15, 1945, the Pinan Cichero division conducted seventeen attacks against enemy positions, command posts, headquarters, and supply dumps. They carried out 119 raids against telecommunication and transportation lines, destroying five locomotives, eighty-eight railroad cars, and twenty-six trucks. They inflicted almost 1,200 enemy casualties, including 281 killed, 341 wounded, and 569 taken prisoner.
* * *
The members of the OG missions influenced the partisans in another important way: quietly and through actions more than words, they demonstrated the values and moral principles of the American way of life. The majority of the Italian partisans around them were young and had been under Fascism all their lives. They had no idea how democracy or other forms of government worked. They understood well how Fascism had wrecked Italy and were excited at the prospects of rebuilding a new life for their country after the war. Speaking with and interacting with the Americans soldiers of their age and with with similar background was a way for the partisans to visualize what their future might be like.
Philip Francis, the medic of the Peedee team, told a vignette fifty years after the war that provides a glimpse of how this intellectual transfer happened. On April 12, 1945, Francis traveled to the town of Varzi, halfway between Genoa and Piacenza, where the headquarters of Team Roanoke were located. He was excited to make the trip because the medic of the Roanoke team was Leo Francis, Philip’s identical twin brother, whom he had not seen since leaving Sienna ten days before. “What a heartwarming event for both of us to meet behind the enemy lines!” Philip wrote. “Twins from a small rural area of Pittsburgh, sons of a farmer, coal miner, and Italian immigrants named Francesconi helped Italy free itself from the Nazis and Fascists. To my knowledge, this was the first time American twins had ever met behind enemy lines.”10
After greeting his brother Leo, Philip was introduced to Lieutenant Robert Gallagher, deputy commander of Roanoke, Corporal David Waggoner, and other members of the team who had been parachuted just three days ago on April 9. They all went inside the headquarters, and Philip Francis described what happened next:
We were in a room when an officer of the partisans burst in with an electrifying announcement, “The war is over, we surrender, President Roosevelt died.” Lieutenant Gallagher acted quickly to calm the partisans, not knowing if the rumor was true. He said, “Let us all stand for two minutes of silence to honor our departed Commander-in-Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.” After two minutes, Lieutenant Gallagher spoke, “And we will continue the fight under our new Commander-in-Chief.” He hesitated for a moment because we had all left the USA prior to the election and most of us did not know who held the office of the Vice-President.
The voice of Dave Wagonner from Missouri said, “I believe it is our former Senator, Harry S. Truman.” Lieutenant Gallagher then stated, “We will continue the battle against the enemy under our new Commander-in-Chief, Harry S. Truman.” About ten more partisans burst into the room, amazed that we could so soon forget our great leader. We explained that Roosevelt was not elected for life but for a period of time and that our Constitution provides for an immediate replacement in case the President dies. The partisans looked at the Americans with great surprise and enthusiasm and were ready to go destroy the enemy. Thank God for the wisdom of Lieutenant Gallagher that was able to calm down the partisans that day!11
Partisans at all levels recognized and appreciated the contribution of the OGs in strengthening the partisan units in the Sixth Zone. In a letter to General Truscott, commanding general of the US Fifth Army, on March 9, 1945, Miro, commander of the zone, expressed the deepest thanks on behalf of his commanders and partisans for the work done by the Peedee team:
The behavior of the mission and of its commander has generated the full sympathy and admiration of everyone. These men, besides working day and night to enable us to receive drops of arms, munitions, clothes, and food, after enduring great risks and pains during the mop up operations, volunteered to participate in battles in our area, showing their courage and ability, especially with the bazookas. After coming victorious from the recent engagements, our formations are well armed, supplied, and ready for the decisive battle: no obstacles will stop the impetus of our brave Garibaldini and your men will be at our side, welcomed guests and precious comrades.
