Browse Items (39 total)
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Interview with Inge Nicolis
Inge Nicolis, the daughter of a Swedish engineer and an Italian woman, reminisces about her wartime experiences in Milan. She stresses the sense of having been thrown into a tragedy and the anguish of not being able to evacuate Milan on the grounds…
Interview with an eye-witness of Milan bombings
The informant describes two bombings he eye-witnessed in the Sesto San Giovanni and Niguarda area. During the first, he was in a basement adapted as underground shelter: he recollects women reciting the rosary and a queasy sensation in the stomach…
Interview with Piero Fiorot
Piero Fiorot reminisces about his pre-war life in Sacile: schooling, fascist paramilitary training and indoctrination, curfews, rationing, and doing business in a tightly controlled, closed economic system. Contrasts the relatively tranquil life…
Interview with Lidia Vendramin
Lidia Vendramin reminisces her childhood in Sacile including details on her primary schooling, family, and town life. Contrasts the public manifestations of joy the day the war was declared, with the shock and dismay of her parents, whose lives had…
Interview with Benito Colonna
Benito Colonna reminisces about the bombings of Rimini and other wartime experiences. Benito was with his mother when he witnessed the 1 November 1943 bombing: he saw aircraft approaching and bombing the town, concentrating the attack on the railway…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; home front; shelter
Don Nicholson audio recording. One
Don was a Flight Engineer with No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron in 1944-45 at Dunholme Lodge and later at Spilsby and completed 31 operations.
Don lists his 31 operations and recounts how having arrived for the briefing for his first operation, he was…
Don lists his 31 operations and recounts how having arrived for the briefing for his first operation, he was…
Don Nicholson audio recording. Two
The recording starts with the sound of Merlin engines. Don tells the story of missing his first operations, being re-crewed and part of the Lutzow story. The later part of the recording is audio from the film The Dam Busters.
Interview with Gilberto Martina
Gilberto Martina reminisces his childhood in Chiusaforte and in the Canal del Ferro area: disrupted schooling, fear of Germans, subsistence farming, saboteurs, and one of his mates being killed by a bomb found in a pile of litter. Stressed how the…
Interview with Francesco Bozzi
Francesco Bozzi reminisces about his military training followed by service in Greece. Describes harsh living conditions while in Germany-occupied Crete after September 1943: hard labour, scarce food, punishment, brutalities, being wounded while…
Tags: bombing; forced labour; Resistance; strafing
Interview with Rinaldo Sarani
Rinaldo Sarani reminisces about the bombings of Pavia describing widespread damage at Borgo Ticino and people being extricated out of rubble. Stressed the importance of bridges: ponte della ferrovia, ponte vecchio, ponte dell’impero, ponte della…
Interview with a survivor of the Voghera bombings (informant C)
The informant recollects his wartime experiences in Voghera. Claims he has always had the gift of sensing impending events, the first episode being when he told his mother that aircraft are approaching before the siren had sounded, and therefore…
Interview with Vera Willis
Vera Willis volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force because she wanted to be a driver. Her driving career in the RAF involved driving driving aircrew to dispersal.This content is available as embedded video:
Interview with Ethel and Ted Mawdsley
Relates how they met and courted and continues with description of work and life in wartime while in Deptford in London. Mentions being bombed out and going to shelters. Continues with their marriage in Sidcup and details of life and family after the…
Tags: bombing; home front; love and romance; shelter
Interview with Peter Stevenson
Peter Stevenson was born in Grantham and joined the Air League of the British Empire as well as the Air Defence Cadet Corps, The Officer’s Training Corps and the Public School’s Air Cadet Wing. He rose through the cadet ranks and embarked on…
Interview with J Ebanks
J Ebanks was from Jamaica and was a navigator in 571 Squadron at RAF Oakington. They carried out a number of operations to Berlin. He also refers to RAF Benson and time spent in Malaya. J Ebanks recounts, with humour, a number of anecdotes from his…
Interview with D Jones
D Jones was born in the parish of Manchester, Jamaica. He volunteered for the RAF and went on the SS Cuba to the United States, crossing the Atlantic to Liverpool in June 1944. He went to a former Butlins holiday camp in Filey - there, as ground…
Reg Miles Audio Memoir
Reg Miles's memoir in three parts. Part one Reg describes his childhood in St Peter’s on the Isle of Thanet, his family, school, lack of money, and holiday jobs. Reg joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice, known as a ‘Brat’, in January…
Interview with Howell Davies
Howell grew up on the Glamorgan coast. After the university air squadron, he joined the RAF in April 1962, training on Provosts at RAF South Cerney. He then went to RAF Swinderby and flew the Vampire T11. He subsequently trained on Vulcans at 230…
Interview with Livia de Savorgnani Zanmarchi
Livia de Savorgnani Zanmarchi reminisces her wartime experiences in Trieste. Describes the 10 June 1944 bombing, mentioning the destruction of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie church and the Modiano card factory. Talks about the gruesome sight of a…
Interview with J A Taplin. Two
John volunteered to join the RAF in 1940 wanting to become aircrew as a wireless operator as he had an interest in early radios. While awaiting his aircrew application to be processed he did his initial training at Blackpool and then onto RAF…
Tags: 10 OTU; 10 Squadron; 408 Squadron; 6 Group; aircrew; bale out; Blenheim; bombing; evading; ground personnel; Halifax; Operational Training Unit; prisoner of war; RAF Horsham St Faith; RAF Leeming; RAF Melbourne; RAF Yatesbury; shot down; the long march; training; Whitley; wireless operator; wireless operator / air gunner
Interview with Dougie Marsh
Interview in three parts.
Part 1.
Doug Marsh was the son of a Royal Navy officer and moved around quite a bit as a child between Kent and Lincolnshire. When his father retired from the Navy his parents bought a fish and chip shop in Grimsby but…
Part 1.
Doug Marsh was the son of a Royal Navy officer and moved around quite a bit as a child between Kent and Lincolnshire. When his father retired from the Navy his parents bought a fish and chip shop in Grimsby but…
Interview with Alessandro Samorè
Alessandro Samorè reminisces his early life in Milan, Domodossa, Portofino, and Santa Margherita Ligure. Provides details of life in youth fascist organisations, playing with homemade fireworks, and attempts to assemble an improvised scuba gear.…
Interview with Leontina Giovanetti
Leontina Giovanetti (b. 1913) reminisces about her early life with three sisters, her father who was a typographer and photographer and her mother a house-wife. Describes musical training at the Milan conservatory, stressing the demanding attitude of…