Storia di un anagnino morto nella prima guerra mondiale

Armando Giuliani nacque ad Anagni il 05/02/1896. Era il fratello di mio nonno e tramite qualche ricerca sono riuscito a ricostruire la sua storia. Da giovane, appena compiuti 16 anni, emigrò negli Stati Uniti insieme al padre Pietro. Grazie al sito della Ellis Island Foundation ho trovato il registro della nave su cui viaggiarono: la Kaiserin Auguste Victoria [1] [2] partita da Napoli il 28 Marzo 1912 (circa 15 giorni prima del celebre naufragio del Rms Titanic)

(copia del registro della nave)

Dei circa 5 anni trascorsi negli Usa (probabilmente nel Connecticut) non ho alcuna notizia. Intanto in Europa nel 1914 inizia la prima guerra mondiale, L’ Italia nel 1915 entra nel conflitto armato. Gli Stati Uniti entrano in guerra nel 1917.

Dopo l’ingresso in guerra degli Stati Uniti, il 19 aprile 1917, gli immigrati italiani e i loro figli venivano posti di fronte a una scelta: partire per combattere nell’esercito americano, oppure tornare in Italia per combattere a fianco dei propri connazionali. La stragrande maggioranza dei giovani ritenuti abili ha scelto di arruolarsi tra i berretti verdi. Ci sono varie ragioni per cui era considerato più vantaggioso combattere a fianco degli americani e la prima è sicuramente di carattere utilitaristico: un periodo al fronte assicurava la carta di lavoro e un passaggio facile verso la cittadinanza, per sé e per la propria famiglia. Negli anni Dieci del Novecento l’immigrazione di massa dall’Europa era ancora in pieno sviluppo, per molti significava passare da condizioni di miseria assoluta a condizioni di vita precaria, ma con un obbiettivo di miglioramento. Qualsiasi modo per velocizzare il processo di integrazione era ben accetto, fosse anche il caso di mettere a rischio la propria vita per un Paese di cui ancora non si conosceva bene la lingua. Oltretutto, la maggior parte degli uomini tra i diciassette e i trentacinque anni, la vita la rischiava ugualmente lavorando nelle miniere, come carpentieri e muratori, a posare le ferrovie e nelle fabbriche. La prospettiva di un permesso permanente addolciva la pillola.

tratto da: Soldati d’Italia di stanza a New York
Gli italiani che durante la Grande Guerra hanno servito nell’esercito americano

Si arruolò quindi nell’esercito Usa (Us Army), Seconda Divisione 23esimo reggimento di Fanteria (2nd division 23rd Infantry Regiment). Il reggimento arriva in Francia il 20 settembre 1917. Tra giugno e luglio le operazioni si svolgono nella zona dell’Aisne-Marne. La seconda battaglia della Marna è uno dei momenti più importanti della prima guerra mondiale sul fronte occidentale.1

Aisne-Marne Offensive (Soissons). [1]

On July 18th attacked from a position near Longpont2. Advance was 9 kilometers. Relieved night July 19th-20th. Marched to St. Etienne, thence to Ormoy-Villers. July 30th, moved to Nancy.

da http://2nd-division.com/_div.units/23rd.inf/23rd.infantry.htm

Photograph taken during actual combat operations during the Aisne-Marne Offsenive (Soissons) of an captured camouflaged German Artillery dugout that was captured by elements of the 1st Battalion, 23rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade near the French farm of Beaurepaire during their assault towards the Clancy Ravine on the afternoon of Thursday, July 18th, 1918. da http://2nd-division.com/_div.images/girard/23rd.infantry.htm

Altre immagini e filmati dell’epoca: [1] [2] [3]

Armando Giuliani muore il 18 Luglio 1918, cento anni fa. E’ sepolto all’ Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Seringes-et- Nesles, in Francia. E’ difficile saperne di più visto anche l’incendio che nel 1973 ha distrutto molti dati del personale militare negli Stati Uniti.

