Massa Italy - WW II Air Raid Shelters Congress

[NeandertalMan]

eliminated version

[Brian Roebuck]

Thanks for the update N-man! The english translation is difficult to read for me but I can see that the local people in Massa enjoyed the efforts of your caving group who entered the old shelters and took photos to show everyone how these shelters still appear after so many years. I like historical things such as this and would like to see the shelters as well as ancient aquaducts and the dug out channels under your country sometime.

Keep up the great work!

[NeandertalMan]

We will be happy to see you under Naples

Excuse, Larry is sick and has difficulty with the translations

[NeandertalMan]

The Larry's translation

Massa, Italy air raid shelter congress, Mission accomplished for Napoli Underground


posted by Fulvio, Sunday October 7, 2007

Mission accomplished for Napoli Underground at the "Massa Congress for study of WWII air raid shelters!" After a 36 hour round trip totaling 1,400 kilometers, from Naples, north to Massa,Italy, a coastal community near La Spezia, and not far south of Genoa, NUg webmaster and director, Fulvio and dear NUg friend Luca are back home and delighted at the enthusiastic reception of their speech and graphic presentation by their new Northern friends.

Fulvio, Luca and friends of NUg express their genuine thanks to the city of Massa, and the FNCA (National Federation of Artificial Cavities) for being invited to participate in their study of World War II underground community air raid shelters. While other Italian communities utilized existing underground cavities as shelters from allied bombing of WWII, none had the near the extensive network of cavities and passageways beneath their cities as Naples, or the huge number of air raid shelters in almost every neighborhood of the city. After various presentations from other cities detailing their air raid shelters, Fulvio and Luca were called upon to make their audio-visual presentation about Naples. The response to their talk and fine visual presentation detailing the Naples air raid shelter system was overwhelming. Their talk and photos of the huge size and complexity of the honeycomb of cavities, and passageways that snake beneath Naples held those gathered absolutely spellbound. This was the first time for many fellow Italians to hear and see the story of Naples' fabled underground. The fellowship and person-to-person contacts between North and South has forged a new bond among historians, speleologists, and scholars interested in WWII air raid shelters and our Naples group. On the original Italian language version of this site there is a discussion forum in Italian, which I will summarize with selected a few photos below as well as a link to the whole photo gallery for those interested in seeing more of the details of the congress.

Translator's note** (Mussolini formed UNPA "L'Unione Nazionale per la Protezione Anti-Aeria", or Italy's 'National Civil Defense Department' that rushed workers in to transform deep well shafts into stair wells leading down 40-60 meters below to gigantic quarried cavities, and to fashion other entrances into underground wine cellars, tunnels and such for public use as shelters. Archive photo shows volunteer workers on a 3-wheeled cart loaded with pick axes and other tools.) **

MASSA Congress Photos:


The meeting was held one of Massa's actual old shelters.


Presentations were made with a large overhead projector.


The various shelters branched off a huge central tunnel.


Remains of transformed shelter area.


An example of WWII graffiti from shelter occupants.


Unlike Naples' tuf sandstone cavities, these shelters are Carrara Marble!

Photo Gallery: LINK

LARRY

by Napoli Underground

[Brian Roebuck]

Awesome photos and a great english translation Larry! Wow Marble tunnels and chambers. Now that is one luxury bomb shelter!

[Lorenzo]

Brian, is it possible to eliminate the original "eliminated version" completely which still remains above the newer and expanded updated version I did recently? The original was done with a very stilted computer translation by Fulvio and Luca while I was briefly not able to do the translations. BTW I am originally from South Texas and as a kid did lots of spelunking in the great caves out in West Texas. I was stationed in Naples in the early 60's and became fascinated with the "sottosuolo," or underground, and made lots of speleo friends there at that time, thus my joy in translating for NUg today.
Really enjoy your site. Warm regards, Larry

[Brian Roebuck]

Hi Larry,
We generally don't remove posts for continuity's sake. Since the text has been deleted it's just a nice photo placeholder now showing everyone that there used to be a post there above mine that I couldn't quite figure out! ;D

I appreciate Fulvio's attempt at translating this for all of us English only people - and I did get the overall meaning. Some of the free internet translators are not so great! Thanks to all of you for posting the interesting adventures and words of Napoli's underground explorers! I hope some of us may get to Naples and see some if these things for ourselves!

Cheers!