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#262
January 4th, 2010, 06:31 PM
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Yeah, I was going to nominate this TL too. I better get in the queue!
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Zwei Adler, Ein Kaiser! - Europe settles down into a period of peace and prosperity. Will it last? Quote:
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#264
January 5th, 2010, 06:30 PM
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David Houston un Canadien errant my TL: Canada-wank (99% ASB-free) http://alternatehistory.com/discussi...d.php?t=130408 Turtledove 2010
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#265
January 5th, 2010, 06:45 PM
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Tales from the Technoyurt! The Timelines of Geekhis Khan We're poor little lambs, who've lost our way...
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#267
January 9th, 2010, 01:23 PM
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BTW, did Balbo do anything constructive during his exile in Lybia?
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#268
January 10th, 2010, 07:09 AM
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Dear Brother, I do not spread rumors, I create them.
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#269
January 10th, 2010, 07:10 PM
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That's actually the subject of the upcoming update. The fact it's taking so long to write ought to tell you a little about how much he did there even up to the POD.
 By the way, all, the upcoming will be the last pre-POD post! After that one, which will end Chapter 6, all will be ATL, starting with the assassination!
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Tales from the Technoyurt! The Timelines of Geekhis Khan We're poor little lambs, who've lost our way...
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#270
January 15th, 2010, 08:47 PM
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Part g; Balbo's Libya:
 The Last Meeting: Mussolini and Balbo in Libya, 1937 Italo Balbo was hardly the sort to let as small of a setback as mere “exile” hold him back. While the inferred insult of his new position and the symbolic rejection of his “chief” continued to anger and sadden him, Balbo soon set out to make the best of his new governorship. He quickly began to see past the desolate isolation of the land and see the challenges his post offered—meat and bread to a man of Balbo’s mindset—and he immediately dove into his new job. He quickly saw in himself the one who would finally realize Pascoli’s dream of a Fourth Shore. […] One of the oldest desires among the colony’s many governors was for the unification of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica into a single, cohesive “Libya”. Previous attempts to achieve this goal had fallen flat due to the huge geographical and ancient cultural divisions between the regions. One of the hardest challenges to overcome was the isolation between the two regions’ capitals. No passable roads or telephone/telegraph lines connected Tripoli and Benghazi. Communication between the two required ship or aircraft, the former slow and the latter vulnerable to accident in those early days of flight. As a result the Governor typically resided in Tripoli and was de facto ruler of the more populous Tripolitania while a Vice Governor ruled Cyrenaica. […] Balbo loudly resisted Rome’s choice for Vice Governor of General Guglielmo Nasi…preferring instead his old friend and comrade Dino Alfieri [eventually coming to the compromise that] Nasi would be appointed as “regent” of Cyrenaica. […] Still, Balbo pushed for the unified colony and governorship. In typical Balbian fashion he demonstrated his ability to govern the entire colony by reviewing the troops in Tripoli and Benghazi on the same day, Constitution Day 1934, flying from one capital to the next. […] In the end Balbo got his wish and the colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were unified by royal decree on December 3rd [1934], Balbo as their sole de facto governor. A later decree in 1939 went further along Balbo’s desires, bringing the four coastal colonial provinces of Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi, and Derna into metropolitan Italy as full provinces of the Italian nation. […] With his colony unified under his command, Balbo set out to physically link the two capitals [through the creation of] the Litoranea Libica, often called the Via Balbia, an 1800+ kilometer highway intended to create a land route between the two cities [of Tripoli and Benghazi]. The Balbia was an incredible feat of engineering for the time, particularly when one considers the nation’s lack of motorized vehicles and construction equipment. Hundreds of workers, most of them Libyan, had to be mobilized, fed, supplied with tools and (most importantly) provided water. It was the type of unique organizational challenge