Events on Cos, September 1943 - May 1945 E-Book

Pietro Giovanni Liuzzi

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Twenty days after the violence practiced by the German Gebirgsjäger on the military of the Acqui Division in Kefalonia another crime for the same reason was committed on the island of Kos by the Grenadieres of the 22nd Division of General Müller: 103 Italian officers were shot because Badogliani and, therefore, traitors. Months after the tragic event, in 66 mass graves, 66 bodies were found, of which 42 were recognized. Those bodies are in the Ossario d'Oltremare in Bari. The remains of the other 37 officers have never been found. Thanks to the financial help of friends and relatives of the officers as well as to the voluntary participation of researchers, another pit was found from which emerged bone and personal artifacts preserved in the History Museum in Kos. The few bone artifacts belonging to two 26-year-olds are buried in the Ossuary Ossuary in the Catholic Cemetery of Kos (Operation Lisia). This book highlights what emerged from testimonies and archival documents with the aim of redeeming the memory and honor of those men in arms.

Leseprobe

CONTENT

Introduction

The Dodecanese and Cos Island

The Dodecanese

Cos Island

1943 General Military Situation

The situation

Italian Units in Cos

British Units in Cos

German’s activities before the attack

The Battle

Chronological Activities

German-British activities

German-Italian activities at Mount Eremita

German-Italian activities at the Salt plan (Salina)

German-Italian-British activities at Antimachia

Air Force activities

Archival referrals

The Battle told by the Actors

Cos Sector - Italian activities

Cos Sector - DLI activities

Antimachia Sector - Italian events

Antimachia Sector - D Company activities

The communication marasma

Consideration of the battle

Report on the battle by the Media and the British Government

The battle by the Media

The battle by the Supplement to the London Gazette

German occupation consequences

The Italian Army Officers disappearance

The Officer’s killing

Attempts for LieutDe Giovanni’s surrender

The surrender invitation

Terror, violence, arbitraries

Escape after the capture

Spasmodic search of relative’s news

A note on Captain Nasca

The uncertain fate of the 103 officers after their capture

The responsibilities

The responsibilities

General Friedrich Whilelm Müller

The Dux, Benito Mussolini

The Marshall Pietro Badoglio

WinstonChurchill

The files cover up

The Regiment’s Flag

The memories of a machine gunner

Remembering the past Italian tragedy: Kefalonia and Cos

Kephalonia, the Veteran’s Association

Cos, the Aegean Veteran’s Association

Cos, the Fallen of Cos Committee

Lisya’s Operation

The Ossuary

In memory of the Italian Army Officers

Conclusion

A general Consideration

Annexes

10th Regiment “Regina” short History

British leaflet to the Greeks

British leaflet to the Italians

Some Italian Architect’s projects after the earthquake Cos Town

Sources of research – Photo suppliers

Bibliography

Italian Dodecanese Chronology

Index

Acknowledgement

Events on Cos, September 1943 - October 1945

Twenty days after the unjustifiable and monstrousviolence of the German Gebirsjäger on the Acqui Division, a second offence was committed by the Grenadiers of General Müller’s 22nd Division on Cos Island: 103 Italian officers were shot as Badoglio’s troops and therefore considered traitors. Approximately one year after the tragic event, thanks to the will of some compatriots present on the island, 66 officers’ bodies were found in eight mass graves. Only 42 were recognized. Today, their remains are at the Bari Overseas Military Ossuary. 37 officers were never found. The Italian Institutions did not want to search for them entrenching themselves behind the vastness of the area concerned. In 2015, with the Operation Lysias, a group of Italian volunteers and the indispensable contribution of some Greek friends, with limited economic and temporal means, did some excavation and found one common grave. Few bones and personal belongings other than some cartridges of the Grace Stroke were found. It is up to the Institution to complete the opera. This essay intends to tell what emerged from testimonies and archive documents with the aim of redeeming the memory and honour of those Men in arms.

