Episode 5 - Cherokee - Part 2

Hello everybody and welcome to this new episode of "Tales from the hideout". I, as always, am Nicola, and I will tell for you the conclusion of the Cherokee mission's story, resuming right where we left in the previous episode. The mission, parachuted in North-Western Piedmont, in the Fall of 1944, spent a lot of time organising and supplying the local partisans. Thanks to these supplies, albeit not enough, the partisans were able to strike at the Nazi-fascist forces more effectively, causing the big rastrellamento of January 1945. During this rastrellamento, the mission chief, Major Alastair MacDonald was captured. Let's not waste any more time, and go right back on the mountains in Piedmont.

MacDonald's capture did not spell the end of the mission. The Cherokee was too large, too important, too much linked with too many bands, and it managed too many information to be simply dismembered among the other missions in the area or, even worse, to completely disappear. The agents kept operating in a disjointed manner (even though with a good amount of success), under the constant pressure of the Nazi-fascists, for almost a month. Until, on 18 March 1945, under Amoore' supervision, Major Robert Readhead and Captain Mark Terry (an Italian named Marco Folchi-Vici who was his interpreter) were parachuted about 10Km south-east of Biella. The drop was dangerous, as the area was ripe with German troops, but it ended well. The two officers, carried by the wind, ended up far away from the landing zone and landed in a thick wood. In the dark, they almost shot each other, but were finally discovered by a New Zealander who, as Readhead reports, was completely drunk. This did not prevent him from guiding them, safe and sound, to Amoore. The orders Readhead brought were to continue the guerrilla activities against the Germans and to prepare anti-scorch plans to enact during the German withdrawal. Amoore had established his HQ in Sala Biellese and, on 9 March, the mission held a meeting with the zone commander, where Readhead told them the new Allied directives. As his predecessor, he as well was not impressed with the zone command, however, he was satisfied by their promises of cooperation. There was also the problem of the new directives on airdropped supplies to the Italian Resistance that saw the reduction in personal weapons dropped, such as pistols, machine guns, etc... in favour of explosives. The Italians did not complain but a re-distribution of the weapons already distributed had to be made, and weapons were considered the collective property of the bands, rather than the personal property of each partisan. To set the example, the mission also relinquished their personal weapons that became part of this 'collective property'. For a while, this seemed to satisfy the partisans but discontent grew quickly, as the OSS mission that operated in the same area was instead very generous with the distribution of arms and munitions. This led to the partisans complaining with the Cherokee for this disparity. Readhead complained about this with the Commands but, as always (it is a constant of this podcast), without any success.

On March 21st Readhead was in Mongrando, for a prisoner exchange between the partisans and the German garrison of Biella. Readhead was struck by the atmosphere in the village, so much that he decided to write this apparently futile detail in his final report. The villagers, in fact, cheered and clapped for the partisans openly, despite the presence of German troops, while the German prisoners were insulted and spat upon. The prisoners, moreover, did not seem very happy to leave the partisans' custody and rejoin their comrades.

In the meantime, a string of visits to the new chief of the mission had begun. Captain Bell, who was lurking in the Aosta Valley, sent word that he would have come shortly. The Captain had kept himself busy blowing up bridges in the South-Eastern side of the Valley. Carmagnola was still in the area and Readhead put him in charge of propaganda, a task that the Italian performed with great dedication. Amoore and Terry were sent scouting in the nearby valleys. Bands were re-organised into sabotage squads, with the injection of Polish elements who had deserted the Todt organisation. Here a very brief parenthesis is needed: the Todt was a Nazi organisation, initially operating only in Germany and later extended to the occupied countries, that was in charge of providing forced workers for the tasks the Reich deemed necessary, whether those were the construction of bridges or of the defenses on the Gothic Line. However, with so many men under his command, Readhead soon discovered he lacked officers. Armando and Piero had been killed, Mercurio had been captured and executed, Sciabola had been captured but managed to escape and now was in Switzerland. Lupo, Amici and Gabory were in Biella, without doing anything in particular, beside enjoying the company of local girls. Readhead's requests were answered and, on March 29th, Lt Alex Inhatowicz, a Polish officer, descended from the sky. During his drop he lost his bag, that was filled with explosive. The bang it made when it crashed on the ground reverberated in the nearby valleys and, in the following days, there was much talk about a 'missile' that had landed in the area. Inhatowicz did not speak Italian and, for this reason, was initially assigned to training the Polish partisans. However, he soon became the general quartermaster of the mission and thanks to his overflowing enthusiasm, he soon begun to train even the Italians. Another well-received arrival was that of 'Giuseppe' the W/T operator of Major Churchill, who had remained in Milan after the Major's departure. Readhead was happy to get rid of Lupo, Amici and Gabory and Giuseppe became the mission's radio operator. Readhead was impressed by the man's tougheness. Once, he recounts in his report, the mission had to fled, chased by the advancing enemy. Giuseppe was without boots, as they were being repaired. Thus, he marched for Km in his socks, on uneven and rough terrain, without saying a single word. 

