European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

You have to be prepared to drop a hand grenade,

you throw it and then you have to get cover, you need protection,

you can't just throw it like that because it goes up like this.

And then you have to estimate the distance, the force you use,

you have to throw it at least twenty or ten meters away, otherwise you get hurt yourself, too.

When I was a soldier I taught the guys from 1921 and '22 the war tactics,

how to shoot, how to be a sniper, how to throw hand grenades, because they were no experts.

Once you pull the catch you have to throw the hand grenade, otherwise you get blown up together with it.

The enemies were well prepared, the Germans were warlords, they were trememdous.

I remember one episode up here.

We had a shooting one night,

The guard came to me and said: "Mirko, Mirko, the Germans are here!"

We were sleeping in a barn and jumped up like hares.

"Where are they?" "In Busana on the Sparavalle". "Shut up, then!"

They were at street number 63.

We prepared without waiting for further instructions, I'd found some posts.

"Go there and don't shoot. No shooting, be aware! Keep hidden and don't smoke!"

They were there already, it was just two or three o'clock.

At six o'clock in the morning the Germans shot the warning fire as a sign of attack.