Brochure Villanova 2

Behind each soldier in the cemetery there is a story. They are our brothers, fathers and proud Canadian sons. Villanova has not forgotten and considers these boys as their own sons and are working to ensure they will never be forgotten. They rest in a landscape similar to the Canadian prairies where many were from. VILLANOVA Respected and loved in their Home away from Home. Donna Maxwell 1944-1945 In Northern Italy in the Province of Ravenna, in war-torn country of Italy, in the towns of Villanova the Commune of Bagnacavallo lies the Villanova and Bagnacavallo. Here, a place where fear kept CanadianWar Cemetery. It was selected as a people indoors, holding their breath while the cemetery by the 5th Canadian Armoured Division distant noise of bombs loomed everywhere. By night, only the voice of the fountains sounded which is heavily represented there. Most of the through the streets of towns frightened into Canadian war dead belong to one of four submission by the spectre of death, where only the regiments. The Lanark and Renfrew Scottish, the innocent victims of unannounced aerial 4th Princess Louise Dragoon Guards, the Perth bombardments remained, their bodies strewn amid shards of glass and rubble. The liberators, caked in Regiment and the Irish Regiment of Canada. The mud and dust, made their way through villages of majority of these four regiments were killed during destroyed houses, schools full of evacuees and the Lamone River Crossing in December 1944. refugees, unusable railways; and in the background, In the Village of Villanova lives Rosalia Fantoni. As a the constant rumble of bombs, the grenades that It was in the vicinity of Villanova that troops of small child she lived in fear and hunger as war raged wrought havoc on so much human life, artillery fire this Division succeeded in establishing a on around her. Her father and uncle (partisans) were that made the walls shake and the air tremble. hung by the SS in front of their home just two bridgehead over the Lamone River December weeks before the Canadians liberated Villanova. The memory of these days survives in its telling; and 10-11th, 1944. West of the bridgehead was heavy Villanova was liberated December 11, 1944 by the suffering, in its telling is like a great thaw - the thaw fighting in the following days when attempts were Cape Breton Highlanders. For many years Rosalia that turned the snow of Auschwitz to tears. remembered their sacrifice and wanted to know all made to cross the three canals that run from It is vitally important that we keep these memories she could about “Canadians”. She read books, Faenza to the sea. From December 12-15th the alive!” travelled to Canada in her dreams remembering the Lanark and Renfrew Scottish and the 4th Princess kindness and peace brought to her by these men. Every December 11th a ceremony is held at the Louise Dragoon Guards suffered heavily in these She wanted to know about them to “understand the Cemetery and each grave glows with a small candle. attempts. 85 of the burials in the cemetery come generosity that drove their actions.” She has written a book called Casa lontano da casa (Home away from these two regiments. Others include those from Home). It is a collection of stories, poems, killed in the advance toward the final line held by some military history and all the Canadian war dead the Canadians on the River Senio before they left resting in Villanova are listed in the back of the Italy in February 1945. book. She feels so very strongly that these men be not forgotten. The Villanova Canadian War Cemetery contains An excerpt from Rosalia’s book is as follows: 212 Commonwealth burials of WW2, 206 Canadians, one an unknown soldier. The other 6 “For many soldiers, time stopped on the soil of Romagna, in the town of Villanova on the River members of the British Army. Senio. Their homes were far away in Canada, where the rays of the moon lay gently on the faces of children falling asleep in a young and healthy fatigue. Their “home away from home” was in the .

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