that suited Balbo perfectly. […] The Herculean effort proceeded well ahead of schedule…despite labor problems caused by strict native planting schedules and growing labor costs among the native populous. A carefully-orchestrated financial campaign that controlled worker costs and established a subdivision of contracts that led private firms into direct competition led to lower costs. In the end, for less than 100,000 Lire per kilometer, far less than his predecessors’ earlier road projects, Balbo completed the highway. A “miracle” of engineering, according to contemporaries. The final span was completed in 1937 and the center point marked with a triumphant arch celebrating the Fascist regime…just in time for Mussolini’s visit to the colony. […] http://blogosfere.blogs.com/.shared/...d/cammello.jpg The Litoranea Libica (aka Via Balbia) today   Litoranea Libica Arco Celebrativo in 1967 & later “Tripoli Lottery” poster featuring the Arch (1940) Balbo’s other big project became the realization of the Fourth Shore through Italian colonization of Libya. This poet’s dream would be very difficult to make real. Romanticized notions of Libya as the breadbasket it was in Roman times ran headlong into modern climactic realities: Libya of the 20th century was a desert and not the fertile land of long past. […] To achieve the Fourth Shore meant offsetting centuries of Arabicised Muslim Berber culture and counterbalancing the roughly 700,000 Libyan natives with a flood of Italian settlers. Early attempts at colonization had been mostly private ventures and largely unsuccessful. These private firms tended towards latifundia and created massive Libyan-worked plantations rather than the independent farmer-settlers the state envisioned. By Balbo’s ascendency the number of permanent settlers numbered in the tens of hundreds rather than the hundreds of thousands needed. […] To Balbo, these private programs were “a financial burden to the state, unsuitable to the needs of the concessioners and sterile with regards to the regime’s basic goals… There was nothing for me to do except change course decisively.” To this end Balbo expanded the preexisting government institutions. These included the Ente per la Colonizzazione della Cirenaica (ECC), which Balbo expanded and renamed the Ente per la Colonizzazione della Libia (ECL), and the Istituto Nazionale Fascista per la Previdenza Sociale (INFPS). These organizations, which were similar in nature to Roosevelt’s New Deal organizations in form and function, were to spearhead a combined private-public initiative to build the Fourth Shore from the ground up. […] The Fourth Shore initiative tightened control over the funding of private institutions and organized the various organizations public and private along a fixed but flexible course set by himself. […] The initiative had several facets: the identification and recruitment of potential families for colonization, the preparation of the new colonial farms and infrastructure, and the logistical means to put the colonists into the farms. […] By the end of Balbo’s term as governor the ECL had succeeded in building sprawling collections of small homesteads (identical down to the matchbooks on the hearth) and instituted massive irrigation and ecological reclamation efforts. Trees were planted both for aesthetics and to help control winds and wind erosion. Experimental crop stations were established to find new desert-friendly crops and planting techniques. […] Despite the many gains made, however, corruption remained and even the vaunted ECL fell victim to the allure of latifundia profits, employing cheap native labor to exploit resource-intensive cash crops like grapes, olives, and almonds. Yet the sheer scale of Balbo’s accomplishment in his short four-year run remains astounding. The stage had been set for the eventual mass colonization efforts which he would institute over the course of his Roman tenure, beginning with the famed ventimille of 1938. […] Hoping to further aid his new fiefdom’s economic viability, Balbo hired geologists, mining experts, and various explorers seeking mineral wealth which might be hidden in the vast and empty land. […] Of these efforts [Ardito] Desio’s venture would find trace amounts of subsurface petroleum in 1938, the tip of a viscous iceberg of deep-well petroleum stores. Eventually these stores would prove the boon perhaps even salvation of the Fascist state, tough true exploitation of this geological treasure would be decades off. His discoveries of artesian wells would prove a boon of a different sort. […] When not obsessing about the details of the Litoranea Libica or colonization efforts, Balbo delved into other areas of civic development: schools, utilities, architecture, history, transportation, arts, and entertainment. […] He put great efforts into creating schools not just for Italians but for the native Libyans [creating both] Koranic schools and secular education centers under the Islamic Culture Institute…most