Battle of the Bagni di Craveggia

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Italian customs barracks
Monument from 2018
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The battle at the Bagni di Craveggia ( Italian battaglia dei Bagni di Craveggia ) was a border incident between fascist Italy and the Swiss army during World War II . It took place on October 18, 1944 in the area of ​​the thermal spring of the Bagni di Craveggia on the Italian-Swiss border in the Onsernone Valley . During the battle, around 250 Italian partisans escaped to Switzerland under fire from fascist troops.

Starting position

Due to the Western Allied successes in the Italian campaign , the Italian partisan republic of Ossola was declared a liberated zone in the Domodossola area in autumn 1944 . The German Wehrmacht recaptured the area. Italian refugees crossed the border between Italy and Switzerland at the remote Bagni di Craveggia.

The commander of the Perotti partisan brigade , Filippo Frasati, requested his unit to be interned in Switzerland in October 1944 . This was denied to him, as Swiss regulations only allowed combatants to be interned in the event of imminent danger of death. From October 12, 1944, the border was reinforced by the motorized Mitrailleur Company 9 of the Swiss Army, whose officers agreed with the partisans to cross the border in the event of a fascist attack.

Course of battle

The attack took place on October 18, 1944, when around 200 men, supported by some German soldiers, opened fire on the partisans, with many projectiles also striking Swiss territory. The partisans fled to Switzerland as agreed, and one of their officers, Federico Marescotti, was killed on Swiss soil in the process.

The fascist commandant ultimately demanded the extradition of the partisans and threatened an attack on the nearby Swiss town of Spruga. The Swiss military rejected the request. After the border was reinforced by further Swiss troops, the fascist troops left the border area again the following day.

consequences

The 256 surviving partisans were interned in Locarno until the end of the war. The partisans who died in the battle were buried in Comologno with an escort of honor from the Swiss Army.

During the identity check of the internees, it was found that they included numerous Italians who had previously been interned and who had fled Switzerland and were again involved in fighting in Italy.

literature

  • Paolo Bologna: Il 18 ottobre 1944 ai Bagni di Craveggia. In: Rivista militare della Svizzera italiana , 1975, pp. 159-176 ( doi : 10.5169 / seals-246317 ).
  • Augusto Rima: I fatti dei Bagni di Craveggia del 18 ottobre 1944. Tipografia Poncioni, Losone 1979.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Aurelio Giovannacci, Martin Fricker: "Dead, injured or alive": Battle of the Bagni di Craveggia . In: Schweizer Soldat , 11/2015, p. 50 f.
  2. ^ Joseph Mächler: How Switzerland saved itself. Pro Libertate, Zollikofen 2017, p. 459.

Coordinates: 46 ° 11 '54 "  N , 8 ° 32' 24.5"  E ; CH1903:  685,025  /  one hundred sixteen thousand nine hundred sixteen