# Italia’s Bubble Burst

- Link: https://italiajoe.com/380-2/
- Published: 2024-05-30T02:04:33+00:00
- Author: Joseph Simonetti

**§ Mining Memory **

 * Our Father and uncles were called up and survived WWII. The Australian Charlie
   Gilbert enlisted to escape the pervasive poverty after the Great Depression. 
   The Vogels connected the German immigration into the Balkans post the Ottoman
   retreat. Elements for the composition of a remarkable story.
 * The basis for conviction in one’s capabilities to explore is established.
 * Methodology developed to be the foundational logic of the book’s structure.
 * Working with memory, connecting the dots is not easy but doable if important 
   enough.
 * Foundations to forming opinions explored.
 * The limitation perceived with genealogical research leads to a table to provide
   a simple understanding of genetic dilution over several generations.
 * The importance of knowing where we come from supported by Luc Ferry[_^(**[1]**)_](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn1)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn1)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn1)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn1)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn1)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn1)

Michele & Maria Concetta Pre WWII

 * Known oral history of our Mother and Father blended into the documented historical
   narrative of the times.
 * Father’s paternal aunt, Caterina had gone to North Africa North Africa to better
   herself.
 * Another known adventurism was that Francesco Ielapi going to join in the Spanish
   Civil War.
 * Contextual review made of the Spanish Civil War and its relationship to the Nazi‘
   Final Solution’ with reference made to Ernest Hemmingway’s book _‘For Whom the
   Bell Tolls’._ There is also a dovetailing into Father’s being interned in Germany
   to work for the Junkers aircraft factories in Dessau.
 * Fascist education implemented; Father participates in the young Fascist movement
   but is aware that something is not quite right. Older folks participated in Fascist
   social events; nationalism grew.
 * Brigands attend church services in Francavilla.
 * Class structures at the grassroots level. Day-to-day living in Francavilla. Father’s
   life is in contrast with one more socially privileged: Claudio Sommaruga[^([2])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn2)
   another who shall become interned courtesy of the Germans.
 * Mother benefited from the mandatory education enforced by Fascism. She grew up
   whilst her father went to Abyssinia. Life was harsh on a female, Mother suffered
   from the cultural customs of the times.

A Macro View: Poor Logic and Neurotic Reasons

 * My capacity to interpret the goings on around my life is narrated.
 * **Factual narrative citations**: Personal interpretation of John Milton’s _‘Paradise
   Lost’ _to light-heartedly explore a _‘thought bubble’_ concept of _‘fate’_.
 * Introduction to Historian, Professor Victor Davis Hansen (AKA VDH) and his narrating
   empiric logic and reasons for the escalation of German border wars to a Global
   Conflict.
 * VDH’s packaging of the power plays makes for a sombre tutorial of the resulting
   worldwide carnage. VDH says that from Hitler’s point of view, it was a matter
   of it _“seemed like a good idea at the time”_.
 * Dots between all major participants of the war are connected taking prior related
   events into account.
 * German hubris caused it to miss out on the lesson which history provides _‘gratis’_
   as one of _Murphy’s Laws_ to the effect, that ‘_anything which can go wrong will
   go wrong’_. The Japanese weren’t much smarter.
 * The Pacific war is compared to Achilles’ struggle with his nemesis Asteropaeus
   of Greek mythology aided and abetted Zeus and his wife Hera taking opposing sides.
 * **Factual narrative citations**: Sir Robert Menzies about leadership and VDH _‘
   Therapeutic Society’_, one that emphasizes pacifism.
 * **Factual narrative citations**: Joshua Philipp’s essay _‘Nazism, Fascism, and
   Socialism Are All Rooted in Communism’._
 * Summary of strategically critical events of the war.
 * The war draws to an eventual end in Europe, and attention is drawn to the difficulties
   of managing the peace. Stalin’s duplicity was finally revealed, and Churchill
   pronounced the establishment of the _‘Iron Curtain’_.
 * Hitler was representative of Germans resenting post-WWI imposts, however, the
   reality was that Germany was not occupied nor were its cities bombed. Supposed
   punitive sanctions were not poorly implemented. Post-WWII was managed much differently,
   Germany was occupied but the Communist spectre forced an overarching agenda; 
   NATO was formed.
 * Italy post-war became an oddity for having sacked its leader. The allies deemed
   that it had suffered enough. The threat of communism ameliorated the possibility
   of imposing harsher actions.
 * VDH cuts across the debates that raged about Japan holding out and that the nukes
   saved an invasion. He offers that the firepower in place included 2200 B29 bombers.
   If necessary, these would have rained an incendiary apocalypse on all Japanese
   cities.
 * Antiwar sentiment explored**.** **Factual narrative citations**: Edwin Starr’s
   song War _“What Is It Good For?”_: VDH cites military history recorded by Herodotus,
   Thucydides, Xenophon, and Polybius through the studies of the Persian Wars, Peloponnesian
   Wars and the Punic Wars. VDH’s opinion that understanding is paramount to deterring
   aggressors is explored via more contemporary geopolitics.
 * Bitter end of the War in which the US and Britain end up with the _‘albatrosses’_
   of Italy, Japan and Germany as their _‘booty’_ for winning the war. Communism
   rebranded as United Soviet Socialist Russia (USSR) is ascending.
 * Has the West lost its way by university emphasis on “Gender and Peace Studies”?

