European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The "staffette" told us that the streets were clear, so we started walking.

We were looking left and right, there was only fog.

So we went into the Enza river

and there was not even a small stick where we could have hidden

if the fog lifted.

"Mirco" had a partisan in his team, a big man that lived in this area,

and he asked to give him a person that could go with him to his place

to get a rope for crossing the river because the water was high.

So they came back with the rope

and we tied one end to the big rocks on one shore

and the other end to the saddle of a little white horse that we had.

The horse was very skinny and was standing just because it had four legs.

We crossed the river walking in the water and holding the rope.

We had water up to our shoulders,

I was holding my machine gun on one side and the rope on the other side.

"Mirko" and the big man, Giovannone, that was the name we were calling him,

went first and then told us to do the same.

I was one of the first ones to cross the river and all of a sudden the fog lifted.

It seemed to be done on purpose:

all of a sudden you could see the street all the way up to Vetto.