European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

and the person inside asked me who I was.

As I replied “Porta”, he told me to go out.

I knocked again, and he sent me out again, for three times.

Finally, he told me: “Don’t you know that when you come here you must give the Roman salute?”.

I replied that I had just come back from almost four years of confinement for a lot less,

and that I would rather be sent back there than have to obey to him.

He eventually told me to go home, but it gives you an idea ...

Arrest while in the army

There was one rule back then.

At Reggiane we manufactured airplanes

– you can still see one of the airplanes we made, it’s at the Reggio Emilia airport –

so the young workers of Reggiane who were called into the Army were entitled to serve in the Air Force,

while those who worked at Lombardini Motori, manufacturing ship engines, usually served in the Navy.

I was called up for military service, went to Bologna and then to Orvieto, where I completed the recruit training.

After that, we were transferred to different places.

I was sent to an airport near Rome, in a small village called Furbara.

Our units were sent to mount guard in Rome,

so we went to Palazzo Venezia.

Throughout the week, every night a different unit was in charge of this:

one night it was the Air Force, one night the artillerymen, and so on.