** § War Unravels Fascism**

Simonetti Family Surface Into Flaming Waters

 * Hitler withdrew from the _League of Nations, _war was coming, Churchill knew.
 * The Spanish Civil War was a training ground for Messer’s Hitler and Mussolini.
   Their skills in battle planning however did not improve. Ernest Hemingway ‘reports’
   from the other side of that war.
 * Italy has win in Libya became the high-water mark for Fascism. Italy lacked natural
   resources for further adventurism.
 * Simonetti’s extended family braces for war.

Volksdeuchen Vogels Collide With Nazis

 * The logic for conceptually exploring ‘Bosphorus Phosphorus’; Eastern Europe’s
   troubled past comes into view contemporarily melded with toxic German _‘Aryan
   Race’ _ideology and the duplicitous relationship between the Nazis and Yugoslav
   Monarchy.
 * **Factual narrative citations**: Helga Horiak Harriman looks at the classification
   of people with German heritage concerning the spreading of war fronts. A US Army
   pamphlet and an Australian Government Research Paper explain the Balkan quandary.
 * The _‘Volksdeutschen’_ reviewed in light of their Hapsburg past. In the war, 
   the complex nature of their ethnic existence is explored.
 * Franz Vogel, a Catholic, marries a Serbian Orthodox, Desanka Çarević.
 * Known oral history of the Vogels is blended into the documented historical narrative
   of the times. Franz Vogel became embroiled in the military of both Yugoslavia
   and later the Waffen SS.
 * Atrocities abound, perpetrated by Ustashi military units including the killing
   of Franz Vogel’s father-in-law Pavao Çarević.
 * **Factual narrative citations**: Dr Valentin Oberkersch[^([3])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn3)
   reviews Yugoslavia’s entry into the war. Helga Horiak Harriman explores the obligations
   being forced on _‘Volksdeutschen’_, critical in this is the formation of the 
   Waffen SS _7th SS-Volunteer Mountain Division Prince Eugene’._
 * My anecdote of the _‘Ustaša’ _relates to an acquaintance made in Melbourne; his
   family was executed by the group.

North Africa: Pietro, Bruno, Chic’Antuoini and Charlie Gilbert

 * Simonetti brothers and their brother-in-law make up their participation in the
   North Africa battles. Australian, Charlie Gilbert is the in the clean-up crew
   which eventually dislodges Italy and Germany from that theatre of war.
 * Pietro ends up in Cobram and Charlie and his family settle in a hamlet west of
   the town in Northern Victoria.
 * Bruno and Chic’Antuoini are interned by the British in South Africa.

** § Greek Occupation Turmoil & Resistance Movements**

 * Retelling of Father’s war memoirs, begin in the awful shack in which we lived.
   The setting has eerie similarities to the conditions, he experienced as a POW
   in Dessau.

Fellow Travellers: Amedeo, Emanuele, Gian Carlo, Giuseppe & Michele

 * Introduction of those Italians caught up in the German dragnet after Italy signed
   the Armistice with the Allies.

Greeks’ Aggravated Courting & Shotgun Wedding

 * What Greece was, socially and politically, a tutorial.
 * Greeks say ‘no’ to Italy’s overtures. Prime Minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas
   had what it took to snub his nose at the Italians; unlike Hitler and Mussolini,
   he had military training.
 * The Italian Campaign falters, eyewitness accounts are telling that the invasion
   of Greece was lost before it started. Theatres of war are explored from various
   perspectives: British, Spain’s neutrality and German intent.
 * Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies was haunted by the Battle of Gallipoli,
   the first of Churchill’s, not so better moments, in the opening of the Eastern
   Front during WWI.
 * Menzies has his ghost to deal with as a result of Australia’s sending pig iron
   to Japan**. ****Factual narrative citations**: Menzies book: _‘Afternoon Light’_,
   some memoirs of men and events.

