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Italian liberation April 1945

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by StourBlue (U1774521) on Friday, 17th October 2008

  Would anyone have any information on the liberation of Imola (near Bologna) in northern Italy towards the end of WW2?
  I'm looking for a date when Allied troops finally liberated the town. I've also heard that it was Polish troops who were first in, any idea if this was the case?
  thanks in advance.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Hasse (U1882612) on Friday, 17th October 2008

  Stou blue
  
  Not an expert of the Italian campaign here is the gist of it.
  
  The battle of Imola,Bologna and south of the Po,was fought between 9 to 23 april 1945.
  
  The 8th armys attack was spearheaded by two corpses the V corps including NZ and Indian troops and 2 Polish corps.
  
  The germans did as usual put up a stiff resitance.
  
  Hasse

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• Message 3

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  Posted by Triceratops (U3420301) on Friday, 17th October 2008

  SB,
  
  This might be of help;
  
  

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• Message 4

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  Posted by Charles Babbage (U2239092) on Saturday, 18th October 2008

  This battle was mentioned briefly in one book I read a few years ago – β€œFor Your Freedom and Ours” by Olsen and Cloud.
  
  There were apparently fears amongst the Allied leadership that the Polish troops involved in this battle would be less than 100% committed. This battle was after details of the Yalta agreement had come out and a large percentage of these Polish troops were from what was formerly Eastern Poland and had spent time in Gulags. These troops knew that they had lost their homes and the risks they would face if they ever decided to return after to the area that was now Poland.
  
  Many noted their mixed feelings after the battle – being greeted by the population as liberators but knowing that their own towns and villages would not experience the same liberation.
  

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• Message 5

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  Posted by Trooper Tom Canning - WW2 Site Helper (U519668) on Saturday, 18th October 2008

  SB - there is much truth in that book report as the Polish troops felt that they had been sacrificed by Churchill at Yalta.
  
  Truth was that this was only a confirmation of a deal struck much earlier with the big three.
  
  Yalta was Stalin's big play as by then Rooseveldt was a dying man - Churchill was no longer a world leader as Britain was almost bankrupt - so Stalin was able to get his demand for the return of his deserters "on the nod" as it were.
  
  Unhappily the occupation troops in Austria had the main task of rounding these up and handing them over at both Judenberg and Trieste
  only for them to be shot and buried.
  
  The Polish corps was not too involved in the latter battles after the Argenta Gap victories.
  Cheers
  

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