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Interview with Luciana Cella Guffanti
Luciana Cella Guffanti (b. 1932) describes the role played by officers of the Unione Nazionale Protezione Antiaerea during the bombings of Milan, especially when they had to persuade reluctant people to go to the shelters. She describes an occasion…
Interview with Rosanna Giungi
Rosanna Giungi (b. 1933) describes how Pippo disrupted daily life in wartime, especially affecting those close to the Modena-Brennero and Modena-Verona railway lines. She reminisces about the sight of Germany-bound trains packed with people…
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.
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,…
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.
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…
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…
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 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…
Bombing of Trieste
![MRadacichM[Ser'#-DoB]-170110-130001.jpg](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/38/266/MRadacichM[Ser -DoB]-170110-130001.jpg "MRadacichM[Ser'#-DoB]-170110-130001.jpg")
Account of the 6 July 1944 bombing of Trieste written by a typist of the Servola ironworks. The first part of the document details the effects of the explosions and mentions some of the impact points: the ammunition dump and the oil refinery. The…
Interview with Eraldo Bessone
Eraldo Bessone (b.1925) describes the bombing of an industrial area close to the Lingotto district in Turin. He tells how it was completely unexpected and stresses how the population was totally unprepared. Eraldo describes his attempt to reach a…
Interview with Matilde Pontecorvi
Matilde Pontecorvi (b. 1910) gives an account of the bombing of Ciampino when she was travelling by tram and bombs started to explode around it. She recalls how she survived only because a priest told her to duck under the seats. She describes the…
Interview with Rosetta Gobetti
Rosetta Gobetti (b. 1930) describes the bombing of a marsh near Isola della Scala, describing it as, probably, target mis-identification. She recalls a more severe bombing which destroyed many houses and killed 28 people. She gives a short…
Interview with Anna Maria Guglielmi
Anna Maria Guglielmi (b. 1940) recalls one of the first memories of her childhood when the siren sounded and she found herself in crowded shelter. She describes wartime anecdotes: drinking wine from a demijohn found in the attic; an encounter with…
Interview with Ivonne Cerasoli
Ivonne Cerasoli (b. 1925) describes Milan shelters, consisting largely of basements reinforced with wooden props, and tells how people cut down trees for firewood.
Interview with Maria Malagni
Maria Malagni (b. 1921) remembers her difficult childhood and chequered schooling history. She recalls wartime episodes: the death of her fiancé, an airman shot down over Brindisi; fascists seizing supplies; the capture of two partisans that her…
Interview with Francesca Marchese
Francesca Marchese (b. 1933) recalls the bombing attacks on Casale Monferrato, mentioning a bridge that survived multiple attacks and was nicknamed “The devil’s bridge”. She remembers people used to congregate in a field to watch the bombing of…
Interview with Silvana Zerbini
Silvana Zerbini (b. 1924) remembers the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome and the concern she had for her husband’s fate. She recalls the attempt to move her grandparents to a safer place out of the capital and remembers American…
Interview with Maria Luisa Verniconi
Maria Luisa Verniconi (b. 1930) recalls her youth in wartime, describing how difficult it was for her mother to look after the family. She recollects adults listening to Radio Londra while the youths were on lookout. She recalls the violent behaviour…
Interview with Itala Coriddi
Itala Coriddi (b. 1928) recalls wartime hardships in the Rome countryside where she lived in a straw hut. She tells of a railway tunnel used as shelter, describes the Anzio landing and recalls looking for shell cases to be used for hiding food. Itala…
Interview with Patrizia Riviera
Patrizia Riviera (b. 1930) gives a brief account of wartime life in Bergamo. She mentions food shortages, fear of bombings and basements used as shelters. She recalls disrupted schooling after the fall from power of the Fascist regime.
Interview with Elena Fornari
Elena Fornari (b. 1936) tells of the private shelter in her house in Rome and describes daily life under bombing. She recollects the frightening encounter with two German soldiers asking for information about her father.
Interview with Rita Patrignani
Rita Patrignani (b. 1921) mentions wartime food shortages and tells how she picked up what she found on the ground at the market. She describes the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome. She compares her impulse to dash to the nearest…
Interview with Corrado Marenco
Corrado Marenco (b. 1940) describes various wartime anecdotes: a makeshift shelter dug in his garden where he and other children had fun despite the danger of 'Pippo'; how his father had to hide inside the bell tower of a church to escape from German…