Four days of Naples The Four days of Naples ( Italian : " Quattro giornate di Napoli " ) refers to the popular uprising in the Italian city of Naples between 27 and 30 September 1943 against the German forces occupying the city during World War II . The occupiers were forced out by the townsfolk and the Italian Resistance before the arrival of the first Allied forces in Naples on 1 October , and for these actions the city was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor . Prelude . Historical background . From 1940 - 1943 , Naples suffered heavy Allied bombing raids , which caused much damage and heavy losses among the civilian population . It has been calculated that 20 , 000 of its inhabitants fell victim to these indiscriminate attacks : over 3 , 000 died in the raid of 4 August 1943 alone , while around 600 were killed and 3 , 000 injured by the explosion of the ship " Caterina Costa " in port on 28 March . The city ' s artistic and cultural heritage also suffered damage , such as the partial destruction of the Chiesa di Santa Chiara on 4 December 1942 . With the Allied advance in southern Italy , anti - Fascists in the Naples area ( including Fausto Nicolini , Claudio Ferri and Adolfo Omodeo ) began to establish closer contacts with the Allied commanders , and requested Naples ' liberation . From 8 September 1943 , the day in which the Cassibile armistice came into force , the Italian Army forces in the area ( without orders , as were most of the units at the time ) drifted toward Naples . Things there were already difficult , thanks to the unceasing bombing raids and the imbalance in forces ( 20 , 000 Germans faced only 5 , 000 Italians in the whole of Campania ) . The situation in Naples soon turned into chaos , with many higher officials ( unable to take the initiative or even directly collaborating with the Nazis ) deserting the city , followed by the Italian troops . Those escaping included Riccardo Pentimalli and Ettore Del Tetto , the generals entrusted with military responsibility for Naples , who fled in civilian clothing . Del Tetto ' s last actions before fleeing had been to hand the city over to the German army and to publish a decree banning assemblies and authorising the military to fire on those who flouted that ban . Even so , sporadic but bloody attempts at resistance arose throughout the Zanzur Barracks , as far as the Carabinieri barracks at Pastrengo and at the 21st " " Centro di Avvistamento " " ( Early Detection Post ) of Castel dell ' Ovo . Turmoil . In the days following the armistice , the episodes of intolerance and armed resistance towards the German occupiers in Naples intensified , more or less organized , including the 1 September student demonstration in Piazza del Plebiscito and the first meeting of the " Liceo Sannazaro " at Vomero . On 9 September some citizens met with German troops at Palazzo dei Telefoni , managing to escape , and in Via Santa Brigida . This latter episode involved a Carabiniere , who opened fire to defend a shop from German soldiers attempting to loot it . On 10 September , between Piazza del Plebiscito and the gardens below , the first bloody clash occurred , with the Neapolitans succeeding in blocking the path of some German motor vehicles ; in these fights three German sailors and three German soldiers died . The occupiers managed to free some of those imprisoned by the rioters , thanks to an injunction by an Italian official , who summoned his countrymen to surrender some of their hostages and all their weapons . The retaliation for the Piazza del Plebiscito clashes came quickly : the Germans set fire to the National Library and opened fire on the crowd that gathered there . On 12 September , numerous soldiers were killed on the streets of Naples , while about 4 , 000 Italian soldiers and civilians were deported for forced labour . An announcement of the prefect on 22 September decreed compulsory labour for all men from 18 – 33 years of age and set their forced deportation to work camps in northern Italy and Germany . The population refused to collaborate and rose up . State of siege . The same day , Colonel Walter Schöll assumed command of the military occupiers in the city , declaring a curfew and a state of siege , with orders to execute all those responsible for hostile actions against German troops , and up to 100 Neapolitans for every German killed . The following proclamations appeared on the walls of the city on 13 September : The orders were followed by the shooting of eight prisoners of war in via Cesario Console , while a tank opened fire against students who were beginning to gather in the nearby University and several Italian sailors in front of the stock market . A young sailor was executed on the stairs of the headquarters , while thousands of people were forced to attend by German troops . On the same day , 500 people were also forcibly deported to Teverola , near Caserta , and forced to watch the execution of 14 policemen , who had offered armed resistance to the occupying forces . The seeds of rebellion . Following the indiscriminate executions , the looting , the mopping up of the civilian population , poverty and the destruction of war spurred spontaneous rebellion in the city , without external organization . On 22 September , the inhabitants of the Vomero quarter managed to capture ammunition from an Italian artillery battery , while on 25 September 250 rifles were stolen from a school , and on 27 September the insurgents captured some weapons and ammunition depots . In the meantime , new repressive measures issued by Colonel Schöll on 23 September ordered the evacuation ( within 20 hours on the same day ) of the entire coastal area up to a distance of from the sea : approximately 240 , 000 people would be thus forced to abandon their homes to allow the creation of a " military security zone " that seemed a prelude to the destruction of the port . Almost simultaneously , a " manifesto " from the city ' s prefect called for compulsory work from all males between the ages of 18 and 30 , in practice a forced deportation to labor camps in Germany . However , only 150 Neapolitans out of the planned 30 , 000 responded to the call , which led Schöll to send soldiers into the city to round up and immediately execute defaulting citizens . In response to this , starting from 26 September , an unarmed crowd poured into the roads against the Nazi roundups , freeing young people from deportation . The rioters were joined by some former Italian soldiers who had kept themselves hidden so far . The four days . 