FREE ARTICLE: 'A heroic life intensely and nobly spent'
A last one from the recent trip to Italy today. On our last day, we decided to take a walk up to a pretty nondescript building down a side street in Rome. If you walked past it, it wouldn’t stand out at all, if you didn’t know it’s history. The building in question was in German hands prior to Italy leaving her ally in the lurch in 1943, and when Hitler’s men moved in and began subjecting the ancient city to what would be a short, but brutal occupation, the SS decided to use it as a prison/interrogation (torture) centre. Walking through the ‘cells’ and taking in all of the content is a sober experience. I was reading messages etched on the walls in one, when I noticed a pencil inscription someone had added. It read, in broken English:
‘General Simoni’s cellar [sic]. Great invalid of 1st World War. Seven medals of valour 1st World War. Here from 22nd of January 1944 to 24th of March.’
Rabbit hole accepted…
The town of Patrica (Giuseppe Diana, via Flickr)
It turns out that Simone Simoni was born on Christmas Eve 1880 in Patrica, a hilltop town near Frosinone, about 60 miles southeast of Rome. His family was large, (he was among the elder of six children) and opportunities were limited. He received a decent enough education under Dominican guidance, but then at seventeen, he enlisted in the army and joined the 52nd Infantry Regiment. He was clearly marked out as a potential leader, and by 1899 he’d been promoted twice to sergeant. He continued to progress. In 1903, Simoni received a commission, and by 1907 he had been promoted to full Lieutenant.
His life was not without setbacks. He was engaged to be married, when in 1908 a catastrophic earthquake took place with its epicentre in the Straits of Messina. Simoni’s fiancee was one of up to 80,000 casualties suffered as a result of 37 seconds of carnage.
In so far as combat is concerned, by 1911 Simoni found himself in Libya. Italy was trying to colonise this pocket of North Africa, and met fierce resistance from the Ottomans, who had counted this land as theirs since the 1500s. The Italo-Turkish war began in September, and Simoni departed for North Africa at the beginning of November. Sailing from Naples, he arrived in Cyrenaica and by the end of the month, had already earned his first bronze medal for military valour. ‘Head of a reconnaissance patrol, he was the first to enter a house occupied by the enemy.’
It was not a one off. Simoni would prove adept at guerrilla warfare, and brave with it. The war would end in Italy’s favour in October 1912, but a military presence would obviously remain and Simoni did not leave Africa for some time. On 10th January 1914, he was noticed again as a result of an incident at Marabutto di Sceneiscen. 'With positive initiative, he led 40 local guards to the liberation of a leader captured by the marauders, managing to put them to flight and seizing weapons and livestock.’ This time, he was wounded, suffering chest wounds and damage to his right thigh in the process. Shortly afterwards, King Victor Emmanuel III knighted him and he was promoted once again.
Simoni returned to Italy in September 1915, to marry his deceased fiancee’s sister, Mercedes, but he had no intention of returning to Libya. Italy had joined the Allies and dates her official entry into the First World War as 24th May, 1915. Simoni now asked to be given a European job, and in October he was appointed as a battalion commander with the 73rd Infantry Regiment.
In his absence, the 73rd had taken part in the First Battle of the Isonzo back in May, attempting to punt the Austro-Hungarians off Monte Peuma. Almost immediately, General Cadorna, in command of Italy’s armies, ordered another assault, which also failed. He then allowed some time to elapse in order for units to recover from heavy casualties, before the Third Battle of the Isonzo was launched in October. Once again, the Italian offensive failed, and Simone Simoni had arrived just in time for round four. The big objective in all of this was the town of Gorizia, to the south of the 73rd, but yet again, Cadorna’s plans came to nothing, and in the course of the battles so far he had amassed some 185,000 casualties.
Once again, it took Simoni less than a month to draw attention to himself on arriving in a theatre of war. His medal citation reads:
’In fierce fighting, for several days against very well-fortified enemy positions, he gave admirable proof of courage under the fury of the enemy fire, managing to instil in his troops a very high sense of self-denial. Imposing himself with his constant presence in the most threatened points of the line reached at the cost of heavy losses, he withstood with resolve the shock of repeated and violent counterattacks by the enemy, superior in strength and armed with much artillery and many machine guns.’
