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Volante Rossa
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Volante Rossa
The organization officially known as Volante Rossa "Martiri Partigiani" (Red Quick-intervention [Team] "Partisan Martyrs"), often mentioned simply as Volante Rossa, was a clandestine antifascist paramilitary organization active in and around Milan in the postwar to the Second World War, from 1945 to 1949. Led by "tenente Alvaro" ("Lieutenant Alvaro"), nom-de-guerre of Giulio Paggio, it was made up of communist partisans and workers who aimed with their actions to build a continuity with the wartime action of the Italian Resistance.
The Volante Rossa had its roots in the organizational apparatus of the Gruppi di Azione Patriottica ("Groups of Patriotic Action", GAP), small-scale nuclei within the wartime Italian Resistance Movement which saw official action until 25 April 1945, and took its moniker from a section of the Stalinist-affiliated Brigate Garibaldi operating around Ossola, near the Alps: after the Allied High Command ordered the partisan formations to give up Republican Fascist prisoners, Paggio's men started murdering individuals identified as political adversaries.
After its foundation in Milan, the organization augmented its influence, relying on local networks and spreading as much as to cover much of Northern and Central Italy. It could rely on safehouses and alliances throughout all of Lombardy and Piedmont, in the so-called Emilian "triangle of death" and as far as Latium. It remained active for four years, until 1949. Its main headquarters were in the former Casa del Fascio in Lambrate (Milan), via Conte Rosso 12, which was transformed after April 25 into a People's House. This solution provided an unexpectedly useful cover and alibi for the continuous influx of persons.
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. Some of the victims, often kidnapped without a declared pretext, were murdered in Lambrate or at the Giuriati sports field whereas others were made to disappear in the Martesana and Villoresi canals, with a rock tied around their necks; later the rumor would be purposely be spread that the victims had fled to Argentina.
The murders of former Fascists led the latter to close ranks and to start taking the initiative, and on 5 November 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 17 January 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.
The authors of Tilde's murder were never discovered, but the modus operandi was that typical of the Volante Rossa. 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. Perhaps the most notorious of these murders was that of journalist Franco De Agazio, on 14 March 1947, which the Volante Rossa publicly claimed.
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. On 6 July 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.
On 29 October 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, a recipient of the Medal of Military Valour, 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.
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Volante Rossa
The organization officially known as Volante Rossa "Martiri Partigiani" (Red Quick-intervention [Team] "Partisan Martyrs"), often mentioned simply as Volante Rossa, was a clandestine antifascist paramilitary organization active in and around Milan in the postwar to the Second World War, from 1945 to 1949. Led by "tenente Alvaro" ("Lieutenant Alvaro"), nom-de-guerre of Giulio Paggio, it was made up of communist partisans and workers who aimed with their actions to build a continuity with the wartime action of the Italian Resistance.
The Volante Rossa had its roots in the organizational apparatus of the Gruppi di Azione Patriottica ("Groups of Patriotic Action", GAP), small-scale nuclei within the wartime Italian Resistance Movement which saw official action until 25 April 1945, and took its moniker from a section of the Stalinist-affiliated Brigate Garibaldi operating around Ossola, near the Alps: after the Allied High Command ordered the partisan formations to give up Republican Fascist prisoners, Paggio's men started murdering individuals identified as political adversaries.
After its foundation in Milan, the organization augmented its influence, relying on local networks and spreading as much as to cover much of Northern and Central Italy. It could rely on safehouses and alliances throughout all of Lombardy and Piedmont, in the so-called Emilian "triangle of death" and as far as Latium. It remained active for four years, until 1949. Its main headquarters were in the former Casa del Fascio in Lambrate (Milan), via Conte Rosso 12, which was transformed after April 25 into a People's House. This solution provided an unexpectedly useful cover and alibi for the continuous influx of persons.
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. Some of the victims, often kidnapped without a declared pretext, were murdered in Lambrate or at the Giuriati sports field whereas others were made to disappear in the Martesana and Villoresi canals, with a rock tied around their necks; later the rumor would be purposely be spread that the victims had fled to Argentina.
The murders of former Fascists led the latter to close ranks and to start taking the initiative, and on 5 November 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 17 January 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.
The authors of Tilde's murder were never discovered, but the modus operandi was that typical of the Volante Rossa. 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. Perhaps the most notorious of these murders was that of journalist Franco De Agazio, on 14 March 1947, which the Volante Rossa publicly claimed.
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. On 6 July 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.
On 29 October 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, a recipient of the Medal of Military Valour, 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.
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