controversially add[ing] schools for girls. […] Electrification and irrigation began their slow and inevitable expansion under Balbo [reaching] a majority within the cities by the end of the 1950s. […] One of Balbo’s priorities was to improve the aesthetic appearance of the colony [which was] in a poor state of repair from centuries of neglect and “defiled” by ugly utilitarian army architecture. Architects were hired to design and build new, and restore older buildings. […] Balbo spent a great deal of time and money on archeological explorations, particularly on the colony’s many Roman-era ruins. Preferring to keep the discoveries in as “original” of a condition as possible, he resisted any attempts at reconstruction. As a result these ruins remain some of the world’s most pristine and are considered a world treasure by historians and archeologists alike. He also went to great lengths and care to preserve the Turkish Old City and restore the colony’s local landmarks, including churches, synagogues, and mosques (including those punitively destroyed by his predecessor Graziani). His restoration of the Mosque of Tripoli, for example, was specifically performed through the city’s local Muslim elders in accordance with Islamic requirements, winning Balbo appreciation among many of the region’s Muslim population. […] The restoration and beautification work went well, and soon gained international renown for its beauty. English journalist G. L. Steer famously said, “Tripoli was a jewel personally carved by Italo Balbo…. He had built everything in it and built it well.”  Tripoli under Balbo (note the ancient domed Governor’s Palace in the center) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbzyZ5JLo70&feature=related Colorized slide show of Tripoli, 1937 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5AW_DQhVw&feature=related Black & white slide show of Tripoli, 1937 http://www.paolocason.it/Libia/Pagine/Bengasi.html Website on Benghazi (Italian) with great vintage images For all the efforts at restoration and history, however, Balbo never forgot his government’s devotion to the New and the New Order. Newer “Fascist” architecture found place alongside older Roman and Arabic structures. The New City engulfed the Old City in a strange duality that emphasized the divide between Italian and Libyan. Also, one could never forget that Fascism ruled the colony. Architecture and landscaping featured neo-Roman aesthetics. Sculpture, mosaic, and even hedge-shaping featured Roman eagles and fasces. The streets were filled with military and MVSN uniforms. Visitors reported, in some cases, a sense of the artificiality and experienced an “unease” at the militarized atmosphere. The situation was undoubtedly surreal: uniformed Fascists and soldiers, upbeat and optimistic Italian colonists of a dozen localities awed by their new “earthly paradise”, and hundreds of overly-obsequious native Libyans of dozens of cultures and subcultures all mixed in a grab-bag of Berber, Arab, ancient Roman, Fascist, futurist, and cosmopolitan. […] In the area of arts and entertainment Balbo worked diligently to bring in museums and special events. The colony was promoted for tourists and vacationers and soon the colony’s hotels and casinos began their multiplication. […] While Libya had been home to the famous Libyan Grand Prix for several years, the famous auto race expanded in scope, prize, and prestige under Balbo (it would expand further in later years, adding its famous trans-Fezzan off-road endurance event in the 1950s) and winners like 1935’s Rudolf Caracciola became international stars. […] Balbo also added the famous Saharan Air Rallies (resurrected in 1970 after a decades-long hiatus), an event which drew thousands and often swamped the local hotels. In 1934 the influx of visitors to the events was so great that Balbo leased two ocean liners at government expense to house them all! The Libyan coast quickly gained a reputation as a Mediterranean paradise away from the bustle of continental Europe, soon rivaling Cannes and Monaco as a top destination, a position it holds to this day [8]. […]  Poster for the 1933 Libyan Grand Prix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6AA826yfxA Video of the Tripoli Grand Prix, 1937-1939  Rudolf Caracciola and his winning Mercedes-Benz W25B 3.7L, 1935 Tripoli Grand Prix One of Balbo’s most surprising and enduring legacies is his treatment of the native populations. The diverse and well-integrated cultures of the cities and coastal areas represented centuries of ethnic intermingling and included Arab-Berbers and Arabized ethnic Berbers, Sephardic Jews, Turko-Libyan “Cologhlas”, and also Arab-speaking Sub-Saharan (“Negroid”) peoples (the descendents of those brought in from the Sudanese slave trade). The more insular peoples of the Fezzan Sahara included traditional Berber cultures, Tuareg nomads, and Sudanese. In utter contrast to the iron-handed brutality of the Badoglio and Graziani eras Balbo made a