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Mission: Partisan Forces: Background: Summary: Meetings were then arranged with Americano and Eduardo, leaders of the local partisan forces, to discuss their needs and to make future plans. With the provision of a partisan guide, Lt Taylor made reconnaisance of the area and met with senior officers of the Allied forces there while waiting for arrival of more members of his team. On 21 March with two men for the PEEDEE Mission, T/Sgt Fred Orbach, T/5 Alvin Brower, T/5 Herbert Oelschlager, and T/5 Robert Sander, radio operator, arrived to join Lt Taylor. On 22 March the five men moved through the mountains on foot to Brallo where they set up operational headquarters and found a DZ nearby which was code-named "Lynn". While that DZ was soon used for a drop of clothing and ammunition, arrival of the men continued to be delayed because of bad weather. During this time on 1 April, Lt Taylor was accidentally shot through the left hand by a pistol bullet which also wounded T/5 Brower's right knee, and slightly wounding T/5 Sander in the hand. Sander and Brower recovered fairly quickly, however Taylor's wound required bed rest until 9 April when 1st Lt Robert Gallaher, S/Sgt Arnold Keller, S/Sgt Earl Bowers, T/4 Lintard Luke, T/5 Lucien Forget, T/5 Martial Bergeron, T/5 David Waggoner and T/5 Leo Francis, Medic. parachuted in. Although there were no injuries in the drop, S/Sgt Bowers landed in a tree. With the full 13 man section now in the field, the next two days were spent house cleaning and getting settled in what would be ROANOKE'S operational headquarters, a farmhouse at Pietra Gavina, five kilometers north of Varsi. In addition to continued meetings with partisan leaders to plan with them for possible operations, the period 12 April to 20 April concentrated on the distribution of clothing, weapons and ammunition as supply drops arrived; and in training sessions with the partisan units on the use of the weapons, ammunition and demolitions. At the same time, with the assistance of partisan guides, reconnaissance missions for area familiarization and operational planning for ambush sites and demolition targets was accomplished. To do these varied tasks the section worked in two and three man teams. On some of the reconnaissance, they were joined by James Wilde, an escaped British POW. 25 April, section received an order of attack. There had been some initial confusion with orders received from the Fifteenth Army Group, which had directed the partisans to attack Tortona. However, communication from Capt Vanoncini led to the decision that ROANOKE units would attack Voghera - as part of a coordinated attack plan in which one of the Americano brigades with 50 Czeck soldiers would mount an attack on the Varzi-Godiasco-Voghera road. With apparent knowledge of the proposed attack, the Germans pulled back their outpost to Rivanazzano. On approaching Rivanzzano, Lt Taylor learned from an excited partisan that the Germans were in a defensive position 200 yards from the other side of town and they might possibly surrender to an American officer. Lt Taylor and T/Sgt Orbach put aside their arms and walked under a white flag to the German outpost where talks with the Germans lasted until 2230 hours. With an attack promised to start at 2400 hours unless they agreed to surrender, the Germans initially refused. But an hour later they agreed to surrender. Two hours later at 0130 hours 26 April, the surrendering Germans marched in from Voghera. By 0500 hours their disarmament was completed and all captured arms and equipment were turned over to the partisans. The total number of prisoners was 340 men and 21 officers, including 1 colonel. At 0700 hours 26 April, using captured German vehicles, the section departed Rivanazzano for Voghera. After taking cover for a period in nearby fields because of five American fighters flying overhead, the column proceded to Voghera - to be the first of non German troops to enter the area. At about 1500 hours partisan intelligence reported that several hundred Germans were located about 20 kilometers north of Voghera. After the partisans informed the Germans that an Allied force of 4000 had already by-passed them, they too agreed to unconditional surrender. 0730 hours 27 April, an excited partisan reported to Lt.Taylor that a German force of about one thousand was marching on Voghera. Lt. Taylor immediately formed the OGs with partisans on both sides of the street and moved to meet the Germans. When the OGs and partisans got to a point where they judged the Germans to be only a few blocks away, they stopped and took up defensive positions. T/Sgt Orbach then moved out to scout the enemy. Picking up about 200 partisans they continued to the city limits where they set up three lines of defense, setting up machine gun and Bren gun positions with good fields of fire. With the defense set up, it was learned that the Germans were still about 5 kilometers away at Cassi Gerola, T/Sgt Orbach, with a white flag on a stick, rode a bicycle into the German position to try to negotiate their surrender. It was soon determined that the Germans had already become aware the tide of the war had turned against them and that they had destroyed or removed parts from their weapons so they could not be used by the partisans. T/Sgt Orbach then arrranged for surrender to be made to Lt. Taylor. While the surrender was being worked out, Lt Gallaher, with half the section, traveled to Piacenza, 50 kilometers east of Voghera to brief the 24th Division. 29 April, when Allied troops entered Voghera,
all prisoners of the section were turned over to an advanced column
of the 92nd Division.
Summary compiled from end-of-mission
reports
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