Italian Faculty Publications Italian 2003 Pippo: An Italian Folklore Mystery of World War II Alan R. Perry Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/italfac Part of the Italian Language and Literature Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. The definitive version was published as Perry, Alan R., "Pippo: An Italian Folklore Mystery of World War II," Journal of Folklore Research, 2003 40(2):115–148. This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/italfac/1 This open access article is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Pippo: An Italian Folklore Mystery of World War II Abstract During the German occupation of Northern Italy (1943-45), the Italian populace lived under the grip of fear as Allied bombardments pummeled towns, Nazifascists raided villages looking for partisans, and food grew ever more scarce. When night fell many Italians had to contend with another menace, a mysterious aircraft that they were sure was specifically after them and their loved ones. So real and yet mysterious was this aircraft that they gave it a name: Pippo. No one was quite sure if it was German or Allied, single-engine or double- engine, if it dropped bombs, or what its primary mission was, but Pippo loomed as a nocturnal specter, instilling order and terror in the Italian towns below.