Pino Lella
Giuseppe "Pino" Lella (born June 1, 1926 in Milan ) is an Italian driver and contemporary witness of the final phase of the Second World War . He was the driver of General Hans Leyers and at the same time a spy for the Allies . In April 1945 he delivered Leyers to the Fifth United States Army and was then a driver for Major Frank Knebel until the end of the war.
Life
Lella grew up in Milan and when the first bombs fell there in 1943, to be on the safe side, his parents sent him to Father Re's summer school in the Alps, where he learned to drive.
In June 1944, Lella turned 18, the age at which Italians were drafted into the military by the state. He had two options: on the one hand he could join Mussolini's fascist army and most likely land on the Russian front, or on the other hand he could be called up by the German army. Since Lella's aunt and uncle had connections to the " Organization Todt ", the armaments and construction department of the Third Reich, he joined the German army for his own safety, but against his internal convictions and on the advice of his parents, and was included in the Todt boat Camp moved into Modena .
Due to a number of exceptional circumstances, including being wounded in an Allied bombing raid, Lella was returned to Milan to recover for two weeks. By chance, because of his knowledge of the French language and being able to drive a car, he became the personal driver of General Hans Leyers, Plenipotentiary of the Reich Ministry of War for Armaments and War Production in the Kingdom of Italy and thus the agent of the Italian sector of the Todt Organization.
As a driver for Leyers, Lella worked as a spy for the Resistance and for the Allies. During his business trips he learned the positions of tank traps, land mines, ammunition tunnels and all fortifications between Florence and Milan and observed the construction of the most important defenses of the Germans. Lella secretly documented troop movements, took notes and photos and supplied the allies with the most important information via his uncle's shortwave radio.
On April 24, 1945, Lella delivered General Hans Leyers to the advancing 5th American Army under the command of Major Frank Knebel. For the next few days he became Knebel's personal driver and translator.
Finally the Americans asked him to take on one last mission and to take a trip over the Brenner Pass on May 3rd , even though in early May 1945 it was one of the most dangerous corners of Europe. His job was to bring Leyers from Italy to the Austrian border and hand him over to an American unit there.
Today Lella lives very old in the north of Milan .
Trivia
Lella's story is the basis for Mark Sullivan's novel Under Blood Red Skies , which generally sticks to the biographical facts from Pino Lella's life between 1943 and 1945, but also consists in some parts of fiction.
literature
- Mark T. Sullivan : Under blood red skies , translated by Peter Groth, Verlag Ink & Pen, 2018 ISBN 978-1-5039-5008-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Daily Banner, May 30, 1945
- ↑ Mark Sullivan, Under Blood Red Skies . Ink & Pen, 2018, ISBN 978-1-5039-5008-5 , pp. 596 .
- ↑ My Father's Role in the Fall of Fascism: The True Story behind the 2017 bestseller 'Beneath a Scarlet Sky' | Michael Lella . May 3, 2018 ( fee.org [accessed November 6, 2018]).
- ↑ Interview with Michael Lella from May 3, 2018
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lella, Pino |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lella, Giuseppe |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian resistance fighter in World War II |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 1, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milan |