King Charles Recalls Resistance Heroism, Cites Paola Del Din

Rome: King Charles recalled the “heroism” of the Italian WWII Resistance against the Nazis in his historic speech to parliament Wednesday and cited the “courage” of 101-year-old former Partisan Paola Del Din.

According to Ansa News Agency, Charles noted that on Thursday he will travel to Ravenna with President Sergio Mattarella to mark the 80th anniversary of the province’s liberation by the Allies. He highlighted “the terrible suffering of the civilian population, the heroism of the Resistance, and Partisan Paola Del Din’s courage.”

Charles cited Del Din, a symbol of the Liberation struggle and the only Gold Medal of Military Valor of the Resistance still alive, for her service as an agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War.

The Friulian partisan of the Osoppo Brigade, who at 101 years of age is among the last witnesses of the operations behind the lines carried out by Her Majesty’s secret services, had received the sovereign’s best wishes through the British ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn. This came after she passed the century mark in 2023, and also received accolades from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who mentioned her in a letter to Corriere della Sera on her first April 25 (Liberation Day) as Prime Minister.

Del Din was trained by the SOE and parachuted into Friuli exactly 80 years ago, marking the anniversary of the start of the Bigelow mission to which the patriot was assigned. “I know that on this day we are all thinking of Paola, who is now 101 years old, and we pay homage to her courage,” declared Charles III in his speech to the joint chambers.

Before officially joining the ranks of the SOE in the summer of 1944, Del Din carried out another high-risk mission on behalf of Osoppo and Major Manfred Czernin, a British liaison officer who parachuted into Friuli, to deliver top secret documents to the Allied command, crossing the front line in Florence.

She maintained a strong bond with the United Kingdom, visiting London several times after the war, and kept connections with some officers she met during her training as an agent.

Among other historical references by King Charles was a nod to the great passion of the British for Garibaldi, symbolized by the English biscuits that bear his name, and to the soldiers of the Kingdom and the Commonwealth who fought alongside the Italians in the First World War.