European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

My comrades already knew that they would have to shoot when the Germans fired to give me a chance to draw back.

There was really a significant gunfight between us and them.

I slowly drew away, unhurt.

The following morning the Germans tried to reach Costabona twice,

but we pushed them back.

There were oak-trees, and we stood there with our machine guns, forcing them to retreat.

They had machine guns, armoured cars.

We had blown up the bridge so they couldn’t get through with armoured vehicles.

If it had been a question of energy, we could have succeeded, but we could do nothing against heavy artillery, ourselves having none.

At night we moved and slowly reached the saw-mill over Civago and stayed there the whole day. We got there before dawn.

The following night we walked through the Passone, next to the Cusna,

and made it to the area of the Cesare Battisti refuge, which had already been completely burnt down.

We stayed in that area for twelve days.

It rained often and we had nothing to cover ourselves with.

I had been lucky since I was assigned to go to Ligonchio with another comrade

to gather information on the Germans’ movements

and get some supplies to carry back up.

I would head up every night with bread, cheese, carrying the news, too.

Finally, after a few days, the Germans left...

First allied air-drop