Alberto Li Gobbi
Ed. La Nottola
pp. 184
“After 80 years are we still talking about Resistance? Does that make sense?” you might ask. Could it be that this book also wants to stir up the somewhat stale debate between fascism and anti-fascism?
Beyond many instrumental controversies of today, it makes sense today, eighty years later, to try to understand a resistance phenomenon and a form of war (the partisan one) that have characterized national history and which is often referred to today while ignoring its evolution, characteristics, dimensions as well as the very motivations (extremely different from each other) of the protagonists.
From this perspective, it may be useful to read a book that presents an immediate analysis of the resistance phenomenon by a weapons professional who was able to look at that period with a technical eye, free from any apologetic intention. This is what was written during the war (1944) or immediately after the war (1950) by a career officer who did not hesitate to expose the limits of the partisan war that he had fought.
Far from the exaltation of the resistance myth and from a reading of the civil war subservient to political objectives of different colours, Alberto Li Gobbi provides us with an aseptic description of the partisan phenomenon, focusing above all on its military value. The style is direct, essential, without frills, raw also because the writings reported were not intended for publication, but were reports and studies prepared for his military superiors of the time.
The two main documents of the book (a historical study on partisan warfare presented by the author to the War School in 1950, with documents from UK sources, which the author had operated with the British "Number 1 Special Force" in the war, and the report presented in 1944 to the Military Information Service on its activities in occupied territory). It is an at times ruthless analysis of the partisan war made by a protagonist who doesn't bother to embellish anything. In addition to the memory of his own resistance experience, delivered to the dry form of the relationship, the author offers us a reading of the Resistance of great interest, which does not stop at the end of the war in Italy, but transfers its teachings into the context of the bipolar opposition that it was already taking shape.
Alberto Li Gobbi (1914-2011), artillery captain at the time, veteran of the French, Greek-Albanian and Russian fronts, played a fundamental role in the Resistance (in which he participated in various roles as agent of the Allied information services, partisan commander, convicted to death, prisoner in a concentration camp and commander of regular units of the Italian army). For his activity behind the lines he was decorated with a gold medal for military valor, while his younger brother, Aldo (1918-1944), who died under torture by the Gestapo, was decorated with a gold medal in memory. In 1948 Ferruccio Parri wrote about him: “Thanks to his work we were also able to have the first launch fields in Piedmont. In the particularly difficult and dangerous conditions of the winter of 1943-44, in a vast area including Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria, he carried out organizational and command tasks much higher than those of his rank and he carried them out in a commendable way, demonstrating courage, expertise and uncommon leadership skills".
After the war, after leaving the service, for two years (1945-47) he collaborated with the Jewish community to help European Jewish refugees reach Israel, forcing the blockade imposed by the British. Upon returning to service, he reached the top rank of "corps general with special duties". In retirement he was a valued collaborator of the Montanelli newspaper.
The edition of the book was edited by Alberto Li Gobbi's son, Antonio (retired army general), who in addition to selecting the texts to be published, among the various written by his father, accompanied them with numerous explanatory notes relating to the characters and historical facts mentioned, which at the time and in the military context did not require explanations.
The work is accompanied by a valuable preface by prof. Massimo de Leonardis (professor of History of International Relations at the Catholic University and president of the International Commission of Military History), gives an important historical introduction by prof. Luca Alessandrini (former director of the Parri Emilia Romagna Historical Institute) and a passionate afterword by Professor Paola Del Din, gold medal for military valor of the Resistance.
Enrico Baviera
