The Destruction of Volargne

(CONTINUED) In October 1944, Albert Speer's Nazi Todt Organization had secretly requisitioned from 'Wehrmacht-Ordnance' delivery of a Munitions Train of Fifteen Railcars Loaded with TNT. Its secret purpose was to carry out the covert implosion of "La Chiusa" Brenner railroad tunnel, hence flooding the entire valley  after Germany's abandonment of  Mussolini’s Nazi-Fascist R.S.I. By this time the Allies had been in Italy more than a year and the Adige River Valley had become constant target of Allied aerial attacks along the Brenner Road from our family’s town, Volargne di Dolcé, to the Brenner Pass, where bomb-loads had been dropped daily. During these raids on the Brenner Pass, Allied pilots took notice of mechanized Wehrmacht units in the vicinity of Volargne, grouped for rail-loading.

LIVING WITH THE ENEMY - CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

LIVING WITH THE ENEMY - CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

VIDEO OF BOMBING RUNS TO THE BRENNER PASS This short 4-minute video (below) is an excellent simulation of the daily B25 bombing-runs to the Brenner Pass by the US Air Corps in 1944. It was produced and published by Doug Cook and Harry George Jr. They created it by simulating the flight directly on Google Earth imagery over a 3D-USGS base map. What makes this video excellent is the perfect 3D view of the Adige River Valley as described and narrated in "The War of Lions."  Natural features such as mountains and streams haven't changed since 1944. The communities, however, are more populated and the video shows the new elevated Brenner super-highway which didn't exist in 1944.  Still, what you see in this short 4-minute video are the same communities that existed during the war, including Volargne (totally re-built), and also the nearby town of Dolcé, and 'La Chiusa di Ceraino.' No doubt that the 'bird's eye view' originally seen by the B25 pilots had to be almost the same as you'll see in this video (below).

Sittin' out the war in Volargne, Italy. Ever since the war's outbreak, the Perantoni family had been staying in Volargne where Carlo had kept the family's ancestral domicile since the 19th century. Volargne is located next to the bountiful Valpolicella wine markets, conveniently situated on the Brenner Road & Rail Way, and had been the anchor for our family's wine export business since 1875. This is where Carlo, Luigi, and Victor had often stayed during their wine-purchasing trips from Poland to Italy. But, because of the war, the family had been on and extended stay in Volargne since 1939. 1944 was their 5th year of extended stay with no end in sight. The previous year, the invasion of Italy took place with Allied landings in Sicily and in southern Italy. The invasion was making the war increasingly real ... and it was getting closer.  The previous four years Carlo's family had grown to seven members which include the newlywed spouses, Luigina and Maria, wives of Victor and Luigi. — Two other families of relatives stayed in Carlo's tenement also. Below are 3 images of Volargne in the 1930's: 1) The Perantoni domicile. 2) River business district. 3) Train approaching 'La Chiusa di Ceraino.'

CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

The war comes to Volargne in 1944 Our town Volargne was situated in the bottleneck of a huge military traffic jam that resulted from the Wehrmacht's panic retreat to the Brenner Pass in Autumn and Winter of 1944. Its specific location is between the Valpolicella wine region and the adjacent Lake Garda region, where in the previous year Adolf Hitler had established Mussolini's renegade Nazi-Fascist command center (the R.S.I) in the town of Saló. Consequently, our region was kept targeted in the very cross-hairs of the Allied Forces final offensives of WWII.  In November 1944, the infamous 15 covert railcars packed to their capacity with multiple tons of TNT had arrived at Volargne’s rail-yard for delivery to Albert Speer's Nazi Todt Engineers. Neither the Perantoni family nor any fellow citizens of Volargne had knowledge of what the 15 railcars contained.  Had they known of the alarming contents they would not have slept easily.    Sudden & utter destruction! - First of its kind.  Nine months prior to the Atomic bomb!   Carelessness and the imprudent disregard that Hitler's Nazi Todt Engineers held for Italian citizens had caused the murderous sudden total destruction of our town. The secret plan of Hitler’s Nazi Todt Organization and the negligence of their engineers caused the murder of Volargne’s school-children, together with teachers and nuns.  All this happened in a single instant, while the majority of adults had been away on slave labor. The Nazi Todt Organization blamed the disaster on an aerial attack by the U.S. Air Corps and then reported it as a ‘military accident.’  Instead, it was murder by obvious negligence and disdain for the safety of others. The blood of Volargne’s schoolchildren, the nuns, the teachers, and others, is on Germany's hands. To this day Germany has not apologized. Even though Albert Speer had been tried at Nuremberg for enforcing civilian slave labor elsewhere in Europe, Volargne di Dolcé had NOT been mentioned at the Nuremberg Trials. Neither for enforcing slave labor nor for the total obliteration of our town and not even  for the murders of the school children and the murder of their teachers and nuns.  MURDERED BY NEGLIGENCE OF NAZI ENGINEERS