Il suo nome compare nell’elenco presente sul monumento ai caduti di Piazza Cavour e la foto è tra quelle dei soldati morti durante la prima guerra mondiale nella cappella votiva della chiesa di S. Agostino.3

 


Stiamo parlando della nostra Storia, di quella dell’Europa. A Sarajevo ha inizio il Ventesimo secolo, quello dell’industrializzazione della morte. La Prima guerra mondiale, una novità che sembra aver avuto grande apprezzamento: l’uso del gas ha aperto nuovi orizzonti, dato nuove idee, in un’ottica molto ‘moderna’. (…) L’Europa… con il 1917, la Rivoluzione russa e poi l’arrivo degli americani… Prima di tutto ciò avevamo vissuto a lungo in una situazione cristallizzata. Da allora il contesto è cambiato, stavo quasi per scrivere ‘si è evoluto’. L’11 novembre scorso hanno decorato un ‘vecchietto’, un reduce (ma quanti ne restano ancora?). Nel 1915 aveva vent’anni ed era già stato derubato del suo futuro e della sua giovinezza. Mica tanto divertente…
Jacques Tardi (dall’introduzione al fumetto “Era la guerra delle trincee“)

pagina a cura del nipote di Giuliani Armando

AGGIORNAMENTO 2019

Grazie alla collaborazione di Army Heritage Center Foundation altre notizie più dettagliate:

He emigrated to the United States entering at Ellis Island, New York on March 28, 1912 settling at Poquonock Bridge, Connecticut. He was killed in action during the Soissons Offensive,which began at 4:35 AM on July 18, 1918 and lasted for about 2 hours, the 2nd attack began again at 6 pm. I did not find any specific references to him. The Center has Division records and a search through them could be quite extensive and time consuming and there is no guarentee that any details would be in them.
He enlisted/ or was drafted into the Army  on September 19, 1917. He was stationed for training, first in the 151st Depot Brigade at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, until February 17, 1918; and was then placed in Replacement units. It appears he was shipped to Europe on February 27, 1918. In April of 1918, I believe he was assigned to Company H of the 23rd Infantry, His unit sustains heavy losses on July 18, 1918 in the offensive against the Germans that would be the beginning of the end of the War.
The unit he served in moved east from Longpont, France toward Vierzy, France that day, so that gives you an area to the Southwest of Soissons, France that he would have been killed in. In the map below the 23rd’s movements were at the bottom, moving east.

 

 

——————

english version (automatic translation with deepl)

Armando Giuliani was born in Anagni on 05/02/1896. He was my grandfather’s brother and through some research I was able to reconstruct his story. As a young man, when he was 16 years old, he emigrated to the United States with his father Pietro. Thanks to the website of the Ellis Island Foundation I found the register of the ship on which they traveled: the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria [1] [2] left from Naples on 28 March 1912 (about 15 days before the famous shipwreck of the Rms Titanic).

(copy of the ship’s register)

Of the about 5 years I spent in the USA (probably in Connecticut) I have no news. Meanwhile in Europe in 1914 begins the first world war, Italy in 1915 enters the armed conflict. The United States entered the war in 1917.

After the entry of the United States into the war, on April 19, 1917, the Italian immigrants and their children were faced with a choice: to leave to fight in the American army, or to return to Italy to fight alongside their countrymen. The overwhelming majority of the young people considered able chose to enlist among the green caps. There are various reasons why it was considered more advantageous to fight alongside the Americans and the first is certainly of a utilitarian nature: a period at the front ensured the work card and an easy transition to citizenship, for themselves and their families. In the ten years of the twentieth century, mass immigration from Europe was still in full development, for many it meant moving from conditions of absolute poverty to precarious living conditions, but with an objective of improvement. Any way of speeding up the process of integration was welcome, even if it was the case of putting one’s life at risk for a country whose language was not yet well known. Moreover, most men between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five risked their lives equally by working in mines, as carpenters and bricklayers, laying railways and in factories. The prospect of a permanent permit sweetened the pill.

taken from: Soldati d’Italia stationed in New York
The Italians who served in the American army during the Great War

He then enlisted in the US Army (Us Army), Second Division 23rd Infantry Regiment (2nd division 23rd Infantry Regiment). The regiment arrives in France on September 20, 1917. Between June and July, operations took place in the Aisne-Marne area. The second battle of the Marne is one of the most important moments of the First World War on the Western front. [notes] About 250,000 dead, injured and missing. Among those who participate in the operations also the son of former president Theodore Roosevelt, a pilot who died as a result of the shooting down of his plane [1][2]. On the opposite front also a young Adolf Hitler seems to have operated as a soldier on the Franco-Belgian front [1][2][3][4].[/notes]

Aisne-Marne Offensive (Soissons). [1]

