Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 25001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 494

(x) An outstanding posthumous Gold Al Valore Militare awarded to Commander P. Paiette, II Garibaldi Assault Brigade, a gallant Italian partisan who was Killed in Action with a German patrol in February 1944

Italy, Republic, Al Valore Militare, Gold issue, silver-gilt, marked 'A-800' (Paietta Pietro (M) M. Carlo. (Vercelli) 24-2-944.), good very fine

Citation states:

'Organizer of the first partisan detachments in the Biella area. Commander of the Garibaldi Brigade, he bravely led his men in the bitter battles against an enemy superior in numbers and means. Always first in the fray, always present where the danger was greatest, an example and an incitement, he sustained numerous battles at the head of his unit, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. During a reconnaissance he clashed with a German unit and although in inferior conditions he refused to surrender and with weapons in hand accepted the fight until he fell riddled with bullets. Heroic commander and passionate animator, he made his holocaust a warning and example to the people . – Monte Casto (Vercelli), 24 February 1944.'

Pietro Paietta was born on 7 February 1914 in Taino. He attended middle school in Novara and found employment as an accountant in the local branch of the Stipel Company. Enlisted in 1935 in the 4th Bersaglieri Regiment of the Trento Motorized Division, mobilized for AO (East Africa) needs, he was in Libya from December 1935 until August 1936. Repatriated and discharged with the rank of Corporal Major eligible for the rank of Sergeant, he entered the Bank of Luino which he left the following year to enlist as a Volunteer in the Garibaldi International Brigade during the Civil War in Spain. Wounded and mutilated of an arm in the Battle of the Ebro on 18 March 1938, he moved to France.

After the capitulation of the French army to Germany in the spring of 1941, he took part in the resistance movement as a commander of groups of francs tireurs. On 8 September 1943, having returned to Italy and taken refuge in the Biella area, he was the organiser of the first partisan groups that were later to form the II Garibaldi Assault Brigade, of which he held command. (https://www.combattentiliberazione.it/m-o-v-m-dall8-settembre-1943/paietta-pietro, refers)

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Estimate
£800 to £1,200

Starting price
£600