After the bombing on Feb. 17, 1943, shelters began to be built in which to take shelter during the shelling; they are scattered throughout the village, placed in courtyards or dug into the limestone walls of the mountains not far away. Many are still visible; they allowed even several families from an entire neighborhood to come together.
Bombing Feb. 17, 1943
By Sacred Heart Choir and Individual Volunteers
Each Feb. 17 commemorates the anniversary of the 1943 bombing by U.S. forces, which saw 118 killed and 235 wounded, mostly women, old people and children. Anglo-American landing in North Africa changes air warfare strategies in Sardinia. They begin hitting civilian targets with low passes and machine-gun attacks, including on inland towns previously thought to be safe and the subject of “displacement” from coastal centers. B25 bombers of the 310thBomb Group, drop 636 pieces on the village of Gonnosfanadiga. The main streets and other parts of the country filled with mutilated corpses and wounded people screaming and calling for help. In relation to the number of inhabitants, that of Gonnosfanadiga was one of the civilian death tolls on the same day, among the most serious of the entire air war over Italy. The country has always given wide prominence to the commemoration of Feb. 17, both to honor the dead and so that the memory of the historical event may not be lost, but may be subject to protection and enhancement as the “Intangible Cultural Heritage” of our Community. The wall of a house and a gate on Marconi Street that still bear the traces, the Conventions that tell the story, the monument of the mother mourning her child, are meant to be the “not to forget” those tragic events.
