That autumn morning

At the general command of the 15th Air Force, from February 1944 there was a report by R.A.F. where it was reported that the Milan plants operating in the mechanical-steel industry were in full swing, probably serving the war industry; this led to the decision to carry out a heavy raid on the city of Milan that destroyed all the production facilities. The date decided was that Friday, October 20, 1944.

From the research carried out on the photo-surveys of the time, the fact that from the choice of targets to be hit that day were excluded large factories such as the steelworks and ironworks Falck and the Caproni (aircraft manufacturer) where there were really war productions, while Breda, Alfa Romeo and Isotta Fraschini, targets of the mission had decentralized all their production in shadow factories in the province or even in Germany, where they were forced to move many Breda workers; probably the informants of the Americans were not very "informed".

The Alfa Romeo factories at Portello, also hit them on the morning October 20, 1944

Another novelty concerned the choice of objectives: apart from an episode that occurred on April 30, 1944, where a department of Breda was destroyed at the nearby Bresso airport, the other raids on the area had affected only the railway station of Lambrate and partly less that of Greco. One thing to point out was the presence in the morning of the German Minister of Defense Albert Speer in Milan, but thinking of an attempt by the US to eliminate that political figure by hitting it with an aerial bombardment would have meant a great "stroke of luck". as well as an exaggerated expenditure of energies when a chosen shooter would have been sufficient for this purpose.

Albert Speer (1905-1981), Architect and German Minister of Armaments, could be a target to hit on the morning October 20, 1944 when he was visiting the Milanese factories serving the war industry in Germany.

Preparations for this mission were then put in place, assigning three Bomb Group mission units located in the Apulian bases, and more precisely: 38 B-24 aircraft of the 461st group directed at the Isotta Fraschini plants, 29 B-24 aircraft of the 484th group for the Alfa Romeo factories, 36 B-24 aircraft of the 451th group with targets of the Breda facilities in Sesto San Giovanni; a total of 103 four-engine bombers with a route to Milan to carry out the largest bombing in the area after the August 1943 attacks.

The planes of the 461th and 484th groups arrived at the pre-established target without any particular problems, also due to the fact that the Germanic fighters had been recalled at home and the anti-aircraft land was practically non-existent, and completed their mission as predetermined apart from some bombs that fell off target by striking numerous civil buildings in the Fair area, causing a high number of deaths among the population. The 451th had a completely different story.

The attack formation of this group involved a number of 36 aircraft arranged on two waves of 18, composed in turn by three boxes of 6 planes in a row of two arranged with an arrowhead. Taking off from the airport of Castelluccio in Foggia at 7.58 they soon found themselves in 35 as a plane returned to the base shortly after takeoff due to mechanical problems, while the others proceeding at the speed of 160 miles per hour arrived on Milan shortly after 11 ; each component of the training had on board 10 bombs of 220 kg. whose fall time from a height of 10,000 meters was calculated in 180 seconds.

Reached after a wide lap from the right almost to Switzerland the I.P., namely the initial point, an important point about 4 km. West of the target to hit, from where the attack run began, they changed course heading to the Breda factories, but at this point things did not go according to plans: it happened that the group leader, the head plane of the central box of the first wave, due to a short circuit to the launch button, dropped the target off the target own load, imitated by the components of the other boxes; the bombs then fell into open countryside in the Saronno area.

The second wave that followed after a few minutes, reached the I.P., taken for no apparent reason a route of attack deviated 22 degrees to the right instead of to the left ( see aerial photo ); when the leader of the formation noticed the mistake by now the already advanced race of attack did not allow him to return to the starting point, a mistake of 22 degrees had made him lack the establishments; since there are no other military targets in the area, he decided to return to the base considering the mission as "failed".

The problem of the load remained: the bombs (about 2200 Kg. Each plane) could not be brought back home because they were already triggered; it was a matter of primary importance for the safety of the crew. A way out of this situation could be to continue for 140 degrees reaching the countryside towards Cremona where the space to get rid of the inconvenient load was not lacking, or launch them in the Adriatic sea on the way back. But the commander decided otherwise.

We do not know and probably never know if the solution that he chose was the result of his decision or if it was foreseen by his operational plan, but we know that at that time one of the worst crimes against humanity occurred in the air war of those years, because he ordered the other aircraft to drop the bombs immediately on the city, even though there were no military targets under him but only civilian buildings that he could perfectly see given the favorable weather conditions.

The consequences of that decision were revealed after three minutes, the time necessary for the bombs to reach the ground from the launch height of about 10,000 meters.

After that short interval, during which the population seeing the bombs fall trying to find shelter reaching the underground shelters, the village of Gorla was hit by more than 37 tons of explosives became hell ... houses, shops, workshops were hit, but a bomb more than others caused a massacre that would have changed the life of the district forever: the one that had centered the elementary school "Francesco Crispi"; killing 184 children with their teachers and some parents who came to the sound of alarm sirens to bring them to safety.

An image of the school after the bombing.

On the right of the building there is the missing corner where the bomb fell and hit the children on the stairs.

The only comment to what happened came from Colonel Stefonowicz of the 49th Wing, which depended on the 451th group, which heavily criticized the work of the group, not so much for having dropped the bombs after taking note of being off target (striking then the civilian population) as for the damage of image that the poor teamwork had caused the American aviation.

A "reparatory" mission, organized for the following days, was canceled due to bad weather, without having followed.

No one was ever called in the dock, either in Nuremberg or later, to answer for this action that had cost the lives, as well as hundreds of other innocent civilian citizens in Milan, to 184 Italian children.

