Nello Iacchini

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Nello Iacchini (born July 7, 1919 in Saltara , † October 25, 1977 in Pesaro ) was an Italian partisan of the Resistancea , the resistance movement at the end of World War II against the German occupying power in northern Italy and the fascist Italian Social Republic there .

He was best known for saving the lives of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Harold Alexander in command of the Allied Forces in Italy on August 26, 1944 . Iacchini was then the first person to receive the Certificato al Patriota (also: Brevetto Alexander ) award from Alexander .

Historical background

The story of Nello Iacchini was made public in 2001 through an article in the local edition of the daily Il Messaggero , but only gained notoriety in 2004 after Giancarlo Iacchini told a reporter for the London Times the story of his father.

Iacchini fought in the Communist Party- led Garibaldi Bruno Lugli Brigade , which operated in the province of Pesaro and Urbino in 1944 .

Churchill had come to Italy in the summer of 1944 to watch the beginning of the attack by the British 8th Army ( Operation Olive ) on the so-called Gothic position established by the Germans . In the province of Marken , Churchill, accompanied by General Alexander and an escort, was on his way to Montemaggiore al Metauro in the Foglia Valley . Shortly before they passed on the main road near the town of Saltara , Iacchini and two other partisans had spotted a German soldier. He was armed with a mortar in ambush near the road. The partisans disarmed the German, took him prisoner and handed him over to the Canadian army without knowing that Churchill was near.

According to his son, Nello Iacchini remained a member of the Communist Party throughout his life, but had a socialist-democratic attitude. After the war he ran a shoe shop in Pesaro .

An intensive correspondence about this incident with Arrigo Boldrini from 1974 is kept in the Winston Churchill Museum in Montemaggiore al Metauro . In 2015, the then still independent municipality of Saltara named a park after Nello Iacchini.

Web links

  • Claudio Iancchini: Nello Iacchini 1919-1977 , photo documentation on the stages of his father's life, YouTube (published April 26, 2014; Italian subtitles).

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Topografia della liberazione. In: istitutostoriacontemporaneapesaro.wordpress.com. Retrieved May 9, 2019 (Italian).
  2. ^ Malcolm Edward Tudor: Among the Italian Partisans: The Allied Contribution to the Resistance. Fonthill Media, 2016, chap. 2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search; accessed May 23, 2019).
  3. ↑ a b c Richard Owen: Hero who saved Churchill from a sniper's bullet . In: The Times . 23 Aug 2004, ISSN  0140-0460 ( thetimes.co.uk [accessed 7 May 2019]). ; Long quotation of the article, partly paraphrased, in: Richard Owen: Saved by a Communist. Quotation of the Season, Finest Hour 125, Winter 2004-05, Page 6. In: winstonchurchill.org. The International Churchill Society (ICS), 2004, accessed May 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Nello Iacchini. In: anpi.it. March 16, 2011, accessed May 9, 2019 (Italian).
  5. ↑ Saltara. In: lineagotica.eu. Retrieved May 9, 2019 (Italian).
  6. ↑ Parco Nello Iacchini - Saltara (PU). In: pietredellamemoria.it. August 10, 2015, accessed May 9, 2019 (Italian). ; Saltara has been part of Colli al Metauro since 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Iacchini, Nello
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian partisan of the Resistance
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Saltara
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1977
Place of death Pesaro