informations about permission to go to Sweden. For almost three months I then kicked my heels until in March I was finally released to return to civilian life. The stores themselves were in the barracks but immediately outside the store I kept various large items that were too big to be kept indoors. ''These persons were questioned and tried in the presence of all the populace, who accused them,'' the priest said in the report. Jevtic went on to spend four years in Trieste before emigrating to Quebec (Canada) via France. I found your story very interesting. ''There were some 800 Italian Fascists listed as war criminals by the Allies, but none were ever brought to trial,'' said Ivan Fumic, head of the Partisan veterans' organization in Croatia. tri.e.stin) in the local language itself. No one dared to upset Trieste's already overcrowded labour market. The division left for Egypt on 3 July 1944. Kind regards, cases there. It was invented as a port town and turbo-charged its fortunes after Austrian Emperor Charles VI declared its port "free" in 1719. 12,411 British, and Commonwealth, Free French and French colonial, Polish, and Brazilian troops, Italian Service Unit members, and Jewish Brigade volunteers from Palestine (who served under British command) killed 54,700 Italian partisans killed (44,720 Italian partisans in combat, 9,980 in Axis reprisals) Sorry, no joy there at all. Subordinate units came from . For my own peace of mind I asked him to tell me, in all confidence, how hed organised this massive theft, but he merely laughed and said, 'It wasnt me mate !'. In the meantime, the 24th Guards Brigade, part of the 56th (London) Infantry Division, had launched an amphibious flanking attack from the water to the right of the Argenta Gap. Hi Eric We settled down at Villa Opicina and Eddy Patman took over the job of running the canteen. Today Im 63 years old and trying to open The Allied forward formations spent the rest of the winter of 1944 in inhospitable conditions while preparations were being made for a spring offensive in 1945. [5][4], As of 9 April, the Axis in Italy had 21 much weaker German divisions and four Italian National Republican Army (ENR) divisions, with about 349,000 German and 45,000 Italian troops. The link is www.displacedpersoncampcollection.org, Thanking you, Katherine Wositzky katherine.w@optusnet.com.au, Hi! Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. It took part in the second battle for Cassino between 11 and 18 May 1944, under the command of XIII Corps. A word about Eddy. In January l947, just three months short of four years from the time I set sail to North Africa, I was posted home to Barnard Castle in Northumberland. The division fought in the battles for the capture of Naples, the Volturno Crossing and the capture of Monte Camino, all under command of X Corps. In fact, Trieste was one of the most important cities in the Austro-Hungarian kingdom, along with Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. On the coastal road to Trieste is the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, operating under the aegis of UNESCO and IAEA. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. It was a lovely day and all was going fine until it was pointed out to us that the degaussing equipment aboard (which neutralised the magnet mines in the harbour) had developed a fault. Find out how you can use this. The most widely travelled formation of the British Army in the Second World War, the 5 Infantry Division had previously served in the United Kingdom, France and Belgium, India and Iraq, with elements having also taken part in 1940 campaign in Norway and the invasion of Madagascar. public. WO 264. We can either copy our records onto paper or deliver them to you digitally, Visit us in Kew to see original documents or view online records for free, Consider paying for How to use this guide and get a search for records started, 3. Do you know if the Annex was a separate area The U.S. Fifth Army was to launch the Army Group's main effort at 24 hours notice from two days after the Eighth Army attack, and break into the Po valley. For any other comments, please Contact Us. It would be my guess we were all touched by the Chinese curse as we certainly lived through interesting times plus a bit, it led to an intersting life that is for sure. Your story was very interesting the only person I have heard that was stationed in the same area as I. They were left alone.''. There are only a few of us ready to investigate this dispassionately.''