conscious effort to extend a hand of friendship to the local Libyan population. He regularly met with secular and Islamic elders seeking their advice on Arab-Berber and Muslim matters. Journalists described his reign as “Wise, humane and—according to Fascist ideals—beneficent”, “liberal”, and even “cordial”. On the other hand, Balbo maintained the Fascist doctrine of “racial prestige” [and] Libyans were expected to remain obsequious and subservient to the Italians. Two Libyans accused of having “touched” an Italian woman were sentenced to eight years in prison for violation of Racial Prestige. As a result of such policies, in concert with memories of the earlier harsh “pacification” campaign, local native Libyans were noted for being “embarrassingly obsequious” and “Browbeaten like nowhere else in North Africa.” Balbo similarly never shied away from overt use of authority when it benefitted the Fascist mission of the Fourth Shore and initiated flagrant land grabs in the Gebel that sent Libyans packing from their ancient familial homesteads towards the hope of work in the cities. Yet despite the official requirements of the prestige laws and the iron hand of Fascist colonial policy, the average Italian lived in surprising informality with the natives. Society was far more integrated than most colonial domains and lacked the segregationist policies typical of European colonial empires or even the American South. Italian colonists had no problem working alongside their Libyan neighbors. Libyans who could afford to do so rode first class and stayed in the finest hotels alongside Italian luminaries. […] Balbo’s strange and often contradictory policies are a product of his personality and his beliefs. He was an ardent proponent of the “white man’s burden” and saw Italy’s mission in Libya as “civilizing”. He held the Libyans in high esteem, particularly the civilized “Mediterranean” cultures of the cities and Gebel coast, whom he considered “intelligent and virile”, “sober and enduring”, and “obedient” to secular and religious authorities. The nomadic “Negroid” races of the interior Fezzan, however, still required military “supervision”. His sense of honor demanded that the loyalty and sacrifice of Libyan soldiers in the Ethiopian conquest be rewarded. This became one of the pillars of his later attempts at gaining full citizenship for the Libyan populations. […] After a few years Balbo had gained a cordial and appreciative reputation among the Libyan populations. If not overtly beloved he was at the least admired and celebrated as a man of honor and courtesy. He fought hard throughout his life to gain respect and the benefits of “civilization” for the Libyans (or at least those cultural groups best attuned to his mission of “Italianization”). Gestures such as saving the Gebel herds from flooding (transporting them to the Cyrenaician highlands in ships) gained him appreciation. He’d worked hard to meet Muslim cultures if not on equal terms then at least on cordial ones. Elders and men of stature were consulted on many legal and any cultural decisions affecting Muslims in the colony. Laws such as the banning of alcohol sales during Ramadan helped gain gratitude and allowed less popular ones such as the bans on fakir practice and child marriage to be overlooked. […] Interestingly, one of the native groups that suffered at Balbo’s hand was the native Jewish population. In contrast to his excellent relations with Italy’s and later Europe’s Ashkenazi Jews, Balbo often ran into conflict with the native Libyan Jewish minority. Part of it was different demographics: these Mizrahi cultures (descendents of Sephardim) were culturally Libyan, spoke Arabic, and were traditionally poor artisans and petty shop-keeps. They were traditional, insular, and offered none of the obvious economic boons of the western Ashkenazi cultures to the Fascist state. Balbo’s economic and social policies often ran into Jewish law and tradition and he often invoked heavy-handed methods. The flogging of Jewish shop owners who refused to stay open on Fridays earned him the enmity of the Libyan Jews but the amused approval of many Libyan Muslims. […] By 1937 Balbo had established Libya as his new domain and fiefdom, and there his power and influence were as absolute as in his home town of Ferarra. His accomplishments were myriad, his image growing, and his influence recovering. “Exile” would not mean isolation, and if Balbo could not be at the center of society he would bring the center to him. From the most humble former Arditi comrades to the most glorious nobles and stars to some of the world’s most powerful, the people of Rome and indeed the world would flock to Balbo’s Libyan palace. […] His parties gained a notoriety of their own with some of the biggest names making the journey to Tripoli to bask in his emir-like splendor. Loved by the Italians, respected and appreciated to some degree by the Libyans, and once more well-considered in many parts of Rome and on the