h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Peter

Can you tell me anything of what happend in Italy after the War, up until sept 1946. Which units went home, which units moved about, which units stayed in one place etc

Also were there particular towns or provinces where the Army and obviously the RASC might have been stationed

Many thanks

Kevin

Kevin

Italy was in a sort of legal limbo at the end of the war. Having 'unconditionally surrendered' in 1943, the legal but provisional Italian government declared war on Germany and was given the status of 'co-belligerent'. Thus Anglo-American forces were deemed to be 'liberators' rather than 'occupying forces', although these legal subtleties were rather blurred. For example, the Anglo-American forces issued Am-lire in an effort to stem rampant inflation. The Allied 'occupation' ended in 1946, except for Trieste and the surrounding area. Here the Allied Military Government remained in force until 1951 (when Italy became part of the administration against strong Yugoslav protestations) and allied troops remained in Zone A, which included Trieste, until October 1953.

Trieste was the first example of the utter naïveté of the Western Allies. The entire area had always been considered part of the Italian mainland since antiquity, but during the time of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire (ended in 1918) many Croats had settled there and in 1945 Tito, with the full backing of Stalin, laid claim to it. Fully trusting the Yugoslavs, the Allies divided the entire 'disputed' area into Zone A and Zone B. The plan was that the Yugoslavs would administer Zone B impartially until there was a formal Peace Treaty between the victors and Italy. Stalin must have been amazed at this trusting stupidity. Communist Yugoslavia promptly absorbed Zone B completely, resulting in some 350,000 Italian refugees pouring into Italy, and swiftly made fresh claims on Zone A and beyond. The Allies woke up too late, but that was the reason they were still there in 1953. France took some of the western Italian Alpine passes but at least wasn't as greedy as this. Trieste was not fully returned to Italy until November 1975 when, in a final agreement with Yugoslavia, Italy renounced all claims in perpetuity to Zone B. Since the demise of Yugoslavia, part of Zone B is now in Slovenia and the rest is in Croatia; about 2,000 years of Italian presence has been removed and all places renamed.

I do not know what British troops were there during that time, nor do I know in what order they left Italy in 1946. I was with (as a civilian) a battalion of the South African Imperial Light Horse & Kimberley Regiment during those very turbulent days; they left Italy just after Christmas 1945 or early 1946, memory fails me now.

Peter