This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, and of those forgotten heroes, the civilian population of the valley of Rossano, and of the surrounding villages of Tuscany, Liguria and Emilia Romagna, whose loyalty and self-sacrifice made my father's survival possible. Many of those families remain in the Rossano valley today, including the Deluchis, the Sperindes, and the Tognarellis, and I hope that this book will help to assure them that my family's debt of gratitude to them is not forgotten.
My father, in the prelude to his books, Vallata in Fiamme and Rossano, quoted two verses from Rudyard Kipling. Still today, they sum up the story of his life in the Rossano valley:
I have eaten your bread and salt.
I have drunk your water and wine.
The deaths that ye died I have watched beside,
And the lives ye led were mine.
Was there aught that I did not share
In vigil or toil or ease,
One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas?
The other heroes of this book are the men of the 2nd Special Air Service Regiment, of the Special Operations Executive, and of the International Battalion of Partisans, too many of whom sacrificed their lives in the fight for freedom. The enduring cheerfulness and courage of the British soldier, even in the most extreme conditions, has always been and remains a remarkable fact of life in the British Army. As a civilian who has not served, my admiration for them, and the sacrifices that they make, remains unbounded.
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
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Copyright Brian Lett 2011
ISBN 978-1-84884-446-9
eISBN 978-1-84468-636-0
PRC ISBN 978-1-84468-637-7
The right of Brian Lett to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Acknowledgements
My gratitude goes first, of course, to my father, who left for me such a substantial and unusual inheritance. Without exception, his friends, both in Italy and in this country, have welcomed me also as a friend, and what they have told me, together with my father's archive, have proved invaluable in the writing of this book. I am indebted to them all.
In the best British tradition, I will not embarrass my father's and my many British friends by listing them here. They know who they are. They know that they have my sincere thanks. However, the Italian way is different, and I will list some of the originals and their descendants whose help and support enabled my father to survive those difficult times, and whose friendship I have been particularly grateful for: the Deluchi, Sperinde and Tognarelli families of Rossano, Dany Bucchioni, Otello Avio Braccini, Origliano Falco Montefiori, Luciano and Gemma Bracelli, Laura Seghettini, Mario Trivelloni. Some are still with us, some are gone. Osvaldo Sperinde was the driving force behind the erection of the monument to Foster and Shortall at Ponzano Magra, the late Mario Trivelloni was the driving force behind the erection of the monument to Dudgeon and Brunt at La Cisa.
I am not, and have never been, a soldier or a partisan. I am humbled by the extraordinary courage, daring and endurance of the men about whom I have written in this book, and remain indebted to them, as all in this country and many in Italy are, for the sacrifices that they made. Although in of the book, I may seem to have been critical of Major Henderson and Captain Scott for not having achieved more on Operation Blimey, there is no doubting their very considerable courage and commitment. They parachuted into Rossano behind enemy lines, and lived and fought in German occupied territory in very difficult conditions. They deserve and have my very genuine respect.
I was, in part, provoked into writing this history of Operations Speedwell 2, Galia and Blimey by a serious inaccuracy contained in an obituary of Lieutenant Colonel Bob Walker Brown, DSO, MBE, published by a national newspaper shortly after his death in 2008. The obituary rightly paid great tribute to Bob himself. He was a truly remarkable soldier, who I was privileged to call my friend in the latter years of his life, and his achievements on Operation Galia, which I hope that I have fairly described in this book, were outstanding. However, the obituary dismissed Chella Leonardo, the Italian guide murdered by the Fascist Militia in Montebello di Mezzo, as a traitor who had betrayed the soldiers of Operation Galia, and suggested that he had been executed by the SAS. Although following my written protest, the newspaper concerned apologized and published on their website my rebuttal of that libel, regrettably many will not have seen the website, and will have believed what the newspaper had printed. Thus is the truth of history distorted.
I am confident that in this book I have accurately recorded all that went on on the three operations that I have dealt with. The original material that I have listed below supports that.
I must also pay tribute to the work of the Monte San Martino Trust, which is a charity set up by British ex-prisoners of war in Italy to serve as a lasting memorial to the extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice of the ordinary Italian people who helped them. The Trust gives bursaries each year to young Italians, so that they can come to Britain for a month's study of the English language and the British way of life.
Finally, I must record my thanks to and love for my wife Angela, who has proved to be of the greatest help during the writing of this book, and who is a far better author than I am.
Brian Lett Devon
Introduction
Tuscany and southern Liguria, in the north of Italy, was the battle area for all three of the Special Air Service (SAS) operations described in this book. In order to explain the environment in which the SAS was operating, a short summary of prevailing conditions in Italy from the late summer of 1943 is required.
Italy was and is a very diverse country, with most of its wealth in the industrial north. In historical terms it was a still a young country in 1943, having been unified for little more than seventy years.
