On this day, 23 March 1944, the most significant attack on Nazi occupation forces by the Italian partisan resistance took place on Via Rasella in Rome. Around a dozen of the communist-led partisan Patriotic Action Group (GAP) attacked an SS company of over 150 ethnic Germans, which was tasked with fighting the resistance. The partisans detonated a home-made bomb then opened fire with hand-thrown mortar bombs, handgrenades and guns before vanishing. The resistance unit suffered no casualties, while over 30 SS members were killed and over 100 wounded. Unable to capture those responsible, the following day the enraged Nazis massacred 335 people, some of whom had been arrested for resistance activities but most of whom were unrelated civilians.
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