European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

After we practiced a bit I think we were much better than our instructor.

They were trained recklessly;

they were taught the most important things and then dropped in the partisan areas.

We started from scratch but were also trying to improve our military expertise.

As an example, it took us one and a half hours to blow up a bridge on road 63,

as it was made of stones.

We changed our method and were able to do it in fifteen minutes.

In July, when the great mop-up took place,

there were just two or three of us sappers.

We were scattered around because the battle started at four in the morning,

and by the evening the whole partisan area had been occupied by the Germans.

We were in Carpineti and we reached Costabona.

The whole village was on fire.

The Germans had set the village on fire as well as the crop and the wheat on the fields.

It was really a depressing view.

There were around thirty of us of the Bedeschi detachment, yet unhurt.

There was also one of the detachments from Modena who had been joining forces with us at the beginning.

We gathered in Costabona,

determined to fight the Germans,

who had occupied the whole area. (I was looking at the map the other day).