European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Using a bazooka

We also tried to use the bazooka. It was something new for us.

But Fiorello was a genius regarding these matters. He looked at it and examined it,

and one day he told us he wanted to try it on the road to Cavriago.

I bent down and he put the bazooka on my shoulder to manoeuvre it.

He fired as a truck went by. That was 6 kg of explosive. The truck went off the road…

That was also part of our struggle…

Mines against the cavalry

The Germans could not use armoured vehicles and tanks around the mountains,

as we had blown up all the bridges.

So they didn’t succeed when they repeatedly tried to surround the mountains.

Then they set up the Mongolian cavalry unit.

It was made up of soldiers who came from the south of the Soviet Union.

We heard they were moving uphill from the lowlands trying to surround the area.

We knew they would come by the road that begins by the church of Rivalta.

We mined the whole road. You probably know how antitank mines work. We saw horses blown up in the air…

Fossoli: Russian prisoners liberated

The Germans had taken 250-300 Russian prisoners to a camp in Fossoli.

Together with the GAPs and the partisans from Modena

we surrounded the camp and took all the Russians to the mountains.