European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The order was to be respected.

We left Quattro Castella passed Monticelli and arrived finally at Parma.

We walked in line, slowly, looking at the beautiful landscape.

We didn't fire one single shot.

Everything was clean, clean, clean, there was neither a fascist nor a German, nothing.

At the outskirts of Parma we met other partisans,

they told us that there were snipers and to be careful.

As we were there, a jeep of Americans came from the direction of Reggio Emilia.

We shouted at them to stop

and told them that there was a group of Germans there who were annoying us.

So one of them turned around,

set the firegun in place, pointed at where we'd told him,

put the bomb into the mortar and after the "cim cim tac"

they'd disappeared, we didn't hear anyone any longer.

He must have hit them.

So we came out and there was nothing left.

We said goodbye to the Americans

and went back to Reggio Emilia where we arrived at midnight.

We put our stuff down and after a while a guy came in

and told us there was someone looking for Francesco. "Who is Francesco?"