European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

They finally got them to Palanzano, in the province of Parma, from where they were taken to Florence by helicopter.

Then we had found this man in the house of a family nearby, hidden in a wagon.

He had been put there by some partisans, who had left him there.

We told the family we were looking for wounded men, and they told us they had one.

In the evening they offered to take us to Casola, on the road from Casina to Albinea.

There was a ditch there, where the crest of the mountain ended.

You could go down the ditch, then back up to Valestra, but it was a very long way.

He had two cows pulling the wagon, and we started to head uphill.

As we reached the road, the Germans who were involved in the roundup in Baiso started shooting at us.

There were bullets flying all around us.

The farmer took off the piece of wood that held the wagon and left it on the ground, running away with the cows.

We were left there with this man with a bullet in his knee, who later told us he was screaming because of the pain he felt.

We waited there and somebody came looking for us in the evening.

I can’t remember well, but I think we went to sleep in the ditch until somebody came to bring us back.

That was the only wounded man we found.

The two other wounded were two of our leaders, Captain Ulisse and Gordon.

Acts of sabotage on the railway

Gordon was in charge of organizing things.

They had captured a German,

so he told us we had to go and attack the train that took ammunition to the front line.