大象传媒

Central Italy 1944

Extract from the War Diary of the 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry, 6th Armoured Division dated 16th July 1944

鈥�4 Troop on the North-Eastern road, penetrated beyond San Polo to the first main feature where they were machine-gunned and shelled and were ordered to withdraw to San Polo, where the story of the German massacre of 47 civilians was discovered and some data for the proper investigation of the affair by the Field Security Section Intelligence Corps obtained.鈥�

It was at that time, the 16th July, which I and my comrades, members of the 55 Field Security Section Intelligence Corps, arrived in Arezzo. Shells from the retreating Germans were still landing in the town.

My comrades established base in a town centre hotel and prepared to spend the night on the floor of the lobby. Having recently 鈥榣iberated鈥� a very comfortable mattress and installed it in my 15cwt Bedford truck I decided that I would spend the night in my vehicle. However, as the hours passed, the shelling became more intensive. It was somewhat disconcerting as one could hear the crack of the mortars being fired, followed by the whistle of the incoming shells and then the explosions. Each blast appeared nearer and nearer. Finally my courage deserted me and I joined the others in the hotel lobby!

The next day the above report from the Derbyshire Yeomanry came through and I and a colleague were sent to the village of San Polo, several miles to the north of Arezzo, to investigate.

We arrived at the village to be greeted by several partisans. We were shown a mass grave which the villagers had been forced to dig. They had then been executed in cold blood. There was no disguising the horror that had taken place. Scraps of cloth hung on trees and there was the indescribable stench of death in the air.

The partisans led us through the deserted village to a house that had been used by the German troops. We searched in the litter and debris but failed to find anything that could identify the unit responsible for these dreadful murders. However, with Teutonic thoroughness, all evidence had been destroyed or removed.

The partisans explained that they had ambushed and killed several Germans and that the unit involved had exacted a terrible retribution on the villagers.

Deeply saddened, we took leave of the partisans to rejoin our section, frustrated to the extreme that our efforts had been in vain, and no-one would be brought to justice for this horrific deed

Central Italy May 2005

Sixty one years later I was able to return to the scene of the massacre.

San Polo, the small hamlet, was much changed. Its proximity to Arezzo means that much urbanisation is taking place.

The precise location of the killings was difficult to find. It lies in woodland on private land some distance from the nearest road. It was comforting to find that so many years later, local people were still placing wreaths and flowers at the memorial.

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