Troop CCNN dagger that belonged to Major Ferruccio Sorlini

SORLINI Ferruccio

(Brescia, 25 April 1903 - 28 July 1945). By Achille Angelo (v.) and Anna Maria Zanetti. He grew up in a difficult climate. 
At the age of ten, his father armed him with a Flobert revolver which he used in an argument with a schoolmate. With his 
brother Mario he soon distinguished himself as an active follower of the 'La Disperata' action team. His name, in fact,
 appears as one of the most decisive in the action against the Ghedi Chamber of Labor on 13 July 1921 and the day after in 
the assault on that of Brescia. On the night of 10 December 1921 he was involved in a clash with opponents at Porta Cremona
 and managed to evade capture. He later fought in Spain in the Carroccio formation and then became an AGIP official. 
After 8 September he was among the first to present himself to the German occupiers and to promote the reconstitution of the 
Fascist Party. After having been part of a triumvirate with Bastianon and Beccherini, on 12 September he assumed the regency 
of the republican fascist federation and the following day, from the German commander of the city, Bohnen, he received 
the task of provisionally concentrating the former members of the party. He was present at all meetings and decisions.
 Sorlini's aim was above all to obtain weapons for the fascists from the Germans. In fact, in a few days he managed 
to form a first nucleus of police which unleashed terror throughout the Brescia area, causing apprehension and resistance 
among the most responsible of the fascists themselves. Dismissed on 11 November 1943 from his post and replaced by
 Major Fulvio Balisti, he entered the service of the Political Office (UPI) of the Police Headquarters and became deputy
 commander of the Tognù Black Brigade. On 2 July 1944, in retaliation he dragged one hundred men from Vestone to Salò,
 including the local clergy. In August 1944 he was present at the bloody retaliation of Bovegno. Then he signaled himself
 to Collio hunting for partisans. In December 1944 he was arrested with Persavalli and Paterlini by 
the Republican National Guard by order of Alfredo Beccherini, apparently to give a sign of détente to public opinion and
 the partisan movement; he was then freed by the German SS who took him into their service. Joining the Cavagni company,
 he reconstituted his own action group signaling himself in decisive anti-partisan actions.

On 25 April 1945 he managed to reach Milan in an attempt to expatriate. Arrested on 27 June 1945 in a cinema in Parma,
 after being followed and recognized by a Brescian from Gottolengo, taken to Brescia in a secret location, he attempted
 to commit suicide the following day by cutting the veins in his arm with a razor blade. Rescued by prison guards, he devoted
 all his time to writing a memorial, then attempted suicide a second time. He was put on trial on July 27, 1945 with the
 participation of an overflowing crowd. The following were particularly attributed to him: the killing of the communist 
leader Armando Lottieri, of the marshal of the carabinieri Guaschino, of Francesco Scaletti, the participation in the massacre
 of Bovegno, the shooting of two partisans in Polaveno, of two others in Ome, of having had deported to Germany 
the rag. Marone, of having delivered the communist Cinelli della Volta Bresciana to the Germans and, moreover,
 of many other crimes, kidnappings, harassments, etc. The defendant defended himself by denying almost everything and 
especially his presence in Bovegno during the massacre, shifting the responsibility onto others. In the afternoon of 
the following day, while the last witnesses were being questioned, a carabiniere present, an ex partisan, shouldered 
his machine gun, killed him with a shot and then with a burst. In February 1947 the members of what was called
 the "Sorlini gang" were indicted. The trial was held in Bologna in December 1948 and ended with severe sentences.