The celebrations of 25 April 1945 almost never highlight that the whole of Southern Italy had already been liberated on that date almost two years earlier, following the signing of the Cassibile armistice and the announcement of 8 September 1943. We report the reconstruction of the events that followed carried out by the local history scholar Mario Saccà
The Southern Kingdom after Operation Husky
11 September 1943: allied troops arrive in Catanzaro.
This date marks the first liberation of Italian territory by the Allied troops who moved up Calabria after defeating the Italian-German divisions in Sicily and conquering the island. The history of Operation Husky is known and this is not the place to reconstruct its steps, including the rivalries between the Seventh Army of the American Patton and the Eighth Army of the English Montgomery which had marked the campaign on the island, which ended halfway through. August. On the 16th of that month, instructions were given for the “Bytown” campaign, the landing in Reggio Calabria of the XIII Army Corps, the British 8th Army and the 1st Canadian Division. This allowed the Allied forces to obtain a bridgehead at the tip of Italy’s boot, the first foothold on the European continent. On 3 September at around 4.30 am the bombardment of Reggio began to eliminate the Italian defenses and allow the landing of two divisions, one English and one Canadian, on the Calabrian coast.
The events were reconstructed by Professor Giuseppe Marcianò, by the Army Historical Office in numerous interventions in the press. Another landing in Vibo Marina, called “Operation Ferry” was decided on 6 September by General Dempsey (the same one who would lead the English troops in the Normandy landings in June 1944). In the months and days preceding the operations, the cities had been subjected to heavy aerial bombardments to eliminate any possible pocket of resistance and plan the advance of the Allied forces.
The arrival of the Allies in Catanzaro
Catanzaro was the victim of these activities and after the bombs fell on Catanzaro Marina in July 1943 it was the city center that was hit by English planes on 28 August 1943 causing hundreds of victims among civilians of all ages and soldiers on duty. The available data suggests that the pilots and pointers had knowledge of what and where to drop the explosive devices: the most damaged area was the one on the right (towards Catanzaro Nord) between the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the Court, but they were not hit nor the Government Palace, nor the Galluppi high school and other significant buildings. The narrow passage of Corso Mazzini itself emerged unscathed, and some buildings nearby fell. The post-war reconstruction plans saw the rise of the former Upim buildings, the Mancuso Centre, the Post Office, Villa Menichini etc. The Hasting and Prince Edward Canadian Regiment arrived in Catanzaro on 11 September.
The story of Farley Mowat
The most significant testimony is from officer Farley Mowat who took part in all the unit’s battles fought in Italy and Europe. He later became an important writer and in the book “The Regiment” he described his experience after landing in Sicily and arriving in our city as follows:
“…Throughout the region, along the march route and for a vast extension inland, the Italian army remained in barracks or tents. They were well armed forces and fully equipped to do battle, and, although Marshal Badoglio had concluded peace with the allies, it was not a peace universally accepted by the Italian military. This scabrous situation caused strange accidents (see clash of Nembo units on Aspromonte on 8 September 1943). From Catanzaro Marina the unit had to retreat inland and climb up to the city of Catanzaro. Kennedy (commanding officer ed.) sent his only mechanized element, a motorcycle driven by the information officer, ahead of reconnaissance.
The officer put Sergeant Bruce Richmond on the back pillion and drove off. At a certain point they arrived at a barbed wire roadblock located right in the center of the Mantua division. The fields on both sides of the road were crowded with tents, armed Italians, artillery pieces and vehicles. A sentry lowered his rifle, pointed it at the new arrivals and there was nothing left to do but resort to bluff. The sergeant, with his best Italian, learned in the taverns, abruptly asked to speak to the general. The sentry, astonished, stepped back and called his officer. The two Canadians ended up being taken, under guard, to a large farm and with temerity fueled by nervousness they demanded not only to speak with the general (passing themselves as Montgomery’s emissaries), but, after meeting with this fat and sweaty gentleman, requested the full divisional transports, immediately to transfer the regiment, along the mountain road, up to Catanzaro… The Italians, finally, capitulated in confusion and so it happened that the regiment finished the march up to Catanzaro on board a column of Italian trucks driven by the most suicidal drivers in the world, the same ones who just three days earlier had been sworn enemies of the soldiers now transported by them to their homeland (the news of the signing of the Cassibile armistice had, in fact, been given on 8 September ed.)….While the regiment waited in the pleasant coolness of the pine-clad slopes, there was a growing feeling that the war was now over and that what remained of it were scenes from comic operas… But the story was different! It would have taken another two years before the weapons were laid down to make way for peace.”
The change of toponymy
From that day in September 1943, Catanzaro began the process of reconstructing the war damage and the democratic life of its institutions. The Allied command ordered the end of the mayoral administration of the Municipality: on 16 October 1943 the mayor Di Cello assumed the office of mayor, assisted by the secretary Dr. Luigi Caruso, and held the office for a few days, until the following 27 October. In those days the toponymy of the Costanzo Ciano district was changed to the San Leonardo district, which resumed the name it had before the death of Mussolini’s son-in-law, Corso Mazzini, Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza Roma replaced the main axis of the center previously dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele III , and the same mutation occurred in other urban streets.
The first mayor of liberated Catanzaro, Giovanni Correale Santacroce
The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory (AMGOT) then appointed the extraordinary commissioner in the person of the provincial administrative inspector Mr. White horse. Armando. Subsequently, the first mayor of Catanzaro was appointed: the lawyer Giovanni Correale Santacroce, a socialist who began the work of restoring the city’s democracy, also with significant decisions. After having decided to cancel the fascist writings on the walls of the houses on 10 June 1944, on the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of the Hon Giacomo Matteotti he decided that the square which still remembers him today should be dedicated to his memory. There could not have been a more symbolically strong choice to mark the transition from the twenty-year period to the new democratic Republic. It would be necessary to expand the narrative to the years between the two wars to highlight how there was no armed anti-fascism but certainly characterized by the struggle of ideas as some historians including Antonio Carvello have narrated. It is a large chapter to be brought back to the attention of the ill-informed who do not value our history, which is certainly different from that of other parts of the country, with different dates and characteristics that deserve national attention.