international stage for his accomplishments, Balbo had managed in a few years of exile to recapture his old fame. Yet the original heartbreak of the post never completely left him and occasional bouts of separation and depression set in. As the fame of his parties and extravaganzas grew he found himself occasionally sucked into the Dionysian world of excess and borderline hedonism he’d courted. Parties, binges, and serial philandering would occasionally derail the studious empire-building and soon Balbo found himself going through a cycle of binges of creative energy and binges of a different sort in self-indulgent abandon. Aides and friends noted with concern this pendulum-like swing from the old Apollonian Balbo to the new Dionysian and back. […]  Balbo and Mussolini with lictor escorts, 1937 The crowning moment of Balbo’s Libyan governorship came in 1937 with Mussolini’s ten day visit and inspection of the colony. […] The Duce was greeted by Balbo in kingly fashion amid pomp and parades, lines of troops Italian and Colonial, crowds of cheering Libyans in native garb (many of whom had bought new robes specifically for the Duce’s visit), and grand feasts at the Governor’s Palace. […] Mussolini was reportedly thoroughly impressed while one witness reported Balbo as appearing rather bored with it all. […] Mussolini’s visit took him across the colony from Tripoli to Benghazi, to restored Roman ruins, military bases, cathedrals, and natural wonders…and culminated in the official celebrations opening the Litoranea Libica, unveiling the new arch in a Hollywood-style opening of light and feast. Mussolini praised this “show of Fascist achievement”. […] When one French journalist expressed surprise at the presence of fine foods, ice cream, and fresh vegetables at the remote desert site, likening it to finding roses at the North Pole, Balbo told her “if an Italian has reached the North Pole, you’ll find roses there.” The following day, in a spectacle for the native Libyans, Mussolini and Balbo left their cars outside of Tripoli and entered the city on horseback led by two Libyans bearing giant papier-māché fasces like modern day lictors. Mussolini inaugurated the Tripoli trade fair, promising peace and justice to the Libyans and praising Balbo’s “tireless, genial, and tenacious” governorship. Two days later Mussolini was presented a ceremonial “Sword of Islam” (actually Florentine-made) as symbol of his role as the “Protector of Islam” and successor to the caliph. While anti-fascists and Islamic scholars laughed at such an assumptive proclamation, the Libyans themselves appeared to enjoy the pomp and spectacle. Whether they took the proclamation seriously or not is another matter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FyhslMbqiU (part I; 10 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFsA1YpzSPE&feature=related (part II; 10 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmsJEJ59RPc&feature=related (part III; 10 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Sa-mAUbBo&feature=related (part IV; ~8.5 min) Four-part Newsreel of Mussolini’s 1937 visit to Libya (~40 minutes total) When Mussolini and Balbo publically embraced at the close of the Duce’s visit, neither realized it would be the last time they would meet face to face. Tragedy awaited the Duce. […] For Balbo, at the time riding the newly recovered fame and glory, the sudden call to Rome amid the chaos of the incident must have been truly jarring. […] In total, Balbo’s Libyan legacy remains his third most admired legacy after the leadership of the empire and the formation of the Aeronautica. His accomplishments were unmatched: the Litoranea, the building projects, the détente with the native populations, and the sturdy foundations laid for the eventual realization of the Fourth Shore. The modern wealth and splendor of the Libyan provinces remains a product of his rule. However, so too do the continuing social and ethnic difficulties of the land. Yet like with the Aeronautica it is hard to imagine the shape of modern Libya without the rule of Italo Balbo. From Roman Eagle, the Biography of Italo Balbo by Giuseppe Bosco, PhD., Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Chicago.  The Last March: Balbo and Mussolini with the Fascist Gerarchi, 1937 ************************************************ Note a pič di pagina: 1 – Tripoli, the larger and more famous city, has become the more bucolic destination with casinos and hotels marketed to families and middle class vacationers on par with Las Vegas. Smaller and quieter Benghazi has instead gained a subdued but luxurious five star reputation ala Monaco and is the summer retreat for the rich, famous, and wealthy of Italy and many other nations. Originally it was Tripoli that held the first class rating. This demographic change occurred in the 60s as the wealthy and influential left increasingly “loud” and “common” Tripoli to what was then mostly a lower middle class residential community in Benghazi.
