The story I want to talk about was ignored for a long time by Italian military historiography after World War II.
I'm talking about the “ Bellomo case ", The only trial instituted by the Allied organs, in the aftermath of the Liberation, against a high-ranking officer of the Italian army considered guilty of war crimes. The murky story that saw the division general Nicola Bellomo put to the bar it took place in a relatively short period of time, but full of events, which will more or less indirectly influence the case and its process.
The general's story was almost the classic one of any career officer of the Italian Royal Army.
Born in Bari on February 2, 1881, after the technical diploma he chose the military path, obtaining, at the Turin application school, the rank of lieutenant of artillery in 1904. During the Great War he gave proof of technical and logistic ability, obtaining a double advancement in rank, a silver medal for military valor and the knight's cross of the Military Order of Savoy. His relations with Fascism were quite turbulent. After the March of Rome he did not show excessive enthusiasm towards Mussolini, maintaining a position of detachment and exclusive dedication to work. As a result of this conduct he was continually overtaken in the promotion of rank for seniority, deciding only in June 1933 to make a formal request for the party card.
With law of 7/6/1933 in fact, it became necessary to register with the P.N.F. of the military to obtain any promotion and recognition. In 1935 his promotion still languished, so he found himself forced to appeal to the Council of State which recognized the validity of his protests. Ironically, he was placed out of the picture, that is, out of active military service for seniority reasons. In fact, he was affected by the friction he had had with the Army General, as well as Army Chief of Staff and author of the reform which was to " fascistise "The army, Federico Baistrocchi. Their dispute had arisen during the preparations for the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Bellomo, then head of the Defense Office of the Army General Staff, admitted " the anti-aircraft defense of the national territory, for years entrusted to the Militia […], it was inconsistent [1] “ in the event that the English fleet had moved against the Peninsula.
He was recalled to service in early 1941 for military reasons, with the rank of Brigadier General being invested with the post of Commander of the Military Presidium of Bari. Also in this role, General Bellomo had the opportunity to reveal his strong military skills.
The event that marked his story, and consequently his life, was the capture of a group of English raiders who parachuted into the countryside near Calitri (AV) in the night between 10 and 11 February 1941, they destroyed the Tràgino canal bridge with explosives and damaged the Ginestra dell’Acquedotto Puglia bridge-canal . This action must be contextualized in what the British called “ Operation Colossus” , the first mission of British paratroopers on enemy territory during the Second World War. The practical results of the raid were poor, in fact the technicians of the Apulian Aqueduct, having foreseen such actions, had prepared large spare pipes near each bridge-canal in order to repair the damage caused by a war. The damage was repaired in two days and the water, also due to the presence of tanks near all the inhabited areas served, was lacking for the Apulian population only for a few hours. The supply at the ports of Bari, Brindisi, Gallipoli and the military arsenal of Taranto and all the Apulian airports was always guaranteed. Nevertheless, the British claimed that the effect on the morale of the Italians of a launch of parà enemies in the heart of their land was very serious.
In three days of research all the men of the British SAS they were captured, but the general decided to incarcerate them rather than proceed with their summary execution as enemy saboteurs infiltrated in the territory of his competence. This drew criticism from the party secretaries of the federations where the operation had taken place, as it had refused the support of local fascists. After July 25, 1943, he remained in his command post and due to his loyalty to the Crown he was appointed head of the dissolution commission of the M.V.S.N. with the task of absorbing into the Royal Army those soldiers who were not guilty of serious sins. In this role he was pestered with anonymous letters and accusations against former members of the militia and Party organs, with requests for revenge against those who had represented the Duce in the province of Bari for twenty years.
On 9 September, General Bellomo accidentally learned of the news that the German general Sikenius he had sent sappers to destroy the main port infrastructures of the Apulian city. Bellomo gathered some cores of Italian soldiers at the barracks of the Voluntary Militia for National Security and the Guardia di Finanza . These were joined by the engineers led by second lieutenant Michele Chicchi , and with this nucleus of men he attacked the German sappers who had already taken position in the nerve centers of the great structure. Forced on the defensive, the Germans were forced to retreat by two attacks and finally to surrender. Bellomo personally participated in the clashes, even being wounded and. After the Germans withdrew, the British were able to land in Bari in complete safety, taking advantage of fully efficient port infrastructures useful for continuing the Italian Campaign and supporting the support of the Greek and Yugoslav partisans.
General Bellomo held his position until January 28, 1944, when the British military police arrested him in his office "for having shot or fired at two British officers, causing the death of one of them and the injury of the other".
At the time of his arrest, there were no precise elements against the general in the hands of the English investigators. However, the interests gravitated to Bellomo, especially on the part of the General officers who had rushed from southern Italy to declare loyalty to Badoglio and the so-called " Southern Kingdom ”, To eliminate an uncomfortable person who had not colluded with Fascism and had had the opportunity to see firsthand the shady trafficking that took place in the military before and during the war. Moreover he could not help by hand to observe the behavior of his superiors gen. by C. A. Roberto Lerici and gen. by Div. Giovanni Caruso , who had maintained a dubious profile in the days of the Armistice.
Bellomo was accused of having taken part "and instigated" the killing of the prisoner cap. G. Playne and the attempted assassination of Lieutenant R.R. Cooke. The two had been captured following the failure of the February 1941 operation, but had attempted to escape from the prison camp on 30 November of the same year. During a fight, a gunshot killed Playne and wounded Cooke, who survived.
Only on June 5, 1945, that is eighteen months after his incarceration, the lieutenant, promoted in the meantime to captain, Roy Roston Cooke filed a written and detailed complaint against the general himself, who, in the meantime, had been transferred several times between the allied concentration camps of Grumo Appula, Padula and Afragola.
On July 14, 1945, he was notified of the referral to the Court-Martial and accused of having fired his Colt Pocket against the two British officers. Bellomo himself reconstructed the events thus:
The Court, on July 28, 1945, after just over an hour in the council chamber, pronounced the sentence of death, carried out by shooting at the prison of Nisida.
The story immediately showed his difficult understanding and the machinations that took place behind it. The English court-martial itself acted in a very unlawful manner, refusing tests and documents that exonerated Bellomo's actions and instead taking as true the contradictory testimonies of both Cooke and the Italian soldiers present at the event. The testimonies of these latter characters were very controversial, conflicting and repeatedly retracted and modified. It became clear that the trial had been instituted with a foregone sentence of the general, in an attempt to eliminate an inconvenient figure for the Southern Combelligerant Army. The British were material executors of the fact, but Bellomo's death sentence was also decided. in the living room of Badoglio. The documents that would have exonerated the officer, all in Italian hands, were declared not missing and not visible to the Court-Martial, and the testimonies of some Italian officers declared null or impossible to take into consideration.
Bellomo was one of the few Italian general officers who, on his own initiative, moved immediately after the news of the Armistice against the Germans. In spite of himself, through the defense of the port and the city of Bari, he found himself at the center of the intrigues that had led the king and Badoglio to escape at night on the Bayonet to Brindisi, representing the other side of the medal of the Italian Army in the facts of those days.
He was awarded a silver medal for military valor for the events of September 1943, but to date no rehabilitation process has been carried out towards an officer who paid for the sins of his superiors.
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