European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

we could hear the bullets whistle into the water, it was terrible.

On the other shore there were the partisans from Parma

and when they heard the Germans starting to shoot at us, they started to shoot at us, too.

We shouted at them not to shoot, that we were partisans just like them.

These donkies!

A few days ago I told them again, as we remembered those events,

because they killed four partisans.

The partisans kept going despite the shooting because there was no other way:

being shot by the Germans or drown in the water.

So we passed and as we reached the other shore

I talked to the commander of these partisans and told him they were donkies

but he said he'd mistaken us for Germans.

I asked: "Do you think the Germans come passing the river together with us?"

After these events we went our way and they went their way.

We reached Monte Caio.

It was raining, and the more we walked up the more the rain turned into snow.

On Monte Caio there was a crest we couldn't cross because of the storm,

so we decided to sleep up there, behind some rocks, where the Germans couldn't see us.

The next morning we shook the snow off

and went on up until Monte Penice, near Piacenza.