The wartime struggle deep in Tuscany -------------------------------------------------- Times, The (London, England)-January 14, 2012 Author: Michael Tillotson Two recently published books and another due out in paperback in March enhance the reputation of the partisans in Northern Italy in the final years of the Second World War. Although Italy had changed sides after the September 1943 armistice, expectations of partisan action against the Germans as the Allies advanced up the peninsula were not high. Initially, the conduct of some guerrilla groups suggested mere banditry; others seemed keen to embrace communism. The first two books, written by father and son respectively, describe in heartrending detail two years of struggle in the Tuscan Rossano Valley. Led by Major Gordon Lett, the partisans and villagers of the valley presented a microcosm of the Resistance campaign as a whole. Depredations by bandits, communists, fascist militia and the German rastrellamenti (literally "rakings"), all exacted a pitiless toll. Supplies of arms and food for the partisans were organised by No 1 Special Force HQ at Monopoli, south of Bari, from where Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents with the partisans and detachments of 2nd Special Air Service Regiment were also controlled. Although SOE agents and SAS commanders in the field often complained that airdrops were late or dropped wide of the mark, No 1 Special Force proved to be a generally efficient control point, sympathetic to conditions in the field. Rossano: A Valley in Flames is the diary of Major Gordon Lett, one of the thousands of British prisoners of war held by the Italians who abruptly found their prison camps without guards when Italy concluded the armistice. Rightly reckoning that his chances of reaching the forward positions of either the 5th (US) Army or the British 8th Army in the south to be slim, he sought refuge in the Rossano Valley. There he gradually built up and led a Resistance group to keep the Germans, communists and bandits out. The military aspects aside, this is a story of intense hardship and yet Lett found the people of the Rossano villages equally generous with their pathetically sparse provisions, as they were forgiving when operations against the enemy resulted in house burnings and pillage. In SAS in Tuscany 1943-1945 Gordon Lett's son Brian uses his father's diaries as the basis for an account of the exploits of a detachment of 2nd SAS, led by Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Robert Walker Brown, which was parachuted into the Rossano Valley at Lett's request, to provide a credible fighting force around which the illarmed partisans could gather. When assessing the risks taken, the loss of life and damage to property one is tempted to ask, "Was it all worth it?" The conclusion that it most certainly was worth it, is based not on the losses sustained by the enemy but the restrictions the partisan and SAS operations forced on German operations against the advancing Allies. The third book Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943-1945 by David Stafford is a comprehensive account of SOE's support to Italian Resistance operations from before the Italian armistice until the end of the war in Europe. It is an official history commissioned by the Cabinet Office but that should not deter either the casual reader. The book is engagingly written and fills a long-standing gap in the history of the SOE in the Mediterranean. Arguably due to the slow Allied advance up the peninsula, SOE operations in Italy were aligned more closely with main force objectives than elsewhere in Europe, and as the campaign became difficult in the search for a strategic breakthrough. Some plans for partisans to seize control of key towns or ports in anticipation of arrival of advancing main force formations failed, but not due to partisan faintheartedness. Delay or cancellation of the main force operation was usually to blame. This experience led to a reversal of roles, with the main force capturing the town or port and the partisans taking over the civil administration prior to arrival of the Allied Military Government officials. Rossano: A Valley in Flames and SAS in Tuscany 1943-1945, both Pen and Sword, £19.99; Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943-1945, Bodley Head paperback £10.99 from March 1 Major Lett (front row third from right) with Partisans in the Rossano Valley, 1944Edition: 01Section: FeaturesPage: 105 Record Number: 55712961(c) Times Newspapers Limited 2012 The wartime struggle deep in Tuscany