Simoni was transferred further north to join the 228th Infantry Regiment in the sector around Tolmin. He did not participate in any of the interminable battles of the Isonzo in 1916. He did, however, eventually receive yet another medal for valour in November, for his actions during a localised attack:
‘After intelligent and assiduous preparation, under violent fire, the attack on strong enemy entrenchments was boldly launched. Stopped by the serious obstacles posed by the impassable terrain and the tenacious resistance of his adversary, he persisted, and inciting his troops by example, he repelled the enemy's furious counterattacks, holding firmly to the positions he had reached.’
In the summer of 1917, Simoni was promoted again, to Major. Within a a few weeks, his men were launched at the Isonzo once again. By now, Cadorna was on the eleventh attempt to crack this. Simoni and his men were allotted to the first wave of the attack near a hill known as il Dosso Fáiti. Here’s his later citation for five days of madness:
‘Commander of a battalion, he prepared his troops for the action in which the unit was to participate as the first wave of assault. Despite the very violent fire of the enemy, he led the battalion to the assault, and finding himself in front of an intact wire entanglement, behind a fold of the ground, he encouraged his men to repeatedly to attack.’
Once again, the Italians ran out of steam before they could win victory over the enemy. And this time, they really were done. This latest offensive cost Cadorna almost another 160,000 casualties. The only saving grace was that the Austro-Hungarians were just as spent. The two adversaries now sat, all out of resources and ideas. Unfortunately for Cadorna, Germany now recognised that they were going to have to come and prop up their ailing ally, and so when the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo came, Italy would be facing a combined force. That battle is known by another name, one that is still a watchword for a complete catastrophe in Italy today: Caporetto.
German and Austro-Hungarian forces absolutely routed the Italians, beginning on 24th October 1917. Using stormtroopers and innovative techniques developed elsewhere the Central Powers, aided by the use of poisonous gas, pushed the Italians back almost 100 miles to the Piave River. Simoni would later be awarded yet another gallantry medal on the rapid retreat:
‘Although still suffering from the after-effects of poisoning by gas, exercising great influence over the soldiers, [he organised] a small nucleus of the battalion, with a few others… He was able to oppose the enemy for over a day, on two successive positions, under intense fire…’
Caporetto caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of men off the strength of Cadorna’s armies. As well as 13,000 dead and 30,000 wounded, tens of thousands simply ran away and deserted. By far and away, though, the most disastrous outcome was the amount of Italian troops captured by the enemy.
Italian prisoners captured at Caporetto (Wikipedia)
Simoni was one nearly a quarter of a million men captured. As he tried in vain to hold out with his ragtag band of men, they were overwhelmed fell into Austro-Hungarian hands. He was not in a good way. Taken to the hospital in southern Germany, he remained in a serious condition for about three months before gradually recovering.
Repatriated at the end of the war, Simoni returned home to Italy in December 1918 and was officially classified as a war invalid. There’s a whole other article to be written one day about Italy’s ‘hollow victory’ in the First World War, and how Italians felt royally screwed by the Treaty of Versailles, but suffice to say, Simoni was one of those bitterly disappointed. In March 1921, he became a member of the National Fascist Party, and in 1922 enrolled in the Voluntary Militia for National Security. In these early years of that particular regime, he was much taken with Mussolini, and wrote numerous letters telling him so.
Simone Simoni (Wikipedia)
On New Year’s Day, 1924, he departed once again for Cyrenaica, sailing from Sicily. There he earned yet another recognition of his bravery in guerrilla warfare within a few weeks:
‘Having assumed command of elements of the various forces engaged in violent combat with strong groups of armed rebels, he coordinated their action with wise dispositions, as a result of which the combat ended with complete success.’
He was back in Italy by August, and at this point placed in reserve, he went into private business, and was given the presidency of a company in Rome.