27 September . On 27 September , large parties of German troops captured about 8 , 000 Napolitans , while 400 - 500 armed rioters began armed attacks against them . One of the first outbreaks of fighting occurred in the Vomero quarter , where a group of armed men stopped a German car and killed the German NCO driver . During the day , fierce fighting followed in different areas of the city between the insurgents and German soldiers . The Germans had begun evacuation operations , spurred by news ( later proved to be false ) of an imminent Allied landing at Bagnoli . An Italian lieutenant — Enzo Stimolo — led a group of 200 insurgents in assaulting a weapons depot in Castel Sant ' Elmo , which was captured in the evening , not without bloodshed , after German reinforcements came from the Villa Floridiana and the Campo Sportivo del Littorio areas . At the same time , a group of citizens moved to the Bosco di Capodimonte , where , according to some rumors that were circulating in the city , the Germans were executing prisoners . A plan was devised to prevent a group of German engineers from setting mines at the Ponte della Sanità to cut off the city ' s centre . This was accomplished the following day by a squad of sailors . In the evening , the insurgents also attacked and plundered the weapons stores in the barracks at Via Foria and Via San Giovanni a Carbonara . 28 September . On 28 September , the fighting increased after more Neapolitan citizens joined the riot . In the Materdei district a German patrol , which had taken shelter in a civil building , was surrounded and kept under siege for hours , until the arrival of reinforcements . By the end , three Neapolitans had lost their lives in the battle . At Porta Capuana , a group of 40 men — armed with rifles and machine guns — set up some kind of roadblock , killing six enemy soldiers and capturing four , while other fighting broke out in other parts at the Maschio Angioino , at Vasto and at Monteoliveto . The Germans launched other raids , this time in the Vomero , amassing numerous prisoners inside the Campo Sportivo del Littorio , prompting an assault on the sports field by a party led by Enzo Stimolo , and the freeing of the prisoners the following day . 29 September . On the third day of the riot , the streets of Naples witnessed fierce clashes . As no connection could be established with national anti - fascist organizations such as the " Fronte Nazionale " ( an offshoot of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale ) , the insurrection was still without central direction , operations being in the hands of local leaders . In Giuseppe Mazzini Square , a substantial German party reinforced by tanks attacked 50 rebels , killing 12 and injuring more than 15 of them . The workers ' quarter of Ponticelli suffered a heavy artillery bombardment , after which German units committed several indiscriminate massacres among the population . Other fighting took place near the Capodichino Airport and Piazza Ottocalli , in which three Italian airmen lost their lives . In the same hours , at the German headquarters at Corso Vittorio Emanuele ( which was repeatedly attacked by insurgents ) , negotiations were started between Schöll and Stimolo for returning the Campo Sportivo prisoners in exchange for the free retreat of the Germans from Naples . 30 September . While the German troops had already begun the evacuation of the city before the arrival of Anglo - American forces from Nocera Inferiore , Antonio Tarsia in Curia — a high school teacher — proclaimed himself head of the rebels and assumed full civil and military powers . Among other things , he issued provisions regarding the precise opening hours for shops and citizens ' discipline . The fighting did not cease , and the German guns in the Capodimonte heights shelled the area between Port ' Alba and Piazza Mazzini for the whole day . Other fighting occurred in the area of Porta Capuana . The fleeing Germans left behind them fires and massacres , including the burning of the Naples Historical Archive , which caused great loss of historical information and documents . A few days later there was an explosion at the Palazzo delle Poste , Naples , attributed to German explosives . Liberation of Naples . At 09 : 30 on 1 October , the first Allied tanks entered the city . At the end of the day , the German commander - in - chief in Italy — " Generalfeldmarshall " Albert Kesselring — considered the retreat successfully concluded . Statistics for the four days of Naples vary : according to some authors , 168 rioters and 159 unarmed citizens were killed ; according to the post - war Ministerial Commission for the recognition of partisan victims , casualties amounted to 155 , while the registers of the Poggioreale cemetery listed 562 deaths . It should be noted that , in contrast to other resistance episodes in Italy after the 8 September armistice , which also involved Italian fascists , most of the fighting occurred between Italians and Germans . The revolt actually prevented the Germans from organizing a resistance in Naples against the Allied offensive or , as Adolf Hitler himself had ordered , from turning the city into ruins before the German retreat . A few months later , on 22 December , the generals Riccardo Pentimalli and Ettore Del Tetto , who had abandoned the city to the Germans after the 8 September events , were sentenced by the High Court of Justice to 20 years in military prison for their active collaboration with the Germans . Domenico Tilena — head of the fascist provincial section during the riots — was sentenced to six years and eight months . In popular culture . Cinema . The historical episode of the Naples rebellion was recalled in the ending of Luigi Comencini ' s film " Everybody Go Home " ( 1960 ) and in Nanni Loy ' s 1962 film " The Four Days of Naples " ( with the latter nominated for Oscars for best foreign film and best screenplay ) . Theatre . " Liberta ` : omaggio alle Quattro Giornate di Napoli " by Giovanni D ' Angelo was a prose opera on the German occupation of Naples . Literature . The book " Street Boys " , by Lorenzo Carcaterra , is based on the events . The novel is about how Naples ' children fought off the Nazis with the help of only one allied soldier . The book " Four Days of Naples " by Aubrey Menen , published by Ballantine books is also based on these events . Music . The Song " Scugnizzi " by Neapolitan Reggae - Dub - Rock band 24 Grana off the album " Loop Live " ( 1998 ) was based upon the heroic actions of the street children who played a large part in the revolt . Its accompanying video features haunting clips from the Nanni Loy film , such as the boy being machine - gunned by the German Tiger tank .