Michele, the Australian and Andartiko Greek Resistance

 * Germany distracted from other matters to complete the invasion of Greece dubbed‘
   _Operation__ Marita’._
 * Charlie Gilbert’s war waxes and wanes and spends a brief time as a POW of the
   Germans in Greece. That battle is documented by The Australian War Memorial.
 * Greece is maltreated by the Bulgarian occupational army. Britain finds it difficult
   to react to the advancing Germans in Greece; all made worse by the splinter partisan
   paramilitary groups backed by disparate political ideologies.
 * Greek resistance has the hallmarks of a civil war in which the Communist EAM/
   ELAS is pitted against EDES under Colonel Napoleon Zervas.
 * The Italian occupation of Greece is related to the film _Captain Corelli’s Mandolin_’
   set on the island of Kefalonia. The island is also the setting for atrocities
   inflicted by Wehrmacht’s 104 Jäger Division on the Italian Acqui Division (33ª
   Divisione Acqui) after the armistice.
 * Michele’s induction and assignment to Greece are explored in the melee of events
   that had occurred before his arrival. He was stationed in Ioannina and an area
   under threat from Colonel Napoleon Zervas. **Factual narrative citations**: Inside
   Hitler’s Greece: The experience of occupation, 1941-1944 by Mark Mazower and,
   Department of the Army Pamphlet, No. 20-243, Pages 28-29, US Army Centre for 
   Military History website.
 * Greek political turmoil during the occupation is put into perspective of the 
   times including the civil revenge killings going on.
 * Charlie Gilber is reassigned to fight in the Pacific War.

Balkan Calamities with Fascists, Royalists & Communists

 * Postage stamp summary of the state of the war.
 * Himmler targets _Volksdeutschen _men to fill the ranks of the infamous Waffen-
   SS newly formed ‘_7th SS-Volunteer Mountain Division Prince Eugene’._ Franz Vogel’s
   transition into the group is explored.
 * The rise of two diametrically opposing movements, that of Mihailović’s Chetnik
   and Tito’s (Josip Broz) partisan is explored.
 * German intelligence fails to distinguish between the two movements leading to
   dire consequences for its war effort. The Fascists concocted Ustaša also in the
   wings to wreak savagery on Serbs.
 * Michele and Franz Vogel on the same side for a brief time.
 * Franz Vogel’s participation in ‘_Prince Eugene’ _is explored through documented
   battles. The Vogel family’s exit from Croatia due to security risks faced by 
   ethnic Germans from the Ustaše death squads is followed as part of the mass exodus.**
   Factual narrative citations**: Dr Valentin Oberkersch.[^([4])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn4)

** § Did Anyone See That Coming?**

Pre-Armistice Quandary

 * The Italian body politics’ immaturity is dramatically displayed by the sequence
   of events that followed the dismal planning and reasons for going to war.

Italian Campaign via Pizzo 3 September 1943

 * Allies launch ‘_Operation Husky’_ invasion through Sicily. The Italian mainland
   is breached at Pizzo by Montgomery’s Eighth Army across the straits of Messina
   code-named ‘_Operation Baytown._
 * Simonetti farm _‘Farco’ _is bombed. Maria Concetta recalls _‘ee’mericani’ _camping
   along the Angitola River skirting the Attisani _‘Pontana’ _
 * The Government and Monarchy abandoning Rome is interpreted by comparison with
   the British Royal Family remaining in London.
 * Winston Churchill’s influence over the future of Italy is explored.
 * Mussolini by then frail, formed the Republic of Salò retaining the confidence
   of only General, Rodolfo Graziani.

Italian Mainland Sitting Ducks Army

 * Father’s oral history is augmented by diarised accounts by Amedeo Usai, Gian 
   Carlo Turchetto, Claudio Sommaruga and finally by Giuseppe Sammito’s brief but
   laconic observations of his internment.
 * Claudio Sommaruga’s account of the fiasco of his Garrison being dismantled by
   the Germans makes for a grim realisation of the pathetic chain of command in 
   the Royal Italian Army.

