The Ventotene Mockery

Piergiorgio Grossi
Regional Secretary in Liguria of UEF-Italy

John Steinbeck, the American writer author of "The Grapes of Wrath", "Of Mice and Men" and "Tortilla Flat", has been war correspondent for the "New York Herald Tribune" for six months during the Second World War. His correspondences have been collected in a volume published in Italy with the title “C'era una volta una guerra”(“Once there was a war”). Steinbeck followed the American troops after their landing in Salerno from October 1943 until the following December. In his correspondence he narrates an episode unknown to most people, the conquest of the island of Ventotene.

The episode of the taking of Ventotene can be reconstructed through Steinbeck’s correspondence, the written testimony, conserved in the Municipality of Ventotene, of the commander of the destroyer “USS KNIGHT” Frank J. Tarallo, and the oral testimonies of the inhabitants of Ventotene, collected by Filomena Gargiulo in her book "Ventotene isola di confino", published by "Ultima Spiaggia".

Ventotene was an island of internal exile where up to 800 anti-fascists had been imprisoned until the summer of 1943. In September 1943 there were no longer internees, who had been freed after the fall of Mussolini, but about 250 Italian soldiers remained, mainly prison guards, certainly not combat groups, and a garrison of 87 German soldiers assigned to oversee the radar station at the top of the island, which for the Americans, who were preparing the landing at Salerno on 9th September, would have been strategically important.

The task of occupying Ventotene and deactivating the German radar station was assigned to a unit of 43 American paratroopers, 3 officers and 40 soldiers, veterans from Africa who were boarded on the USS KNIGHT, personally known by Steinbeck himself during his stay in Italy.

The first mission was to convince the 250 Italian soldiers to surrender, and it was relatively easy: on the afternoon of 8th September, a pilot boat approached the port of Ventotene and, equipped with a loudspeaker, threatened to open fire from the American ships’ cannons around the island, if the Italian garrison had not surrended. Italians, certainly already informed of the just announced armistice between Italy and the allies, gladly accepted to surrender, and, in the same night, a tender with 5 American soldiers and officers went to Ventotene’s port to make sure that the Italians surrended.

There was a severe blackout on the island and even the American tender sailed with the lights off to avoid a possible German fire.

Maintaining complete darkness, however, caused the American tender to miss the entrance to the port twice: the first time they landed in a bay in the south-east and only after lighting a torch, they noticed that it was not the port’s bay, but the inlet of the old Roman port instead. The second time they landed on the pier’s breakwater, same scene.

Only on the third attempt they entered the port, disarmed the only German sentry and waited for the 250 Italian soldiers to reach the port and lay down their arms.

At this point a civilian enters the scene, a man described by Steinbeck as dressed in an amusing pink suit (it was night, maybe it was a pajamas), who introduces himself as a former political confined and who, speaking English and German, offers himself as an interpreter and informant. He was probably the count Alberto Bracco, known as "caramella" because of his use of a monocle similar to a candy (he was perhaps considered an anarchist, category that had not been freed after the fall of Mussolini). In their tales, the islanders also call him “il conte rosso” ("the red count"), it is not known whether because of the pink suit or of his political ideas. His information was precious: he indicated the exact number of the Germans, 87, that the Americans ignored, and, above all, he informed that the Germans near the port believed that the two nocturnal landing attempts of the tender were actual landings of troops at different points, and the Germans, fearing of being surrounded, had retreated to the only hill on the island preparing to resist, blowing up some ammunition depots and the radar station itself, not to let it fall into enemy hands. In the meanwhile, after the surrender of the Italians, the 43 American paratroopers had landed in the port before sunrise, ready for action. Attempting an assault with 43 soldiers who didn’t know the area (as the failed landing attempts proved) against 87 German soldiers, presumably well armed and in strategic positions, was extremely risky and would have caused human losses, even among civilians, if a naval bombardment would have taken place.

It is not known whether on the initiative of an American petty officer (as said by Steinbeck) or at the suggestion of the pink-suit character (as said by Tarallo and the islanders), it was decided to try to deceive the Germans. An unarmed American petty officer with a white flag walked with “count Bracco” towards the German post. During the talk with the German officer, "count Bracco", who acted as an interpreter and was known and trusted by the Germans, said that 600 marines had landed on the island and that the wisest thing to do was to surrender, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. In that case the Germans would have been treated with dignity as prisoners, according to the Geneva Convention.

The bluff was credible because, as related by the count, the Germans were convinced that a landing had really taken place during the night, and they had surely verified the arrival of the paratroopers who had occupied the roof of the barracks and of some houses. The number of 600 was the consistency of a battalion, so it was a credible number.

After a short negotiation, the 87 Germans agreed to lay down their arms and leave the station. Escorted up to the Town Hall square by the 40 paratroopers, they laid down their weapons and were imprisoned on the third floor of the Town Hall (already equipped as a prison for confined people).

At this point only did the Germans, observing the coming and going in the Town Hall square from the window grates, realize that the Americans were not 600, but only the 40 who had escorted them.

Thus the taking of Ventotene took place without bloodshed and without firing a single shot.

All traces of the "red count" have been lost, the islanders knew him only as "caramella"; the contacts between the inhabitants and the confined were in fact strongly hindered, and the confined themselves didn’t like to trust the islanders, because they suspected that among them there were fascist spies.

A report made by the paratrooper commanding officer probably exists, but it has never been made public. The only official testimony is Tarallo’s one (posthumous) and Steinbeck’s war correspondence dated December 3, 1943, which we can trust not only for the author’s prestige, but also for the confirmation of the islanders’ testimonies.

Ventotene was the first municipality in the province of Latina to be freed.