As in the rest of northern Italy, even in Milan the population was trying to overcome the last months of a war that had brought everyone to their knees: food was scarce, there was no wood to warm up or to try to repair the houses damaged by the bombings; in the city the number of refugees, stragglers and those who had lost everything was high. Many milanese citizens who in previous years had made the decision to leave the city to take refuge in Brianza, Veneto or Piedmont, after the armistice of September 8, 1943, they were sure that the war was now really over, they returned to live in Milan . The scream of alarm sirens due to the approach of bomber formations remained an almost daily reality. In fact, as soon as the detectors noticed the arrival of enemy aircraft on the region, the "small alarm" was sounded, if then the planes were heading towards a precise target in the area of this sounded the "great alarm"; obviously at that moment all citizens had to be already inside the shelters.

The term "shelter" could refer to a concrete structure designed to resist the fall of the bombs ...

... or simple brick cellars that at best were propped up with wooden logs

From the outside these places were recognizable by arrows painted on the buildings, in the points that indicated the entrance or exit security.

Even today there are those signs on the fronts of renovated buildings, where the residents have however decided to respect the memory of that period.

We conclude this small photographic review on the shelters with an image that could give rise to laughter: a modified bicycle to which a dynamo had been applied that generated electricity for lighting in case the external power supply line had been hit.

Going to the shelter often did not turn out to be a quick thing: those who had a shop had to close it by putting the goods safe to prevent phenomena of looting due to hunger, whoever was at home had to prepare everything necessary (food, water, blankets) for a stay that could last even for hours, the patients had to be taken to the shelters on their shoulders, the children cried. Repeating all these operations even two or three times a day had become unbearable, also because the allies had not hit Milan for weeks; among the citizens had therefore taken the habit of ignoring the small alarm, quietly continuing its business.

That morning the small alarm (as also reported by the documents of the Prefecture) rang at 11.14, when the planes had just entered the sky of Lombardy, the big one sounded at 11.24. The bombs dropped at 11.27 touched the ground at 11.29. From the small alarm to the moment in which the bombs exploded, so only 15 minutes passed, a too short time to leave everything and run to the shelter for the adult population, for a school attended by hundreds of students then became an impossible task.

In Gorla the elementary school Francesco Crispi welcomed all the children of the neighborhood, sons of workers, artisans, clerks; many of these students had been forced to return from displacement because the parents were convinced that "the war was over". Given the high number of children attending school it was necessary to establish the double shift. That morning the 200 children present were the children of those who could lead a life with fewer problems (at least from the economic side) compared to those living in the houses of the Crespi Morbio Foundation, was considered more needy and before following the lessons of the shift afternoon took advantage of school meals paid by the municipality. Few others were absent for health reasons or because, given the beautiful sunny day, they had decided not to go to school ...

At 11.14, when the small alarm sounded, the teachers began to prepare the students to go down to the shelter, others sought information in the secretariat, if it were the big alarm and maybe the little one had not heard it. When at 11.24 it really sounded great, the head of the procession formed by the children had already arrived in the shelter, others were still on the stairs; in those moments the bombers were now visible to everyone: in the blue sky many small silvery points from which other even smaller points were detached. The bombs had begun to fall on the neighborhood. At this point some children escaped from school trying to reach their home, with the risk of being hit on the street (as in some cases it happened). Being on the ground floor, the fifth of the teacher Modena did not have to walk the stairs, was therefore the only class that had the opportunity to save themselves to complete. For all the others the fate was more tragic: one of the 170 bombs fell on Gorla slipped into the stairwell and exploding caused the collapse of the wing of the building and the stairs on the masonry slab that overlooked the shelter, dragging with them all the children and their teachers in the pile of rubble. Also many parents who at the sound of the small alarm had rushed to school to resume their children, died in the collapse.

As soon as the sequence of explosions had ended and the gray and suffocating dust caused by the explosions and collapses deposited, the citizens who were in the vicinity of the school immediately realized what had happened, gave the alarm and began to dig with shovels, picks or simply with their hands; although the damage affected the whole area, the reliefs focused mainly on the school where parents flocked to try to find out what had happened to their children.

The Prefecture of Milan was immediately informed and ordered the first aid: soon came the military U.N.P.A. (National Union Anti-aircraft Protection), those of G.N.R. (Republican National Guard), the Fire Brigade; among the first rescuers there were the workers of the "Gramegna" factory (many of which were fathers of the children) who used the shovels taken from the hardware store of Mr. Didoni.

Immediately the dimension of the tragedy was clear, only bodies without life were extracted from the rubble; particularly active in those hours was a young priest, Don Ferdinando Frattino, who with his work contributed to the rescue of a good number of children, but unfortunately always few: the students who died that morning were 184, with all the teachers, the director and auxiliary staff. What happened in the last minutes of the school is entrusted to the memories of those who, in various ways, managed to survive.

Together with the school of Gorla, the neighboring Precotto district was also hit, but we dedicated a special page to it.

Even in the factories that were the target of the mission, which were only partially affected, dozens of dead workers were counted as they had not been able to reach the shelter in time. Entire neighborhoods were almost completely destroyed, among them (still in Gorla) the building complex of the Crespi Morbio Foundation where many civilian victims were counted. That day in Milan the dead that were recovered were 614, many other people did not even find the remains because they were in the immediate vicinity of an explosion remaining torn apart; in addition to these hundreds of people were injured and thousands without a home.

The funeral took place in the nearby Parish of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus in the presence of Milanese inhabitants who came from all over the city to witness their sorrow; the children were buried in the cemetery of the district of Greco from which they were then transferred when the ossuary monument was ready.

Some newspaper clippings of those days describe the events