Filottrano remembered "his" paratroopers of the Nembo division, 73 years after the historic battle of places, with a series of events organized byNational paratroopers association of Italy ANPd'I of Ancona and the municipality of the Marche town.
A significant ceremony, that of the 8 July in Filottrano, where the parishes found each other, remembered their fallen brothers, shared emotions and of course the launches. Because it does not matter if you are still in active service or not: those who earn their wings once carry them all their life, attacked. It can not be otherwise, if you are a paratrooper. And if you are a paratrooper you are also a brother, forever, without interruption. And brothers are the paratroopers of the nimbus which, together with the Polish forces, in the first days of July of the '44, sacrificing their lives as often did the Italian armed forces, made sure that the civilian population did not suffer further, useless suffering.
Let's try for a moment to imagine what the situation was, in that July 1944, in the Adriatic sector: the Germans were retreating to the Gothic line and intended to resist as in Cassino, in the idea of keeping the war as far away as possible from the Germanic territory and with the famous “fought retreat”, to delay the advance of the Anglo-Americans as much as possible, blocking the accesses to northern Italy. The allies, for their part, were advancing, with increasing logistical difficulties in supplying their armies in Naples, Bari and Taranto and they needed to conquer important ports for an outlet to the sea, in this case Ancona for the Adriatic, such as Livorno on the Tyrrhenian side. The Germans resisted, so the allies thought of razing the country with aerial bombardments, without considering the civilian population in the least. It is to this plan of total destruction that our paratroopers of the nimbus, in the lead the commander Giorgio Morigi. Ten days of house-to-house fighting, a very high blood tribute, 135 the only Italian soldiers killed, dozens of civilian victims. A tribute that Filottrano has not forgotten.
At the ceremony, on the 73rd anniversary of the battle, where the Undersecretary of Defense Domenico Rossi also took part, military and civilians recalled that period and those guys, together with the mayor of Filottrano Lauretta Giulioni, to administrators of neighboring municipalities such as Poggio Rusco and Arezzo , to the Anpd'I sections of Ancona, Arezzo and Rimini.
There were veterans Vincenzo Tommasi, 95, and Luigi Tosti, 97. To other two veterans, to ten. Piero Gravellini, silver medal for military valor and the paratrooper Alvaro di Domenico, Croce for valor for war merit, was awarded honorary citizenship. The Polish consul, a representation of French paràs, the commanders of the 183rd and 185th RAO regiments and, of course, the honor guard of the 183rd parachute regiment also honored the fallen nimbus, the heirs of the homonymous, heroic division. An event recalled not only with the military ceremony and the deposition of the laurel wreath to the dedicated monument, also with a series of air-raid, both a rope and a freefall, by military and civilian paratroops, since the morning.
First at the door and launching himself, giving the official start to the ceremonies, was the col. Sergio Cardea, now serving at the COI Joint Forces Command, former commander of the 183rd Parachute Regiment nimbus.
Every single moment of the event was important, unique. As the inauguration of the Battle Museum, realized thanks to the continuous research of some Filottrano citizens who collected material and testimonies and to Giovanni Saltarelli, who published a book dedicated to the battle and which takes care of the museum space, set up in collaboration with the lawyer Marco Cercaci del Mibat.
Giulio Morigi, the son of the historic commander of the nimbus, donated his father's medal collection to the town of Filottrano.
The evening ended with other launches, those of parachute athletes in freefall landed on the small stadium and the one with the formation of canopy relative work of Ancona dell'Anpd'I president Marco Andreani with the expert parachutist Renzo Carlini. Finally, the world champion of the Army, ten.col. Paolo Filippini, landed with a flag of 200 square meters.
To say that those who love the homeland by wearing a uniform have as their retropensiero the faith to an oath and the defense of the population, is not a sentence made, nor empty form. It is the sacrifice that comes to life, it is that generosity that those who wear worthily the uniform know and make their own, it is the feeling deep children of that land of the fathers - this is Patria - that is soil but also blood, that of their own sacrifice for the common good.
The battle of Filottrano was important, for various reasons: the first, for the great sacrifice of young lives who did not hesitate for a moment to die to save the defenseless population, who had already paid so much in terms of victims and destruction, as well to help drive the Nazis out of Italy. The second reason is strategic, because the victory of Filottrano by the allies has allowed the outlet to the port of Ancona, helping to define the fate of the war. The last one concerns the honor of a people, the Italian one that, when needed, is able to bring out its best elements to be proud of, "proud of our past, always worthy of our inevitable future", as were the paratroopers of the division nimbus.
