Via Rasella attack
{{short description|1944 action taken by the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany}}
{{Coord|41.9027340|12.4890040|display=title}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Via Rasella attack
| width =
| partof = the Italian campaign of World War II
| image = Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-312-0983-10, Rom, Soldaten vor Gebäude.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Members of the Polizeiregiment "Bozen" in Via Rasella following the attack
| date = 23 March 1944
| place = Rome, Italy
| coordinates =
| map_type =
| map_relief =
| map_size =
| map_marksize =
| map_caption =
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| territory =
| result = Successful attack, followed by fierce German retaliation
| status =
| combatants_header =
| combatant1 = File:Bandiera delle Brigate Garibaldi partigiane (1943-1945).PNG Gruppi di Azione Patriottica (GAP)
| combatant2 = {{flagcountry|Nazi Germany|size=23px}}
| combatant3 =
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| commander3 =
| units1 = GAP combatants
| units2 = Polizeiregiment "Bozen"
| units3 =
| strength1 = 11
| strength2 = 156
| strength3 =
| casualties1 = None
| casualties2 = 152 men
(42 killed, 110 wounded)
| casualties3 = 5 Italian civilians killed
~50 Italian civilians injured
| notes =
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Italy}}
}}
The Via Rasella attack ({{langx|it|attacco di via Rasella}}) was an action taken by the Italian resistance movement against the Nazi German occupation forces in Rome, Italy, on 23 March 1944.{{cite book|last=Candeloro|first=Giorgio|title=Storia dell'Italia moderna|volume=X|publisher=Feltrinelli|language=Italian|year=2002}}{{cite book|last=Katz|first=Robert|title=Roma città aperta|publisher=il Saggiatore|language=Italian|year=2009}}{{cite book|last=Portelli|first=Alessandro|title=L'ordine è già stato eseguito|publisher= Donzelli|language=Italian|year=2005}}{{cite book|last1=Erra|first1=Enzo|last2=Caroleo Grimaldi|first2=Francesco|title=La Repubblica di Via Rasella|publisher=Settimo Sigillo|language=Italian|year=1999}}{{cite book|last=Capponi|first=Carla|title=Con cuore di donna|publisher=il Saggiatore|language=Italian|year=2009}}
Location
File:Rom, die Straße Via Rasella.JPG
Via Rasella is located in the centre of the city of Rome, in the rione of Trevi; it connects Via delle Quattro Fontane (next to the Palazzo Barberini) with Via del Traforo, and took its name from the property of the Raselli family which was located there.{{cite web|url=http://www.comune.roma.it/servizi/SITOWPS/dettaglioAreaCircolazione.do?codiceVia=9240|title=Via Rasella|website=Dipartimento Cultura – Servizio Commissione Consultiva di Toponomastica|publisher=Comune di Roma|language=Italian|date=14 July 2013}}
History
File:Carte de via Rasella, Rome.svg
The attack was led by the Gruppi di Azione Patriottica (Patriotic Action Groups) against the 11th company of the 3rd battalion of the SS-Polizeiregiment "Bozen" (Police Regiment "Bozen" from BolzanoRenamed SS-Polizeiregiment "Bozen" on 16 April 1944.), a military unit of the German Ordnungspolizei ("Order Police") recruited in the largely ethnic-German Alto Adige region in north-east Italy, during the de facto German annexation of the region (OZAV). At the time of the attack, the regiment was at the disposal of the German military command of the city of Rome, headed by Luftwaffe General Kurt Mälzer.{{harvsp|Staron|2002|p=38}}{{harvsp|Wedekind|2003|p=329}}
The attack was performed while the Allies were fighting the third Battle of Monte Cassino, 118 kilometers (73 miles) away from via Rasella, to gain a breakthrough to Rome.
Nazi Military Commander Albert Kesselring stated:
{{Blockquote|text=Rome became for us an explosive city. ... For us, the security of the rearguard of the frontline was a severe issue. The morale of our troops was directly affected, since they could not be safely sent to Rome anymore for short periods of rest. |author=Albert Kesselring||source=Acts of the Kesselring trial,{{Cite web|url=http://www.iet.unipi.it/a.domenici/resistenza/rasella.html|title = Via Rasella}} 1946–47}}
Rome was in the end liberated on 5 June 1944.
The attack
File:Attentato di via Rasella.jpg
The attack on 23 March 1944 was the largest Italian partisan attack against the German troops. The GAP members, under the orders of Carlo Salinari (Spartacus) and Franco Calamandrei (Cola), were on Via Rasella during the passage of a company of the Police Regiment "Bozen", consisting of 156 men.{{cite web|url=http://www.controappuntoblog.org/2012/03/23/23-marzo-1944-azione-partigiana-a-via-rasella/|title=23 marzo 1944: azione partigiana a Via Rasella|website=Controappuntoblog.org|language=Italian|date=23 March 2012}}
The action began with the explosion of a bomb deposited by Rosario Bentivegna. Eleven other partisans participated:
- Via del Boccaccio: Franco Calamandrei, placed at the corner of the street, Carlo Salira near the tunnel and Silvio Serra;
- Via Rasella: Carla Capponi, Raul Falcioni, Fernando Vitagliano, Pasquale Balsamo, Francesco Curreli, Guglielmo Blasi, Mario Fiorentini and Marisa Musu who provided cover fire by using a mortar.{{cite web|url=http://www.ilmessaggero.it/articolo.php?id=187123&sez=HOME_ROMA&ctc=0|title=Parla Mario Fiorentini|website=Il messaggero.it|language=Italian}}
The other members of the group were absent for various reasons: Lucia Ottobrini was ill, and Maria Teresa Regard was opposed to the choice of the place of the attack.
The attack saw the annihilation of the 11th company and caused the death of 33 men on 23 March 1944 and about 110 wounded (60 Germans, c. 50 civilians) as well as five civilians (including the 13-year-old Piero Zucceretti), while the partisans did not have any losses. A 34th German died on 24 March 1944, eight more succumbed to their wounds in the next two weeks.
German retaliation
= Ardeatine Caves =
In retaliation, the German troops killed 335 persons, prisoners and people rounded up, almost all of them civilians in the Ardeatine massacre, organized and conducted by SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant colonel) Herbert Kappler, head of Sicherheitspolizei ("Security Police") and Sicherheitsdienst ("Security Service") in Rome.
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last=Wedekind|first=Michael|title=Nationalsozialistische Besatzungs- und Annexionspolitik in Norditalien 1943 bis 1945.: Die Operationszonen Alpenvorland und Adriatisches Küstenland.|publisher=Oldenburg Verlag|language=German|year=2003|page=523|isbn=3-486-56650-4}}
- {{cite book|last=Staron|first=Joachim|title=Fosse Ardeatine und Marzabotto: Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und Resistenza|publisher=Verlag Ferdinand Schöning|location=Paderborn|language=German|year=2002|page=392|isbn=3-506-77522-7}}
{{Portal|History}}
{{commons category|Partisan attack in via Rasella}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Via Rasella attack}}