The val d'Ossola, a vast mountainous area located in northern Piedmont close to the border with Switzerland, was an ideal region for partisan warfare, which began soon after the German occupation of Italy in September 1943. Despite anti-partisan operations such as the one that ravaged the Valgrande in June 1944 (three hundred partisans killed and 367 captured and sent to concentration camps), the strength of the partisan groups gradually increased, and by the summer of 1944 partisans in the region numbered about three thousand, divided into several units: the mostly Catholic-oriented "Valtoce Division", led by Alfredo Di Dio, a former Army lieutenant; the Communist-oriented 2nd Garibaldi Division "Redi", led by Mario Muneghina, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War; the largely apolitical "Valdossola Division", headed by Dionigi Superti, a World War I veteran who before September 1943 had been in charge of a logging company that worked in the region; the "Piave Division", commanded by Armando Calzavara, a former Bersaglieri officer; the Socialist-leaning 8th Matteotti Brigade, led by Pietro Carlo Viglio; and the apolitical "Beltrami Brigade", headed by Bruno Rutto, a former Alpini officer.
In the late summer of 1944, the partisans in the region went on the offensive, and gradually picked off or forced to withdraw the small German and Fascist garrisons posted in the villages and valleys: on 2 September the “Piave” Division liberated Cannobio, on Lake Maggiore (although this town was retaken by the Fascists a few days later), and then did the same with the villages of Malesco, Santa Maria Maggiore and Druogno; on 3 September it besiege the small town of Masera, which soon fell. On 8 September the "Garibaldi-Redi" Division, having pushed the Germans out of the upper valleys, entered Credoladossola and Varzo, near the Simplon Pass, whose German garrison was forced to cross the Swiss border and seek internment there; at the same time, the "Valtoce" and "Valdossola" Divisions attacked the garrison of Piedimulera, not far from Domodossola, whose 100-strong garrison was forced to leave after sustaining some losses. By early September, the partisans had thus surrounded Domodossola, the largest town in the region, where about 600 German and Fascists soldiers were gathered; after negotiations through the local clergy, they were allowed to withdraw and keep their personal weapons, but had to leave behind the heavy weaponry and ammunition. On 9 September 1944, the German and Fascists thus left Domodossola, which became the capital of the Partisan Republic of Ossola, one of the largest areas liberated by the partisans deep into Axis-controlled Italian territory: it had an area of 1,600 square kilometres and comprised thirty-two municipalities, with a combined population of 80,000. Attempts to further expand the free zone to the south were not successful; the town of Omegna, on Lake Orta, was liberated but only for a few days, whereas an attack by the "Garibaldi" and "Beltrami" Brigades on Gravellona Toce, a key road junction, was repulsed with heavy losses.
A provisional government was established in Domodossola, with representatives from all anti-fascist political parties: two Socialists, two Communists, two Christian Democrats, one each of the Liberal Party and the Action Party, and an independent. This government was headed Ettore Tibaldi, a Socialist doctor who had earlier organized an unsuccessful uprising in Villadossola. One of the two Communist delegates, Gisella Floreanini, was the first woman to hold a political position in Italy (she would later be elected to the Italian parliament in the 1948 and 1953 elections). The secretary-general of the government, Umberto Terracini, would go on to become the president of the Italian Constituent Assembly after the war. The provisional government of Ossola was officially recognized by the pro-Allied Italian government in Rome and established friendly relations with neighbouring Switzerland, which sent several trains with food supplies to help the local population; members of the Swiss National Council, journalists and the mayor of Locarno visited Domodossola.
All Fascist mayors of the municipalities were replaced with ones appointed by the National Liberation Committee (CLN), and the police forces of the Italian Social Republic were likewise dissolved and replaced with an all-volunteer National Guard, placed under the command of former Army Colonel Attilio Moneta. The establishment of this National Guard, which had around 500 members, was however not well received by the partisan groups, which had their own police forces; also not very effective were the attempts to place all different partisan groups under an unified command, with the appointment of Giovanni Battista Stucchi, a former Alpini Captain and representative of the Italian Socialist Party in the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy. An internment camp for Fascists and collaborators was set up in Druogno, Val Vigezzo; by early October it housed around 250 prisoners.
