Today is the 48th anniversary of the massacre on the Italicus train, one of the most serious attacks of the Years of Lead together with those of Piazza Fontana in Milan (December 12, 1969), of Piazza della Loggia in Brescia (May 28, 1974) and of the Bologna station (August 2, 1980: just 2 days before the 42nd anniversary).
The reconstruction of the Italicus attack
Il August 4, 1974, at 23 pm, a high-yield bomb exploded in the fifth car of the express train 1486 (italicus), coming from Rome and bound for Munich through the Brenner Pass. The explosion occurred when the convoy was near San Benedetto Val di Sambro, in the province of Bologna.
The bomb had been hidden in a briefcase under a rear-facing seat. The explosive was connected to an alarm clock which, ringing at the prearranged hour, acted as a detonator.
The setting of the timer should have detonated the bomb as the Italicus passed through the Great tunnel of the Apennines, but between Florence and Bologna the train he had made up three of the minutes behind accumulated in the previous legs; consequently, the bomb did not explode in the middle of the tunnel, but only 50 meters from the exit. If the dynamics had been programmed, the victims would probably have been hundreds.
Victims and wounded
Instead, they were the ones who lost their lives 12 Guests, while 48 others were injured. In the tragedy, the heroism of a 24-year-old railway worker from Forlì stood out Silver Sirotti, who died by throwing himself into the flames with a fire extinguisher to rescue travelers trapped in the train. For this gesture he was later awarded the Gold Medal for civil valor in memory.
The defendants acquitted
For this, as for the other great massacres of the Years of Piombo, various exponents of Italian neo-fascism were indicted as perpetrators, but the trial ended with the acquittal of the defendants.
The subversive design
In all likelihood, the purpose of the bomb attacks attributable to right-wing terrorism, which caused indiscriminate massacres, was to destabilize the country and spread panic among the population to favor an authoritarian change.
