Northern Echo reporter Graeme Hetherington tells the sad story of 13 men who where taken from their homes under the cloak of darkness and whose families never saw them again.

THE night of June 10, 1940, will forever be remembered as the time the heart of the Italian community in Teesside was ripped out. Under the cloak of darkness 13 men were rounded up after wartime leader Winston Churchill ordered that all male Italians living in Britain aged 18 to 70 should be arrested.

Many of the Teesside men were well-known, successful businessmen who had young families who never saw their fathers again.

The harrowing events that followed scarred the men’s families for generations.

Angry protests at Italian-owned businesses erupted throughout the night the men were rounded up. Hostile mobs ransacked buildings and destroyed six well-known ice cream establishments in the towns.

But that was just the start of the nightmare for the 11 Italians from Middlesbrough and one each from Seaton Carew and Redcar. After being imprisoned in cells beneath Middlesbrough Town Hall they were never to return to their families.

Some of the men were married to English women and had, ironically, relatives fighting for their country in the Second World War.

They were transported to Liverpool where the frightened men were placed among 1,300 internees who were being shipped out to Canada on SS Arandora Star. Sadly, they never reached their destination as the boat was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

The ship was bound for Newfoundland, taking Italian and German-born civilians, arrested in Britain, to a Canadian internment camp.

As dawn broke on the morning of July 2, the ship was spotted by U-47 under Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien.

Using his last torpedo he sent hundreds of men to their deaths. Of the 1,673 people on board, about 850 were killed when the ship sank 75 miles off the Donegal coast. Within minutes the former cruise liner was listing, and at 7.20am it rolled over and plunged stern first into the sea.

As well as the 13 Teesside casualties, the ship’s captain and 57 officers and crew, 94 military guards, and nearly 450 Italian and 240 German nationals, perished.

A Canadian naval destroyer, HMCS St Laurent, arrived at the scene and managed to rescue 850 people. Some were crammed into lifeboats while others were clinging to debris.

Over the following weeks bodies, lifeboats and lifejackets were washed up on the shores of North-West Ireland and the Hebridean isles of Colonsay and Oronsay.

Yesterday, a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the lives of the men who died on SS Arandora Star. The names of Leandro Beltrami, Luigi Bertoia, Alessandro Borsumato, Domenico Greco, Tullio Greco, Amedeo Lucantoni, Antonio Nardone, Domenico Pontone, Antonio Ranaldi, Camillo Rea, Domenico Rea, Antonio Todisco, Guiseppe Tortolano will be preserved in the memorial forever.

THE ceremony marked a tragic and poignant event from the Second World War – and one which has largely gone unrecognised.

Families and relatives of many of the 13 Teesside victims were at the unveiling in Middlesbrough Town Hall, on the 69th anniversary of the sinking.

One of the men onboard the doomed ship was Antonio Nardone, who ran an ice cream business in the town with his wife Antonella His son, Ernie, has vivid memories of the night his father was taken away when he was only 13. The 82-year-old, who lives in Billingham, said: “We had no warning that all Italian citizens were being rounded up and interned.

They took my dad away and the next day mum and one of my sisters took clean clothes to his cell in the town hall.

“We never heard from him or saw him again and life for all of us was never the same.”

His granddaughter, Margaret Green, said she would love to be able to visit his final resting place. She said: “I think the plaque is very poignant. It has taken a long time for the tragedy to be recognised, but we have never found the grave of my grandfather. I would love to be able to pay my respects to him properly at his graveside.”

At the unveiling ceremony, Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon said: “This was a particularly unsavoury event, when the men were rounded up – a minority of people in the town could hang their heads in shame. It is difficult to put into words the depth of sorrow the people of this town feel for these men’s families.

“This memorial is one of a small number in Britain, Ireland and Italy. It cannot compensate for the loss of those sons, husbands, fathers and brothers who were taken away, never to return.

Hopefully, however, it will serve to recognise and commemorate their lives and achievements, their contribution to our community, and the tragic loss that was suffered when the SS Arandora Star was sunk.”

The event was also attended by Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell who wrote a short story about a village ice cream man who had lost his life on the SS Arandora Star.

He said: “I was stunned to discover 13 Italians living in Middlesbrough and its outreaches had also died. They were all working people who made a contribution to their community.

They were taken from their homes in the middle of the night, put in prison, never to return.

I intend to re-launch a campaign to get the Government to apologise for the actions that resulted in the deaths of so many men.”

The plaque contains the names, date and place of birth of each of the victims, together with a short history of the sinking.

A memorial booklet was produced for the families of the lost men, which contained tributes and recollections of the fateful events.

Darlington nurse Katie Diamond, the great granddaughter of Domenico Greco, recalled: “After he was taken, the family hid under the stairs terrified while a mob outside tried to get to them. Who knows what would have happened if the lady next door hadn’t saved them by telling the mob they were British. The irony is that Domenico’s youngest son was fighting in the desert with the British Army.”

The sad story of these 13 unfortunate men will never be forgotten and the families now have their own memorial to pay their respects.