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Interview with Leonardo Gravina
Leonardo Gravina describes his early life in the rural district of the Puglia region, near the towns of Foggia and S. Giovanni Rotondo. He remembers seeing formations of aircraft taking off and landing from an airfield nearby and speaks fondly of an…
Interview with Aldo Petrina
Aldo Petrina lived in Capodistria with his family until March 1944. He recalls a day when a German warned his mother that they risk being thrown in a karst sinkhole because they did not speak Slovenian. All the family then moved to Varese, where he…
Interview with Celsa Agosto
Celsa Agosto reminisces about her wartime experiences and talks about a relatively quiet existence, until her father was enlisted. Her neighbourhood was then bombed, and a reprisal stormed the town the day after. After that, Celsa did not return…
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 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 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 Speranza Piras
Speranza Piras reminisces about the Alghero bombing on 17 May 1943 and her subsequent life as an evacuee. She describes daily life in wartime; German occupation; anti-aircraft fire; hardships; the black market; and different anecdotes about enlisted…
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 Nino Tenca Montini
Nino Tenca Montini reminisces about his wartime experiences in Udine and the Friuli region. He describes the family shelter as a concrete reinforced basement, sparsely furnished with wooden benches. He recalls the urge to escape the vigilance of…
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 Alberto Buvoli
Alberto Buvoli recalls his wartime childhood in Udine, where he lived in the railway station area. He describes how furniture was moved to a safer place at the onset of the war and explains air raid precautions, such as leaving the windows open and…
Interview with Dieter Essig
Dieter Essig recalls the Pforzheim bombing on 23 February 1945, which he witnessed at the age of six. He talks about the long hours he spent inside a shelter, describing his wartime years as a wasted childhood. He recalls the bombing on 1 April 1944,…
Vitry en Artois Christmas 1944
Photograph 1 is of non-commissioned officers supervising children at a Christmas Party, captioned 'Christmas Party for the children of Vitroy [sic] en Artois and surrounding villages, in the village hall, Vitroy [sic] en Artois, given by R.A.F. 137…
Operation Manna commemorative tile
Ceramic tile commemorating Operation Manna. A woman holding a child's hand is waving a handkerchief. the child is waving a Dutch flag. Two aircraft are flying over dropping food. At the bottom the caption reads 'Voedsel-Vrede-Vrijheid 29 April . 1945…
Interview with Giuseppe Pirovano
Giuseppe Pirovano describes wartime memories as schoolboy at Affori, a Milan neighbourhood, and daily life in fascist youth organisations, with regimented schooling and political rallies. He talks about children’s games and pastimes, such as…
Interview with Tito Samorè
Tito Samorè recalls wartime memories in Milan, when he was a member of the Balilla youth organisation. He remembers the outbreak of war and its announcement on the radio. Tito describes the first bombing of Milan in 1940, stressing how easy it was…
Interview with Wolfgang Jähnichen
Wolfgang Jähnichen recollects being a five-year-old boy in Dresden at the time of the 13 February 1945 bombing. Gives a vivid account of the attack and recounts various episodes: the time spent with his mother in the cellar used as air raid shelter,…
Interview with Jim Wright. Two
John Wright was born in 1932. He was evacuated from West Ham during the War along with his Mother and two Brothers. Johns’ Father joined the Royal Air Force as an Observer Bomb Aimer with 207 Squadron. His aircraft was shot down over Switzerland on…
Interview with Thea Warwick
Thea Warwick was seven years old and living in Rotterdam during the war. She recounts what is was like during the Hongerwinter. Walking for miles to soup kitchens and talks about other examples of how they obtained food. They moved into the…
Interview with Edith Taylor
Edith Taylor (née Tate) grew up in Manchester and experienced the bombing of Manchester. When the war started, Edith, her mother and two siblings, were evacuated to Leek. Edith was separated from Dorothy and her mother. Billy and Edith had two…
Interview with Sheena Staves
During the war Sheena lived in Cottingham, a village close to Hull. She lived with her mother and father (who was a fire watcher). He fought in the Far East during the first world war. She had two elder brothers, one in the Navy and one in the Royal…
Interview with Brian Hutson
Brian Hutson was a child during the war. He remembers his father, who worked on building airfields and delivering air raid shelters. He also recalls his childhood, sleeping in a shelter and listening to aircraft, air raids, blackouts, playing with…
Interview with Rosemary Dorricott
Rosemary Dorricott is the widow of Leonard William Dorricott DFM. During the war years she was a young child in Skegness. She was six years old when war broke out. She recalls the air raids on the town and the rationing and blackouts that became a…