The last Alpine veteran of the Ana section of Brescia has died: farewell to Giovanni Marco Franceschini

The last Alpine veteran of the Ana Section of Brescia has died. Giovanni Marco Franceschini he would have turned 104 on April 25. The date of the funeral has already been set and will be held on Tuesday in the church of Santa Maria Crocifissa di Rosa in Brescia.

With him “a piece of history goes away” we read in comment on the news released via the Facebook page of the National Alpine Association of Brescia. Lieutenant of the Alpine troops of the Exilles Battalion during the Second World War in Yugoslavia.

Before dying, Franceschini expressed the desire that the Alpine troops, lifelong friends and associates, would be present at his last farewell.

Born in 1920, Franceschini attended the 25th Officer Cadet Course at the Montegrappa barracks in Bassano. With the Taurinense Division, Third Alpini Regiment, Exilles Battalion, first with the 33rd company, then with the 31st he was first in France and then in Montenegro. Here after 8 September 1943 he was captured and interned in Germany. In the episode of the Kobila fort he was one of the intermediaries in negotiating the surrender of the German defenders of the fort, the first victory of the Italians over the Germans.

Its last official outing dates back to last January, when the event took place in San Barnaba, in the city first National Day of Remembrance of the Alpine Sacrificeas part of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Nikolajewka.