Description:This group of military and civilian Italian visitors are pictured beside the newly installed memorial to the Fauld Explosion, which occurred on November 27, 1944. They have just attended the special remembrance service that marked the unveiling of the memorial, erected at the edge of the quarter-mile-wide crater left by the explosion.
Six Italian co-operators were amongst the 70 people killed in the explosion at the RAF Fauld bomb store, the largest accidental explosion of World War 2 and the largest to date in the UK.
The officer standing on the right of the group is Captain Angelo Cusumano, of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force), who was based at No.16 MU RAF Stafford in a liaison role and who played a key role in the creation of the memorial. The memorial stone itself was donated from Italy through the the Italian Air Force Supply Depot at Novara, which was twinned with RAF Stafford. Captain (later Colonel) Cusumano was involved in the organization of the unveiling ceremony and other official events at RAF Stafford.
Beside Captain Cusumano is another Italian gentleman, a wartime lieutenant who acted as senior officer to the Italian co-operators working at Fauld. He returned to Italy at the end of the war but soon came back to England, where he found work at the Goodyear factory and married a local woman.
The lady standing in the middle is likely to be Mrs G. Lanzoni, from Milan. Her uncle, Soldato Aldo Lanzoni, was killed in the explosion and is buried with other military victims of the explosion at Stapenhill Cemetery, Burton. Mrs Lanzoni gave a painted crucifix in memory of her uncle, which can be seen today on the wall beside the main explosion memorial in St Werburgh's church, Hanbury. The civilian gentleman next to her may be a relative.
The two officers on the left are Warrant Officer Antonio Caiazzo (Captain Cusumano's non-commissioned officer at the Italian Delegation) and a Naval officer (wearing the white cap) who was part of the Italian military attaché in London.
There had been calls for a permanent memorial to the victims at the crater for many years, and this was finally achieved with the unveiling. The memorial is situated at the south west corner of the crater and is reached by a footpath.
This image and information is kindly shared by permission of Colonel (Retd) Angelo Cusumano and the Cusumano family collection.