Or/I:Omcas, Telling
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
5/10/43. No, 12 THE SCENE IN CORSICA By Douglas Brass representing: the Combined British and Empire dress in Corsica Militarily, Corsica is almost a closed bock. politically, they tell me here in political North Africa, Corsica is just beginning to become interesting. Every- is one asking, since my return from the island, whether the Corsicans arc De Gaullist or Girondist, whether this part;/ - or that (and they name five political groups stretch- ing from the right to the left) is likely to dominate the island’s councils. The direcrin. of their interest and their questions leaves me puzzled. I have just hat; a fsennight as representative of the British Press in Corsica. I have lived with villagers and townspeople, followed the scattered and confusing fighting through the northern mountains, boon with patriot franc-tireurs, regular French troops and Italians, lounged, gossiping in streets and cafes, listened at candlelight meetings in country inns, spent hours with officials and partisan loaders, and spoken to people of every typo throughout the island. If there is one impression I have gained from all this it is that the Corsicans in drive is for are singly not interested politics as such, that their only the com- pletion of the liberation of their country, early removal of the eighty-thousand now idle Italian troops, and re-establishment of sene sort of economic order where inflation and the Blank Market have worked trouble and injustice. The Corsican in people have the la.st month attained a unity unusual even in small comparable, communities. They have played a big part in the expulsion of the Germans from - their own territory a part which even the leaders of the small French Force make to - Expeditionary no attempt minimise and they feel that in so doing they the France and have pointed way f: r Europe* They arc net so concerned with Dc Giraud Gaulle, or the next man as they are concerned with their own immediate destiny as a free and self-liberated department of France, Their organisation of resistance has been military rather than political. It has brought together men of all shades of opinion. There arc Communists in this movement; there arc also middle-aged Con- of servatives, One their most active organisers has been a Liberal Senator of France* Regular army officers have taken a prominent part in the preparations* I have seen no evidence of this national resistance movement splitting up into political groups even during the last weeks of lessening urgency of the military demands upon it, 1 have seen its leaders in regular and agreeable conference with newly-appointed repre- sentatives f the. French National Committee, My memories f Corsica will bear no reference to the "combat" party manoeuvring the to undermine "guerilla." group or "Franco libre" laying for the Communists* They of in the will be memories poorly-dressed men and youths ambushing German convoys dusk, carrying cut perilous reconnaissance jobs for General Martin’s shock battalions with the full knowledge that their capture would mean immediate execution, or gathering in lonely homes to organise a. coup do main. J Seme of us will remember the patriot Colonel s chauffeur who lost both his logs at Dunkirk and who. now is working twenty hours a day with the iron end leather replace- ments he has himself fashioned; the blue-bereted farmer whose scvent eon-year-old son the was shot out of hand by the Gormans and whose only aim was to get among Germans towards , Bastia; the slight blonde boy in a woollen jacket who had helped to blow up m.d his submarine at Toulon was now an active guerilla in the mountains* the two youths who returned from a pro -breakfast expedition with- two German machine-guns and two pairs of German boots. ht least two zi us 'wi.ll recall a pompous little Italian his black shirt replaced by khaki, firing his howitzers o.cross the hill or/i:omcas, telling us he sent over f rty rounds "to keep then quiet every time they moved." This cclone 1 had served in Spain end Greece, believed in Fascism as "a refined form of Democracy" and was now fanaticoily aiding the patriot troops to free their country from Fascism* With him was a patriot Colonel, hard-bitten, grey-moustached, dressed in a blue sports coat end riding-breeches, looking for all the world like G-cnoral Montgomery in coswrac. told how vouch T n 11 Each me he appreciated the other s assistance • /One 2 One Italian explained how his lightly-equipped infantrymen managed to get out of Bastia in the face of German opposition and block the panzers, */ho threatened to progress westwards, with the able assistance of Partisans. A Frenchman explained how four hundred patriots had held a pass with the able support of Italians. One could take it either way. The war was like that in Corsica - it was a grand .mix up. Relations between Corsicans and the Italian troops on the island are neither good nor bad. Even the mos’t rabid Nationalist on the island now admits that operations against the Germans would have been tremendously more. difficult had the not Italians lent their equipment, guns, transport and moral support in tightening the squeeze in the Bastia area. More than a few Italians were killed and wounded in this final battle. They took no prominent part in the infantry operations - the hard mountain fighting was done by mountain trained‘French Moroccan troops. But their artillery was indispensable and their heavy shoving camions were to all intents and Xourposes the only transport. This assistance is appreciated by the French and the has Corsicans but it by no means welded the Italians and the Islanders into one happy family. The Corsicans hope, and their administration is working now to readise this hope, that the Italian army will soon leave the Island perhaps for Sardinia. They not are deliberately unfriendly towards the Italians but they are inclined to sneer at them at and share open jokes their expense. will tell of Patriots you "the great battle of Barchetta" adding with a sly grin "200 Germans; 4,000 Italians". But they are not so proud as not to hitchhike along their in share mountain roads Italian transport or to an Italian soldier’s meal. Italian troops are doing a pathetic best to be friendly but they still carry their arms whenever they go out alone or in small groups. Now that Bastia has fallen and remnants of the German army on the Northern Beaches are being squeezed into risky barges for crossings or captivity one nay left could be hazard a summation campaign. The Germans Corsica because they not expected to hold it without a disproportionate and costly effort. The patriot military organisation built up in the last year an underground resistance and supply of arms which was too strong for the German garrison. This prevented the Germans moving out when Italy dropped out of the war. They even drove them farther ea.st. The landing of a French Expeditionary Force clinched the business. It urns small in numbers - it’s first shock troops wore- landed from a submarine and destfoyer - but it was trained, armed and spirited for a tense offensive of mountain warfare. Patriots prepared the way, French Morrocains followed it. If Patriots had been unable to hold and harass the Germans in the central mountain passes and I keep them out of Ajaccio the French Expedition would heave been at the very least it turned out a risky operation. As was it a remarkable success. Prance, through the Corsican campaign, attained two high moral effects. One of her departments has shown the world the strength and efficiency of an under- ground resistance movement. The. troops have launched a successful operation these tto be lessened overseas. One hopes the results of achievements are r by the intrusion of North .African politics. MINISTRY OF INFORMATION.