CORA 104 and 134

.On 11 November 1944 two Italian men were stopped by American soldiers walking on the road from Modena to Pistoia, a city in Tuscany. They gave their names as Federico Ponti and Carlo Bianchini. As American and British Security Officers had already learned from Italians that the German Intelligence Service had stay-behind networks in most North Italian cities, they were on the alert for anyone travelling without official papers. Many wireless operators, saboteurs and espionage agents had already been captured and interrogated so they were aware that there were more. After further questioning by British Counter Espionage officers, the two men admitted that their real names were Federico Piscia and Ettore Savini and that they had been recruited and trained by the Germans for a sabotage mission. Cora 104 and 134 were the code names they had to use in their messages. Bernard O'Connor's documentary history uses contemporary sources to provide the background of these saboteurs, their recruitment, training schools, instructors, other German officers and Italian agents, their curriculum, equipment, pay and their mission. It provides a fascinating insight into the mind-set of not just the German Intelligence Service officers and their Italian collaborators but also the British and American Intelligence Officers desperate to destroy the stay-behind networks. It also reveals the changing military conditions in Northern Italy towards the end of the Second World War.