The Undersecretary of State for Defense Angelo Tofalo visited yesterday the Shrine of the Flags at the Vittoriano that guards, from the 1935, the Flags of War of the dissolved Departments of the Army, Air Force, Carabinieri and the Armed Corps of the State as well as the Flags of Combat of disarmed units of the Navy.
To receive Undersecretary Tofalo the commander of the Autonomous Grouping of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Gerardo Restaino and the Director of the Sacrario delle Bandiere, Colonel Giovanni Greco.
"A treasure made of stories, emotions and symbols of a country that we must bring back to its maximum splendor", Said Tofalo during the visit that is part of the delegation concerning the treatment of the problems concerning the diffusion of the culture of Defense and Security,"Listening to the stories of all the memorabilia kept in the shrine, I was very excited and allowed to feel even more on my skin the strong responsibility to ensure that those who dedicate their lives to the defense of the country the best possible working conditions".
The site chosen to keep them, inside the Vittoriano, next to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, enhances the sacred and symbolic function of the "Flag" that became the simplest and most direct means to commemorate the sacrifice and courage of the many Italian soldiers who fought under the banner of the Tricolore for a common sense of homeland in search of freedom.
Within the ample cases found in the internal spans of the Shrine, the flags are grouped according to the various belongings: Aeronautics, Cavalry, Genius, Artillery, Bersaglieri, Infantry, Guardia di Finanza and Public Security.
In the two large galleries are kept around two hundred flags, banners, labari and relics among which, those of dissolved departments and about twenty drapes of "War" belonged to the departments before the conversion from monarchy to the Republic. Completing the exhibition path are five showcases containing objects recovered during combat actions on different war theaters, of particular interest the flags torn by the captured military themselves to hide them and do not let them fall into the enemy's hands, then reassemble them after the war.
Of the three parts that make up the flag, the pole, the tip and the cloth, the latter represents for a war flag the most "sacred" element and characterizing belonging to a nation and its ideals, for this reason inside the Shrine of the Flags of the Armed Forces there are remains of cloths torn by the soldiers themselves before falling prisoners of the enemy, kept during their imprisonment and returned at the end of the war once repatriated. In many cases the soldiers affixed their rank, name and surname on the scrap of cloth they had become the guardians of.
Among all is worth mentioning the banner of 2 ° group Carri Veloci San Marco of 2 ^ division Celere Emanuele Filiberto, kept inside a wooden and glass box, valuable for embroidery but even more for the names on the various pieces of cloth among which stands out "for Franco Sabatucci la Madre" in all probability guarded and returned by the mother of the military Franco Sabatucci after the death of her son.
"A place steeped in the highest values such as love for country and courage, where the sense of sacrifice and belonging to the country is strongly felt", Said Undersecretary Tofalo at the end of the visit.
