Her battle name was Renata and was the first Italian paratrooper woman to make a war launch during the Second World War. Paola Del Din was born on August 22, 1923 in Pieve di Cadore, is almost 102 years old and is a symbolic figure of the Italian resistance. King Charles III mentioned it in the speech to the Italian Parliament: it is the only gold medal for the military valor of the resistance still living.
After the armistice of September 8, 1943, just graduated in letters in Padua, she joined the resistance. Partisan of the Osoppo brigade is among the last witnesses of the operations behind the lines carried out by British secret services: He was mentioned for his service as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (soe) of his majesty during the Second World War. It was one of the so -called Churchill’s Italian Angels.
It was trained by the SOE and paratrooped in Friuli exactly 80 years ago, today it is the anniversary of the start of the Bigelow mission to which it had been assigned. Before officially entering the SOE, in the summer of 1944, he had carried out on behalf of the Osoppo brigade and the major Manfred Czernin, a British connection officer paratrooped in Friuli, another high -risk mission to bring top secret documents to the Allied Command overcoming the Florence front line.
So the Anpi website tells it: «She had just graduated in letters from the University of Padua when, surviving the armistice, she entered the ranks of the Venetian resistance with her brother Renatoof a year older than her and that would have fallen a few months later in Tolmezzo, during a reckless action against a barracks of the fascist militia. After the death of his brother, Paola committed himself even more in the anti -fascist struggle. With the name of “Renata”, he acquitted numerous and risky assignments, such as relay and information, until he failed to fortunately reach the allies in Florence, the laron of important documentsthe”.
«Once in the liberated Italy, the girl asks to attend a course for paratroopers, to be able to return more easily to the north, still occupied by the Nazi -fascists. Its determination is such that it is satisfied and trained in San Vito dei Normanni. “Renata” takes part in eleven war flights. He asks and gets the British freedom and bring his father Prospero back to Italy, an officer of the Alpini prisoner in India. On the eve of the liberation he gets carried by plane to an area of ​​Friuli, where he must contact an allied mission; It touches the ground in a bad way, he fractures an ankle, but he will struggle to reach the partisans and deliver to those who have the documents he has with him ».
In the last days of the war of liberation, still claudicant, Paola Del Din crossed the fighting lines on several occasions, to bring messages to the advanced allied departments. After the liberation, won a scholarship, it goes to the United States. At the University of Pennsylvania he obtained the title of Master of Arts. Back in Italy, Del Din is dedicated to teaching in middle schools.
In 1957 he received the maximum Italian military reward, in whose motivation we read: “Beautiful partisan figure, he knew how to fulfill the entrustment and virile duties with the entrustment with rare ability and virile daring, always demonstrating a high spirit of sacrifice and boundless dedication to the cause of freedom”.
In 2002 he had a godmother, in Milan, to the students of Corso Ferrari II of the Theulié Military School. Until his reconfirmation, in February 2007, to the National Presidency of the Italian Federation of Volunteers of Liberty, he was often present at military ceremonies and demonstrations of the Resistance.
For several years she has returned to the United Kingdom with some officers known during training as an agent. In 2023, when he turned 100, he had received the wishes of the sovereign, through the British ambassador in Italy Edward Llewellyn, together with those of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella and the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had mentioned her in a letter to Corriere della Sera on the occasion of his first 25 April by Premier.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
