The
Grosseto Air Base was considered by the Allies to be of strategic importance for operations in
North Africa, since the attacks on British ships in the western
Mediterranean Sea departed from there. The base was also the site of a torpedo-bomber training school of the
Luftwaffe's Kampfgeschwader 102 unit and the arrival of the
Messerschmitts Me 323 employed in the defense of
Tunisia. This led to several Allied air raids aimed at its destruction. The first raid took place on 26 April 1943, day of
Easter Monday, when 48
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress of the
Twelfth Air Force of the
United States Army took off from airfields in Algeria and reached Grosseto, Tuscany. The raid began at 2 PM, when most of the people were in the streets celebrating the holiday. The air raid sirens didn't sound and the population did not go to the
air raid shelters which had been set up in the ramparts of the
city's walls. At least 134 inhabitants of Grosseto were killed, mostly children aged between 5 and 14 who were playing at a funfair in the
Porta Vecchia suburb. The Grosseto airport, objective of the raid, was hit but slightly damaged; at the same time, however, the suburbs of Grosseto located around the historic centre suffered heavy damage. The raid also hit care buildings such as the
Red Cross hospital set up in the diocese's seminary and the House of Mother and Child. The following day, 27 April, King
Victor Emmanuel III went to Grosseto to pay homage to the fallen and to visit the wounded in the
Misericordia hospital. The raid was condemned by the Italian national press and the
Catholic Church for its involvement of civilians, especially children. The newspaper
Corriere della Sera published an article on 5 May 1943 entitled
No Italian will forget the children tortured by gangsters. ==Further raids==