Who are "Hitler's Nazi Todt Engineers"?   Adolf Hitler considered them to be "his" personal organization of great (super-Aryan) engineers. After having conquered the world "his" plans (or fantasies) were to use Todt's Nazi Engineers to rebuild great cities – Berlin, Vienna, Rome, etc. – and he (Hitler) would be the Great Architect and Creator over all "his" works. Accordingly, "his" Nazi Todt Engineers would continue to build for "him" even after his death, after which "his Nazi Engineers" would keep "his visions" updated – and they would continue to implement "his plans" in order for "his successors" to finish rebuilding the rest of the planet for "him" according to ...  ... "his" wishes!  (Repetitions intended)     CLICK HERE or turn to our MOOD BOARD to read more about the "Fritz Todt Organization" of Hitler's Nazi Party Engineers.   Read about how Adolf Hitler had furtively managed to take full control of Fritz Todt's engineers in order to achieve world-conquest with coordinated reconstruction plans. Read about why Hitler put the organization into the hands of his very good friend, the ARCHITECT ALBERT SPEER, to share his dreams of making it the Führer's construction service dedicated to Great Nazi Rebuilding Works. Read about how ALBERT SPEER would prepare the "Todt Organization" for Hitler's post-war enthronement as the GREAT ARCHITECT CREATOR for their shared delusion of Aryan World Domination.

THE HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF VOLARGNE'S DESTRUCTION IS WELL KNOWN LOCALLY... But, it is largely unknown outside the local Adige River Valley region. For it had been left marginalized at most levels of Italy's new democratic post-war government. In 1944 the destruction of Volargne had been ignored by the entire world, as it  continues to be mostly unknown today.   However, the account is remembered quite   well by survivors and their descendants.  "The War of Lions" will honor their memories

Reports about the destruction of Volargne went largely unnoticed by all levels of government, as the escalation of war had left Italian civilians with hardly any useful administration. Therefore, the provision of aid to the distressed and homeless residents of Volargne was limited to procurement from local parishes, and their loving parishioners. On occasion, 'unofficial' help and provisions were offered by Italian soldiers assigned to Axis Forces stationed in the R.S.I. No assistance had been offered by neither the Wehrmacht nor other representatives of Nazi Germany who dominated the region. The culprits themselves, Hitler's Todt Engineers, carried on by ignoring the disaster that they had caused, and placing the blame on the US Air Corps. Also, they expressed anger on the fallen American pilot for having destroyed their 15 train-cars packed of TNT needed for their cowardly secret  plan to flood the valley, with its riverside towns and villages. Now, having failed their mission, their disdain and contempt toward Italian citizens has increased ten-fold. Also, accounts and narratives of the disaster had been left in neglected marginal records and minimized, all due to lack of civil administration during northern Italy's difficult months of the war’s heightened conclusion. Not until the 1970s & 1980s have belated chronicles and overdue documentations been made public, recording Volargne's unique history in WWII. Collections of salvaged records and newspaper interviews, photographs and testimonies of survivors are only some of the efforts that local and regional agencies have recently undertaken in 'reconstructing the destruction' of Volargne  many years after the town had been rebuilt. The necessity of producing this story for Film and TV will give much desired refreshment to historical facts that have been hidden far too long by the destructive machinations of Nazi-Fascism.  MURDERS and DESTRUCTION  ... Swept Under Hitler's Rug.  The winter and spring 1944-1945 were periods of huge confusion and scarce resources for Axis Forces in northern Italy and notably worse for the region's civilian residents. Even the newspapers and their news reports had become scanty as they were being highly censured by north Italy's R.S.I. regime. Moreover, the highly disorganized Nazi-Fascist leadership fell fast during the decisive Allied offensives of 1945 and it was in a state of chaotic capitulation the next five months after the destruction of Volargne. Thus, our town had been given neither much attention nor care, after the disaster. On 29 April 1945 the murdered body of Benito Mussolini was put on a demonic display* in Piazzale Loreto, Milano, next to the bodies of 17 other top Fascist leaders, all of them hung by their heels.* That day Italian Fascism ceased to exist* and Italy had been left in chaotic shambles without a central government the next 13 months.  More specifically, the Allied Military Government (A.M.C) ruled Italy for 6-months – until September 1945 –  and then left Italian people under control of local city-governments with a national infrastructure almost similar to that of medieval Italy. The A.M.C  left orders to hold a democratic referendum in June 1946. So then, Italy continued to remain completely de-centralized over the following nine months.  During that time many wartime records had been destroyed (or lost) due to Italy’s obscure and challenging post-war politics. This way, Italy had no central government until June 1946 ... but only chaos! Twenty months had passed from the day Volargne had been instantly obliterated to the day that Italians held elections  establishing a new republic in 1946. Still even then, a very problematic period of post-war democratic rule had begun for the reason that Italy's new multi-party republic had to struggle against a large powerful communist influence, thus causing inadequate administration and lack of control. Government leadership in Italy hadn't normalized until the late 1950s. Consequently, accounts about Volargne's catastrophe became minimized and ignored.  Some accounts referring to the destruction of Volargne have identified it as having been a result of “war bombing” which caused even more confusion because other historical accounts that specifically address WWII "war bombings" in Italy do not include Volargne because, in fact ... it had NOT been a bombing!

