ALEXANDRIA – Tuesday 30 April the Alexandrian community remembers the 239 victims of the bombing in the Cristo districtwhich occurred 80 years ago, the April 30, 1944.
The ceremony will be held at 11 in the square of the Zanzi Primary School, where the plaque in memory of the victims is placed, in the presence of the local authorities and the combat and arms associations.
The bombing of the Cristo neighborhood of Alessandria was the bloodiest to have occurred in the city. “Fu a real baptism of blood” as told by Renzo Penna in the volume “Forgotten Victims” (ed. dell’Orso, Alessandria 2016). That of 30 April 1944 was “ithe first massive bombing that hit the city, on Sunday, shortly after midday, finding the population surprised, unprepared and defenseless. With successive intervals and waves the attack ends after 2pm.
The numerous American bombers unload tons of bombs escorted by fighter planes which, swooping down, machine-gunning streets and squares crowded with people from forty meters in the air. […] The scale of the attack carried out on the city was clearly not only intended to destroy the station and the railway yard, but to terrorize the civilian population.
At the end, Colonel Glantzberg was, however, disappointed to learn that only 17 percent of the bombs had hit the assigned targets, despite the weather being excellent and the total absence of enemy fighters. […]
On the night of Monday 1st May the city, just over 24 hours after the first attack, was bombed again by the English with incendiary devices dropped on the entire town. […] On that same day, those who had saved themselves and were in a position to do so, abandoned Alexandria, becoming “displaced persons”. […] The bombs (in the “Cristo” neighborhood) mainly hit the area facing the railway and the goods sorting in the direction of Casalbagliano, the areas of the Boida farmhouse, the Boidina, the Parigina, via Vecchia dei Bagliani and shocked the entire area […].
Several houses were damaged and the Soms headquarters in Corso Acqui were damaged. In the Barracks, to the south of the neighborhood, there were several victims among the soldiers and numerous bombs fell in the “Taverna bottom”, the area that divides the current Corso Carlo Marx from Via Maria Bensi. […] The Mino GB and sons factory, located in via Buonarroti, in the middle part of the district, was seriously damaged and became completely inactive […]».
