Episode 6 - Cherokee - Part 3

Hello and welcome everybody to a new episode of 'Tales from the hideout'. I, as always, am Nicola, and today it will be a somewhat particular episode of the podcast, a little extra on the Cherokee mission. In fact, as the more keen among you have probably noticed, in the last episode we mentioned that Major MacDonald was awarded, after the end of the war, some decorations by the Piedmontese partisans. Which implies that, after his capture, he was not executed on the spot by the Germans. And, in fact, this was not the case. This episode, thus, is dedicated to the story of Major Alastair MacDonald, former, we can now say this, commander of the Cherokee mission, after his capture in January 1945.

After his capture, on January 17th 1945, Major MacDonald was assured that, as a British officer, he would not be shot on the spot. The Germans even allowed him to exchange some parting words with Armando, before he bled to his death because of the wounds.  The German officer present ordered not to shot Armando in the head, presumably because Maj. MacDonald was an inconvenient witness. Tied, Maj. MacDonald was moved to Magnano, a few Km away from where he landed with his drop, months before. In Magnano, he saw Mercurio in the hands of the Germans, then the Germans moved to Zimone with their prisoners in tow. At Zimone, the Germans were reinforced by some Fascist troops who had captured MacDonald’s secretary, 'Riccio' who was slightly wounded. The three of them were marched at the SS HQ in the village of Cerrione, a few Km to the East. There, MacDonald was searched by a SS officer who threatened him, telling that as a 'bandit' he would not have enjoyed the status of pow and the protection of the Geneva Conventions. While the SS was boasting, MacDonald was able to hide two of the most compromising documents he had on himself in his mittens, preventing the German from finding them. MacDonald was later interrogated by a German officer and a French interpreter (MacDonald had declared he did not know German). SOE officers were, of course, trained to resist questioning and MacDonald made good use of what he had learned. One of the first lessons was to feint ignorance of the language, in this way the filter of the interpreter allowed the agent to buy some time and think more about the lie he was going to tell. And even gain the upper hand, if the prisoner was able to grasp what the interrogators were saying to each other. The German officer was most interested in the partisans’ order of battle, but MacDonald did not disclose more than what was strictly necessary. He maintained that he had been disconnected from the partisans for quite some time because of the rastrellamenti. They tried again to play on MacDonald’ status as a 'bandit', but finally conceded that the British uniform he was wearing unmistakably qualified him as a pow. He was then asked to give his word, which MacDonald refused to do and subsequently was locked up together with Mercurio and Riccio. 

The next morning, more German officers arrived from Monza and MacDonald was interrogated again. They weren't able to obtain much from him, but he was reassured about his pow status. Later, the three prisoners were photographed by a representative of the official Italian propaganda service who allowed them, evidently left alone with him, to pull faces in front of the camera in order to make the result useless. Is this a moment of Resistance? This is a question that is difficult to answer. Mercurio was also interrogated separately, while Riccio instead was left alone, his wounds dressed. 

On the evening of the 18 January, the prisoners were moved again, this time to the SS HQ in Biella together with a dozen civilians who had been rounded up. MacDonald recognised a fifteen years old courier but none of the others. En route to Biella the Germans were greeted with enthusiasm in villages, which MacDonald found extremely depressing. He also managed to get a black eye by one of the SS guards, but we don't know exactly why. The guard later apologised when he learned that Maj. MacDonald was British. The heart of a rabbit to the end.

In Biella, they were received by SS Schull, who was known to the Cherokee mission as the instigator of false-flag operations, in particular clandestine radio ‘radio baita’ which had caused trouble for them in the past. After a phone call to (presumably) Turin, he informed MacDonald that he was protected by pow status. He then proceeded to question him regarding the identities and whereabouts of some partisan leaders. MacDonald stuck to his story and gave vague answers and the SS did not press further. After dinner, MacDonald was friendly probed by Schull and his German governess who tried to examine his political beliefs. They went through the topics of German propaganda, from the regret for the civil war in Italy, to the evident advantages of an Anglo-German alliance against Russia. MacDonald remained vague and paid a respectful tribute to German arms. He had decided to bolt at the first occasion and his objective was to be considered a 'model prisoner', a real gentleman as this would increase his chances of escaping.  This attitude was the one suggested by SOE's instructors as well, because it also had a secondary benefit: the interrogators could lower their guards and the agents could be able to extract information from them, reversing the roles. 