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Tales from the Technoyurt! The Timelines of Geekhis Khan We're poor little lambs, who've lost our way... Last edited by Geekhis Khan; January 15th, 2010 at 09:11 PM..
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#271
January 15th, 2010, 09:29 PM
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Yet another well written and extremely interesting, with alot of little hints to the future. I cannot wait for the update, I hope it doesn't take too long.
Well after 6 months the real meat of the story will be arriving. That has to be a record amount of time
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Dear Brother, I do not spread rumors, I create them.
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#272
January 15th, 2010, 09:49 PM
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Very good, with a lot of detail on colonization. Might we see statistics later on?
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Zwei Adler, Ein Kaiser! - Europe settles down into a period of peace and prosperity. Will it last? Quote:
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#273
January 15th, 2010, 10:09 PM
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Awesome update with a lot of forshadowing. Again, an excellent compiation of historical text, very ably highlighted with the pictures. I've learned a lot about Italy and Balbo from this TL.
That said, I can't wait for the POD to come and the heart of the story to begin.
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"Yall can go to hell, and I'll go to Texas." -Davy Crockett
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#274
January 16th, 2010, 08:55 AM
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Very detailed and articulate . It gets better with each update .
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#276
January 17th, 2010, 01:18 AM
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Thank you all for your good words. I'm glad that this TL has been enjoyed as it's been a lot of work.
I again am sorry it took so damned long to get to the ATL. I really expected to get the "overhead" done in a couple of months. Like a fool I thought that I could get out a chapter every couple of weeks while being a new father, working full time with an hour & a half each way commute, being a homeowner, and working on an Aikido blackbelt. Even without the laptop crash I was and am in over my head. But like the fool I am I'm still working this for all I can. I'm a masochist sometimes.  The good news is that it's all ATL form here. Thank you all for your patience. And let me tell you it's been necessary for me to both set the pace of the story for myself and really let me get into the historical Balbo's head, and hopefully allow all of you to get into his head too. Hopefully since the OTL is done things will go faster now that I can be creative and flowing and not need to fact-check every line I write. The reading is almost done, too, which is a big help. Next update, which I plan to get out by the end of the weekend, is the BIG ONE: the assassination itself! I hope it lives up to the expectations I seem to have set. Again, thank you all for the good vibes, support, feedback, patience, and help. Here's hoping I can keep the ball rolling better in 2010!  GK... Individually: Quote:
And I'm sure I just blew any time-to-POD record out of the water like a 16" shell hitting a rubber dinghy. Quote:
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On the pics you can right-click -> properties to find the host site. Some of them have great other images.BTW: the POD came in the last update before Libya...the one on the Axis and the Spanish Civil War. The POD will bear fruit in the next post. And the "heart" of the story will start with the stop of another. Quote:
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Tales from the Technoyurt! The Timelines of Geekhis Khan We're poor little lambs, who've lost our way...
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#277
January 17th, 2010, 05:48 PM
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Zwei Adler, Ein Kaiser! - Europe settles down into a period of peace and prosperity. Will it last? Quote:
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#278
January 18th, 2010, 08:39 AM
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Truly impressive work.
I can't wait for the next part.
