Finding PBS's Headquarters

After several years of searching I finally found the Leghorn (Liverno) headquarters of the entire support function for the 5th Army in Italy in 1945.  The relevance for me is that my father served at the Peninsular Base Section there for almost the duration of its time in Leghorn.  Besides, I think it’s an interesting story of how far researchers can go in solving their particular puzzles without going to the National Archives.  I’ve scanned two critical sources for educational purposes only: Tools of War and the declassified digital on-line Peninsular Base Section-Italy, WWII Operational Documents.  Those Baby Boomers and WWII historians interested in battlefield tourism might enjoy my story of how I found where PBS was located in Leghorn, Italy.  The cluster of buildings still exists.

It began with the purchase of a U.K. Leghorn map from Amazon for $30.  (I’d failed to find any topographic maps from WWII even from eBay so Amazon was a long shot.)  I couldn’t find its source so it’s for educational purposes only.  The photo doesn’t say much except there are military unit symbols giving away its nature.  At first, I thought the cluster of infantry symbols on the top arrow was the headquarters because PBS was a complex of many service and supply commands.  Also, there is also an airstrip in the distance.  I resigned myself to memorizing what the significance of Leghorn was to both the Germans and Americans.  It was a giant port and the central communications center for northern Italy strategically located on the Mediterranean.  PBS was there (bottom arrow) for a little over one year after its seizure in July, 1944.  I’ve concluded that the top arrow might be the location of the massive POW Camp 337.

Another location clue was gleaned from an aerial photo of the headquarters complex in Tools of War, a kind of year book for the Army.  As much as I tried, I couldn’t place that huge complex with any position on the map until I remembered that the operational documents of PBS mentioned a street, Via Mameli.  By chance I browsed Google Maps (Street View) and found a cluster of buildings that generally looked like the aerial photo.  I zeroed in on a sign above what appeared to be the main entrance: “Caserma Generale D’Amico.”  Caserma means barracks.  Its address was Viale Goffredo Mameli 106-112.  I noticed barbed wire on the top of one wall above the street.  I assume the building is an active (not abandoned old building) Italian police headquarters because through an opening I could see a courtyard with parked cars and men walking about.

I was impressed by how crowded the streets of Leghorn have become.  Apartment buildings have sprung up everywhere and fully grown trees make the narrow streets look like tunnels.  I notice the little things too like the stone fascist eagle on the second story edge of one building.  Those in construction would call it an architectural detail.  I looked closely at the aerial photo once more and found a speck in the same place on a building at the end of the street, but it was too small to identify.  Was that it?  Then I remembered an MP photo in Tools of War taken in front of PBS.  Above and on the second floor is the same fascist eagle and that’s how I found the headquarters of the Peninsular Base Section.