"I have a very good memory. I may forget what I had for breakfast, but I will never forget my ship." These were the words spoken last year by Gustavo Bellazini, the last survivor of the Battleship Roma, who died at the age of 103 last May. These words were remembered by Antonello Urru, national councilor for Sardinia of the ANMI (National Association of Italian Sailors), during the commemoration of that tragedy, which occurred this morning in Porto Torres.
On September 9, 1943, the day after the announcement of the armistice that marked the end of the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the battleship “Roma,” the flagship of the Royal Italian Navy, was sunk by bombs from the German air force in the Gulf of Asinara, 16 miles from the coast.
That day, 1,393 sailors lost their lives, along with the ship's commander, Captain Adone Del Cima, and the commander of the Royal Navy's Naval Battle Forces, Admiral Carlo Bergamini. On the same day, in the waters of the Maddalena archipelago, the destroyers Da Noli and Vivaldi were hit and sunk, killing 270 people. After 82 years, the memory of that tragic episode in Italian history lives on, and this year too, the Porto Torres municipal administration remembered the victims with a solemn ceremony in Piazza Caduti 9 settembre 1943, in front of the monument dedicated to them in the Belvedere di Balai.
After the flag-raising ceremony to the tune of the national anthem, in the presence of local civil, military, and religious authorities, veterans' associations, veterans and their families, and numerous citizens, Mayor Massimo Mulas, accompanied by local police officers, laid a laurel wreath at the foot of the War Memorial. The ceremony, coordinated by Master of Ceremonies Antonio Chessa, continued with the reading of the Sailor's Prayer by Davide Forleo, Lieutenant of the Port Authority of Porto Torres.
Mayor Mulas concluded the commemoration by addressing the sailors who died on that tragic day and all the innocent victims of the conflicts that still plague humanity. "Keeping this memory alive," the mayor said, "means for all of us, heirs of those generations, remembering that every war brings only suffering, atrocities, and death. The terrible events of the past should teach us that it is our duty to cultivate peace between peoples and reject conflict, as enshrined in Article 11 of our Constitution: 'Italy rejects war as an instrument of aggression against the freedom of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes.'"
During the commemoration, Antonello Urru, National Councilor for Sardinia of the ANMI (National Association of Italian Sailors), also spoke. He thanked the municipal administration for the heartfelt tribute paid each year to the fallen of the Battleship Roma. "Our memory," he said, "must live on in our minds and hearts. Those who left for their final mission, not returning to port, remain with us forever." In the square, between the two dedicated monuments, the ANMI will place two explanatory plaques expressing the significance of that precious memory.