It was in the early 1930s that Simoni began to fall out with fascism. He wasn’t stupid, he still publicly professed praise for Mussolini, but by 1934, he had been placed under surveillance for his ‘unorthodox’ political opinions, and for criticising other leaders of the regime. He was also known to harbour relationships with known anti-fascists in the region around Frosinone. Conversely, said regime liked a bit of propaganda, and so at the same time as monitoring him, Simoni was also promoted to brigadier by 1936, for his exceptional service. He was described as a:
‘Valorous fighter in the Great War and the colonial wars. Seven times decorated for military valour. In various assignments carried out after the war he gave proof of his excellent qualities as an organiser and motivator.’
Simoni rounded off the inter-war years with a stint in Eritrea. When war came, he had been promoted to a divisional general, with "very special merits" but he was deeply unimpressed with Italy’s path. By 1940, he was fiercely opposed to Italy’s entry into the war and from his home in Rome he had privately begun expressing dissent for the fascist regime ‘in a more ferocious way every day;’ so Mussolini’s spies claimed. The complete break for him came on 27th October 1942, when his son Gastone was killed at El Alamein. He was later awarded Italy’s gold medal for military valour:
‘A volunteer in paratrooper units, he stoically hid the suffering of previous wartime illness so as not to be separated from his men. In a very tough battle, as a company commander, he withstood with indomitable determination for several consecutive days, under incessant ground and air bombardments, the impact of enemy infantry and armoured vehicles always forcing them to retreat. Given the seriousness of the danger that the entire deployment was facing, he decided with lightning speed to counterattack; having the few remaining men take up incendiary bottles, with superhuman courage he rushed at their head against infiltrated tanks, managing to stop some and drive back the others. While chasing them beyond the circle of the stronghold, he fell mortally wounded, consciously sacrificing himself for the safety of the sector in an act of desperate audacity, the only one that in that tragic situation could drive back the enemy once again. The highest example of conscious dedication to duty.’
Gastone Simoni (www.movm.it)
Suffice to say, Simoni Sr. was not at all disappointed with the Italian armistice in September 1943. In face, he went straight to the Minister of War and offered his services in the defence of the capital. Abandoned by her ally, the angry Nazis occupied Rome. They set about putting a brutal regime into force; led by the carrying out the murders of individuals they deemed troublesome and deporting people to concentration camps.
Simoni actively collaborated with military elements opposing the occupation, and even turned his home and his business offices on Via dei Villini into hubs for resistance activity. The Italian Social Republic was a profoundly northern movement that opposed the removal of Mussolini and they kept the general under surveillance and enjoyed muchly tattling on their countrymen and denouncing their non-fascist activity. One report from December 1943 reads:
‘General Simoni Simone, living in via Ferrari 2, has great hostility towards Fascism and especially towards the Republican Government, calling it a Government of “scoundrels and delinquents”’.
Simoni was arrested by the SS on 22nd January 1944 and taken to their prison which is where we get to the cell where I read the pencil inscription scribbled on the wall in his honour..
Simoni’s arrest took place as soon as the Allies landed at Anzio. At this point, the Germans would have known it was only a matter of time until they had to depart Rome in the face of overwhelming enemy forces. Simoni was returning from a secret meeting at about 8:30pm when he was bundled into a car and driven across the Tiber and four miles on to Via Tasso. There he was greeted in person by Herbert Kappler, complete bastard and Chief of Police in occupied Rome. He was extremely smug: “We finally have the honour of welcoming you,” he’s supposed to have said.
By now in his sixties, Simone Simoni was periodically interrogated and tortured for information. He was whipped, beaten with mallets spiked with nails, and the soles of his feet were burned with a blowtorch. He fainted three times, but at no point did he give up his comrades. Not even when the SS put him through a mock execution to break him. Apparently, one of the only things he would say was:
‘My only regret is that I was not younger because there was so much more I could have done [for my country].’
When he lay in a German hospital in the aftermath of Caporetto, Simoni had been visited more than once by a papal representative in the area named Eugenio Pacelli. In the intervening years, the two had remained in touch. In 1939, Pacelli became Pope Pius XII, and now, he attempted to intervene on behalf of his friend, sending men into the prison, who attempted to try and secure Simoni’s release from Via Tasso.