The transit to the Biella prison presented as a chance to escape. MacDonald and another prisoner were alone with only two Germans, one of which was the driver. However, the darkness and the snow on the ground made him reconsider. 

During the morning exercises on 19 January, MacDonald was finally able to speak with Riccio and Mercurio. Riccio's connection with the mission was still unknown and MacDonald suggested him to stick to the story of being a simple courier. However, he gave him permission, if he was made to be afraid for his life, to claim protection as a mission member and promised to corroborate his claim. The Italian guards in the prison were not very fond of the Germans. One accepted, without much persuasion, to carry a message to the partisan command to inform them that MacDonald was alive and, for the moment, safe. MacDonald did not know that the partisans were already informed about the situation and Carmagnola was spending a great deal of energy trying to organise his escape. The plan would involve the assault of the Biella prison by the partisan brigades. However, the next day the prisoners were moved to Milan and the chance to act vanished. 

Early on 20 January, the prisoners were taken to a convoy headed to Milan. MacDonald remembers fondly that, during the trip through the city, a girl managed to smile to him right under the guards’ nose. Always looking for a chance to escape, MacDonald had to give up once more, as the streets were covered in ice, which would make running unadvisable, especially while being shot at. Once at their destination, MacDonald was interrogated again and this time his claim of being unable to speak German did not seem to work very well. After lunch, he was interrogated again by to members of the Fascist questura, who spoke, we must imagine this detailed surprised MacDonald quite a lot, ‘excellent cockney English’. However, they weren’t able to extract any information, as their method was based on claiming that a ‘secret weapon’ was ready to change the outcome of the war. An unconvincing claim.

In the afternoon, MacDonald was moved again, this time to Verona. There, the atmosphere was very different. The Major was interrogated again, this time in a threatening and pressing manner, for four and a half hours. The Germans took the line that he was a bandit and thus did not enjoyed pow status. They wanted to know the exact location, organization, title etc of the SOE missions in Italy, and they claimed that another agent, Major Wilkinson (the famed 'Freccia') had been captured and had already told them many things. Now, they simply wanted him to confirm them. MacDonald, despite the pressure, did not break. He realised, because of the scarce information on the SOE that the Germans were able to present him, that they knew nothing and that there was no officer who collaborated with them.

The most difficult thing to hide was the presence of a radio set and an operator in Biella before the arrival of the mission, which allowed the drop of the Cherokee to be arranged. MacDonald stuck to the story that his drop had been organised via BBC messages (the famed 'Radio Londra') and this was finally accepted after some time. This allowed to maintain secrecy on the identity and role of Amoore. On this subject, the Germans asked about an envelope addressed to 'il comandante Pat [commander Pat]' they had found searching MacDonald. 'Pat' was Amoore's name, Patrick. However, MacDonald employed a trick to avoid revealing his existence. He explained that his own name, Alastair, was too complicated for the Italians and thus he was commonly known as 'Pat'. In addition, we have to open a small parenthesis, in the archive of the Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Turin there are many letters, probably copies, which are addressed to Captain Pat - or Commander Pat. If you are curious about what was written in the letters, and about what probably the Germans saw after capturing MacDonald, you can do it. The only problem is that you need to search into huge binders of documents. Once more, Maj. MacDonald pretended he did not understand German, which helped him anticipating some of the questions. After reaching a stall, the Germans, probably tired, brought MacDonald to his underground cell, measuring seven feet by four, where he was detained in solitary for a week since he insisted any further interrogation was useless until the documents proving his status would arrive from Monza. In reality, they probably thought they could 'soften' the Major with this treatment. The other thirty-five prisoners were all Italians, including six or seven women. Almost all were detained on suspicion of espionage but a handful were Fascists doing punishment for disciplinary offences. MacDonald found difficult to contact the other prisoners since the guards were very strict. However, he was still able to send out a message to the local partisans saying he was held in Verona thanks to an English-speaking prisoner, Count Livio Senni, a mysterious man who had been working with the SS but had been arrested by them on suspicions of being a double agent. 

