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Interview with Anna Maria Baccolini
Anna Maria Baccolini (b. 1933) recalls the first bombing of Turin, aimed at the Lingotto industrial area. She describes the impressive sight of the city burning and highlights the effects of nearby hits. She remembers the tender gesture of her father…
Interview with Carlo Bertolo
Carlo Bertolo (b. 1939) remembers a bombing of Turin when incendiaries were dropped. He recalls how one of them hit his house, but it was stopped by a trunk full of clothes before it could reach the shelter.
Tags: bombing; civil defence; incendiary device
Two B-24s in a desert landscape
Two B-24 in a desert landscape, one on the ground and one flying overhead at low altitude . A starter trolley is visible on the ground.
Tags: B-24
Two B-24s in flight over cloud
Air-to-air view of a B-24 with the code 'Q' on the fuselage; the port wing of second B-24 is partially visible on the right. Calibration markings along the edges.
Tags: B-24
B-24 in flight over Italy
A B-24 in flight over land with a river flowing parallel to the vertical margin. On the fuselage, code letter 'H' and barely legible serial number 'KH205' [?]. Captioned on the reverse 'F. J. Auton 178 Sqdn. Italy 1944'.
Tags: 178 Squadron; B-24
Five aircrew in front of a Wellington
Five aircrew wearing different combinations of battledresses and non-regulation items such as woollen hats are standing in front of a Wellington parked on a muddy field. Only the nose and part of the inner port engine are visible.
Tags: aircrew; Wellington
Jim Auton in uniform
Head and shoulder portrait of Jim Auton in sergeant's uniform with bomb aimer brevet.
Tags: aircrew; bomb aimer
Jim Auton in uniform
Head and shoulder portrait of Sergeant Jim Auton in uniform with bomb aimer brevet.
Tags: aircrew; bomb aimer
Interview with Renate Rothaler
Renate Rothaler (b. 1937) recounts her wartime experiences in Gotha, where she lived with her mother and sister, while her father was drafted. She mentions a bombing in spring 1944 when she watched ‘silver birds’ that soon started to drop bombs,…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; home front
Interview with Marino Ferrari
Marino Ferrari recalls his early life as an engineer at Pavia arsenal, and later in Catanzaro and Verona. He describes his life as an Italian military internee in East Prussia, working in different lumberyards. Marino speaks with affection of the…
Interview with Alessandra Rivalta
Alessandra Rivalta recalls her early life, first as member of Opera Nazionale Balilla then as an undergraduate student at the faculty of humanities. She describes the start of the war, early anti-aircraft precautions and wartime life: food shortage;…
Tags: animal; bombing; civil defence; fear; home front; perception of bombing war; Pippo
Interview with Paola Giorgina Pasini
Paola Giorgina Pasini provides details of her early life in a family of agricultural workers and favourably compares their conditions with those living in urban areas. She recalls the ominous sight of target indicators and flares and remembers…
Interview with Paolo Bottani
Paolo Bottani recalls wartime memories as part of a working-class family in Milan. He describes the widespread enthusiasm for the declaration of war, followed by a relatively calm period. He remembers the alarms being greeted, initially, with joy…
Interview with Lucia Muratori
Lucia Muratori recalls her early life in Bologna in the family of a well-off foundry owner. She stresses that she had less traumatic war experiences compared to many other people at that time, the only disturbing episode being witnessing the killing…
Interview with Fausta Maggioni
Fausta Maggioni recalls memories of her wartime life in Milan. She describes a sizeable shelter reinforced with wooden props; a little bag with the few valuables she had always to bring along; as well as the many duties of her father, as warden, who…
Interview with Teresa Messali
Teresa Messali gives a brief account of pre-war life with her large family in a farmhouse near Bergamo. She mentions Pippo; describes the pressing need to find shelter during the bombings and tells how she frequently resorted to ditches. Teresa…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; fear; home front; Pippo
Interview with Ada Dellaferrera
Ada Dellaferrera (b. 1928) recalls aircraft strafing the railway station and how she tried to hide next to a wall. She remembers when her mother sent her out in the blackout and the fear of the dark she has had ever since.
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; fear; home front; strafing
Interview with Luigia Colussi
Luigia Colussi (b. 1925) gives a short account of her wartime life and describes how she persuaded German troops to release her father. She talks about the contrast between the attitude of adults (who prayed and were generally worried by the…
Tags: bombing; civil defence; home front; incendiary device
Interview with Angela Squicciarini
Angela Squicciarini (b. 1925) gives an account of her life during wartime when she attended school. She mentions relatives, one of whom spent many years in Russia; she describes how the living conditions improved over the years; and provides details…
Tags: bombing; home front
Interview with Mafalda De Luca
Mafalda De Luca (b. 1939) recalls how her father moved to Fiume during the D’Annunzio occupation, and there he met her mother. She remembers the blackout curtains at the windows and mentions underground shelters. She gives a brief account of a…
Interview with Carla Griva
Carla Griva (b. 1935) describes different attitudes and various coping strategies of people inside a shelter in Turin: reciting the rosary, putting their hands over their ears to avoid listening, storytelling, and asking children to practice…
Interview with Erika Gautsch
Erika Gautsch (b. 1928) describes her wartime experience of being inside a shelter and the people she met there: an old sick man with his wife, who was incessantly reciting the rosary, and children clinging to their mothers. She describes tension and…
Tags: bombing; childhood in wartime; civil defence; faith; fear; home front; shelter