'Massacre in Rome'

In March 1944 a group of Italian resistance fighters in Rome exploded a bomb in a dustbin as a German military police column marched past. It killed 33 of the military police. The Germans ordered the execution of ten Italians for every dead German. The Italians were driven in trucks to a remote spot outside Rome and led into some natural caves. In groups of five, the men were made to kneel and bow their heads. They were shot with a bullet in the back of the head. Not all of the Germans found this agreeable – some tried to get drunk to make it easier and they got careless. Many of the prisoners had to be finished off with rifle butts. After six hours it was all over and the caves were blown up, covering the bodies. Some of the relatives criticised the resistance group for the bombing and said they should have given themselves up to save the lives of the men. Six months later, when the Germans had abandoned Rome, the Italian authorities dug up the caves. They counted 335 bodies. The Germans had shot five too many.

Neil Demarco: The era of the Second World War; Oxford University Press, 1993/2000, page 67