After the fall of Fascism on 25 July 1943, Gasparotto (who had joined the underground Justice and Freedom movement in the 1930s and the Action Party in 1942Leopoldo Gasparotto, alpinista partigianoCentro studi Fossoli), along with his father and other Milanese anti-fascists including Alfredo Pizzoni, who acted as spokesman, founded an "Inter-Party Committee" that asked General Vittorio Ruggero, commander of the territorial defense of Milan, to organize the defence of the city against the Germans and to provide weapons to the anti-fascists, offering to fight the Nazis alongside the soldiers.ANPI LissoneI seicento giorni di terrore a Milano Gasparotto and Pizzoni also planned to establish a "National Guard" made of volunteers that would defend the city.ANPI LissoneLa Resistenza a MilanoI seicento giorni di terrore a MilanoCentro studi Fossoli After the proclamation of the armistice of Cassibile on 8 September, Gasparotto was among the founders of the National Liberation Committee of Milan; along with his father, Pizzoni, Riccardo Lombardi and Girolamo Li Causi, he again requested weapons from General Ruggero, who tried to buy time, and along with Mario Martinelli and others he set up a recruiting center for the National Guard, which in a few hours was able to gather some seven hundred volunteers.ANPI LissoneI seicento giorni di terrore a MilanoANPICentro studi Fossoli General Ruggero, however, was eventually persuaded not to take any action against the Germans, and instead forbade civilians from using weapons, under penalty of death, and banned public gatherings. On 10 September, he informed the members of the National Liberation Committee that his troops would not interfere with the German occupation of the city, which indeed occurred on the following day almost without a shot fired.ANPI LissoneI seicento giorni di terrore a MilanoAssociazione Nazionale Ex Deportati nei campi nazistiCentro studi Fossoli Gasparotto and the other anti-fascists, left without weapons and without the support of the Army, were forced to go into hiding.ANPI LissoneCentro studi Fossoli
