This week Sabine’s battlefieldguide Saturday is going to Houthulst
Italians buried in Flanders
Weeks ago I visited Houthulst Belgian cemetery, I knew there were Italian prisoners of war there but never took the time to research them, one reason is my Italian is non excisting and since I only guide in English ( yes I know my native language is Flemisch but that is just me) And never had the request to visit that Belgian cemetery. Bur here we are
A total of 6 million Italians were deployed in World War I. Of these, 600 000 died.
The Italian army command under commander-in-chief General Luigi Cadorna took the view that the soldiers but functioned when driven hrough fear and terror. Constantly the soldiers got the order to attack, regardless of the losses. The best known is the decimation in the 140th and 141st regiment Infantry (Brigade Catanzaro) at Santa Maria la Longa (Udine). On 15 July 1917 the two regiments were revolting and urged other regiments to follow. Shots were fired. The reprisals followed the next day. Four soldiers whose guns were hot were shot on the spot. Twelve others were indicated by fate and immediately executed and a 123 men were brought before a military tribunal.
Some 3000 Italian prisoners were in the Austrian-German concentration camps and brought to Belgium . After the defeat in Caporetto, they were considered by the Italian State as deserters ‘since they had done nothing to themselves to defend, en ended up being captured. This could explain why there was no Italian national organization existing to give them material, to assist during their imprisonment. The soldiers could only count on the support of their families, who were far away in Italy.
This travelling had a bad effect on the distribution of the necessary food and clothing parcels. the living conditions were bad. many ended up in hospitals. But where were these Italians supposed to work? First of all, there was a group of about 800 Italians living near the Castle of Wallemote of Gaspar Van de Boogaerde near Izegem. They had to work in the region of Izegem, Moorslede, Staden and on the canal Roeselare-Leie. They had to make new streets for the transport of building materials coming from Boom in view of new German reinforcements. The region was an important junction to and from the front. Trains and trams were of great importance and because of their strategic function, stations and railway switches were often the most important aim of bombing. The canals and ports, such as in Roeselare, were also very important. On 6 January 1918, Kortrijk received five hundred Italian prisoners: they stayed in the convent . The same number was dispersed throughout the surrounding municipalities. Many of them died of exhaustion or ill-treatment. On 20 June the city council asked to be allowed to deliver food at least once a week to the prisoners who were staying in the emergency church of Saint John’s parish. The prisoners also had to exhume, transport and reburial the bodies of killed German soldiers, as the front line moved regularly and the cemetery came too close to the territorial boundary of the Ingelmunster, Rumbeke, Ardooie, Lendelede and Izegem lines.
Houthulst (military cemetery): 81 graves, of which 7 are unknown.
In Langemark (Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof) there is 1 Italian in the mass grave. named Giuseppe Scala ( or Joseppi Skala ) 44790, 246 reggimento fanteria, from Ferruzzano, Reggio Calabria, Son of Francesco Antonio and Maria Cidoni;
On 20 March 1924 an unknown Italian (“with fractured skull, black haired, a good set of teeth, boots size 30 ½, length about 1m66”) was excavated in Oostrozebeke. The corpse was put in a jute bag and transferred to Klerken-Houthulst Six days later the same happened to the corpse of Fortunato Cheli: excavated in Oostrozebeke and transferred to Klerken-Houthulst27. Between 26 October and 20 November 1925, 67 Italian bodies were taken from the West Flanders region to the new military cemetery of Klerken-Houthulst. The Office des Sépultures militaires, under the watchful eye of lieutenant Remy Oswald, transported the coffins and bodies to Klerken-Houthulst, where a certain Hippolyte Vanbecelaere buried them again.
(‘exhumation’) and burial (‘inhumation’) was documented by an official report (‘procès verbal d’exhumation et d’inhumation’), which included the name of the Italian soldier, his marital status, place of burial, number of the grave where he was previously buried and number of the new grave in Klerken-Houthulst. on 24 November 1928, the body of Pietro Wizo was transferred to Houthulst. He was a prisoner of war of the Sixth Company in the German camp of Wittenberg. Until then he had been buried in the Lazarethfriedhof “Le Bizet” near Ploegsteert . According to the official excavation report his body completely decomposed, with “traces of clothing of a substance other than that of the Germans, with a good preserved ribbon with white, green and a third indefinable colour”. The mortal remains were placed in a sealed coffin. On April 4th , 1929, the remains of Antonio Possamai were excavated in Bas-Warneton Ehrenfriedhof and transferred to Houthulst, where he could rest with his compatriots. Quite a bit later, on 18 November1975, the remains of six Italian soldiers from the municipal cemetery in the Peter Benoitlaan from Deinze were moved to the military cemetery of Houthulst.
sources
inventaris.ontroerenderfgoed.be
lirias.kuleuven.be