. History Origins. Reporter, Trieste. On re-checking my personal diaries I now find that after joining the 4th QOH I never went back to Rome, although I clearly visited there twice whilst in the 49th LAA (once on the 21st of June and again on the 10th of July). My late mother and I arrived It was time to go home. accomodations as I recall than any prison could ever offer. The Allied Military Government administered Zone A, which was divided into peacekeeping and law enforcement sectors protected by 5,000 American troops ( Trieste United States Troops - TRUST) and 5,000 British troops ( British Element Trieste Force - BETFOR). The museum located in the village is aiming to become a reference point in Italy for the history of a foreign contingent, namely what we know as the British Campaign in Italy 1917-1918. In March 1943, it was deployed to Tunisia and then used to secure the Island of Pantelleria. di S. Spiridone), the second is the famed Miramar, the third is Piazza dell'Unita, After its activation the Trieste Military Command came under the 5th Army Corps and consisted of the following units: On 1 December 1968 the command was renamed Trieste Troops Command. Specific operations and campaigns. It fought through the battle for Anzio and onto the battle for Rome. The Within a short time I was put in complete charge of all the technical stores in the squadron. 4 Infantry Division (1944-45) The corpses, he said, were thrown into the huge Basovizza foibe, now a memorial to the victims. It transferred to X Corps in July 1943, and landed with the corps at Salerno in Italy on 9 September 1943. But there is a new move, led by Giuseppe Pititto, a prosecutor in Rome, to charge three former Partisan officials who live in Croatia. The Regiment was visited by the Corps Commander, Lt General Sir John Harding, and the photo in my album brings it all back to me because I was in my office at the time. [12] In Phase I, the Eighth Army would cross the Senio and Santerno rivers and then make a dual thrust, one towards Budrio parallel to the Bologna road, Route 9 (the Via Emilia) and the other northwest along Route 16, the Via Adriatica, towards Bastia and the Argenta Gap which was a narrow strip of dry terrain through the flooded land west of Lake Comacchio. British Military History is the online resource covering British Army, British Indian Army and Britains Allies. dialect are spoken in the city center while Slovenian is partially spoken Opicina This story has been placed in the following categories. grim-looking stone structure, dating back to the Hapsburg period, that the Never trust your memory and don't forget to keep a diary! locals are considered autochthonous into the border region of Trieste, Below are just some of the wars and conflicts since 1945 that are covered in our records. There are countless published regimental histories and these are often a good place to start research into British Army operations. In 1948-51, my mother worked in several camps in Austria and Trieste and brought with her to Australia photographs, monthly reports, refugee art and handcraft. the closed doors in my life. Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) terms and conditions, Royal Army Medical Corps Muniments Collection, Album of photographs of the British Military Hospital, Trieste, Italy, on completion of re-organisation RAMC/2068, Album of photographs of the British Military Hospital, Trieste, Italy, on completion of re-organisation, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. By clicking on the series links (for example,WO 269) you will arrive on the respective series description pages from where you can search the series, using dates/years and keywords, such as: Series description pages also provide information on the arrangement of the records and sometimes some of the historical context in which they were created, as well as suggesting related series you could explore. To the left of V Corps, on Route 9, the II Polish Corps would widen the front further by attacking across the Senio towards Bologna. The 56 (London) Infantry Division was a pre-war, first line Territorial Army formation. Trieste was a very interesting place to be at this time and it was not unknown for a lot of black marketing to be going on between the troops and the civilians. British estimated around 30,000 casualties were inflicted upon the Axis forces during this offensive, while a German staff officer estimated 32,000 casualties suffered during Operation Grapeshot. Use the department reference, which is always a letter code, to do this (the code for the Ministry of Defence, for example, is DEFE). The photos in my album capture it all. The move has been bitterly denounced by many Slovenes and Croats. The Trieste Synagogue was built between 1908 and 1912, designed by architect Ruggero Berlam in collaboration with his son Arduino. On May 1, 1945 the Yugoslav army entered Trieste (see Foibe) one day before before the New Zealand army, in a race to decide who would control the city. [13] Phase III involved the establishment of bridgeheads across the Po and exploitation north. The capture of Bologna was looked upon as a secondary task.[12]. November 27, 2019. It served in Palestine until the end of the war. Rail travel ground to a halt. The Portal for Public History. Upon our arrival, "San Sabba" was The website has a lot of material from all of these camps. Regards Frank. We spent all day digging trains out of snowdrifts and as virtually everyone in the camp was on the point of being de-mobbed, rank meant nothing at all. in many of the immediate suburbs. [9] Allied strength amounted to 17 divisions and eight independent brigades (including 4 Italian groups of volunteers from the Italian Co-Belligerent Army which were equipped and trained by the British), equivalent to just under 20 divisions. The bodies are those of Italians and Yugoslavs who opposed the Yugoslav Communist takeover of the city in May 1945, along with scores of captured Germans. