Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-23-2013 12:00 AM The Legacy of Military Necessity in Italy: War and Memory in Cassino and Monte Sole Cynthia D. Brown The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Jonathan Vance The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Cynthia D. Brown 2013 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Brown, Cynthia D., "The Legacy of Military Necessity in Italy: War and Memory in Cassino and Monte Sole" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1255. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1255 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Legacy of Military Necessity in Italy: War and Memory in Cassino and Monte Sole (Thesis format: Monograph) by Cynthia D. Brown Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Cynthia D. Brown 2013 Abstract The rise of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist party and its disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany remains one of the most well-known parts of Italy’s Second World War experience, at least in English historical literature. The war did not end when the Italians surrendered to the Allies in September 1943. Military histories of what followed focus on the bitter campaign waged between the Germans and the Allies on the Italian peninsula. Much less is known about the impact of war on the Italian nation and its civilians. From the Italian perspective, the war was a defining yet difficult period that remains controversial seventy years on. The war ripped the country and its people apart - both figuratively and literally. This dissertation examines the 1943-45 war and its impact by comparing two Italian regions, Cassino and Monte Sole. Both Cassino and Monte Sole were unfortunate enough to be the sites of the major clashes and protracted battles of the Italian campaign. The comparative approach reveals how the priority of winning affected respective German and Allied policies toward Italian civilians. The issue of military necessity led both sides to make a number of decisions, sometimes controversial, that affected the Italian people. The most well-known examples are the Allied decision to bomb the Abbey of Montecassino and the German massacre of nearly 800 unarmed women, children, and elderly at Monte Sole. This study reveals that these two events are only a fraction of the story. ii The emphasis on these two major events overshadows the plethora of Italian experiences that emerged from the interaction between civilian and soldier in Italy. Allied and German policy toward the Italians – both civilian and soldier – had a tremendous impact on how Italians attach meaning to their war. The comparison and contrast between what happened and the resulting memory in Cassino and Monte Sole offers a more textured look at how Italians experienced and remember their war. Keywords: war, Second World War, civil war, conflict, military policy toward civilians, interaction between civilian and soldier, bombing, massacres, memory. iii Acknowledgements I first became interested in the plight of the Italian civilian during the Second World War in 2005 when I was asked to be a driver/interpreter on a battlefield study tour of in 2005. The tour was both new and old. Built on the success of the Canadian Battlefields Foundation programs in Normandy, the Italy tour was delivered as part of the University of New Brunswick’s Intersession Abroad program. The tour was delivered in May, so when we visited the Commonwealth War Graves sites the wreaths, laid by Italians on 25 April: the Festa della liberazione, were still at the Cross of Remembrance. I wondered how these people endured the war and why they found it important to honour the sacrifice of Allied soldiers on their Day of Liberation. The next year, the tour was offered again but to allay my growing curiosity, we included more about how the Italians suffered. It was then, in 2006, that I first read Jack Olsen’s Silence on Monte Sole and discovered the horror of what happened in the Apennines, just south of Bologna. We booked hotels and went in to Marzabotto, not knowing what we might find. What we found shook the foundations of everyone. Few of the students, most interested in military issues related to the Canadian Army, understood the extent to which Italian civilians suffered in the war. Their worlds changed on the day we visited Marzabotto and then the hills of Monte Sole. We were greeted by the town with great fanfare, if not annoyance, because we did not call ahead. In typical Italian style and in spite of my neglect, the mayor, Edoardo Masetti, assembled a staff, some of whom could speak English, and arranged for an English speaking guide, Tiziana, and a survivor, Franco, to meet us at the Scuola di Pace for an afternoon program. We delegates were presented with gifts: a town of Marzabotto flag and a beautiful coffee table book featuring local photographs. It was a sort of kindness that became typical on our future travels and something we tried very hard to reciprocate. Since that day, we have expanded our program to cover issues of the military campaign in Italy and the impact it had on civilians. My colleague, the co-director of the UNB program, and now my husband, Lee Windsor, covers the campaign side and I cover the impact on civilians. Our work has grown together and informed one another’s since. In addition, our combined work has attracted many friends: both Italian and non-Italians. It is not uncommon to have an Italian passerby stop to observe the group of foreigners standing on a beach or in a town square and listen quietly while we finish our lecture. Then they inevitably ask: where do you come from and why are you here? That is usually followed up with: “Why do you speak my language? You must have Italian family?” Our interest in the war usually prompts an anecdote or personal reflection that adds texture to my understanding of the millions of ways Italians experienced the Second World War. Although our students cannot generally understand the conversation, they listen with baited breath as our new Italian friend describes how he was on the beach when the landing came, was given chocolate from Canadian or American soldiers, or how his or her parents were forced to flee to caves to survive the winter. First, then, I must thank all of those Italians who stopped and listened and told their stories. They have enriched my understanding of the campaign and given me hope in humanity. iv In addition to those nameless Italians I have met since my first tour of the battlefields of Italy in 2005, I have made a number of friends who have directly contributed to my research and my work. My only fear in listing them is that I will miss someone. I met Paolo Vacca, from the town of San Pietro, in 2007 when he was supervising work on the building of the museum at San Pietro. He gathered friends and took our group on a tour of the site, telling us little tidbits of the story we could never know. The last I heard, his mother is still alive. I hope to record her story as well. Kay de Latour Scott, Alberto Fontana, and Roberto Molle from Roccasecca and the Cassino area have helped me and me to sites while we were doing research in the area. Mariella Costanzo, Angela Arnone, and Adriana, Pietro, and Primavera at the Hotel Ideale in Ortona have taken us and our students on as family whenever we are there. We shall remember Orazio always. Since my first visit to Monte Sole in 2006, Marzia Gigli and Elena Monicelli have become great friends and have helped in my understanding. I value the work being done at the Scuola di Pace. Since 2010, Stefano Merzi has led our students through the site at Monte Sole, enlightening us to the hope that is possible. Anna Salerno at the Monte Sole Historical Park Archives was very helpful and patient with me while I took over her office in the summer of 2010 to carry out my research. Anna introduced me to Reginald Smith, an ex-Coldstream Guardsman, who entered into the Monte Sole area in February 1945 to find the bodies of many dead civilians, including a baby. Reginald and his wife, Vivienne, have become friends and welcomed me as family when I was able to visit them in Bristol in 2010. I must thank Eric McGeer, Karen Storwick, Ken McLeod and all of my fellow D- Day Dodgers who have accompanied me to Italy over the years. Blake and Ben Seward, who have not yet accompanied us to Italy but who have been to war with us in France and Flanders, I must thank you for your continued encouragement. The Betts-Wilmott family, Tessa, Norm, and Kate, have been champions of my cause and been so kind on my travels. I must thank Marc Milner, Brent Wilson, and Valerie Gallant, from the Gregg Centre, for your continued support as I tackle this project.