Browse Items (106 total)
- Spatial Coverage is exactly "Italy--Po River Valley"
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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 Guido Toccacieli
Guido Toccaceri remembers his wartime experiences as a schoolboy in Milan: the day war broke out, food shortages, his father working at an airfield near Bergamo, train strafing, basements used as makeshift shelters, being evacuated outside Milan with…
Interview with Marco Pederielli
Marco Pederielli describes his father’s career as a Regia Aeronautica officer, providing details of his service in North Africa. Describes his personal situation after the fall of the Fascist regime, when he reluctantly joined the Aeronautica…
Paolo Troglio travel permit
![MTroglioP[DoB]-180902-020001.jpg](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/782/9304/MTroglioP[DoB]-180902-020001.jpg "MTroglioP[DoB]-180902-020001.jpg")
Travel permit issued to Paolo Troglio by the 'Italia' partisan brigade. It allows him to travel freely to Milan and asks other partisan groups to provide support.
Interview with Paolo Bottani
Paolo Bottani recalls wartime memories of a working-class family in Milan. Describes the widespread enthusiasm for the declaration of war, followed by a relatively calm period. Mentions alarms as greeted initially with joy because classes stopped and…
Interview with Guido Dell’Era
Guido Dell’Era recollects daily life in wartime Milan, stressing inadequate war preparation. Describes a disciplined, regimented society which later turned to disillusionment. Recollects the declaration of war, the fall of the fascist regime and…
Interview with Ferruccio Bergomi
Ferruccio Bergomi recalls his early life as a street urchin in the Precotto neighbourhood in Milan - describes monkey business, horseplay, fierce rivalries, melees, pilfering sundries and street games with friends. Gives an eyewitness account of the…
Interview with Enrica Mariani
Enrica Mariani recollects her wartime experiences in Milan: her brother dying of bronchitis after spending too much time in the shelter and her father working in an armaments factory. The aggressive fascist militiamen and the long hours she spent in…
Interview with Franco Nocchieri
Franco Nocchieri recalls his early years as an orphan in several different towns in the Province of Pavia. He describes the bombing of the Voghera railway station, which started while he was heading to school. He goes on to explain how he and his…
Interview with Marino Ferrari
Marino Ferrari recalls his early life as an engineer at Pavia arsenal, and later in Catanzaro and Verona. Describes his life as an Italian military internee in East Prussia, working in different lumberyards. Speaks with affection of the German…
Interview with Federico Martinotti
Federico Martinotti reminisces over the Pavia bombing on the 26 September 1944. Describes the effects on the buildings near the Ticino River (the old bridge being the aiming point of the attack) and mentions the salvaging of valuable items from the…
Interview with Angela Bianchi
Angela Bianchi remembers wartime life in the outskirts of Pavia, where she lived on a farm with other families. Recalls her experiences of being bombed while working in a clothes factory situated close to one of the most important Ticino bridges,…
Interview with three survivors of the Po valley bombings
The informants remember wartime hardships endured near Pavia and Piacenza. Several stories recalled: a farmhouse being thoroughly searched for partisans, children questioned, people injured by shell splinters, a makeshift dugout used as shelter,…
Interview with Tullio Magnani
Tullio Magnani remembers his wartime years in the Pavia province. Although his father was blacklisted as a subversive communist he did not have any trouble at school. He recounted his role as a young resistance helper smuggling food rationing…
Interview with Gabriella Bisio and Teresa Mascherpa
Gabriella Bisio and Teresa Mascherpa recollect the bombing of Pavia and give a vivid description of its immediate aftermath. They describe food shortages, resorting to eating potatoes with milk and queuing up for a portion of salt. Gabriella…
Interview with Sandro Boiocchi
Sandro Boiocchi remembers wartime memories at Travacò, in the Pavia area. Mentions various episodes: food shortages, the black market, fascist and German roundups, Pippo flying at night, bombing of bridges, giving shelter to evacuees. Tells how…
A survivor of the Voghera bombings (informant A)
The informant reminisces about her wartime experiences in the Voghera countryside, at the time when her three brothers where enlisted and it was hard for her parents to run the farm.
She remembers how she narrowly escaped an aircraft trying to…
She remembers how she narrowly escaped an aircraft trying to…
Interview with a survivor of the Voghera bombings (informant B)
The informant recollects his wartime memories in Voghera. Emphasises how bombings, strafing, and Pippo flying at night became part of everyday life and how the population tried to cope. Gives a vivid and detailed account of the August 1944 bombing,…
Interview with Celestino Chiesa
Celestino Chiesa remembers his wartime memories as a schoolboy in Pavia, while he was attending the Artigianelli boarding school: food shortages; rationing; Pippo bombing at night; machine-gun nests along the Ticino river; a friend joining the…
Interview with Carluccio Intropido
Carluccio Intropido recalls his early life as an orphan studying in Pavia at the Artigianelli, a boarding school providing technical training. He recalls that children used to watch aircraft en route to Milan, until Pavia was bombed owing to 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…
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 Luigi Cabrini
Luigi Cabrini describes his daily life in a rural community stressing the labour-intensive nature of farming in wartime. Mentions Pippo bombing at night, and reminisces a chequered schooling history in Pavia and Voghera owing to strafing, bombings…