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites Just by chance at that time, I was given a choice of two options. The 6th Armoured Division linked with the 10th Mountain Division the next day at Finale some 5mi (8.0km) upstream along the river Panaro from Bondeno. The only ref in my records for that time is going on home leave on May 21st. From Opicina we now moved to the dockyard area of Monfalcone, just a few miles down the road but still in the Trieste Area. It left Italy on 27 January 1945 to transfer to Palestine, where it arrived on 2 February. Almost overnight, stones were whitewashed, flagpoles were erected and 'bull' was the order of the day. Among these items were two huge Staghound Armoured Car tyres. I reported the matter to Busty Thomas and within minutes all the camp was sealed off. Olga, I would appreciate This information will help us make improvements to the website. I phoned from the bar, not leaving my name or any information other than that there was a corpse in the street near the bar - because I had no intention of being involved with the Italian police when I was so near to going home on leave. After a period of confusion, during which the news of Hitler's death arrived, Schulz obtained Kesselring's agreement to the surrender and Vietinghoff was reinstated to see it through. When I arrived in 1950, began manifesting itself, with some refugees disappearing. It was deployed to France in April 1940 on training and labour duties. Gesuiti [20], Progress against a determined German defense was slow, but ultimately the superior Allied firepower and lack of German reserves allowed the Allies to break through the mountain defenses and reach the plains of the Po valley. The Italian right-wing National Alliance party, which received 24 percent of the vote in Trieste's last elections, cites the massacres and the expulsions to fan sentiment against the city's ethnic Slav minority, who make up about 30 percent of the population. You have done a massive job. Samo Pahor, a local Slovene leader, said, ''The stories about the Partisan massacres of Italians are not true.''. On April 28, Vietinghoff sent emissaries to the Allied Army headquarters. Best of luck Eric Simmonds ex 31st field regt. research. The audience numbered 12,000 and the performance went on till the early hours of the morning. ''The killings were, unlike Bosnia today, politically motivated,'' said Mr. Valdevit. "Gesuiti" or "the Black Hole of Calcutta" was, according to Jevtic,"a disappearing, going back across the border at night into Croatia or Slovenia For 300 years, Trieste has been where the bulk of Italy's green (unroasted) coffee beans arrive, and it's rumoured that Triestini drink twice as much of the brew as their countrymen. The Trieste Troops Command was an Italian Army brigade-sized command located in the city of the Trieste and tasked with the defense of the city in case of a Yugoslav-Italian war. The ex-prisoner lived in London and as we had to change stations at King's Cross I agreed to let him visit his folks in Caledonian Road before we finally took him back to camp. We must have looked pretty emaciated. The area was known as the Morgan Line and acted as a buffer zone between the Yugoslavs and the Italians, both of whom laid claim to this territory. American and British forces immediately began to withdraw from Zone A and on 26 October 1954 the last TRUST commander, Major General John A. Dabney handed over control of Zone A to the Italian 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino" which was transferred from its base in Forl to Trieste and formed the core of the provisional Grouping "T". One morning, immediately before roll call, the young lad who was my assistant and who I was training to take over from me came to me in a state of panic. Archives, Open Government Licence Many Slovenes in Trieste at the time, ecstatic at the downfall of Italian Fascism, greeted the Partisans as liberators and assisted in manhunts by the Yugoslav secret police. After the reform the Trieste Troops Command consisted of the following units: The command stored and maintained the materiel for the 43rd Motorized Infantry Battalion "Forl" and 255th Motorized Infantry Battalion "Veneto", which in case of war would have been activated and filled with reservists from Trieste and the surrounding area. I was shocked For the next nine years, Trieste was under a British and American military government, becoming one of the front-line cities of the cold war. The division left for Greece on 12 December 1944, arriving a day later. In October we moved to the Trieste area, to a small town called Opicina, which sat on the top of a hill overlooking the Bay of Trieste. An amphibious operation across the lake and parachute drop would bring pressure to bear on the flank and help to break the Argenta position. Through a long period These seemed idiotic and insuperable difficulties that we encountered, but in the thick of this maelstrom of chaos we found individuals with whom we could share our common fate as we waited to re-enter Canada. The river was crossed the next day and