The Vatican Pimpernel (20 page)

Life in Rome was always dangerous for escaped prisoners of war. From time to time the Germans might suddenly cordon off a street and then examine the identity cards of everyone caught in the trap. If they found Italians of military age, these were taken away for deportation to Germany or sent to work in labour camps in the north where the Germans were building defensive positions. Obviously, if an escaped prisoner of war was caught in this situation, he would be sent straight to prison.

One of those who found himself to be the subject of scrutiny by the Germans was Garrad-Cole. He was on a tram one day when he noticed two German soldiers taking a particular interest in him. He got off the tram at the next stop but they followed.

He began to run, but very quickly they caught up with him and asked for his identity card. He produced the forged one he had but obviously they doubted its validity and told him they were taking him to prison. And they began to escort him down the street.

Garrad-Cole knew his only hope was to get off the street or he and maybe innocent civilians would be shot. By chance he was near the apartment block where the Lucidis lived. As he reached the doorway, his pursuers were out of sight and he dived in. Some seconds later they ran past. Upstairs he met Renzo Lucidi who suggested to him that he hide on the roof. When Garrad-Cole got there he realised that he could gain access to the top of the lift so when Renzo Lucidi brought it up to the top floor, ‘I climbed on the top of the cage to lie full length in the small space between the top of the cage and the winding gear.'
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Some minutes later, a German search party arrived and for over an hour sought the escaper without success. However, they had a description of the man they were seeking. After they left, he went to the Lucidis' flat and changed from his light-coloured raincoat and black trilby into a brown overcoat of Renzo's and a brown trilby hat belonging to Gerald, his elder son. The Lucidis sent him on his way with their younger son Maurice, in the belief that he would arouse less suspicion in the company of a child. Maurice and his ‘father' walked out of the area with the youngster keeping up a steady chatter so that they aroused nothing more than a glance from the Germans. When they reached the banks of the Tiber and relative safety, Maurice said goodbye and, ‘with a cheerful wave went scampering off home'.
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When the King and Badoglio's Government deserted Rome in 1943, a secret Committee of National Liberation (CLN) was formed. This was representative of six different political groups and operated under the leadership of Ivane Bonomi. Bonomi was an elder statesman of the Roman scene dating from pre-Mussolini days. His party, the Labour Democrats, were right of centre and opposed to the King and the Badoglio Government which was now located at Brindisi. The most powerful party throughout Italy at that time were the Christian Democrats, led by De Gasperi, representing Catholic and conservative opinion. Also on the right were the Liberal Party and both they and the Christian Democrats were opposed to the King and Badoglio. Even more strongly opposed to them were the three parties of the left, the Party of Action, the Socialist Party and the Communists. Outside the Committee of National Liberation was the Military Front in Rome founded by a Colonel Montezelmo which was supportive of the Monarchy and Badoglio. Linked to the Communist Group was the partisan force known as Gap who were the most effective unit within the Resistance in the ongoing battle with the German and Fascist authorities.

Since the beginning of 1944, the numbers involved in policing Rome and controlling the situation had greatly increased. The Germans had brought in about 500 extra men and, in addition, there was Koch's Special Police Unit and the aggressive new Police Chief, Caruso. Of the 500 additional Germans policing Rome, the Eleventh Company consisted of 160 men and were based in the city centre. They were recent recruits and were undergoing training. Each morning they would march through central Rome to a shooting range and then march back. Aside from anything else, it was a visible presence on the streets of Rome, underlying the intentions of the authorities to control any opposition. They followed this routine day after day from mid-February onwards. One of the Romans who observed their marching and the regularity of the timing was a senior activist in the Gappist movement. He noted that it was almost exactly 2.00 p. m. each day when they turned into the Via Rasella, which is a narrow and steep street up the Quirinal Hill. The partisans decided it was an ideal location for an attack.

The authorities set 23 March as a celebration day in Rome marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Fascist movement under Mussolini. A range of events was organised for the day. The Gappist leaders selected this as a prime date for launching an attack. Their plan had two targets – one located in a theatre where some of the celebrations were due to be held and the other on the Via Rasella. As it happened, there was a last minute change of plan in relation to the location of the celebration so the former element of the plan had to be aborted. Indeed, the same almost applied to the proposal in relation to the Via Rasella. The police unit did not arrive at 2.00 p. m., as had happened every day previously, because of duties in relation to the celebrations organised elsewhere in the city. The Gappists, who were located at various points of the street to perpetrate the attack, had already decided that if the police unit had not arrived by 4.00 p. m., they would abort. However, the marching policemen arrived into the street at 3.45 p. m. and the Gappists put the plan into action. Essentially it had two elements: firstly, an explosion of TNT by means of a 50-second fuse which would impact on the leading half of the marching group; and secondly, a firing of four 45 mm mortars with a three-second fuse on the latter half of the group. Another group of the partisans were in place to provide cover for the escape of their colleagues. More than two dozen of the policemen were killed instantly. Thirty others lay dying or seriously wounded and two civilians were killed. By 4.00 p. m., all the Gappists had made their escape successfully.