Armistice Turbulence Causes Catastrophic Risk Management

 * The British deceptions, amongst which, one was code-named _‘Operation Mincemeat’_
   are explored. **Factual narrative citations**: Mark Mazower[^([5])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn5)
   connects the dots to Churchill’s failed attempt to open a war front through the
   Dardanelles in WWI.
 * A memoir connection for Charlie Gilbert’s dislike of Germans is made via General
   Löhr’s capture of Crete in May 1941.
 * Michele’s war service is put in the context of Greek partisan attacks on German
   patrols.
 * Italian occupation at odds with German intent for brutality to maintain control.
 * Germans dupe General Carlo Vecchiarelli into believing that there would be orderly
   demobilisation of the Italian Army in Greece and possibly allowed to return home.
 * Antonio Gandin commander of 12,000 strong Italian _33ª Divisione Acqui _resists
   German demands, resulting in massacres of Italians Michele could well have been
   in that Division. The atrocities were committed by _104._ _Jäger-Division’_ which
   earlier in the year, had been engaged with _‘Einsatzstaffel der Deutsche Mannschaft(
   ES d._ _DM)’_ to which Franz Vogel, was assigned to, in Croatia. **Factual narrative
   citations**: Mark Mazower in a chapter headed ‘_This Heroic Madness’._
 * **Factual narrative citations**: The number of Italians interned is given by 
   Gerhard Schreiber.[^([6])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn6)
 * Propaganda initiated for Germany to recruit Italians for Mussolini’s RSI army.
 * The Greek partisan war of attrition summarised by Winston Churchill in parliament
   and blogger Jack Ray, provides a less political opinion.

** § Michele Simonetti Caught in Armistice Heartburn**

Royal Italian Army Besieged in Greece

 * The big picture narration shifts to detailed individual accounts of the effects
   of war on the soldiers.
 * Italian POWs were known as _Internati Militari Italiani (IMIs)._
 * **Factual narrative citations**: Silvia Pascale’s book _“Una Candella Illumina
   Il Lager, _the diarised testimonial written by Lieutenant General Gian Carlo 
   Turchetto is read and interpreted in Italian. Some passages quoted are personal
   translations.
 * The Italian and German occupation of Greece is explored**.** **Factual narrative
   citations**: Mark Mazower[^([7])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn7)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn7)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn7)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn7)
 * Andartes at war with Italians vacillates between hate and tolerance.
 * The Greek Spartan amongst us, George Spiliotacoploulos in contemporary times;
   his father was in the Hellenic Navy. Greek politico effects on the family forced
   his grandfather to immigrate to Egypt. Oral history thereafter matches events
   from a Greek perspective.
 * Eyewitness account of his harrowing internment process by Fiorelli Angiolini.
   Ivo Cardini, a mechanic confirms the poor state of Italian mechanisation. Ivo
   tries to join the Albanian resistance, but their desperate state forces a rethink.

Diarised Transportation Journeys: Greece-to-Germany

 * Routes out of Greece mapped on Google Earth.
 * Conditions on board livestock rail wagons deteriorate over time.
 * Michele’s passage out of Giannina is diarised by Emanuele Caffiero.[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)
   [](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)[](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8)
   [^([8])](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftn8) The diary is translated and a synopsis
   narrates key events.
 * Introduction to Hungarian Mike Kovacs’ family’s oral history of the refugees 
   streaming out of the Eastern European countries.
 * Amedeo Usai and Giuseppe Sammito who also ended up in Dessau are introduced into
   the narrative. Ivo Cardini was another of those who was sent to Dessau. Their
   collective inputs enabled piecing together the _Stammlager _systems and the conditions
   suffered by the Italians.

---

[[[[[[[[[[[[1]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref1) French philosopher, politician, and a proponent
of secular humanism. Former Minister for Youth, National Education and Research 
of France

[[[[[[[[[[[[2]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref2) Claudio Sommaruga Memoirs “L’Altra 
Resistenza; (“The Other Resistance”; purposely translated by the author)

[[[[[[[[[[[[3]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref3) Book: Die Deutschen in Syrmien, Slavonien,
Kroatien und Bosnien” Translated by Henry A. Fischer

[[[[[[[[[[[[4]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref4) Book: Die Deutschen in Syrmien, Slavonien,
Kroatien und Bosnien” Translated by Henry A. Fischer

[[[[[[[[[[[[5]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref5) Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience
of Occupation, 1941-44

[[[[[[[[[[[[6]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref6) Book: The Italian soldiers interned in 
the concentration camps of the Third Reich 1943-1945

[[[[[[[[[[[[7]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref7) Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience
of Occupation, 1941-44

[[[[[[[[[[[[8]](https://italiajoe.com/380-2/#_ftnref8) Quaderni, del Centro di Studi Sulla Deportazione
e ‘Linternimento Volume 9, Rome ANEI. Translated by the author, from original Italian
text.