One day in advance, on November
30, 2021 instead of December 1, 96-year-old Rocco Telese, of Italian origin and
belonging to the 339th battalion of the 85th Division, arrived in Tremensuoli;
after 77 years he is still lucid as a young man and tells of the most
complicated phases of the fighting in the area of Tremensuoli and Minturno.
Rocco is an ambassador of the memory of the "Gustav Line" that
crossed the territory of Tremensuoli and he, together with his comrades in
arms, were deployed on the front line against the Nazis in May 1944. Rocco
Telese, arrived in Tremensuoli, in the afternoon he stopped at the monument in
Piazza Bergantino inaugurated on 2 September 1992, wanted by the "Polar
Bears" Association of World War II, a partnership that brings together all
the veterans of the second conflict world and represents the sacrifice of one
thousand and one hundred American soldiers who perished in southern Lazio
during the operation to break through the "Gustav Line". The
"Polar Bears" Association today gathers all the veterans who belonged
to the 339th infantry regiment which was joined in Italy by a company of the
910th field artillery battalion, the 310th health battalion and the 310th
engineers department. To commemorate the glory of these heroes, the fighters of
the 339th regiment built only two monuments: One represents a polar bear and is
located in Troy (Michigan), near Detroit, in the United States, where many
soldiers of the regiment came from, the the second monument, much more modest,
is located in Tremensuoli, the oldest fraction of the Municipality of Minturno,
where the 339th infantry regiment took part in the very hard battle, at the end
of which the "Gustav Line" was broken. Rocco Telese then made a stop
in Piazzatella to greet the almost centenary lady Nunziata he surely remembers
and with whom he wanted to photograph himself exchanging many words in Italian
of affection and friendship. Arriving in Capo Trivio he recalled the old restaurant
where he hid numerous boxes of ammunition, never collected again and the church
of St. Nicander where he could enter and remain in prayer, recalling the period
spent on hill 66, along the San Domenico ridge and at Pantanello. Recommended
by Giovanni D'Onofrio, of the Tremensuoli District Committee (CdQT), he was
able to see the "Sepporte" a refuge where the villagers hid to escape
the bombings and the building where the German command was located in Largo
Cappella. Rocco was accompanied by friends of the "Battaglia di
Cassino", "Gotica Toscana" and Andrew Biggio, the author of
"The Rifle", the book that collects all the experiences and stories
of the veterans of the 2nd World War encountered and interviewed by him. The
writer, already enlisted in the Marine Corps, experienced the combat firsthand
during his missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. From these experiences and from
the stories of his grandfather who spoke of his brother, his namesake, who
never returned from the front, who lost his life in September 1944 in the
mountains above Barberino di Mugello (Florence) and for his family, emigrants
in the early 1900s from Liguria, he decided to write a book collecting stories
and stories directly from the last veterans of the Second World War: All united
by a common thread, the M1 Garand rifle, an icon of American soldiers engaged
in the conflict. From this research and reconstruction work, the stories of the
last surviving veterans came out, including Rocco Telese. Before leaving for
the Castelforte museum, Andrew Biggio wanted to give D’Onofrio, for the whole
community of Tremensuoli, the book he had also autographed by Rocco, in memory
of an afternoon full of emotions and indelible memories. Rocco greeted those
present with the phrase he will never forget: "Pe’ cent’anni” (For a hundred years!) The citizens of Tremensuoli
and its surroundings thank Rocco Telese and all those who fought and lost their
lives at a young age, for restoring freedom to our fathers and grandparents who
rebuilt Italy by giving back the hope of a better life.
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