Corpo Volontari della Libertà

[1] On 9 January 1944, the National Liberation Committee approved the creation of a general command to coordinate the action of the various partisan groups; the provision became operative on 9 June 1944.

[7] In August 1944, General Raffaele Cadorna jr was parachuted in northern Italy and reached Milan, where he assumed the role of military advisor to the CVL on a mandate from the Bonomi II Cabinet and the Allied command.

[10] On 13 November 1944, however, General Harold Alexander unexpectedly issued a proclamation requiring to stop all organized operations and to settle on defensive positions in view of the winter.

[13][14] German and fascist repression intensified during the winter, and Parri was arrested by the SS in Milan while returning from the mission in Rome; after a failed attempt by the partisans to free him, he was released following a negotiation by OSS agent Allen Welsh Dulles with the SS commander Karl Wolff.

On 16 April the order was issued to move on to the implementation of the pre-established plans and on the 23rd to "intensify the action for the decisive battle".