By chance, the journalist, de Wyss, was in the locality. The photographer with whom she worked lived on the Via Rasella and she was bringing him film to develop when a bomb went off.

The impact of the 40 lb of dynamite was felt over a wide area, particularly in the Ministry of Corporations where the Fascist commemoration was coming to a close. Many of the senior figures of the German and Fascist organisations were present and immediately made for the scene. People who lived on the street were dragged out and lined up. An observer recorded the scene:

There was an immediate clash between various high-ranking officials as to what should be done. One wanted to blow up the entire street and indeed engineers arrived to carry out this task. News of the attack reached Hitler's Headquarters by 4.30 p. m. His initial reaction was that the entire quarter of the city, including everyone who lived there, should be blown up and for every German police officer killed they should shoot between 30 and 50 Italians.

Ongoing negotiations between the Vatican and the German Ambassador, as regards Rome becoming an open city, were then reaching a crucial stage. The forthcoming warm weather was expected to facilitate an Allied offensive which might induce Kesselring to abandon his defence in the south and re-establish a new position north of Rome. If successful, the German troops would have withdrawn from the city. The incident put an end to those hopes for the moment. The eventual instruction to Kappler from the German authorities was that for every German killed ten Italians were to be executed. Eventually, 335 were killed. The executions were carried out in the Ardeatine caves and engineers then sealed off the tunnels with explosives. On Saturday 25 March, the newspapers published a communiqué from the German high command:

As Mother Mary observed, a shiver of horror ran through all those who read this cold-blooded communiqué. The Irish observer of these events, MacWhite, reacted similarly:

Among those killed were five of O'Flaherty's helpers: Roazzi, Losena, Bernardini, together with Casadi and Fantini who had been captured with Br Robert. After this event, another 2,000 policemen and troops were brought into the city by the Germans to control the situation. Movement through the city now became very difficult. At the same time as the full details of the Ardeatine horror became known throughout the city, the escape organisation found more and more people now willing to help. They were available to assist even though they knew capture would mean immediate death. The CLN had always been racked by dissension and, as Kiernan observed later, the only common denominator among the various parties was their opposition to Fascism. However, this episode brought them together and they managed to agree a statement which was released to the newspapers.

The Monsignor's nephew, Hugh, recalls with fondness two holidays he spent with his uncle in Rome in 1955 and 1959. As with all friends who visited him in the Eternal City, the Monsignor was very generous with his time and expertise in relation to escorting his nephew around the city. However, he rarely spoke of the wartime events. Moreover, there was one place he would bring no visitor to and that was the Caves, although he would arrange for somebody else to do so. His nephew surmises:

We know, however, that he did make one visit. Immediately after Liberation, the Ardeatine Caves became a location of investigation and subsequently pilgrimage. The US authorities appointed a commission of American and Italian officials to investigate the crime and to exhume the bodies and identify them insofar as this was possible. When that was complete, the location was open to family members and others who wished to come. O'Flaherty came on a visit in 1947, in the company of Veronica Dunne, the renowned singer and music teacher who, at that stage, was living in Rome, as a student under his guardianship. She recalls his tears during that visit as they knelt on the floor of the caves and together recited the Rosary for those who had been murdered.

After the massacre at the Caves, more people were willing to offer their assistance. One source of additional help came through Giuseppe, who had been valuable in tipping off the organisation about the attempted snatches of Monsignor O'Flaherty, as we have seen. He had a friend who worked as a clerk in the police headquarters. This in fact was the lame Italian boy who had twice tipped off Mrs Chevalier with accurate information. Both youths wanted to enter into an arrangement, for a small payment, whereby prior notice of the routine orders for the German and Fascist Gestapo groups would be supplied to O'Flaherty and Derry. For the remainder of the time the organisation was in operation this information proved to be highly accurate and valuable. In fact, this offer of additional help came just in the nick of time as it became obvious that somebody was leaking information about the organisation. O'Flaherty's team of priests and Simpson were kept busy travelling through the city moving people, often with only an hour or two to spare. Keeping ‘ahead of the posse' was enormously difficult as the routine orders were published usually about midday. Then they had to be transferred to the British Legation by a circuitous route where, depending on the information supplied, Derry had to put emergency evacuation procedures into action. As well as forewarning them of moves the security forces were about to make, Giuseppe was in a position to tip off the organisation about information being supplied by those supportive of the authorities in relation to people on the run.