During the Second World War local partigiani operating in the Po' Valley fought an all-out battle against occupying German forces and their collaborationist allies from the Italian Social Republic on the night between 19 and 20 December 1944. Gonzaga at that time housed a small German military garrison as well as a unit of the 13th Battalion of MVSN Blackshirts "Marcello Turchetti". Barracks in town also housed a Detachment of the 614th Provincial Command of the Fascist National Republican Guard, and a unit of German police and soldiers connected with a temporary transit camp where prisoners of war and men conscripted for forced labor were housed.