From the 26 January onwards MacDonald was repeatedly interrogated on the documents found after his capture. Unfortunately, the interpreter during these interrogations had worked as a German agent in Marseille, where MacDonald had conducted his previous mission. Thus, he was not able to conceal the fact that he operated as a BLO in Marseille as he had many addresses from the city in his wallet. Probably, MacDonald kept those for the affective value they had but, in this case, it came back to beat him. However, from their questions, MacDonald was convinced that the Germans, while knowing something about the SOE organisation in France, were completely in the dark as far as Italy was concerned. MacDonald tried to disclose the bare minimum, despite the pressure and the many interrogations. However, he also tried to give something to the interrogators in order to satisfy their “professional pride” and have something to write in their reports to their superiors. With time, he grew convinced of a second fact: the interrogators were not in a better position than him and they were evidently working under immense pressure. Any information he gave them, thus, was received as a very important revelation, which allowed him to talk a lot of general or unimportant things, or information surely known to the central command but unknown to the single interrogator. 

After a month in the prison MacDonald's treatment improved ever so slightly. He was allowed to take half an hour of exercise in an inside courtyard together with another prisoner, Attilio Marocchi, from Pordenone. He was given extra food both by the guards and by some of the other prisoners who were allowed to receive visits from their families in Verona. He was also allowed to buy extra food, and a small amount of the money he had when captured was given back to him. Luckily he was allowed to read books, which alleviated the boredom of his minuscule cell. 

On the 14 February MacDonald was made to sign a document which contained all the questions and answers of the interrogations and four or five days later he was informed that he was to be moved to a pow camp. He left Verona on 20 February. Before leaving he was interviewed again by two SS officers, who were not highly motivated, and ended up chatting with him and admitting that the war had been lost for a while and that Germany had no hope of winning. One of them expressed regret that someone had stolen MacDonald's watch and some of his money; probably one of the guards. He gave him another watch, with the compliments of the SS, and three gold sovereigns as refound of the stolen pounds. However, once he arrived in the Mantova pow camp, his money was taken away again. The prisoners numbered about 230, and conditions were not very good. Prospects of escape similarly did not seem good, as the perimeter was tightly guarded and a lake blocked one of the camp's sides. 

Around 27 February, but MacDonald is not entirely sure about the date, the prisoners were suddenly warned to be ready to leave, and they were loaded onto a train. After moving in the direction of Verona it stopped, as the RAF had bombed the tracks. After two days the Germans decided to move the prisoners back to the camp in Mantua. Meanwhile, security was increased even more because a South African soldiers managed to saw a hole in his train carriage and his escape barely failed. 

MacDonald decided that the moment to escape was before the next attempt at moving the prisoners. He managed to organise a few prisoners and together they collected civilian overcoats, trousers and some food over the course of a few days. Thanks to a visit to the dentist in Mantua, MacDonald was able to devise a route through the town. The plan was ready by the 1 March and MacDonald decided to act the next day. He warned an American prisoner, who worked as a gardener between the two wired fences surrounding the camp, to be ready to distract the guard at the appropriate moment. Thanks to the presence of the camp latrine the spot chosen for the escape was not easily seen by the sentries and the cookhouse shielded it from one of the control towers. However, the guards who patrolled the perimeter had to be distracted for about a minute. They had previously been hanging around in the same spot to accustom the guards to their presence there. In the early afternoon of the 3 March 1945, MacDonald decided it was time to act and reached the designated spot with two other officers. The gardener began to dig in his position and MacDonald went to the latrine to change his clothes. After receiving the sign that the coast was clear, he started climbing the first fence. This was the easy part. Now, the Major had to climb a sentry-box to get over the second fence. While climbing, he slipped with his hand, or possibly his foot, and knocked out one of the windows, which fell to the ground with a loud noise. MacDonald decided to go for it anyway and went over the wall, the adrenaline pumping in his veins. In the rush, he ripped his hands but he does not know whether it was because of the barbed wire or the broken window. We can easily imagine what was his mental state in the situation and forgive this omission. Within a few seconds, he has passed the barrier and disappeared behind a wall. 