* * *
The presence of strong partisan formations behind the German lines that were well-equipped, trained, and willing to fight was a welcome development for the Allied planners as they moved into the final stages of preparing the spring offensive in Italy. Through the end of March 1945, the instructions of the Allied command to the partisans transmitted through the OG missions were to strengthen their bands and conduct sabotage activities but not to engage in large-scale actions until the order came for the all-out assault. At this time, the front line was in approximately the same positions as it had been in October 1944, when the Allied halted their advance. It ran from a point about twenty-five miles south of La Spezia, on the Ligurian coast, generally northeast to the southern tip of Lake Comacchio on the Adriatic Sea. General Clark who now commanded the 15th Army Group, set April 9, 1945, as D-Day for the assault. Fifth Army, on the left, was to make the main effort to take or isolate Bologna and round up the German armies south of the Po River before crossing it. The plan called for the 92nd Infantry Division to launch a diversionary attack along the Ligurian coast toward Massa and La Spezia four days before Fifth Army’s main attack toward Bologna.
In early February 1945, the 92nd had tried to take the city of Massa, which would bring the key port city of La Spezia, twenty miles to the north, within striking distance of American artillery and create an opportunity to break through the Gothic Line at its easternmost point. The Germans put up a ferocious resistance, deploying thousands of troops supported by field artillery and tanks. For the first time, the Germans put to use the coastal gun batteries at Punta Bianca, which could lob deadly shells onto the American positions ten to twelve miles away. Shells from these guns left craters on the ground so large that tanks literally fell into them. Within days, the 92nd lost 1,100 men, including fifty-six officers, and twenty-two tanks. The assault was called off and the 92nd had to be refitted in preparation for the spring offensive.12
The immediate objective for the 92nd’s diversionary attack was Massa. To avoid the heavy coastal guns at Punta Bianca, whose fire had largely been responsible for smashing the February attempt to cross the flat plain before Massa, the attack would be made to the east through the mountain ridges to capture heights dominating the town and then force the Germans to evacuate their positions. The attack would then proceed toward La Spezia.
The offensive began at 0500 hours on April 5 with air attacks on enemy positions and on the coastal guns at Punta Bianca and with supporting fire from British destroyers off the coast. After a ten-minute artillery barrage, two regimental combat teams, the 370th on the left and the 473rd on the right, moved out abreast. The Massa outskirts wer
e only five miles ahead, but the Germans put up a staunch resistance, beating back repeated assaults by the American infantry units and their supporting armored battalions. While the fighting raged in the plains, a third regimental combat team, the 442nd, battled the enemy in the mountains ridge by ridge, blowing away bunkers and fortifications with bazookas and grenades.
On April 10, the 442nd outflanked Massa from the hills to the east and the Germans evacuated the town. The 442nd continued its advance through nearly impassable mountain terrain and reached Carrara of the famous marble quarries on the morning of April 11.13 La Spezia lay less than twenty miles to the north, but it took the 92nd another two weeks of bitter fighting to capture it. The Germans poured reserve infantry units of the 135th Fortress Brigade and a battalion of the 90th Panzer Division to reinforce their positions and slow down the advance of the 92nd. These reserves were committed just in time to prevent their use against the main attack of the Fifth Army that began on April 14, 1945.
On the coast, the guns at Punta Bianca had survived the aerial and naval bombardment and continued to pound the 92nd positions, especially on Massa and Carrara. But soon these guns came within range of the American artillery units. All thirty-six 76-mm guns of the 679th Tank Destroyer Battalion were assigned to neutralize the coastal guns. An 8-inch howitzer was brought up to aid them. When a German gun fired, the tank destroyers, operating on prearranged signals, answered with 60 to 180 rounds, the first landing within forty-five seconds after forward observers called for it. In six days the tank destroyers fired 11,066 rounds on the coastal guns. By April 19, the guns on the east side of the German strongpoint had stopped firing, but fire continued from those on the west side. It took another twenty-four hours of close-range fire to destroy them, but on April 20, the guns at Punta Bianca finally fell silent.14 Shortly after, the Germans evacuated La Spezia to avoid being trapped behind the lines.