The Germans, in the meanwhile, did not remain inactive. At the end of March the 'Ferret' mission was captured in Biella. Moreover, by the 30 March it became clear that they were preparing for a new rastrellamento, to finally uproot the partisan movement. Readhead thus split the mission into four groups, in order to avoid the simultaneous capture of more than two agents, at least in theory. Bell, who was just arrived, was sent back to the Aosta Valley with anti-scorch dispositions for the area. Terry and Ihnatowicz were sent to the Canavese to organise the V Garibaldi division. 'Gabrio' (who had not been mentioned so far) infiltrated Ivrea in plain clothes, and Carmagnola was left where he was, with the delicate task of taking care of the zone command and of one radio kit. Amoore and Readhead instead moved with the XII Garibaldi division to try and contact Moscatelli, who they knew was in the area, as well as the CLNs of Novara and Vercelli. Readhead also wanted to know the situation in the Ossola valley.

On the 6 April the mission received Major George Morton, our old friend of the Incisor mission and Corporal Fleury who was sent to reinforce the Cherokee. The subsequent drop, on the 9, that brought Adam and the rest, was, as we already know, a disaster and resulted in many broken bones.

Meanwhile, Readhead held multiple meetings with the Biella CLN to organise things. The Ivrea CLN instead was more timid and was labeled the 'phantom committee'. Contacts were also established with the CLNs of Novara and Vercelli. Readhead also met with Biella's bishop and a delegation of local industrialists. We must suppose that Mr. Macchi took part in this encounter.

On April 17th, the mission was reinforced again by the arrival of another officer, Lt Farran. However, the very next day a German attack forced the mission to move and abandon the airfield. On the 19th, German attacks intensified. The XII Garibaldi division was bombarded by mortar fire and retreated deep into the woods, with the mission in town. Major Churchill, who was supposed to drop that night, was thus forced to go back to base, since the pilot was unable to spot the fires on the ground and the drop was cancelled. Luckily, the Germans did not have the intuition about lighting false signals. It was confirmed to Readhead that the Germans wanted to continue the rastrellamento for at least three weeks, to completely annihilate the local partisan formations. The partisans begun to show signs of weakness, tired by the German incessant attacks. Readhead decided to further split his men and, from that moment onwards, the mission was constantly on the move, but managed to maintain its contacts with the CLNs and even establish new ones with the Milan CLNAI and the Turin CLN.

On April 23rd, the first real counterattack was organised by the partisans, launched by the V Garibaldi division. Simultaneously, Farran and his men sabotaged the Turin-Milan highway in various points. On the 24 April the Germans decided to leave Biella, that was liberated by the partisans with the mission in tow, the Fascist troops were defeated and captured without problems. Amoore was left in Biella, while Bell was sent to Ivrea and Readhead, together with Terry, moved towards Vercelli. The two of them reached the town on the 27 April and found the partisans still fighting the garrison. The mission thus took part in the final assault to the prefettura. After the liberation, the CLN generously awarded the prefettura building to the mission to use it as HQ, which Readhead accepted with pleasure. Meanwhile, Moscatelli and his men were steamrolling in the area near Novara without encountering much problems, liberating towns and villages, even in the absence of any directions from the Allies. It was placed upon Readhead' shoulders, thus, to liaise with Moscatelli and coordinate his action with the rest of the Piedmontese partisans. The Major therefore left with Terry for Novara, after receiving another officer, Major LeBrocq as reinforcement. In Novara, the Germans were entrenched and refused to surrender. Readhead sent them an ultimatum and had a meeting with the partisan leaders and the CLN, during which Professor Fornara, a Socialist, was nominated prefetto and Moscatelli major of the city. Readhead writes in his report that he was initially diffident of the 'Communist' Moscatelli, as he had heard much about him. Let's simply say here that he was a man preceded by his fame, both among the Italians and the British. However, in the brief time they spent together, Moscatelli was able to win the Major over and Readhead speaks highly of him in his report. The next day the Germans decided to surrender and the agents went back to Vercelli. At the end of an exhausting week, Readhead was happy to report that the partisans had acted in an 'admirable' manner, that the operations to preserve the industrial tissue in Piedmont had been a success and that order was being maintained thanks to the efforts of the partisans. Even what he defined as 'Fascist manhunts' was proceeding according to him 'orderly' and was not a threat to public quiet. However, Readhead was forced to remain in the area for a while. The AMG arrival was delayed and the mission was kept at work for a long time, three weeks after the official end of the operations in the zone.

