Captain Robert Bentley Robert Bentley: his party scuttled past German checkpoints in borrowed overcoats Robert Bentley: his party scuttled past German checkpoints in borrowed overcoats Published 1 minute ago Until the armistice of September 1943 by which Italy changed sides in the Second World War, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) had regarded Italy as barren soil for stimulation of subversion and sabotage. The emergence of anti-fascist groups in the northern part of the country, still being skilfully contested by the withdrawing German Army, changed the situation dramatically. By the end of the campaign in April 1945, the Resistance groups rivalled those of France. In the final few months leading up to the Eighth Army’s break-in to the valley of the Po, Allied concern focused on encouraging the partisans in preventing the enemy carrying out “scorched earth” policies that would impede both the Allies’ advance and the recovery of the economy of the north. In the north east, hostility between communist and nationalist partisan groups rendered cohesion difficult; in the Ligurian north west where Robert Bentley eventually arrived, the situation was dominated by the German 34th Infantry division with no commitments other than to carry out rastrellamenti (murderous raids, mass arrests and house-to-house searches) against the partisans. No 1 Special Force controlling SOE operations in the peninsula first instructed Bentley to join Lieutenant-Colonel Peter McMullen’s “Saki” mission in Liguria from southern France, where SOE had a firm foothold. Forced back by the Alpine winter, Bentley had to settle for the obvious risks of taking his sub-mission in by sea, landing at his fourth attempt near Bordighera on the south-east facing coast of the Gulf of Genoa. This placed him a significant distance from the partisan leader with whom he planned to make contact: one “Curto”, a known communist and an effective leader operating along the Franco-Italian border but desperately short of weapons. It was Bentley’s first priority to find Curto and arm his guerillas either by sea or air drop. Reaching Curto’s area of operations gave Bentley serious difficulties, owing to the close attention the 34th Division paid to the beach areas and immediate hinterland. The expected guide was not at the landing place, a nearby safe house proved to be known to the enemy, and his party was obliged to crawl or scuttle past checkpoints wearing borrowed civilian overcoats led by guides he was able to recruit by his force of personality. The Ligurian people were generally keen to help but the reprisals and burning of villages during the German rastrellamenti had made them extremely cautious. Having landed on January 6, 1945, it was not until February that Bentley was able to link up with Curto and his partisans and March before he managed to arrange the first drop of arms. Even then the partisans were piteously short of food and medicines, in consequence their morale was at best precarious. Keeping alive dominated their thoughts rather than harassing the enemy. Recognising that airdrops in the hills were easily detected by the enemy and the time taken to collect the parachute containers involved the partisans in serious risk of capture and death, Bentley resolved to attempt resupply by sea. Two coast landings had to be abandoned owing to failure to establish contact between ship and shore and only one was accomplished after Bentley had made his way back through the German checkpoints to supervise the landing personally. Better weather in the mountains favoured return to air resupply and sufficient arms had been dropped to the Ligurian partisans for them to make a positive effort to coincide with the Eighth Army’s advance into the Po Valley in April. As the overall German collapse intensified, the 34th Division moved north-eastwards towards the Brenner Pass with such speed that the partisans had to move quickly to take advantage. Genoa and the main towns were occupied after only sporadic fighting and Bentley was able to report back to No 1 Special Force HQ, “Great welcome everywhere and anti-scorch (earth) most successful.” The only embarrassments he also felt obliged to report were the activities of French troops who had landed in the south of France with the US 7th Army and crossed the Franco-Italian frontier intent on exacting revenge for the Italian advance on Nice in 1940. The citation for Bentley’s Military Cross praised his determination, outstanding leadership and courage. Before joining SOE in 1944, he had served with the Eighth Army in North Africa and was commissioned into the General Service Corps. A gifted linguist, on demobilisation in 1946 he read Science at the University of California before starting work with the Bank of America. Subsequently, he joined Pacific National before eventually returning to England to join the Manufacturers Bank of which he became a vice-president. On his retirement he lived in Provence until finally returning to England in 1994. In 1970 he married Susan Balderson who survives him. There were no children. Captain Robert Bentley, MC, SOE veteran of the Italian campaign, was born on December 20, 1922. He died on March 3, 2013, aged 90 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3769103.ece
