European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The Germans had set the village on fire as well as the crop and the wheat on the fields.

It was really a depressing view.

There were around thirty of us of the Bedeschi detachment, yet unhurt.

There was also one of the detachments from Modena who had been joining forces with us at the beginning.

We gathered in Costabona,

determined to fight the Germans,

who had occupied the whole area. (I was looking at the map the other day).

It was difficult for us to get moving during the night.

“Let’s stay here, we’ll carry out our resistance tomorrow”.

We also had a mortar,

but before we could do anything we had to blow up the Secchiello Bridge.

I went down on one side to be safe and then made it under the bridge.

The Germans were already on the Secchiello bridge.

It was also quite a hard bridge to blow up.

I took advantage of the confusion, went under the bridge and set the mines.

The bridge was made of iron, but there was a rock, quiet high.

I lit the fuse and jumped off. It was a question of seconds.

However the Germans heard some noise when I lit the fuse.They shot some rockets.

I had jumped right away and hid behind the rock.

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