In the afternoon of the 29 April, Readhead left Vercelli together with Terry to report to Colonel Stevens in Turin. Along the road the run into a courier that was bringing them news from Stevens and was thus co-opted as a driver. Unfortunately, the car got a flat tire and the group was stranded on the road. They were forced to sleep in the car, because while the SAP agreed to provide a new car, they could not bring it to them before the next morning. This car, however, seemed like a piece of junk to Readhead, and it really must have been one, because the Major decided not to risk taking the long way around, on an uneven terrain, to avoid the German troops in the Po Valley, but rather to go across the plain, even at risk of being shot. The gamble paid off and the group reached Turin on the 30 April. Stevens and Readhead discussed in detail the possible German plans. Readhead was convinced that they were retreating along the Northern bank of the Po river, towards Milan. On that same day, the mission left to go back to Vercelli. However, along the road, Readhead decided to make an attempt that is reductive to define simply as 'daring'. Following the storied tradition of British privateers, he decided he would obtain the surrender of the German forces alone, using only a good dose of cunning. Just to make things clear: we're not talking about a garrison or a battalion, but of the entire LXXV Army Corp. He had an idea of where these troops were, thanks to his conversation with Stevens. However, he also knew that the partisans could not help him, as they were busy liberating cities and keeping order. He had three cards to play: the overwhelming superiority of the Allied air forces. The desperate situation in which the Germans found themselves. And the fact that, as an Allied officer, the Germans could surrender to him without the dishonor of capitulating to irregular fighters like the partisans. After considering all this, Readhead decided his chances were good and thus changed the direction of the car away from Vercelli.

The two agents draped a Union Jack and a white flag on the roof of the car and parked in Chivasso, a town between Turin and Ivrea, near a broken bridge on the Po river. They then started to make a ruckus to get the attention of the Germans that, as expected, were on the other side of the river. As a response, the enemy started shooting. Unwilling to give up, the two kept shouting and waving the flags and, finally, the Germans stopped shooting. Two Germans stepped forward and the British had a conversation with them, standing on their half of the broken bridge. It turned out that the Germans did not have any boat and thus could not transport them across the river. The two of them did not flinch and swam across to reach the opposite bank, where they were picked up by the Germans who covered them in blankets. Then, they were blindfolded ad brought to the company's mess. Here an officer asked them who they were and what they were doing there, very legit questions. Readhead, lying through his teeth, replied they were part of the Allied vanguard and that he had been sent to demand the German surrender. The officer said he would report to his General, who was encamped some Km away. In the meantime, their guest offered them some food and drinks and Readhead reports he had a conversation he defines 'interesting' with him on Hilter and Nazism, before a young officer commanded them both to shut up. It turned out that Readhead knew some of the officers, as he had raced them in ski competitions before the war, while others had tried to catch him during his previous mission to Norway. At 6pm, finally, the two were allowed to see the German division commander. They were blindfolded again and loaded onto a truck. However, they managed to peek the milestones from under the blindfold and communicate with each other by groaning Morse code. The advance was painfully slow as the column stopped each time an Allied plane was heard. After a while, the officer who was with them told them that all roads leading to the HQ were blocked. In that moment, a lorry loaded with ammunition exploded. Readhead is not able to tell us if it was hit by an Allied plane or it was a simple accident. However, it was enough to cause panic: the explosion, with the bullets flying everywhere, broke the driver's nerves and he made an U-turn, going back to Chivasso at full throttle, despite the furious protests of the two agents and the German officer. Readhead managed to convince the Germans to try again this time with a vehicle that could go off-road. They left again at night, blindfolded and this time were not able to peek at milestones. The Germans bought them their General, at the Moncrivello castle. The commander of the V division, General Steets, gave Readhead the impression of 'a story-book Nazi' (he had, after all, installed himself in a castle). The Major describes him: 'he was literally purple with rage and bellowing at his interpreter at the top of his voice, by no mean a soft one.' Readhead, impudent, announced he was there as part of the Allied vanguard  to negotiate the German surrender in order to avoid needless bloodshed. He also pretended not to know German, in order to take full advantage of the slowness caused by the need for an interpreter. After an outburst, the General calmed down , and he was finally convinced to bring the two British agents in front of the LXXV corps commander, General Schlemmer. Readhead says that a key role in convincing the General was played by his chief of staff, Maj. Zintel. Evidently, morale was starting to shatter. While the General was being informed, Readhead discussed briefly the eventual problems of the surrender: food, clothing, concentration, disarming… which allowed him to gather intel on the situation of the German forces.