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" Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone. " Charles de Gaulle
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#279
January 18th, 2010, 01:53 PM
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Chapter 7: The Assassination and its Aftermath
“…the fog to which we had become used from an early stage of our flight becomes denser and denser. The position is getting very serious. At one point there is an absolute “black out.” We can see nothing but the gleam of the instruments on the dashboard. We have run into a raincloud and a torrential downpour drives right into our cabin…Just at this moment the plane heels…It is a terrible moment. The plane bounces up and down with quick jerky movements. It is like an earthquake in the air, so to speak. For one horrible moment we both regret that we are not strapped into our seats. But what is that shadow athwart the artificial horizon? I bring down my right foot as hard as I can. Saved! […] I plead guilty to a fleeting spasm of fright—a momentary dread of the cold sea yawning to swallow the I-Balb with a swirling roar only too well known to me by experience. Just two years ago at Capri the glassy prison of the sea closed over my head.” – Italo Balbo, recounting a storm over the North Atlantic in My Air Armada.  Mussolini’s Assassin: Anarchist Partisan and Co-Organizer of Giustizia e Libertą, Camillo Berneri Part a: la Morte di Mussolini The killer awoke before dawn and put the uniform on. It was a face he’d taken from a fallen enemy. He walked on, down the street. The tote bag hung from his shoulder by a thin, worn strap. Within were a simple lunch of salami and dark bread, a tattered journal, a Beretta automatic pistol, and a metal device shaped like a tin can with a handle. This last was a Model 24 Stielhandgranate, a stick-mounted grenade devised by the Imperial German Army during the Great War. There were literally thousands of them for the taking amid the chaos in Spain. The killer walked along the streets of Rome, unopposed and barely noticed. If anyone paid him heed it was with a smile, informal salute, or nod of respect. It was September, 1937, and a man dressed in the uniform of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie (CTV; Italian volunteer corps in Spain), particularly one sporting a noticeable limp and a combat wound badge, commanded respect and admiration in Fascist Italy. He’d been in Rome for several weeks now, wandering, accepting free coffee from gracious patriotic café owners, watching, listening. Before Rome he’d spent time in Fiume where he’d made contact with a group called TIGR. Before that he’d been in Oporto in Portugal. Before that: the battlefields of Spain. Only he hadn’t fought for Franco. He’s fought with, and indeed helped to organize, the Giustizia e Libertą anti-fascist militia. His name was Camillo Berneri, and he was there to kill the Dictator of Fascist Italy Benito Mussolini. The tattered journal in the tote would help investigators reconstruct what happened after the fact. Its pages described ideals of anarchic socialist utopia, an ardent hatred of Fascism, and a burning desire for vengeance against the man who he was sure had ordered the murder of his comrade Carlo Rosselli in Paris. As the dates advanced from a close brush with Stalinist adversaries on May 1st, his path took him down dirty back roads and harrowing highland passes into Portugal and from there to the city of Oporto. It was there that the news of Rosselli reached him. He swore revenge. Changing clothes from civilian workman’s clothes to a CTV uniform looted from a soldier he’d killed, he went forth on his new quest. On July 14th he’d boarded a ship to Fiume, in anonymity thanks to a potent bribe. When the ship arrived a few days later he disembarked, another anonymous ship hand in a busy port city. Here the journal is vague, speaking only of contacting and finding shelter among “friends of the Revolution”. Days after the assassination, the Croat nationalist organization TIGR would claim to be those “friends”. There has been little reason to doubt their claim. Weeks of shelter likely allowed for the sharing of intelligence and information. Perhaps it was here he learned of Mussolini’s plans that September evening. Perhaps he would learn of them afterwards during his weeks in Rome. What is certain from his journal that the “friends” gave him money and supplies; perhaps set him up with the names of allies or cobelligerents within the Eternal City itself. The weeks that followed were a series of short day trips by road or rail from hamlet to hamlet, town to town. Entries are again vague: “Aug. 1st, stayed in the barn of a local goatherd’s. After some wine the conversation went to politics: he’s a friend. Fought with the Arditi del Popolo. Generously provided bread for the coming days”. When Berneri arrived in Rome on the 17th of August he wore the CTV uniform in which he would perform the deed. His journal brazenly laughs at the Roman salutes and friendly pats he received from “Fascist fools” in the city. The maps, timetables, and observed police schedules found in his flophouse hotel room attest to the weeks of careful planning. On that December morning, Berneri left but a single line in his journal: “today – live or die. Sic Semper Tyrannis!”  