On July 18th attacked from a position near Longpont4. Advance was 9 kilometers. Relieved night July 19th-20th. Marched to St. Etienne, thence to Ormoy-Villers. July 30th, moved to Nancy.

by http://2nd-division.com/_div.units/23rd.infantry.htm

Photograph taken during actual combat operations during the Aisne-Marne Offsenive (Soissons) of an captured camouflaged German Artillery dugout that was captured by elements of the 1st Battalion, 23rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade near the French farm of Beaurepaire during their assault towards the Clancy Ravine on the afternoon of Thursday, July 18th, 1918. by http://2nd-division.com/_div.images/girard/23rd.infantry.htm

Other pictures and movies from that time: [1] [2] [3]

Armando Giuliani died on July 18, 1918, a hundred years ago. He is buried at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Seringes-et-Nesles in France. It is difficult to know more given the fire that destroyed many military personnel data in the United States in 1973.

Her name appears in the list on the war memorial in Piazza Cavour and the photo is among those of the soldiers who died during the First World War in the votive chapel of the church of S. Agostino.[notes]To learn more about the history of the creation of the war memorial in Anagni and the votive chapel we recommend reading Annalisa Proietto’s graduation thesis in contemporary history entitled “Monument to the Fallen of Anagni” available at the municipal library and watching the video interview with Prof. Tommaso Cecilia[/note].

We are talking about our own history, the history of Europe. In Sarajevo, the twentieth century begins, that of the industrialisation of death. The First World War, a novelty that seems to have had great appreciation: the use of gas has opened new horizons, given new ideas, in a very ‘modern’ perspective. (…) Europe… with 1917, the Russian Revolution and then the arrival of the Americans… First of all, we had lived for a long time in a crystallized situation. Since then the context has changed, I was almost about to write ‘it has evolved’. Last November 11, they decorated an ‘old man’, a veteran (but how many more remain?). By 1915 he was twenty years old and had already been robbed of his future and his youth. Not so much fun…
Jacques Tardi (from the introduction to the comic “Era la guerra delle treincee”)

page by Giuliani Armando’s nephew

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

 

  1. Circa 250mila tra morti, feriti e dispersi. Tra coloro che partecipano alle operazioni anche il figlio dell’ex presidente Theodore Roosevelt, pilota che morì a seguito dell’abbattimento del suo aereo [1][2]. Sul fronte opposto anche un giovane Adolf Hitler pare abbia operato come soldato sul fronte franco-belga [1][2][3][4].
  2. “Longpoint was captured on May 28, 1918, by the 28th Reserve Division of General Von Boehn’s army. But the French fought fiercely and recaptured it two days later. On June 3, the Germans made a determined effort to gain the Villers-Cotterets Forest and succeeded in retaking Longpont and other villages at its edge, but gained no foothold in the forest. They were finally driven from Longpont on July 13th. Five days afterward, before the great counter-offensive they fell back rapidly from this whole region, the dashing attack of the second American Division being delivered only about a mile north of Longpont. A storm center in such terrible backward and forward fighting, the almost total destruction of the once charming village may be readily understood.” da https://ww1instereo.wordpress.com/ruins-of-longpont-village/http://www.raynipeavy.com/2018/05/30/longpont-abbey-a-hidden-treasure/
  3. Per approfondire la storia della realizzazione del monumento ai caduti di Anagni e della cappella votiva si consiglia la lettura della tesi di laurea in storia contemporanea di Annalisa Proietto intitolata appunto “Monumento ai Caduti di Anagni” disponibile presso la biblioteca comunale e la visione della video intervista al Prof. Tommaso Cecilia
  4. “Longpoint was captured on May 28, 1918, by the 28th Reserve Division of General Von Boehn’s army. But the French fought fiercely and recaptured it two days later. On June 3, the Germans made a determined effort to gain the Villers-Cotterets Forest and succeeded in retaking Longpont and other villages at its edge, but gained no foothold in the forest. They were finally driven from Longpont on July 13th. Five days afterward, before the great counter-offensive they fell back rapidly from this whole region, the dashing attack of the second American Division being delivered only about a mile north of Longpont. A storm center in such terrible backward and forward fighting, the almost total destruction of the charming village once may be readily understood.” by https://ww1instereo.wordpress.com/ruins-of-longpont-village/http://www.raynipeavy.com/2018/05/30/longpont-abbey-a-hidden-treasure/

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