Volargne utterly destroyed, but not by bombs! It was not the result of bombings! Not at all. Volargne had never been bombed! In typical bombing runs of WWII, civilians had usually been alerted and took shelter before the arrival of bomber planes. Moreover, even the worst strategic bombing missions of the pre-atomic period did not cause the sudden and utter destruction of towns.  The destruction of Volargne, instead, came without any warning and the entire town had been destroyed instantaneously!  NOT A BOMBING! The engineers of Albert Speer's Nazi Todt Organization had left their 15 train-cars packed full of TNT completely exposed to the likelihood of enemy fire. It was an obvious target of opportunity, left conspicuously parked, isolated from other trains, and guarded day and night by multiple German soldiers. As should've been expected, it had been attacked! Albert Speer's extremely perilous train had been detonated by machine-gun fire from war-planes of the U.S. Air Corps on a reconnaissance mission. HITLER'S NEGLIGENT "NAZI TODT" ENGINEERS CAUSE THE DEATH OF THEIR CHILDREN Instantly, Volargne had been flattened to rubble and dust, killing at least 64 civilians including Carlo's sister Amabile, and several of our relatives, and all the school children ... while their parents were away on slave labor.  SLAVE LABOR FOR ALBERT SPEER'S NAZI-PARTY ENGINEERS SAVES THE PARENTS LIVES The blast also killed an unknown number of Italian and German soldiers and wounded hundreds more. The exact number of all the victims is still unknown. By chance, that morning the majority of Volargne's adults had been marched off as slave labor to build military obstacles as requested by Albert Speer.

COURTESY: GIANFRANCO POLICANTE & PRO LOCO VOLARGNE

CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW ---------------------------------------------------------CLICK FOR LARGE VIEW

murdered by disregard for safety of civilians The explosion was so huge that its power forcefully bounced across the entire Alpine region from alpine foothill to foothill. Its ear-shattering blast had been heard throughout the entire Adige river valley, throughout the entire Valpolicella and Lake Garda region. It had been one of the largest explosions on earth prior to the atomic bomb. The headlines in the above newspaper state that about "96 percent" of Volargne’s buildings had been completely destroyed "like it was on Monte Cassino". There, however, the destruction sustained in Cassino and the fortified Abbey took over 4 months of bombing and shelling. In contrast, however, the destruction of Volargne had occurred in one single instant ... and the town was no more! The majority of Volargne's adults, including the children's mothers and fathers, had been miles away to build military obstacles as slave laborers authorized by Albert Speer.  When the gargantuan explosion was heard, they were promptly transported back. At their arrival they found Volargne utterly destroyed. The town center, the church, the convent, and the school had become rubble and dust, they found their homes completely destroyed ... vanished ...  and they found their children killed! MURDERED BY RECKLESS NAZI NEGLIGENCE

Credits: Gianfranco Policante & Pro Loco Volargne

Courtesy of Gianfranco Policante and Pro Loco Volargne