WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk 40. The Massacre of Monte Sole
Oct 10, 2019
A field visit to the Monte Sole area on the 75th anniversary brings wartime routes and partisan actions back into focus. The narrative traces decisions to hold ground, chaotic dawn attacks, and desperate village defenses. It follows civilians gathered for safety, the arrival of SS troops, mass killings in a cemetery, and one survivor’s perilous escape for help. The episode ends with reflection at the hilltop memorial.
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Partisan Ambush And Lupo's Disappearance
- James Holland recounts the partisan patrol from Cadotto on the night of 28–29 September 1944 as they were surprised by German forces at dawn.
- Lupo led partisans who fled across open ground to Caderino where he mysteriously disappeared while Gianni Rossi was wounded in both arms.
Mass Arrest At Casaglia Church
- James Holland tells how 202 civilians were gathered into the church at Casaglia and marched to the walled cemetery by the 3rd Company of the 16th Waffen SS Reconnaissance Battalion.
- Don Ubaldo was taken away and shot, the crowd were lined by the chapel and machine guns and grenades were brought in to begin the massacre.
Small Details That Reveal The Massacre's Brutality
- James Holland describes specific moments at the cemetery: an elderly woman was helped across the threshold then later shot, another woman ran for her baby and was killed, and grenades were used amid the shooting.
- These small details underline the chaotic, brutal nature of how civilians were targeted inside the enclosed cemetery.