World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF ITALY: D’lstria Comes Home

One chilly night last February a French submarine from Algiers sneaked through the Mediterranean, surfaced in Corsica’s Ajaccio harbor long enough to let Captain Colonna d’Istria, young scion of an old Corsican family, slip ashore.

During the next seven months he labored to arouse his indolent countrymen. It was not hard to do: 2,503 years of bloody history had engendered in them a hatred for foreigners, a natural bent for vendettas and guerrilla fighting in the blood-red rocks, the snow-capped peaks. D’Istria armed the Corsicans with 10,000 submachine guns (dropped by parachute, hauled in by submarine). He fired them with the memory and the zeal of the greatest Corsican of them all—Napoleon Bonaparte.

By last week D’Istria’s efforts were paying off. When the Italian surrender became known, the patriots struck. The enemy: some 12,000 German troops, part of whom had fled from nearby Sardinia.

To aid the patriots (and a fighting handful of the 40,000 Italian soldiers on the island), two French destroyers brought more guns, strong detachments of French commandomen, 40 tough U.S. Rangers. After seven days of savage fighting, hundreds of Germans lay dead, all the way from southern Bonifacio to northern St. Florent. The Nazis lost the port and capital Ajaccio, began disordered retreat to Bastia. All but won for the Allies was an island which offers: 1) five naval ports; 2) three airports; 3) another springboard for invasion.

Two Generals. Proud General Henri Honoré Giraud let the world know that the French Army was freeing “the birthplace of modern France.” He flew to Ajaccio, stayed two days, pinned the Knights Cross of the Legion of Honor on Captain d’Istria; replaced Vichy’s administrators with new men, sanctioned the re-establishment of elected town councils.

Rumormongers tried to brew more bitter tea between Giraud and General Charles de Gaulle. The facts: Giraud-De Gaulle relationships improved daily. During Giraud’s visit, one gay, demonstrative crowd greeted him with cheers of “Vive Giraud!” Giraud silenced them, cried: “There are two generals at the head of the French National Committee, General de Gaulle and myself. Now, with me—’Vive De Gaulle!'” The Corsican crowd cheered.