Chapter 14 Part two,
The War in Tuscany
Part 2
We have a Purple Heart in our house, mostly forgotten, somewhere in a box, or in a drawer, in the attic...somewhere.
It was awarded to my step-dad, Joseph A. Ure, fighting in the US Army, part of the Allied forces in Italy, 1943-1945. A piece of shrapnel from a cannon shot sliced into the muscle in one of his arms. They fixed him up, got his arm working again, and he became one of the hundred of thousands of soldiers of WWII, living into his 80s, who in 2006 faded away, the last of this Greatest Generation.
Think of this. You are a peasant farmer in Tuscany in 1943 and 1944. The country has been ruled by Fascists and dictator Mussolini since 1922. You are tired of the war, Mussolini too wants out, the Allies demand surrender of your troops and ships, Hitler says NO and sends in thousands of his troops to occupy the country.
Now you have the Germans, the Allied invasion of the country coming up the interior, the Fascists who think they are still in power and attempt to put together an army, then partisan resistance against Germans which generates into a civil war between the Fascists and partisans..
What do you do? Where are your loyalties?.
In Tuscany, what you would like to do is tend your crops, press the olives for olive oil, press the grapes for wine, milk the goats for pecorino cheese, take care of your family and live in peace, become a-political.
But, and a big but, the Albert line of defense, the defense line where the Germans take a stand to halt the Allies coming up the peninsula, runs right through your back yard.
In the previous report, we discussed The war in Tuscany particularly the war in Val d'Orcia, and in particular the huge estate of La Foce. It was here at La Foce where Iris Origo was writing a daily diary of how it affected their lives, too busy to be afraid.
In the farm roads surrounding the estate, partisan activity is at its peak. Every night German soldiers and trucks are ambushed along the supply routes towards the Albert line of defense. The Germans retaliate with unrestrained brutality. Mass killings begin of the peasants – 83 are executed in Niccolete, 40 in Gubbio, 30 in Bottola, 212 men, women and children in Civitilla
On June 16, the Allies break through to Orvieto, 20 miles south of La Foce, halfway to Chiusi, 10 miles away. On June 18, German troops set up artillery forces on La Foce. Troops take over the villa. The war continues to level historic towns and villages, hundreds of years old.
All troops passing through the towns and farms, Allies and Germans alike, loot food and household goods from the peasants. One American soldier tells a farmer, “when in war, there is a good chance you will be killed. Moral considerations don't carry much weight.”
With the war in their front yard, the Origos of La Foce and the 23 children under their care, the local farmers and the workers of their land, evacuate and relocate in Montepulciano
Iris Origo reports in her diary:
June 27 – The line of fire has been all along the hillside. The allies have at last retaken Chiusi and are pushing on towards Chianciano, We watch their progress by the artillery fire which we can see from our balcony. German sappers are already mining the bridge immediately beneath this house: we watch the dynamite being prepared, open all the windows and wonder when the explosion will be.
Beneath our windows, the Allied and German forces appear to be dancing, the Lancers, back and forth, forward and back. Now, the gunfire seems nearer, and our spirits rise, now it is farther again, and they fall.
No military news of any kind. The Allies still appear to be between Chiusi and Chianciano. But in the night some German tanks have gone northwards, and we see little clouds of explosions all over the valley, where ammunition is being blown up
In the afternoon, the Germans blow up some houses inside the town to obstruct the inner road, and also destroy the magnificent Medicione gateway at the foot of the town.
June 28 – At eleven pm., Allied batteries in the direction of Monticchiello opened fire on the German batteries just beyond Montepulciano and the firing continued all night. At 4:30 am., there was a huge explosion which shook the entire town. The bridge into town had been blown up. At dawn, everyone went out to see the bridge — the rest of us settled down to two hours of unbroken, blessed sleep.
The Germans have gone at last.
July 1 – And now we have come home. Plenty of shell and bomb-holes on the road and in the fields. At La Foce, chaos meets our eyes. The house is still standing with only one shell hole in the garden facade, another on the fattoria, and several in the roof. In the garden, which has also got several shell holes and trenches for machine-guns, they have stripped the pots off the lemons and azaleas, leaving the plants to die.
The ground is strewn with my private letters and photographs, mattresses and furniture stuffing. The inside of the house is far worse. The Germans have stolen everything that took their fancy, blankets, clothes, shoes and toys as well as of anything value or eatable, and have deliberately destroyed much of anything sentimental or personal value.
In the lower part of the property, where the French coloured troops of the Fifth Army have passed, The Goums have completed what the Germans have begun. They regard loot and rape as the just reward for battle, and have indulged freely in both. Not only girls and young women, but even an old women of eighty has been raped. Such has been the Val d'Orcia's first introduction to Allied rule-- so long and so eagerly awaited.
July 5 – We have been around to see the most damaged farms. Many are totally destroyed; in others, one or two rooms have no roof. In all of them, the looting has been thorough; either the Germans or the Goums (Moroccan soldiers attached to the French Army of Africa) have taken all that was not destroyed by shells or fire. All the farms have lost their cooking utensils, their linen, most of their blankets and their dearly prized furniture bought one piece at a time, year by year, and all their clothes. Now, almost 50 farms have to be provided for. Where will we find linen, blankets or shoes. The place is still strewn with unburied corpses both of men and cattle.
Nevertheless, for the future, I am hopeful. The whirlwind has passed, and now, whatever destruction it may have left, we can build again. And it is here that the deepest qualities of the Italian people will have a chance to show themselves. The Fascist and German menaces are receding. The day will come when at last the boys will return to their ploughs, and the dusty clay-hills of the Val d'Orcia will again blossom like the rose. Destruction and death have visited us, but now – there is hope in the future.
Finally--
Yes, they did rebuild. And if you travel these same roads today, you will see few remnants of the war. They did rebuild, and today, the Val d'Orcia and Tuscany blooms like a rose with its olive groves, fields of wheat, vineyards and picturesque farms. The largest Provence in Italy, is considered one of the Edens on Earth. And it is.
A note about the War in Italy – from 1943-1945, 60,000 Allied and 50,000 German soldiers died. In all, Allied casualties totaled 320,00 compared to German casualties of 336,000. No campaign cost more in lives lost and wounds suffered than the Italian campaign. In Tuscany as the Germans retreated in 1944, the war on the peasants continued as another 3,650 lost their lives.
You can go there: www.lafoce.com See how it has transformed.
* Some readings: War in Val D'Orcia – An Italian War Diary 1943-1944 by Iris Origo, 1947. Used copies available through www.abebooks.com for about $10.
* Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945 by James Holland, 2008. Available through Amazon.com
* Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in WWII by Arthur Herman, 2012, available in bookstores or through Amazon.com.
