Other

A plaque commemorates this episode of the Resistance: around 4 pm on 10 September 1943 the German army arrived in Legnago asking for the surrender of the local military garrison. The number of soldiers present in the town had decreased after the middle of August following the order to go to Milan for the clearing of the rubble and for the recovery of the works of art buried under the ruins of the bombed basilicas of S. Ambrogio and S. Maria delle Grazie. The Germanic contingent entered from Ponte Fior di Rosa, south of the country, moved to Via Roma; there some Germans disarmed and beat two Italian soldiers on guard at the post office. The commander of the Legnaghese garrison replied, who arrested two German soldiers. It was at that point, evidently, that the situation worsened: the soldiers of the Wehrmacht opened fire on a group of bridges killing one and injuring another; the Italians immediately responded to the German attack and the clash that followed lasted about twenty minutes; eventually another Italian soldier and a German died. Although the resistance was, after all, rather mild, it still forced Reich soldiers to wait for reinforcements which, however, arrived almost immediately. At that point, strong of some tanks and armored cars in a short time they got the better of the small Italian contingent. Apparently, following the Chronicles of Maria Fioroni, that brief firefight could have cost dear to the people of Leghorn since the German command immediately thought of inflicting an exemplary punishment on the town of Bassa; punishment that was avoided only thanks to the intervention of the mayor Cesare Tonetti. Today the fallen Italian soldiers are remembered by a plaque at the entrance of via Bezzecca.