The April Last Post was short and a continuation of all Last Posts this year.
We remembered Special Operations Executive Volunteer Fortunato Picchi. First SOE agent to parachute into enemy territory – and first to be executed. On 6th April 1941, Fortunato Picchi became what is believed to be the first member of SOE to be executed. He was 44 years old, a former head waiter in London with strong anti-fascist views, Picchi had been trained by SOE and was seconded to act as interpreter to OPERATION COLOSSUS of 11 Special Air Service Bn (formerly 2 Commando, later Parachute Regiment), the first British airborne operation of WW2, against an aqueduct in southern Italy.
Picchi is therefore believed to have been the first SOE agent to parachute (10th/11th Feb 1941) into enemy territory. Picchi (along with all 38 men of COLOSSUS) was captured. He was reportedly tortured and tried as a traitor on 5th April 1941. Found guilty, he was taken to Forte Bravetta on the outskirts of Rome early the next morning, bound to a chair and, as a condemned traitor, shot in the back at dawn on 6th April – Easter Sunday of 1941.
Paul McCue read the poem and delivered the Individual Remembrance. Our Standard Bearer was Alan Lopez and Mrs Ruth Moore sounded the Last Post.
Brookwood Last Post 