Giovanni Slaviero

Giovanni Slaviero also known as 'Gianni' (6th December 1914 – 25th October 1999) was an Italian Tank Officer turned CLNAI partisan, Special Operations Executive and Servizio Informazioni Militare. He operated in Northern Italy, particularly Modena in the World War II. He was captured, tortured and interrogated by the Schutzstaffel on April 1945, but never gave up any information. He was released after the Allies of World War II threatened to bomb Modena if he was harmed. 
== Early life ==
Giovanni Slaviero was born on the 6th December 1914, in Vicenza on the Asiago Plateau, the site of a Battle of Asiago offensive in the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Italy in World War I.[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 3.] He was born to Benedetto Slaviero and Fabris Pierina, who sadly both died when he was very young, his father being killed fighting in World War I, so he was brought up as an orphan.[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 9.] He started his military career at the age of 15 at the military high school in Rome, continuing on to the Military Academy of Modena, where he graduated a Tank Officer, receiving his first commission on 16th October 1936. 
== World War Two ==
On the outbreak of World War II, Gianni fought on the western front, with the 33rd Tank Regiment (Italy), he fought at the San Bernardino Pass, in the invasion of France 1940.[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 21.] When this front fell quiet, he was re-employed as an instructor at the Military Academy of Modena, where he was the commander of the 83rd REX company, he was quickly promoted to captain. On the 8th September 1943, he managed to escape the Germans who occupied the institute by force. Now in hiding, Gianni helped build a resistance movement in Modena, with himself in charge, quickly becoming integrated into the Mission Intelligence branch of the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy. In this capacity, he met a British Special Operations Executive, disguised as a ‘famiglio’ (civil worker), who reported to the head of Special Operations Executive in the area, Major TJM Davies, that Gianni was an officer worthy of reliability and thus, he was enlisted in both the Special Operations Executive and Servizio Informazioni Militare, as Head of the Secret Service beyond the Gothic Line for the Modena area.[Maurizio Parri. Tracce di cingolo: Compendio generale di storia dei Carristi 1917-2009. Associazione Nazionale Carristi d'Italia. 2009. Pg. 151.] During this role, Gianni provided mission intelligence as part of RT Hewitt’s Number One Special Force, for both the SILENTIA and GRATIOT missions, he was also in direct radio contact with the British operatives who had parachuted in over the Modena Apennines.[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 18.] 
He was in continual danger, a fact all too evident when on the 13th April 1945, he was exposed by an informer called Orlandini, a photographer from the VSP in Modena. He was then promptly arrested by the Sicherheitsdienst (security division of the Schutzstaffel) and taken into custody by the National Republican Guard (Italy), who promptly beat him in the military academy. He was then subject to torture and interrogation but he gave up nothing. After it became clear he was not going to talk, he was handed over to the Germans, who sentenced him to death. A British major in the Special Operations Executive (probably Major TJM Davies), then wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Modena and to the Nazi Commander of the occupied Academy, who then passed the message on to the Germans, announcing that if Slaviero was shot, Modena would be the subject of a merciless bombing. Luckily however, the capitulation intervened just before his execution and he was let go by Karl Wolff on the 23rd April.[Eugen Dollmann. Roma Nazista. Biblioteca Univ Rizzoli. 2002. Pg. 36.] Upon his return from capture, his face was very badly bruised and swollen, he had been beaten hard on the back and chest and was bleeding. For his service, Gianni received £125, a letter of commendation to the Italian authorities, an inscribed cigarette case and the Italian Bronze Medal of Military Valor.[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 8.]
According to his family, following the victory of the Allies in Europe, Gianni's captors and torturers were identified and tried. However, despite the cruel treatment Gianni had received at their hand, he always expressed forgiveness for them. A testament to the man's character. 
It should also be noted, that during his capture, all of Gianni's belongings were confiscated, including a precious Eberhard watch which was very dear to him. One of his torturers attempted to sell this watch, eventually ending up in a bookshop managed by a friend of Gianni's who immediately recognized the watch, and bought it in the memory of Gianni, whom he thought he'd never see again. Upon Gianni's release, he met with the bookkeeper and upon seeing the watch, reimbursed him for its cost and so was reunited with it.
== Post War ==
After the war, Gianni got married to a woman named Iolanda, who he’d met in Modena with whom he had one child named Roberto. He also continued his military career, being promoted to Major, returning to the operational and training departments of the tank corps. Here he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, then Deputy Commander of the 4th Tank Regiment (Italy) (And commander of its XX Battalion) in Legnano. Following that, Gianni reconstituted the 3rd Armoured Regiment ‘Mechanized Brigade "Granatieri di Sardegna" in Persano, serving as its Colonel Commander, then as Commander of the Officers School of Lecce and, finally, of the Armoured Troops School of Caserta where he was promoted to Brigadier General. He retired with the rank of Division General, then Lieutenant General, having reached the age limit for the Italian army. He then retired, living in Modena, and devoting himself with passion to the Lions Club international activities, in particular as District Governor in 1982/1983 and the following year as President of the Council of Italian Governors. Gianni died on the 25th of October 1999.[Maurizio Parri. Tracce di cingolo: Compendio generale di storia dei Carristi 1917-2009. Associazione Nazionale Carristi d'Italia. 2009. Pg. 152.]
Gianni was described by Major TJM Davies in a recommendation as “sound and reliable. An extremely keen and honest officer. Absolutely straightforward. non-political. Subject is an orphan, his father, a regular officer, being killed in the 1915-18 campaign. He is very poor as he has not received army pay since September 43. He has devoted himself to the resistance since then”.[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 17.] 
Adrian Gallegos also described him in a recommendation saying “I have known this officer personally and know all about his extremely valuable work. He is a first-class type of man and, when put through the third degree by the fascists, did not speak... An exceptionally good case...Recommend that a letter be written about him to the Italian military praising his work for the allies. ”[Giovanni Slaviero. Service Record HS 9/1373/2. U.K. National Archives, Kew, Surrey. Pg. 17.]
Category:1914 births
Category:1999 deaths
Category:People from Vicenza
Category:Italian military officers