they advanced north to Verona which they entered on April 26. camp being scarcely a mile from the Communist Yugoslav border. The 46 Infantry Division was a second line Territorial Army formation, which was formed in 1939 as a duplicate of the 49 (West Riding) Infantry Division. In the summer months hey used to hold opera performances there, in the open, and I was lucky enough to see a performance of Carmen with an orchestra and cast of several hundred. Lieutenant general Max-Josef Pemsel, Chief of General Staff of the Army Liguria, consisting of three German and three Italian divisions, followed Graziani's orders and declared in a broadcast message: "I confirm without reserve the words of my Commander, Marshal Graziani. Most of them, Slovene-speaking Italians, teach their children in local Slovene schools about the fascist repression, when their language was banned and Slavs were purged from Government jobs. On 1 April 1962 the 82nd Infantry Regiment "Torino" moved to Gorizia and was replaced in Trieste by the 151st Infantry Regiment "Sassari".[2]. She also worked in Trieste - in San Sabba, Opincina and Gesuiti. The matter was never proven, however, and for about two weeks I sweated on being kept back in Italy as a potential court-martial witness. I have been looking for infomation or From July the New Zealanders joined the British 8th Army's march east and north towards the Italian plain. The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. By late morning of April 12, after an all-night assault, the 8th Indian Infantry Division was established on the far side of the Santerno and the 78th Infantry Division started their pass through to make the assault on Argenta. GAUMONT BRITISH NEWSREEL (REUTERS)To license this film, visit https://www.britishpathe.com/video/VLVA6XE2ZWC64DCEWO5I7WLX1GOD1-ARMY-DAY-PARADE-IN-TRIESTE-ITA. I remember the dances at the Four Aces and sometimes confined to barracks because of disturbstances in the town. Instead of paying cash for these blessings we would each sell a tin of 50 cigarettes to the waiter and the cash received was more than sufficient to pay for the whole evening's entertainment, including the earlier visit to the YM! These, I hasten to say, were worth at least £100 to anyone who could supply them to the Yugoslav forces. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not site and I must say its been very helpful for me. general. Sat 31 Oct 2009 20.06 EDT A fateful blunder by British military intelligence allowed the Nazis to seize 50,000 Allied prisoners of war from the Italians during the Second World War and transport. For the service records of individuals from this period go to Veterans UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defence. On another occasion, a group of British soldiers (BETFOR) decided to A fair amount of local civilians attended and the service was organised by an Austrian who had been released from a concentration camp and his two daughters, all of whom worked for AMGOT (Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories). At the same time the divisions were reorganized and their areas of responsibility were redefined. Among the cultural treats available in Trieste was an old Roman Castle named Castello San Giusto. To the left of the 8th Indian Division, on the left of the salient, the 2nd New Zealand Division would attack across the river to form a pincer. It replaced four smaller synagogues that existed previously.. Our library holds a copy of Arthur S Whites A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army, a useful resource for getting started. I was a child then and became very sick in TBC. It was involved in the battles to recapture Naples in September 1943, the Volturno Crossing in October 1943, and Monte Camino in November and December 1943. 2/1/06 Hi Olga: The British Army was stationed here and that's why our village is an example of a location shared by two national armies cooperating in war operations. It remained in Austria on occupation duties until it was disbanded in August 1946. http://www.beyondthebluehorizon.com/triestephotogallery/. Trieste came under the rule of the House of Hapsburg in the late 14th century, and remained a part of the kingdom all the way until the end of World War I in 1918. The invasion of mainland Italy started with the British 8th Army landing at Taranto on 3 rd September 1943 and an operation named "Baytown". On 1 September 1962 151st Infantry Regiment "Sassari" and the 14th Field Artillery Regiment entered the newly raised Trieste Military Command, which was tasked with the defence of the city. There were suspicions To our shame, the local Jewish Army Chaplain, who was present, wanted to keep them out, insisting that army rations had only been issued for those expected. United Kingdom, North Devon Website Design by Really Different. to hear the details of the history. Click on the following series references to search for records within each respective series using keywords and dates. Browse or search the following specific series to get started: In the First and Second World Wars, unit records were generally in the form of war diaries but by 1950 unit diaries had been largely superseded by alternative