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in charge of meeting some partisans. He reached the city by
sea, aboard a submarine that set sail from Ostia. They sailed
at night: my mother, the only woman on board, wore a ‘uniform.
But luckily she changed. And the outt she wore saved her life.
Before this mission, he had worked in Rome, for a certain Anna
D’Auria. It was a cover: D’Auria, a well-known singer, enjoyed
important friendships and was able to access sensitive information.
Information that he handed over to my mother who, in turn, she
reported to the Allies. At the end of the mission, D’Auria gave
her a nice red coat with fur, a veil and elegant shoes. It was with
these clothes that my mother went down to Genoa. The partisans
did not arrive, instead she was intercepted by a patrol of two
Germans and two fascists. They mistook her for a prostitute, but
they soon became suspicious. My mother implemented plan B.
She said she had to join her uncle in Sanremo, since in Naples her
family had died under the bombs. That relative, Luigi Cerasuolo,
really existed. But the fascists still weren’t convinced and they
accompanied her personally. Fortunately, Uncle Luigi held up the
game. He had to host her for three weeks before she could leave.”
It was decided that the persistent bad luck of these eight failed
operations had a toll on her mental health and the British reported
on her le that it had “inevitably frayed her nerves” and therefore
she was no longer required. The SOE les also stated that “no
operations was then contemplated in which a woman of her type
and rather low educational standard would have been useful.”, but
Maddalena remained keen to go on ops which possibly accounts
for why Captain H Boutigny recommended her for an additional