From there, he hid into an outhouse for some time to check if the Germans had noticed his escape. Since everything seemed quiet, he tied his food into a sack and made his way into the town. On the way, he was approached by a small boy, of an unspecified age but described as very young, almost a kid, who kept pestering him until he finally admitted he was English. He had been betrayed by the military trousers that were barely visible under his long coat. The boy then took MacDonald to the edge of the lake to a boat and the two boatmen offered to carry the officer to the other side of the lake. MacDonald was dubious at first. Of course, he was suspicious, moreover, the boat would be perfectly visible for the sentry towers, on the flat surface of the lake. However, he decided that avoiding the town all together was too good an opportunity to pass. The boatmen and the boy took MacDonald across the lake, right under the nose of the camp’s sentries. Once they had reached the other bank, they advised him to go South towards the Po river. The boatmen insisted on giving MacDonald some money for his journey and even the boy’s hat. While accepting the gifts, MacDonald decided against following the advice. He was not sure he could cross the Po and thus decided to make his way to the Alps North-East of Brescia. 

MacDonald, full of resources as any good special agent, had with him a fountain pen with a tiny compass in it and was thus able to proceed eastwards for the rest of the day and all of the night. He managed to dodge a number of patrols and was fired at on one occasion, however, in the end, his march was hindered more by the terrain than by the Germans. The fields around Mantova, in fact, were, and still are, rife with canals, which forced him to take many detours. By morning, he sadly estimated he was still only twenty-five km away from Mantua. On 4 March, between the villages of Canedole and Bagnolo san Vito, MacDonald run into a family of local farmers, the Burchiellastro. I hope MacDonald was able to correctly spell such a difficult surname. They fed and sheltered the officer for a day and a half, despite the fact that the Germans visited the house two times while MacDonald was in their farm. The farmers provided him with a map of the area, money, a workman overalls, and advice on how to reach Brescia. Such preparation betrays the fact that his family had probably helped other escaped pow before and their activity had became a routine. This impression was confirmed by the father, who claimed he was acting on orders from his employer, Baron de Triven, who had ordered his tenants to help any escaping prisoners passing in the area. 

During the next five days MacDonald continued his march avoiding roads and villages. Near Volta Mantovana he managed only narrowly to escape capture at the hands of a Fascist patrol but thanks to the overalls he was now able to move during the day in relative safety. While the weather was rigid, he managed to find shelter in the farmhouses and even those who refused to take him in for the night at least gave him a warm meal. One time the family who took him in turned out to be Fascist, and MacDonald had to make a quick escape during the night, pursued by Fascist patrols called by his hosts. With this sole exception, MacDonald recounts that the Italians had always been very kind to him, despite the huge risk they were exposing themselves to by helping him. Despite many detours, MacDonald followed a route that passed through the villages of Valeggio, Volta Mantovana, Castiglione, Montechiari and Nuvolera. He was also slowed down by an inflammation at his feet. We can imagine that his shoes were disintegrating or, at least, were not suitable for such a trip. On the 12 March, finally, after leaving Nuvolera, near the South side of the Garda lake, he reached the Alps and was able to proceed more quickly, because enemy patrols became more and more rare. He passed through Serle, Vallio, Agnesino, Bione, Casto and Lodrine to reach the Trompia Valley on 17 March. However, he could not rest. The valley, in fact, was being victim of a rastrellamento and MacDonald risked falling from the frying pan into the fire. However, he managed to find a small detachment of Catholic Fiamme Verdi. After some initial, and understandable, suspicions, the Italians assisted MacDonald for two days. On the 19 March, they gave him a guide to reach the Camonica Valley. There, MacDonald mad contact with a Garibaldi brigade who, after some initial diffidence, agreed to send a message to base to inform the Command that MacDonald was safe and sound. 

