In the only remaining buiding of the barracks dedicated to Captain Umberto Donati, we’ll find the forth historical plaque. Here was estasblished the headquarters of 6th Corps, commanded by General John P. Lucas, in the picture with his inseparable corn cob pipe while shaking hands with General Robert T. Frederick, commander of the First Special Service Force. The barracks, in use for horse artillery, had been built between 1906 and 1913 at the behest of the Ministry of War, which gave the town administration the funds for the expropriation of the land. The project envisaged the construction of a main three-store building for the offices toward Via S. Maria, the stables and warehouses on the other three sides: Via Cavour, Via Vittorio Veneto and the Sgrillara open space which used to be Via Captain Umberto Donati, before the construction of the pedestrian area. It was after World War I, that the barracks took the name of Captain Umberto Donati, the Nettuno man awarded with the Gold Medal for Military Valor, killed near Gorizia (north of Italy), in 1917. The 8th of September, when the Armistice with the allies was signed and everyone thought that it meant the end of the war, the Donati Barracks was still in activity. In the morning of September 9th, when the German had become our enemies, the Italian soldiers abandonated it and left Nettuno to return to their homes. Not all of course as some of them had their family in town. Subsequently the barracks were stormed by women and the erderly who empied the food deposit, while the younger ones took up weapons.
