Pictures from behind enemy lines - Cherokee (Part 2)

A partisan meeting. One of the many that happened, just to give an idea of what the SOE agents mean when they talk about having a meeting with the partisan leaders. As you can see, they were far less imposing than one might expect.

In this photo, sitting down, there is the commander of the XII Garibaldi division, Quinto Antonietti ‘Quinto’, a former textile worker. Standing behind him it’s the political commissar, Anello Poma ‘Italo’. Italo was an veteran of anti-fascism. In 1938 he was wounded in Spain where he fought in the international brigades, and in 1941 he was jailed in the island-prison of Ventotene. In August 1943, freed after the fall of Mussolini he went back to Biella, is birth town, where he was among the first to organised armed bands that would later became the Garibaldi brigades in the area.

Credits: Riunione partigiana. Formazioni Garibaldi in Archivio Istoreto, fondo Isrp. Archivio fotografico originario [IT-C00-FD12374]