Title: Events on Cos, September 1943 October 1945

Author: Pietro Giovanni Liuzzi

English revisor: John Cecil Fenton

Cover: Sophia Karajanni’s photo

Cover Designer: Pietro Giovanni Liuzzi

ISBN: 9788892699595

© All rights are reserved to the Author

No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, stored or transmitted in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means without the prior consent of the author

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To Tea who knows everything about Cos,

Rebukes me for mymany emotions,

Complains the long hours in solitude,

But she is proud of me.

History must remember the victims

For what they suffered in the name of their homeland,

Even more if their death was unjust.

Introduction

When Aegean veterans speak of Coo 1, they use the term "small Kefalonia". The adjective is not related to the extension of the island but to the less number of Italian Army officers barbarously killed by the German soldiers in October 1943: 103 officers against 390 in Kefalonia. To the latter 3,800 soldiers must be added2. The motivation? Absurd: they were traitors. This is the reason why, even today, German Court expresses the verdict of non-punishment.

The barbarians who ordered or performed those homicides tried to hide the bodies of the Italians: in Kos they were buried in common ditches discovered almost a year later; in Kefalonia the bodies were thrown into the sea.

It is a debt of honour my commitment in carrying out this research to preserve the information and testimonies gathered so to keep alive their memory.

Arghiri Puglia is a Greek, Italian nationalized, who lives in our country since 1947. He left Cos together with his family for better living conditions. He spent in the island fourteen years: from 1930, when he was born, until 1944, when he fled from the German occupation. I was introduced to him by a common friend who knew of my interest in the 1943 war in Greece.

The encounter with Arghiri was, therefore, a lucky case because his memories, alive and intense, allowed me to deepen the knowledge of the Cos island, on the Dodecanese, giving to me alive account of those tragic moments of war which, quite often, return to him as a nightmare. Sometimes he was forced to break his story to overcome his emotion. “Time cannot erase the memory” he was saying, “it can only dampen anger due to the impossibility of acting or reacting to such pain that terribly spread out on that island within few hours”.

Arghiri was only the starting point amongst my contacts. After him I met other people associated to that part of the world which was an Overseas Italian Province for thirty years from where the Italians were sent away without their own belongings.

Having completed my first attempt in writing the story, I went to visit Cos Island to verify my work. Going around, after a few days, I felt like I had spent a lifetime over there. I passed through the buildings and imagined the life in those days. The Army Officer’s Mess “Circolo Savoia”, the sentry and the guard officer with the blue scarf at the entrance of the "Caserma Regina", the group of soldiers along the promenade and, then, the places of the killings. What a sadness!

Before talking of the tragic events which occurred to the Italian Army Officers, I believe it is advisable to mention some information on the Dodecanese Archipelago, on the island of Cos and the way of living during the Italian presence based on direct testimonies and reports stored in archives.

The search for living person reporting direct news on the massacre of the 103 Italian officers was in vain;however the availability of documents is such as to allow reconstruction of what happened from the 2nd to 7th October 1943.

1The text interchangesthe names Coo, Kos and Cos.

2 G. Rochat, Essay on the Acqui in Kefalonia, in "Annali del Dipartimento di Storia", Università Tor Vergata, Roma, Dicembre 2006.

THE DODECANESE AND COS ISLAND

The Dodecanese

The Dodecanese archipelago occupation was related to what was happening in the African Mediterranean area in 1911: France's intervention in Morocco worried the Italian government - fearing its expansion in that area and, therefore, in Libya. Italy had much interest on colonizing that region. Itsinterest grew in the years ahead.

At that time, the whole Africa Mediterranean region was a protectorate of Turkey, whose local authorities carried out incisive boycott actions to the penetration by Italian companies’. The Italian Prime Minister, Francesco Giolitti, without asking the Parliament's ratification and without informing the population, set up a military intervention force in order to secure an over-seas extension to Libya. The aim was to transfer the excess unemployed manpower there instead ofto the United States as was already happening. On the contrary, failing such an opportunity would have reflected extremely negative consequences for Giolitti under pressure of rightist nationalist forces, banks and industrial groups:"the fourth shore" would have assured potential economic prospects.