Italian War Memorial Traditional Cache
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This monument commemorates the Italian soldiers who died during battles with the Germans, were executed, or died during transport to detention camps during WW11.
The Kefalonia Massacre: In 1943, on sep 8th, the commander of Italian "Acqui" division (General Antonio Gandin with a division consisting of 525 officers and 11,500 soldiers) that was defending Kefalonia and the Ionian islands, found himself facing the choice to surrender to the Germans or to resist. Between september 9th and 11th extensive negotiations were conducted between Gandin and the German lieutenant colonel, Barge, who promised the repatriation of Italians who would surrender, and in the meantime continued to attract new troops on the island. Gandin then asked his soldiers to decide on three alternatives: the alliance with the Germans, the surrender of weapons or the resistance. Through a referendum soldiers unanimously chose to resist. On September 15th, the battle began and lasted until September 22nd: German bombers decimated Italian troops destroying the city of Argostoli. The Wehrmacht, according to the orders of the Führer, stated that, because of their betrayal, no italian soldier should have been made prisoner. On September 24th Gandin was shot in the back, while in a school 600 italian soldiers and officers were mowed down by machine-gun fire, and 360 officers were killed in the courtyard of the "Casetta Rossa" (the Red House, a short distance from Argostoli). (Note-this is at the end of the road you turn up to go to the memorial if you approach from the Finari/Lassi road ... See photo) In the end 5,000 soldiers were slaughtered (446 were officers) - the 3,000 survivors, embarked on three steamers going to the German concentration camps, vanished into the sea, sunk by mines. In total 9,640 were the fallen, and the Acqui Division was destroyed. From http://www.kefalonia-greece.com/kefalonia-history.htm Ardena was sunk shortly after leaving Argostoli. It hit a mine that had been laid some months previously by the Italian ship Berletta 3. http://warsailors.com/forum/read.php?1,8169,8172#msg-8172 The wreck lies between Lixouri and Lassi. Dive Site 9 on this Map. http://pirate-divers-club.gr/en/dive-sites-global Sinfra had over 2400 prisoners on board and was sunk in Souda bay Crete, by Allied bombers. over 2000 of the prisoners were killed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Sinfra A third ship, the Elsi hit a mine off SE Kefalonia. It sunk with no loss of life. http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?188925 For further information on the memorial http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/12433/Memorial-Acqui-Division-Kefalonia.htm Obviously the cache is not on the memorial itself. Please be respectful of it. You are looking for a plastic jar containing a log, pencil, bracelet, rubber and nail clippers. Cache will be maintained by a friend on the island in between our visits. ******MANY CONGRATULAIONS TO INDIEROCKHOPPER ON FTF!!!******
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vg EBPXF !!