The British were then moved to Mazzé, a nearby village, and finally met with General Schlemmer. Hans Schlemmer was a veteran of the German army, who climbed the ranks during WW1. Starting 1939 he took part in all the major operations of the Wehrmacht: Poland, France, Russia and, since July 1944, Italy. On April 26th, when the German troops in Liguria surrendered, he brought his men North, through Southern Piedmont, with the intention of reaching the Brennero pass. And it turned out he was a very hard nut to crack. At first, the General flat-out refused to believe that Maj. Readhead was a British officer, which put Maj. Readhead in a precarious situation. He could, of course, prove his status, but in doing so he would have revealed his role as a liaison officer, blowing his story and casting doubts on the fact he was authorised to negotiate the German surrender on behalf of the Allied army corp. Luckily, Readhead still had with him (perhaps for affective reasons) his British ID card, marked Lieut Colonel, and he supplemented this proof with a vivid description of the events in Africa, which convinced the German. At this point the General asked that Readhead produced his credentials, that were given to him by the Allied Command, to negotiate. Which, of course, did not exist. We have to open another parenthesis here. We are, of course, already in an age when communication is easier and faster. Telephones and radios exist, but in the military and diplomatic mentality is still firmly present the idea that, when negotiations are happening, the presence of a plenipotentiary is required. In other words, someone who is authorised to sign something in the name of its Government. Readhead wittily explained that he had received radio orders, and claimed that he was not a plenipotentiary, but rather an officer sent to discuss the terms on which a surrender could be negotiated properly at a later stage. He pushed forward, informing the General that unconditional surrender was the only basis for such a negotiation. Schlemmer replied he was bound by his oath to Hitler and could not surrender until the Furher’s death (which had happened on that day, 30 April, but evidently neither him nor Readhead knew about it yet). Readhead stressed the hopelessness of the German situation, pointing especially to the Allied overwhelming air superiority and to the needless bloodshed that a refusal to surrender would have caused. He persuaded Schlemmer to consider Hitler’s death and the fall of Berlin as equivalent for considering himself relieved of his oath. On this basis, a draft for surrender was drawn, defining a concentration area for the German troops and their disarmament. 

Readhead at this point was in a hurry to go back to Stevens. He had grown convinced, during his negotiation, that Schlemmer, would entrench himself in the area, blow all the bridges, massacre the local population and resist to the last man if an agreement was not reached in a very short time. Terry was given sent off to Vercelli to contact base, while Maj. Readhead, driving in General Steets’ car (we don't know if it was given to him voluntarily) reached Turin right after noon, after quickly establishing a parley-post at Chivasso ('parley' is, since the middle-ages, the term used for the negotiations between two forces). Stevens declined he would have negotiated with Schlemmer but introduced Readhead to the American Colonel McCaffery, who had direct authority from General Mark Clark, commander of  the XV Army Corp. Readhead warned him that Schlemmer was the kind of man to willingly sacrifice countless lives rather than renouncing his oath to Hitler and, for this reason, he advised to do everything possible to reach an agreement based on the draft he prepared. However, McCaffery replied that the Allies were not concerned with eventual bloodshed and that unconditional surrender was the only acceptable policy. Readhead, now perhaps a little more concerned because of the situation, McCaffrey and another officer, Major Macdermott, went back to the German HQ. An here the disaster unfolded. Schlemmer, always precise, demanded McCaffrey's credential, who was able to produce only a letter from his divisional commander and then proceeded to ask the immediate surrender of the Germans. The results of this rushed negotiation were predictable: Schlemmer refused to surrender and immediately gave order to start the demolition of the bridges in the area, as well as the shooting of a number of civilians suspected of being spies or collaborators of the Allies. The negotiations thus ended before they even started, and Readhead's attempts seemed to be gone up in smoke.

