WW2 Relevance

|   20 July 2011

Courageous Italians

Monument to the Italian soldiers massacred by the Germans on Kefalonia.

The Italian army is not remembered as the bravest collection of soldiers in WW2. The attitude of many people towards them is summed up by a ‘joke’ a former member of the SS Das Reich division told me.  “Heard about the new Italian tank?’ he said. ‘It has five gears – four of them reverse.’

But, I thought, as I traveled last week through Kefalonia, the largest of the Greek Ionian Islands, this sense that collectively the Italians lacked bravery is simply not fair to their memory. Not enough people know, for example, what happened on Kefalonia in September 1943.

The beach at Klismata in the south west of Kefalonia.

Twelve thousand soldiers of the Italian 33rd Division – the Acqui Division – formed the bulk of the Axis occupying force in Kefalonia in 1943. And they found themselves in a dangerous situation when in September the Italian government announced an armistice. It was clear that now the Italians had decided they wanted out of the war – their alliance with the Germans was over. But, on the ground, what should the relationship now be between the Acqui Division and their erstwhile military Allies, the Germans? The overall Italian policy was confused, with Italian soldiers ordered not to initiate a fight against the Germans, but not to give up their weapons either.

General Antonio Gandin, the Italian commanding officer (and holder of the German Iron Cross for his bravery on the Eastern Front), tried to negotiate terms with the German commanding officer on the island, Lt Colonel Johannes Barge. The Germans, perhaps not surprisingly, insisted on disarming the Italians. But it soon became clear that many of the Italian officers didn’t want to give up their weapons to the Germans – however, they were trapped on the island with no means of escape back to Italy.

As a result, on the evening of 13 September 1943, one of the most extraordinary votes in history took place. Every member of the Acqui division was asked whether he wanted to join forces with the Germans, surrender, or fight the Germans. Incredibly, knowing the dangers involved, the majority decided that the most honorable course was to fight against the Germans.

The Germans on the island, who were now reinforced by the ‘Battle Group Hirschfeld’, under the command of Major von Hirschfeld, were better trained and better equipped than the Italians and soon defeated them. Then, claiming the Italians were ‘traitors’, the Germans began executing their prisoners. In all, they killed about 5,000 – most were shot and their bodies thrown into pits. Around 1,200 Italians had already died in battle.

One of the pits where the Italians were shot.

Only one man – Hirschfeld’s commander, General Lanz (Hirschfeld himself died in combat in 1944) – was ever prosecuted for this terrible war crime.

A few days ago, when I visited the memorial and the site of the massacre near Argostoli on Kefalonia, I met two Italian couples who were paying their own respects to their fallen countrymen. ‘These were brave men’ I said.

‘Yes,’ one of them replied, ‘we know.’

Comments are closed.