Volante Rossa

The Volante Rossa performed murders of individuals it deemed representatives of the old régime. Its first action was the murder of two ausiliarie (female RSI soldiers), Rosa Bianchi Sciaccaluga and her daughter Liliana.[1] Some of the victims, often kidnapped without a declared pretext, were murdered in Lambrate or at the Giuriati sports field[3] whereas others were made to disappear in the Martesana and Villoresi canals, with a rock tied around their necks;[4] later the rumor would be purposely be spread that the victims had fled to Argentina.[4]

The murders of former Fascists led the latter to close ranks and to start taking the initiative,[4] and on November 5, 1945, the posters at Odeon movie theater publicizing Rossellini's film Roma città aperta were set on fire. The action was claimed by Domenico Leccisi's Partito Democratico Fascista (Democratic Fascist Party). On January 17, 1947 in via San Protaso, downtown Milan, the former Xth MAS Flotilla ausiliaria Brunilde Tanzi, also a member of the Partito Democratico Fascista was shot dead. Tilde had been responsible for switching a record during a radio advertisement, in order to play the banned Fascist anthem Giovinezza in piazza del Duomo.[5]

The authors of Tilde's murder were never discovered, but the modus operandi was that typical of the Volante Rossa.[6] On the same day another ausiliaria was murdered, Eva Maciacchini, a member of the Squadre d'Azione Mussolini ("Mussolini" Shock Squads), whose body was found near Lambrate.[7] Perhaps the most notorious of these murders was that of journalist Franco De Agazio, on March 14, 1947, which the Volante Rossa publicly claimed.[1]

De Agazio was considered guilty in that he had taken part in the RSI and because the newspaper he was currently directing, the Meridiano d'Italia, he had published an investigation into the treasure of Dongo (a hoard of gold purportedly carried by Mussolini which was never recovered) skeptical of the "official" version of events.[8] On July 6, 1947, a grenade was thrown into the house of Fascist Fulvio Mazzetti, but volantista Mario "Mila" Gandini was also hit by some shrapnel and, once wounded, was apprehended by police.[9]

On October 29, 1947, an attempt was made to bomb the MSI headquarters in via Santa Radegonda and on November 4 Volante Rossa members broke into the house of General Ferruccio Gatti's, formerly Lieutenant-General of the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale,[9] a recipient of the Medal of Military Valour,[4] and indicated by L'Unità (the main Communist newspaper) as one of the leaders of the fledgling Neo-Fascist movements. The former Partisans opened fire on the General, killing him and heavily wounding his son Riccardo, as he attempted to protect his father.[4]

On January 27, 1949 Felice Ghisalberti was murdered, a former member of the "Muti" Legion, who had taken part in many anti-partisan roundups and was now accused by the Volante Rossa of killing Eugenio Curiel.[10] In fact, Ghisalberti had been tried and declared not guilty for this accusation on June 4, 1947.[10] Later, a Volante Rossa member who found work in Ghisalberti's father's workshop justified the murder by alleging that Ghisalberti had often boasted publicly about killing partisans.[10] The same day, Leonardo Masazza, a clerk with Siemens, was killed.[9] On February 10, 1949, questore (police chief) Vincenzo Agnesina organized a large-scale roundup in Lambrate, which led to the arrest of 27 volantisti.[11]

In October 1947 the Volante Rossa started its official contacts with the Italian Communist Party as well as openly performing supporting activities for the Party and the trade unions, especially during strikes and workers' protests, where it would perform security tasks and protect the protesters from law enforcement.[12] The Volante Rossa also took part in the November 28, 1947 clashes, when the Communist Party broke into Milan's prefetto's office to protest the replacement of old prefetto Ettore Troilo.[13]

During the Italian general election of 1948, the Volante Rossa performed security tasks for Communist candidates, but when Palmiro Togliatti came to Milan during his electoral tour, some sources state that he didn't let them approach him.[13] The electoral defeat provoked a crisis between the Volante Rossa and the PCI, the latter progressively distancing itself from the former and later declaring its ignorance regarding the team's criminal activities.[13] Nevertheless, the Volante Rossa's murders continued for nearly a year,[14] and some members were tried for the double murder of Rosa Bianchi Sciaccaluga and her daughter Liliana, but without any final sentence.[14]

• Cesare Bermani, La Volante Rossa (estate 1945-febbraio 1949), su Primo Maggio, aprile 1977
• Cesare Bermani, Storia e mito della Volante rossa. Prefazione di Giorgio Galli, Nuove Edizioni Internazionali, pp. 160, 1997
• Carlo Guerriero e Fausto Rondinelli, La volante rossa, 1996
• G. Fasanella e G. Pellegrino, La guerra civile, Rizzoli, 2005
• Massimo Recchioni, Ultimi fuochi di Resistenza - Storia di un combattente della Volante Rossa, prefazione di Cesare Bermani, Derive Approdi, 2009
• Massimo Recchioni, Il Tenente Alvaro, la Volante Rossa e i rifugiati politici italiani in Cecoslovacchia, Derive Approdi, 2011
• Enzo Antonio Cicchino e Roberto Olivo, Correva l'anno della vendetta, Mursia, 2013
• Pier Mario Fasanotti e Valeria Gandus, Mambo italiano, tre lustri di fatti e misfatti, Marco Tropea editore, 2000
• Francesco Trento, La guerra non era finita. I partigiani della Volante Rossa, Editori Laterza, 2014
• Massimiliano Griner, La pupilla del Duce, Edizioni Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2004