On the 23 March, a letter arrived from the Fiamme Verdi commander, Vittorio, asking MacDonald to go see him. The next day, tireless, the officer thus left the garibaldini and started his journey up the Camonica Valley. During his trip, he learned that the relationship between the Garibaldi and the Fiamme Verdi were quite bad, with accusations being hurled at each other. After the meeting with Vittorio, MacDonald, by this point used to long walks, decided to move North and reach the Tellina valley. He crossed the villages of Esine, Borno, Malonno, and Vico and arrived at his destination on the 7 April. There, he made contact with the local OSS mission, “Offense”, which was liaising with the Tito Spori division of the Fiamme Verdi. He then received orders from base commanding him to explore possible routes to Switzerland but not to move in the meantime. Fortunately, passage to Switzerland was already well-established through the Grosina Valley so the Major did not need to take another walk. 

On the 10 April, German troops launched an attack against the Mortirolo pass from three different directions. The Fiamme Verdi were well-prepared and equipped, and they inflicting heavy casualties to the enemy, repelling it. The following day the Nazi-Fascists started shelling the partisans with artillery, dismantling their defences. Moreover, the supply lines through the Tellina valley were now cut off and food became a problem. The shelling continued during the following days and, while casualties were low, partisan morale plummeted. In view of the situation, on the 13 April MacDonald decided to cross again the Tellina Valley to see if the GL brigade in the Grosina Valley was able to help. He was accompanied by 'Sandro', the Italian leader of a US mission (non-OSS), recently dropped in the area and destined to Bolzano. They reached the village of Fusine without much difficulty, using a partisan-controlled cableway. However, the GL commander refused to move his brigade. MacDonald managed to obtain only 50 unarmed SAP as reinforcements, thanks to the help of Captain 'Vic'. While surely not enough MacDonald was forced to settle and went back to the Montirolo on the 18 April. Even if they did not bring many men, at least the two officers managed to bring food to the Fiamme Verdi. In fact, they had bought flour and meat from the inhabitants of the valley during their trip back from Fusine. In the meantime, the situation had remained pretty much the same but the partisans had managed to discover the enemy plan of attack on the body of a killed SS officer. 

On the 19th, MacDonald received the order to cross into Switzerland and, on 21 April, he phoned the personnel at Lugano from a house in Poschiavo. He was later taken in by the Swiss police which accepted readily his status as an escaped pow. After two more days MacDonald reached Berne and then Geneva, from where he finally crossed the French frontier. His escape was thus over.

This is how the story of MacDonald's daring escape ends. He managed, with many detours, to reach Switzerland from Mantova, by foot. From this tale emerges, we can say strongly, the human factor. Not only from the tale itself of the escape, we are now used to the very 'personal' tone of many of these reports, but also in the inter-personal relationships, of pure altruism, that MacDonald has with the Italians. In other occasions, like it was for Milo and Brietsche, we noticed these relationships. But here they emerge even more clearly and they intersect the deep meaning of the Resistance. To the farmers who helped him, in fact, the Major was a hassle and nothing more. He was another mouth to feed, in a period when things were thigh. There was also the added danger of being discovered, and thus arrested (or worse), and to see the farm burned to the ground. And, to the farmers, MacDonald and his escape were a non-factor. It was surely not by helping an escaped pow that the war would have been won. In the big picture, they did not gain anything by helping him and put themselves in grave danger. However, helping escaped pow was the first, and more common, form of Resistance of the Italian population against the Nazi-Fascist forces. Thousands of Allied pow were saved in ways that were very similar to what Major MacDonald experienced. In the end, is it not this generosity, this willing sacrifice, the strength at the base of the Resistance?