The Major, defeated but not tamed, went back to Vercelli and, on the next day (2 May) reported to his superiors, Brig-General Daniels and Maj-General Prichard who were most anxious to send him back to negotiate with the Germans. They gave him a letter of reference and a draft instrument of surrender. Readhead moved to Chivasso where he discovered that the parley-post had been dismantled and the road mined. He run into Major Macdermott and the two agreed to cross into German area by a bridge over the Cavour Canal they they thought would be still standing because Terry had used it to exit the German-controlled area before. However, it turned out that the bridge had been, in fact, destroyed and the two started running around aimlessly, trying to find a way to cross the Po river or the Cavour channel, but without any success. Meanwhile, it had started raining hard. Rather wet and depressed, they went back to Vercelli. However, there Readhead found a note from Amoore saying that the news of Hitler’s death had reached the Germans and Schlemmer’s chief of staff, Colonel Faulmuller, had arrived in Biella asking for him. Galvanised, he set off to Biella, where he found Amoore with the German officer. Amoore already convinced Faulmuller to sign a provisional surrender. After receiving LeBrocq and Captain Neale, Readhead and Amoore traversed Ivrea and reached once more Mazzè, where it was agreed that Schlemmer would go to the IV Corps HQ in Milan to sign his capitulation. They reached Milan together and surrender was signed at 2 pm on the 3 May 1945. 

At this point, the mission entered its liquidation period, made unusually long by the slowness of the AMG in taking over, until the 31 May 1945. The Cherokee now was supposed to search for hidden stashes of weapons, collecting all W/T equipment, disposing of the 50-odd ex-pow who collaborated with the mission, liquidating the Italian personnel and generally put their records in order. These tasks required a good amount of travelling around Piedmont and the only help they received came not from the Allied forces, but from the Vercelli CLN, which provided cars and even a small plane. The mission, moreover, felt obliged to accept the various invitations that arrived from various parts of Piedmont to attend ceremonial occasions in their honour by the local partisans and CLNs. Which added another burden to the already full schedule of the British officers. MacDonald and Bell were made honorary partisan division commanders, Amoore, Terry and Farran honorary brigade commander, Readhead was made honorary commander of not one, but two partisan divisions and Terry in addition received from Moscatelli the Freedom of the City of Novara. As a token of gratitude, the British officers were munificent in distributing food and cigarettes, and also gave many certificates of appreciation to those who cooperated with them. Readhead concludes his report by saying that all those gifts were appreciated by the Italians but, above all others, the certificates had widespread success. Not only they had a sentimental value, but also a very real one, and soon, they begun to be sold for rather large sums.

In this way ends the tale of the Cherokee mission. This is the first mission that truly gives us the idea of the enormous amount of work that agents on the field had to do. It's no surprise, then, that the file of this mission, preserved in the archives in London, is imposing, and puts to shame those of the Gela or the Incisor. Once more: there are some recurring themes: the good relations built with the partisans, despite the initial diffidence. The frustration, shared with them, for the lack of supplies. The euphoric joy of the Liberation. As Amoore wrote, once in Biella, he was able to finally take a bath, the first in five months. Once more, a worthless detail in a military report but, once more, one that confirms that these reports were everything but conventional and how the agents always tried to give the reader the sense of the atmosphere in which they lived those days. It's precisely for this reason that they are so precious and have such a high 'narrative' charge. The Cherokee was a great success story for the SOE in Italy. The mission had accomplished all its objectives. The liberated cities were in good order and civilian life could resume soon. However, this story has a coda. Next week, in fact, there will be a small extra, a small surprise, related to the Cherokee. I'm going to leave this here and give you an appointment for next Saturday to tell it.