OUR WWII STORY: The underground post in Sicily

The summer of 1943 had a key objective for the Allies during World War II – attack the European theater’s so-called “soft underbelly,” topple fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and begin the northern advance toward the western front. The first step in that journey, all of which was accomplished, began with a massive assault campaign and liberation of Sicily.

Victory in Sicily – a Mediterranean island about the size of Vermont in area, off the southern coast of mainland Europe – would stage the Allies for its bloody march through Italy, rooting out German defenses while Italy itself was deposing Mussolini, denouncing fascism and withdrawing from the Axis.

That summer, when U.S. troops entered the mountain village of Monte Albano, they were greeted by thankful Sicilians. They were also shocked to discover that an American Legion post had been secretly operating there during the war and German occupation.

“The existence of the underground American Legion post came to light when American troops entered Monte Albano,” the November 1943 National Legionnaire newspaper reported. “The commander of the post, a 1918 doughboy who displayed an American Legion membership card for 1940 in a San Francisco, Calif., post, introduced himself to Maj. George M. Riser, artillery observer, of Alexandria, Va. He told Maj. Riser that the moment he and his comrades had been awaiting for two years had come.”

At its height in 1927, the American Legion’s Department of Italy counted 2,253 members. Membership drifted downward in the years leading up to World War II and was all but erased when Italy entered World War II in alliance with Germany and Japan against the United States and the Allies.

The self-proclaimed commander of the post at Monte Albano had reportedly been unable to submit a charter application before he and his six charter members – all U.S. military veterans – were forced underground. The commander, unnamed in the Legionnaire article, swore in the members of his post on his own and kept their identities under wraps.

“Naturally, everything had to be done in the utmost secrecy,” the National Legionnaire reported. The post had monthly meetings at members’ homes. There, they “made plans and carried them out to aid the American cause by undermining local morale, and in every other way.”

Mere hours after the Germans fled the village, the post revealed itself, among citizens who lined the streets and cheered the arrival of the liberators. The National Legionnaire reported that the villagers brought bread and wine out to serve the GIs and volunteered to string communication wires. Meanwhile, disconsolate fascism supporters in the village stood silently by, understanding that outright defeat was inevitable.

The community’s comfort with the Americans was believed to have been nurtured by the American Legion post and other U.S. veterans living in the village.

“They showed no fear of the newcomers, largely due to the assurances they had received from the veterans,” the National Legionnaire reported.

In 1994, the American Legion Department of Italy and its five existing posts at the time were merged into the Department of France, as were the Departments of Canada and Panama.