forms of record keeping. The service was about halfway through when there was a clamour at one of the doors. This was accompanied by a pay form that explained that the money in question was two days' ration allowance for escorting a prisoner back to Darlington from a jail in Lincoln! He loved all aspects of the cinema and when we were in Rome I went with him to see 'The Song of Bernadette' and he sent a review of it back to his old firm and later showed me the article in the magazine. Roman Catholic (Chiesa di S. Antonio) and the other Serbian Orthodox (Chiesa It is now, and only now, some sixty years later, that I realise what I should have recorded in the family book. The next day he saw a group of about 250 prisoners at the mouth of the Basovizza pit. [14], Once across the Senio, the assault divisions were to advance to cross the Santerno. In Phase II, the Eighth Army was to drive northwest to capture Ferrara and Bondeno, blocking routes of potential retreat across the Po. Clark succeeded Alexander as commander of the Allied forces in Italy (renamed 15th Army Group), but without promotion. Coat of Arms of the Trieste Troops Command, Last edited on 22 December 2022, at 10:58, 1975 the Italian army undertook a major reform, 1st Motorized Infantry Battalion "San Giusto", "82 Reggimento Fanteria "Torino" - La Storia", "151 Reggimento Fanteria "Sassari" - La Storia", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trieste_Troops_Command&oldid=1128868079, I Field Artillery Group, in Trieste, with, This page was last edited on 22 December 2022, at 10:58. If you're in Italy and you need urgent help (for example, you've been attacked, arrested or someone has died), call +39 06 4220 0001 (available 24/7, 365 days a year for British nationals . There were a lot like him.''. In May 1945, Tito's Communist Partisans in Yugoslavia, after a bitter guerrilla war against the German and Croatian fascists, pursued the retreating forces toward Italy. In early January 1945, the British 1st Infantry Division was sent to Palestine and at the end of the month the I Canadian Corps and the British 5th Infantry Division were ordered to north-west Europe. I was a young soldier with the R.A.first we were at La Farra then moved to the Morgan Line,from there for the Victory Parade. Italy, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trieste, Detail, View of a path through the park with a tablet made of stone from the Karst, The park was built in the. It was the best meal we'd had in In the next three years, we were During the occupation, at least 3,500 residents of Trieste, along with an unknown number of Yugoslavs, Italians and Germans who washed up there, were killed and thrown into the fissures, or foibes, of the Carso mountain range, the eastern end of the Italian Alps. http://www.tergeste.net/PzSAntonioJ.htm. It left Italy on 16 March 1944 bound for Egypt. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/military/rg-331-2.html, Apr 7, 2015 The large hall where I made my goodbyes was packed with hundreds of men trying on the latest that Montague Burton had to offer, although if I remember rightly you could have any colour suit providing it was navy or brown and any style providing it was single breasted or double breasted! This then gave one a 'group number', and over the next year or so each group number came up in turn and the members of that group received their discharge. Thanks for a wonderful web site and if you know where I could get more info and pictures please let me know. My own group number was 48, rather high because I was only 19 when I was called up. A Capital of Science. It led to a joint allied victory for the Yugoslav Partisans and 2nd New Zealand Division and a joint occupation of Trieste, but relations soon deteriorated and led to a nine-year dispute over the territory of Trieste. From what I remember we were placed in the annex, where we lived for 4 years. The 1 Infantry Division was a pre-war Regular Army formation, which was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Scan this QR code to download the app now. The Fifth Army began its assault on April 14 after a bombardment by 2,000 heavy bombers and 2,000 guns along with attacks by IV Corps (1st Brazilian, 10th Mountain and 1st Armored Divisions) on the left. In the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, independence movements across Europe are seeking their own media moments. Heinrich von Vietinghoff returned from the Baltic to take over from Kesselring and Traugott Herr, the experienced commander of the LXXVI Panzer Corps, took over the 10th Army. and the hundreds of refugees running for cover to shut themselves in tents, GIs (TRUST) took me along with two of my friends to their mess hall to feed I remember, one day a group of American In Trieste, Investigation of Brutal Era Is Blocked, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/20/world/in-trieste-investigation-of-brutal-era-is-blocked.html. In the first place I was responsible for seeing that all the stores necessary to run a squadron of Sherman tanks were kept up to date and I was the liaison between the mechanics and the Base Store Depots.
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