European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

There we saw Barbolini’s sister, Sonia, who was desperate.

Our wounded men had already been taken there.

She told us that a German unit from Cinque Cerri was on its way.

If that company made it over there, it would have been a slaughtering for us.

We didn’t have enough cover to draw back since the mountain behind us had more than a meter of snow.

If we withdrew like that they would have shot us.

It was almost noon at that point,

and it wasn’t clear if we were winning or losing the battle.

Then the fascists started singing “Battaglione”.

“Battaglioni” was a song which read:

“Battalions of the Duce, death squads, created for life,

in spring we’ll take part in the battle of Mussolini, brave troops…”

They sang for 5 or 10 minutes.

After a while our side was singing “Bandiera rossa”:

“Bandiera rossa, let’s go, at arms, etc.”

I was really surprised because I didn’t even know these songs, not even “Bandiera rossa”.

What happened next?

The fascists had found out that there was a column of people coming.

They thought it was Germans or fascists but it was our own people.

It was Luigi, who had been informed about the battle in Cerrè after he had disarmed the fascists in Gatta.