European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We knew the partisan paths better than normal roads.

So we made it to Cerredolo dei Coppi with all the cattle.

Getting them there really was a problem.

My brother was also there, people used to call him the tax collector

because of what he ate and how he dressed.

We discussed about where to put the cattle.

We decided to take two or three to each farm.

Farmers made great use of them, using them to plough the land. The Germans had seized petrol

and farmers could not use tractors.

Still, at times, a cow was butchered and we all had some meat to eat,

since there were personnel who distributed it around.

Action for exchange of prisoners

Another of our great engagements was capturing Major Battaglia

at Villa Bresci in San Bartolomeo.

He was a young commander of the GNR. He used to sleep there, having seized the villa.

They had captured Muso during a mop-up in San Polo. We had to consider how we could save him.

Some Black Brigades units had captured around twenty young men to send to Germany,

while they sent Muso to the San Tommaso prison after they found a gun on him.

He was in prison waiting to be executed, together with the Cervi brothers.

We caught Major Battaglia and took him to central headquarters in the mountains.