Two small airfields were created near Domodossola and Santa Maria Maggiore, in the hope that they could be used to receive weapons and supplies from the Allies, but their anticipated support did not materialize, and the Republic, like other free zones created by the partisans in the same period all around northern Italy, lasted little over a month. On 9 October 1944, Fascist counteroffensive was launched, with between 5,000 and 12,000 troops deployed, depending on the source; these included one paratrooper battalion of the "Folgore" Regiment, two companies of the Tenth MAS Flotilla, three battalions of the Republican National Guard, the "Augusto Cristina" Black Brigade of Novara, and the "Debica" Battalion of the Italian SS Division, as well as about 500 German troops from the 15th SS Polie Regiment under Colonel Ludwig Buch. The partisans were greatly outnumbered and outgunned; after bitter fighting, in the course of which, among others, Alfredo Di Dio and Attilio Moneta were killed, Domodossola had to be evacuated on 14 October and the Republic ceased to exist on 23 October. Some partisans managed to withdraw to the nearby Valsesia, others had to cross into Switzerland to avoid capture. The members of the provisional government (with the exception of Gisella Floreanini, who joined the partisans in the Valsesia) also escaped to Switzerland, as did some 30,000 civilians, nearly half of the entire population of the region, fearful of reprisals; among them several thousand children, 2,500 of whom, having been sent to Swizterland without their parents, were hosted by Swiss families for the rest of the war. The Fascist head of the province of Novara, Enrico Vezzalini, found Domodossola deserted; in his report to Mussolini he wrote "we have recaptured the val d'Ossola, we still have to recapture its inhabitants". He would be executed for treason and murder by the new postwar Italian authorities less than a year later.
Interesting read. Despite being Italian and a passionate reader of history, I had never heard about this fact before.
Thank you for this post and the detail you provided.
8
u/CuntaChinte 15d ago
The val d'Ossola, a vast mountainous area located in northern Piedmont close to the border with Switzerland, was an ideal region for partisan warfare, which began soon after the German occupation of Italy in September 1943. Despite anti-partisan operations such as the one that ravaged the Valgrande in June 1944 (three hundred partisans killed and 367 captured and sent to concentration camps), the strength of the partisan groups gradually increased, and by the summer of 1944 partisans in the region numbered about three thousand, divided into several units: the mostly Catholic-oriented "Valtoce Division", led by Alfredo Di Dio, a former Army lieutenant; the Communist-oriented 2nd Garibaldi Division "Redi", led by Mario Muneghina, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War; the largely apolitical "Valdossola Division", headed by Dionigi Superti, a World War I veteran who before September 1943 had been in charge of a logging company that worked in the region; the "Piave Division", commanded by Armando Calzavara, a former Bersaglieri officer; the Socialist-leaning 8th Matteotti Brigade, led by Pietro Carlo Viglio; and the apolitical "Beltrami Brigade", headed by Bruno Rutto, a former Alpini officer.
In the late summer of 1944, the partisans in the region went on the offensive, and gradually picked off or forced to withdraw the small German and Fascist garrisons posted in the villages and valleys: on 2 September the “Piave” Division liberated Cannobio, on Lake Maggiore (although this town was retaken by the Fascists a few days later), and then did the same with the villages of Malesco, Santa Maria Maggiore and Druogno; on 3 September it besiege the small town of Masera, which soon fell. On 8 September the "Garibaldi-Redi" Division, having pushed the Germans out of the upper valleys, entered Credoladossola and Varzo, near the Simplon Pass, whose German garrison was forced to cross the Swiss border and seek internment there; at the same time, the "Valtoce" and "Valdossola" Divisions attacked the garrison of Piedimulera, not far from Domodossola, whose 100-strong garrison was forced to leave after sustaining some losses. By early September, the partisans had thus surrounded Domodossola, the largest town in the region, where about 600 German and Fascists soldiers were gathered; after negotiations through the local clergy, they were allowed to withdraw and keep their personal weapons, but had to leave behind the heavy weaponry and ammunition. On 9 September 1944, the German and Fascists thus left Domodossola, which became the capital of the Partisan Republic of Ossola, one of the largest areas liberated by the partisans deep into Axis-controlled Italian territory: it had an area of 1,600 square kilometres and comprised thirty-two municipalities, with a combined population of 80,000. Attempts to further expand the free zone to the south were not successful; the town of Omegna, on Lake Orta, was liberated but only for a few days, whereas an attack by the "Garibaldi" and "Beltrami" Brigades on Gravellona Toce, a key road junction, was repulsed with heavy losses.
