European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

He was from Reggio, and he was the landlord of the house where my mother was born.

Then one day he told my mother he had to go to the mountains.

He told her he would come to our house and then from there he would head uphill, so my mother replied that I could take him.

He came from a family with money, lots of it.

We went to the mountains together and then he reached the Central Headquarters.

There he met Gordon and some other “special” boys, so Don Carlo suggested they could join the English unit.

At that time paratroopers were starting to be dropped in the area,

and they had set up the English command with radio transmitters in Secchio.

They asked the Central Headquarters to provide them with around 25 skilled partisans,

who had been there for a while and were well trained.

You have to realise that at the beginning there were all sorts of people in the mountains,

but the English only wanted experienced men, so 25 partisans were chosen to join them.

Then they had to set up a dispatch-carriers unit,

and I was the only one assigned to Reggio, at the local headquarters.

I was told to go see a group of men I already knew. There was Grandi, a lawyer, Piccinini, an architect, and the Count Calvi.

They were six initially, then Mattia told me that one was killed.

Still, at the beginning there were these six antifascists who were in charge of things in Reggio.

I had to go home to my mother’s and uncles’ house. They were staying in Davoli’s house,

or I should rather say Kiss, the one in charge of the dispatch-riders, who had set up quite a few things.

However I was the only one who would go to Reggio.