One summer’s night years ago, around the time of 9/11 I guess, I needed a red rose in a hurry to give to the Italian girl, Carla, who is now my wife and the mother of my five children...
So I went into the cemetery and found a decent red rose bush next to one of the gravestones, and I plucked a beautiful rose from it. I then gave it to Carla. I told her where it had come from, and her eyes welled up with tears. I have always remembered the name on that gravestone and each time I visit the cemetery as I did on April 25th, I stop in front to say thank you.
Thank you, Private W. J. Blake of the Durham Light Infantry, killed in action on December 15th 1944, aged 21, “Sadly mourned by Mum, Dad and Jean.” You and those like you are the ones who liberated Italy and restored it to democracy. And I am sure of this: You are not angry, nor would your family be angry that a red rose from a bush whose roots mingle with your remains helped love flourish between a British man and an Italian woman. Thank you.
You can read the rest of Nicholas Farrell's fascinating article - in which he expresses disgust at the way Italy's Communists have hijacked Liberation Day -
here.
Very much enjoyed your post and Nicholas Farrell's article. Stalin quickly grasped the ineptitude of the various European Communist parties and gave them no support at all. Why would he foment unrest in the Allied rear areas while he needed them to continue drawing the heat in 1944/45. He despised the French for their capitulation [thereby releasing huge amounts of materiel -especially lorries - to the German army]. The Italians sent divisions to Stalingrad and it was Tito who bank-rolled the insurgency in Greece until Stalin told him to cool it. The primary contribution of the European communists post-liberation was to hunt down young women who had consorted with the enemy and submit them to brutal humiliation. And, of course, the other problem they had was to post-rationalise the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Commies!
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