Castelvetro Piacentino, Piacenza, Northen Italy.
In 1939 the Italian National Oil Company (AGIP) built five underground fuel dumps in the country near the little village of Castelvetro Piacentino, located on the river Po. These fuel dumps were built close behind the banks of the river, 1 Km far from it. The fuel dumps could be supply by a pipeline which connected them with the river. Together these dumps were built an office building. In 1943 Germany invaded Italy and this complex was requisitioned. Germans discovered the great potential of the fuel dumps, built underground, and the pipeline: they could supply the dumps with motorboats hidden to the
Allied air forces.
They camouflaged the office building in their three-colors standard camouflage, how is possible to see on the photographs, and built a small
"luftschutzbunker" (Air raid shelter). So they has transformed the complex in a military structure, which included also a work-shop to repair vehicles , that was already present before the Germans came.
From testimonies that I heard the dumps were refueled by motorboats, then the fuel was transferred to cans and charged on trucks. I didn’t heard nothing about the using of tankers.
In 1944 partisans notified the presence of this logistic center to Allies. On 1 September 1944 three fuel dumps were destroyed by an air raid, but Germans didn’t leave this site.
Current status:
The barrack and the bunker are now private property, the bunker is used as a hen house.
You can see remains of the camouflage and some bullet-holes on the barrack, however it wasn’t damage during the war,
And the fuel dumps are used as mushroom-cultivations. Nevertheless this complex is situated in
northern Italy, it has been always claimed as “Maginot”, but I don’t know if Italian National Oil Company claimed it so or if people claimed it Maginot because the military presence remembered the famous French line.
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Buildings used as barracks | |
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Air Raid shelter bunker ("Luftschutzbunker") | |
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Entrance to the Air Raid shelter bunker | |
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Original camouflage paint on the buildings | |
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Original camouflage paint on the buildings | |
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Buildings used as barracks | |
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Air Raid shelter bunker ("Luftschutzbunker") | |
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Air Raid shelter bunker ("Luftschutzbunker") | |
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Original camouflage paint on the buildings | |
| All photos were taken in 2000. |
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