The refinished Palazzo delle Esposizioni, site of the Mostra Augustea della Romanitą and the death of Mussolini http://www.museociviltaromana.it/museo/storia_del_museo/mostra_augustea_della_romanita Link to the Civita Romana Museum website with vintage images of the Mostra Augustea della Romanitą It was to be a celebratory time for Fascist Italy, the grand opening of the Mostra Augustea della Romanitą exhibit at the newly modernized Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. Berneri arrived early. How he slipped past the security detail remains a mystery. Perhaps he jumped the fence or slipped by with a group of other veterans there for the event. Once inside he mingled with the crowd. One CTV veteran reported a conversation with Berneri at this point, speaking about the Spanish war. The veteran brought up his service, mentioning the fight at Monte Pelato. Berneri, morose, replied “yes, such a tragedy it is when the hope for a meaningful victory is dashed.” When the time came for the dedication, Benito Mussolini to be the key note speaker, Berneri elbowed his way towards the front, taking a position along the simple rope that held the citizens yards back from the VIPs’ red carpet. Quietly, with a calm resolve forged on the battlefield, he waited as minor dignitaries, Fascist functionaries, and petty nobility filed past. He gave the Roman salute along with the rest, playing the part to the end. When the Issota-Fraschini limo bearing the Duce’s standard arrived he made ready, nonchalantly unzipping the tote and reaching for the grenade. A witness who saw him reach into the tote assumed he was reaching for a camera. The limo doors were opened and out stepped Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano in dress uniform followed by his wife, Mussolini’s daughter Edda, in a formal gown. Then, the Duce himself exited in almost regal attire. Berneri perhaps took a final breath, steeling his battle-hardened reflexes. He removed the pin, waited a couple of seconds, and threw. Months of war had honed his skill with the German grenades, and his aim was true. So was his timing. The grenade was a few feet away and a yard high when it exploded. Witnesses report a whooshing object flying in an arc, and then a sudden, jarring flash-bang. Panic and shock set in as the smoke cleared. On the ground lay Benito Mussolini, his daughter Edda, and his son-in-law Ciano. Only one would survive to morning. Amid the shock Berneri made his attempt at escape, perhaps counting on the confusion to cover his retreat. Unfortunately for him he was not the only war veteran at the scene. A middle-aged Florintine man named Folco Marinetta, a Great War veteran missing an eye and an arm, recovered quickly from the shock and yelled out. Berneri drew the Beretta pistol, firing into the crowd. It was in vain. The crow descended upon him. When the police finally forced their way through the crowd there was little left to recover. They stood by while the blood-drunk crowd hung the battered body upside-down from a lamp post. The body would hang there for days [1] until the stench became unbearable and the police had it removed as a threat to public sanitation. Opening paragraphs to Time Magazine’s feature story “The Man who Killed Mussolini”, November 1937. ************************************************ Note a pič di pagina: 1 – The reporter is exaggerating to say the least. In truth the authorities quietly removed the body the next night once the riotous crowd died down.
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Tales from the Technoyurt! The Timelines of Geekhis Khan We're poor little lambs, who've lost our way... Last edited by Geekhis Khan; January 19th, 2010 at 01:42 PM.. Reason: Footnote added for realism
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#280
January 18th, 2010, 02:15 PM
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The Duce's dead, and the assassin hung on a lamp post.
What is it with Italians hanging people on lamp posts? For some reason "Ding Dong the Witch is dead" from The Wizard of Oz is running through my head...
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