Word: spezia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Above Naples the Germans might make a stand behind the Volturno River, where the old Romans posted a garrison and Garibaldi beat the Neapolitans. Above Rome, they might run a barricade along the Apennines, from La Spezia on the Ligurian Sea to Rimini on the Adriatic. Above that barrier the land sloped down to the Po Valley, and beyond towered the Alps. Napoleon once had hacked a way across that rampart of nature, via Tarvis and Klagenfurt, toward Vienna. But it was formidable. Rather than a direct road to Germany, Italy might be a flank for other bridgeheads. > Italy leads...
...Nazi movements. Along the coast they turned on lights at night to beckon British and U.S. landing parties. But by week's end the occupying Germans seemed to hold a firm upper hand over wide areas. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel proclaimed himself master of all Italy above the Spezia-Rimini line, imposed a "state of war," decreed death for "giving aid or assistance" to the Allies...
...late afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 8, a message reached Admiral Bagliria, commander of the Italian battle fleet berthed at La Spezia. The Italian surrender had been announced. Admiral Bagliria knew what to do; his decision had been made for him. Aboard his flagship, the 35,000-ton battleship Roma, he gave an order. At 6:30 p.m. the fleet moved out of La Spezia, turned southward...
...next afternoon the fleet from La Spezia had made its way to a point near the Strait of Bonifacio, which separates Corsica from Sardinia. Overhead hovered an R.A.F. reconnaissance plane; the ships were still outside Allied fighter range. At about 3:30 p.m. the tailgunner saw planes approaching. They were German Junkers...
...noted that the once-perpetual haze from factory chimneys no longer thickened the night over Germany's industrial valley. Once the night bombers hit the radar works at Friedrichshafen, flew to North Africa over a route free of Nazi fighters, then struck the Italian navy yards at La Spezia on the way home...