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Auction: 25001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 495

(x) A very fine Gold Al Valore Militare awarded to Vice-Commander of the Bologna Partisan Division A. Cucchi, who served in the field under the code name Jacopo

Italy, Republic, Al Valore Militare, Gold issue, silver-gilt, marked 'A-800' (Cucchi Aldo - Imola-Bologna - 9-9-943 - 21-4-45.), good very fine

Citation states:

'Founder, organizer and commander of the partisan units in the Imola area, he stood out from the first days for his sagacity in organization and his courage in action. These qualities shone later in Bologna where, in command of a GAP, he carried out actions against Nazi headquarters and units, actions that had a wide resonance encouraging the people of Bologna to resist Nazi oppression.

Arrested by the SS and managing to escape, he worked as a doctor and fighter in a Brigade operating behind the German deployment on the Gothic Line.

During a tough battle, seeing his commander fall, he picked up his body and rushed with a few men into the midst of the advancing enemy. He then re-established the seriously compromised situation, dragging the partisans in the wake of his courage. Commander of a Brigade and deputy commander of the "Bologna" Division, he was recognised and remembered as one of the clearest figures of the partisan movement in Emilia and as one of the major architects of the heroic recovery of that region.'

Aldo Cucchi was born on 27 December 1911. A graduate in medicine and surgery, Cucchi had secretely joined the Communist Party in 1938. He took part in the Second World War as a Medical Lieutenant on the Greek-Albanian front and was transferred in 1942 to the hospital in Bologna with the rank of Lieutenant. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, he actively participated in the resistance movements with the battle name of Jacopo, becoming Vice-Commander of the Bologna Partisan Division in 1945. After the war, he worked as a forensic doctor but turned to politics. In 1948 he was elected as Deputy of the Italian Communist Party and ventured to the Soviet Union in 1950, writing about his experiences in a 1952 book entitled Una delegazione italiana in Russia. With various factions and changes to the party in Italy, he ended his career in the ranks of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party. An Honorary Citizen of Bologna, Cucchi died on 8 May 1983.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Estimate
£800 to £1,200

Starting price
£600