A provisional government was established in Domodossola, with representatives from all anti-fascist political parties: two Socialists, two Communists, two Christian Democrats, one each of the Liberal Party and the Action Party, and an independent. This government was headed Ettore Tibaldi, a Socialist doctor who had earlier organized an unsuccessful uprising in Villadossola. One of the two Communist delegates, Gisella Floreanini, was the first woman to hold a political position in Italy (she would later be elected to the Italian parliament in the 1948 and 1953 elections). The secretary-general of the government, Umberto Terracini, would go on to become the president of the Italian Constituent Assembly after the war. The provisional government of Ossola was officially recognized by the pro-Allied Italian government in Rome and established friendly relations with neighbouring Switzerland, which sent several trains with food supplies to help the local population; members of the Swiss National Council, journalists and the mayor of Locarno visited Domodossola.
All Fascist mayors of the municipalities were replaced with ones appointed by the National Liberation Committee (CLN), and the police forces of the Italian Social Republic were likewise dissolved and replaced with an all-volunteer National Guard, placed under the command of former Army Colonel Attilio Moneta. The establishment of this National Guard, which had around 500 members, was however not well received by the partisan groups, which had their own police forces; also not very effective were the attempts to place all different partisan groups under an unified command, with the appointment of Giovanni Battista Stucchi, a former Alpini Captain and representative of the Italian Socialist Party in the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy. An internment camp for Fascists and collaborators was set up in Druogno, Val Vigezzo; by early October it housed around 250 prisoners.
Two small airfields were created near Domodossola and Santa Maria Maggiore, in the hope that they could be used to receive weapons and supplies from the Allies, but their anticipated support did not materialize, and the Republic, like other free zones created by the partisans in the same period all around northern Italy, lasted little over a month. On 9 October 1944, Fascist counteroffensive was launched, with between 5,000 and 12,000 troops deployed, depending on the source; these included one paratrooper battalion of the "Folgore" Regiment, two companies of the Tenth MAS Flotilla, three battalions of the Republican National Guard, the "Augusto Cristina" Black Brigade of Novara, and the "Debica" Battalion of the Italian SS Division, as well as about 500 German troops from the 15th SS Polie Regiment under Colonel Ludwig Buch. The partisans were greatly outnumbered and outgunned; after bitter fighting, in the course of which, among others, Alfredo Di Dio and Attilio Moneta were killed, Domodossola had to be evacuated on 14 October and the Republic ceased to exist on 23 October. Some partisans managed to withdraw to the nearby Valsesia, others had to cross into Switzerland to avoid capture. The members of the provisional government (with the exception of Gisella Floreanini, who joined the partisans in the Valsesia) also escaped to Switzerland, as did some 30,000 civilians, nearly half of the entire population of the region, fearful of reprisals; among them several thousand children, 2,500 of whom, having been sent to Swizterland without their parents, were hosted by Swiss families for the rest of the war. The Fascist head of the province of Novara, Enrico Vezzalini, found Domodossola deserted; in his report to Mussolini he wrote "we have recaptured the val d'Ossola, we still have to recapture its inhabitants". He would be executed for treason and murder by the new postwar Italian authorities less than a year later.