On one of these visits, a Vatican representative departed with a coded messaged stuffed in his underwear. It read:
‘Simone - Simoni - cell - twelve - Giuseppe - Ferrari - two - I am - beaten - I suffer - with - pride - my - thoughts - for - the - homeland - and - for - the - family.’
The last time he saw his family, his daughter Vera remembered that he had hugged them all and said: ‘I am at peace with God and with men.’
On 23rd March 1944, there was a violent clash between the Italian resistance and the SS in Rome. It took place on Via Rasella, near the Trevi Fountain, when Romans detonated a bomb and launched themselves at 150-odd occupying police in the largest single partizan attack of the occupation.
The Luftwaffe generalmajor commanding German forces in Rome, Kurt Mälzer, summoned Herbert Kappler to his headquarters on the night following the attack, where they discussed reprisals. The SS company had been annihilated. In all, by 24th March, the death toll stood at 32, and these two specimens decided that ten Italians should die for each German killed. This was signed off by General Eberhard von Mackensen, the commander of the Fourteenth Army, and ultimately authorised by Hitler himself, who ordered them to carry out the reprisal within 24 hours.
At this point Kappler assured Field Marshal Albert Kesselring that he had enough Italian prisoners on hand in the city to fulfil their remit: 330 victims. Only four of those prisoners had actually been sentenced to death in advance of this order. The rest were to come from people who happened to be in custody at the wrong moment, or rounded up on suspicion of involvement in the attack on Via Rasella. They were still short, which is when a lovely individual named Wilhelm Harster suggested they make use of 57 Jews they happened to have in custody. That made 271. An Italian police chief, fascist flunky Pietro Caruso, advocated the combing of his Regina Coeli prison for the rest. With Hitler’s time limit, they decided that a firing squad was too time consuming, and that they would shoot everyone in the back of the head. They offered the surviving men of that SS company the chance to avenge their dead comrades, but they declined.
The victims were transported to disused quarry tunnels near Via Ardeatina in trucks. The task fell to men who had largely never killed before, and so Kappler got them drunk on cognac beforehand. In groups the victims were led, their hands tied behind their backs, into the caves and made to conveniently kneel. The perpetrators didn’t want to waste more than one bullet on each of them. The caves grew so crowded that the latter victims were forced to kneel on the bodies of those already murdered. At one point, somebody realised that they had five victims too many, but they decided to kill them anyway, so that they would not discuss what they had seen. The 335 bodies were stacked a metre high, and then buried under a shower of rock when German engineers detonated explosives to seal the site and hide what had been done. The families found out bit by bit, sometimes months later, by letter, in order to hide the magnitude of the executions.
The youngest victim was a fifteen-year-old boy. Among their number were doctors, lawyers, students, ordinary workers, shopkeepers, artists and teachers. There was even a priest. There were also five generals, including Simone Simoni. The victims are buried together in the Fosse Ardeatine mausoleum. After all of those bronze and silver awards, in 1945 he was posthumously awarded the gold medal for military valor, like his son:
‘A brave fighter in eight campaigns, a war invalid, highly decorated for valour, of exceptional moral qualities and character, faithful to his oath and his duty as a soldier, he actively participated in the clandestine fight against the age-old enemy, despite constant risks. Arrested by the Nazi-Fascist police and subjected to the most inhuman torture, he maintained with pride and energy the absolute secrecy of the organisation, thus saving the lives of some of his collaborators. During a summary execution he was barbarously murdered in retaliation, making a victim of himself for the affirmation of the highest civil and military ideals. Thus, honoured by the glory of the supreme sacrifice, he closed a heroic life intensely and nobly spent in the service of the Fatherland.’
This particular article involved a trip to Rome and two days of research and writing. The time spent on this publication is sponsored by readers, who contribute the cost of one take-away coffee a month. If you are enjoying it, please consider joining them by becoming a free or paid subscriber.
If you would like to visit the site of the SS prison, it is a short walk from the Colosseum. You can find out more here. The quotes here come from the Italian equivalent of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. With thanks to Vanda Wilcox for helping me source the medal citations.
Fantastic story, quite the hero!
I will plagiarize...."so well written"