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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
CIC UNCOVERS SABOTAGE NETWORK IN MILAN
On May 16, 1945, Allied counter-intelligence agents arrested an Abwehr (German intelligence) agent in recently liberated Italy. Through interrogations of this agent and his associates, the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) was able to uncover a large network of saboteurs operating in Milan.
Following the end of World War II in Europe, Allied occupation forces began extensive searches for Axis collaborators and spies. On May 16, 1945, three weeks after the liberation of Milan on April 25, Allied counterintelligence agents in the city captured Dottore Reme, a senior Abwehr officer. The investigation into Reme’s activities was passed to the IV Corps CIC detachment, and subsequent interrogations revealed Reme was the leader of a stay-behind sabotage network desiring to undermine Allied occupation efforts in Milan. The group, identified as Troop 211, was disguised as a cosmetics distribution firm called the Gibim Prodotti Corporation.
A few days after the interrogation of Reme, IV Corps CIC agent 2d Lt. John Marino began interviewing political prisoners at the San Vittore Prison in Milan. He encountered Amado Torres and Franca Pasquali, who had been arrested earlier in May by Italian partisans. The pair confessed to Marino that they were members of Troop 211 and worked under Reme. Torres explained that Gibim Prodotti was established in January 1945 by Abwehr agent and cosmetics dealer Guido Belloni at the behest of Reme. Belloni was the only employee familiar with the cosmetics business, while the rest “were placed on the Gibim Prodotti payroll as inspectors and sales representatives of the firm but actually did no work for it.” Torres worked as a recruiter for Troop 211 from late 1944 until his arrest in May 1945.
With Reme, Torres, and Pasquali all imprisoned, the CIC set its sights on apprehending Belloni and any other Abwehr agents working at Gibim Prodotti. On May 20, Lieutenant Marino and S. Sgt. Emery W. Seymour from the 204th CIC Detachment went to Belloni’s residence in Corso Como, Milan. They discovered that Belloni and another agent, Vincenzo Sacchi, had last been seen leaving the residence during the liberation of the city in late April.
The CIC agents then conducted a search of the Gibim Prodotti premises and seized the firm’s personnel files. Italian partisans were organized to guard the site with instructions to arrest any employees attempting to enter the building. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Marino returned to San Vittore Prison to reinterview Torres regarding the seized files. Of the twenty-four employees, Torres identified twenty-two as Abwehr agents.
Over the next week, Agents Marino and Seymour arrested eleven more employees, all having been recruited by Torres or Reme, and several having attended training at a sabotage school in Milan. On May 24, Marino and Seymour visited the home of Sacchi, who had last been seen with Belloni in April. The pair interviewed his family and discovered that Sacchi frequently visited the residence of a female companion. The CIC placed the woman’s apartment under surveillance and apprehended Sacchi later that afternoon.
The employee lists for the cosmetics firm were distributed to Allied intelligence and security units throughout Italy, and the remaining employees, including Belloni, were arrested shortly thereafter. Interrogations of each of the members found no sabotage missions had ever been conducted by Troop 211 during its brief existence. For his role in the investigation, Sergeant Seymour received a Bronze Star on May 30, 1945. Lieutenant Marino also received a Bronze Star in June 1945, although whether this award was a result of the Milan investigation is unknown.
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| Date Taken: | 05.09.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.09.2025 16:43 |
| Story ID: | 497558 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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