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Title
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Flowers, James
H J Flowers
Horrace James Flowers
Harry James Flowers
Description
An account of the resource
15 items. The collection concerns the wartime experiences of Flight Sergeant Horace James Flowers, a rear gunner with 50 Squadron at RAF Skellingthorpe. The collection consists of one oral history interview, a propaganda leaflet and nine photographs. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by James Flowers and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Flowers, HJ
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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HJF: My name is Horace James Flowers. I’m known as James. I am recording my, I served in the RAF for four and a half years from 1944 until 1947. I attained the rank of flight sergeant and flew, and served with 50 squadron and 44 squadron, 50 squadron at Skellingthorpe and 40 squadron, 44 squadron in Tiger Force at a number of squads, at a number centres, stations. I’m recording this for the International Bomber Command Centre on the 2nd of June, er, 2nd of June 2015 in, at xxxxx Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. Yeah. I was born on the 9th of 10th, 9th of the 10th 1924 in a small village called Huthwaite in Nottinghamshire. I remained in Huthwaite, remained in Huthwaite during my education which was only secondary modern. Secondary modern. I then left school at fourteen, 1939. That sounds bad doesn’t it?
MJ: That’s alright.
HJF: I left school, I left school when I was fourteen. That was 1939. I became an apprentice butcher and loved the job. I absolutely loved it and if it hadn’t have been, hadn’t have been for the war, I’m certain I would have remained in that trade for the rest of my working life. However, Sutton in Ashfield area, Huthwaite and Sutton in Ashfield area rapidly became an area, a training area for a battalion of troops. And also there were Yanks at er, at Kingsmill Hospital and there were the paratroopers at Hardwick Hall five miles away. They was the elite and they used to come in at night time and the village had, all the village halls had been turned into dance halls so the town was thriving at night time, with hundreds probably thousands of, of soldiers coming in to be entertained for the night. It was so exciting. Now, the paratroopers were special. They were elite and when they used to come in they used to create skirmishes in the, you know, to a teenager it was so exciting and at the same time my brother had joined the navy and he was he was in, in, he was stationed at Brightlingsea at what they called [unclear] sorry [unclear]
[pause]. Yes.
HJF: German U-boats used to, used to speed in and torpedo any, any ship that was in the area. At the same time, at this particular time I had a girlfriend whose brother was in aircrew and he was a wireless operator and he used to come home at the weekends and I used to listen to his stories about his fly, what was happening while he was flying. This really stimulated my interest so I just had to get to it, get involved. Now, on the 18th of February 1943 I attended the, enlistment section-
[pause]
On the 18th of February 1943 I attended the recruitment section, recruitment place at Mansfield to be given a medical for aircrew which I passed A1. How excited I was when the medical officer told me that I’d passed A1. Not that my excitement was allowed to last long because shortly after the recruiting officer called me in to his office to give me the bad news. Now then, this is, ‘I’m very sorry to tell you, you can’t be accepted. We can’t accept anyone who is in a reserved occupation.’ I was completely devastated because I’d took a year to get in. I pleaded for them to change their mind, ‘Sorry you can only be accepted if the authorities release you from your reserved occupation.’ To a teenager desperate to volunteer this was terrible news. It felt as if a bomb had been dropped on me by the recruiting officer. My factory manager showed no sympathy at all. He firmly informed me that unless I was medically released I would have to remain with them until the end of the war. The problem was that I needed to be A1 to be accepted for air crew and unfit to be released from the reserved occupation. How do I get around that? Continuously I racked my brain to try and think of a way that I could overcome this problem. Months went by and I began to despair. It seemed as if my chance of joining the RAF had gone forever. At last I had an idea. I wondered, will it work? No matter whether it did or not I just had to try something. So with my heart in my mouth I arranged an appointment with my factory doctor. Attending the appointment I showed the doctor all the spots on my face, and telling him that I considered that the heavy fumes of the machine grinder on which, on which I was working was giving me dermatitis. I then requested that I should be released from this work. My case was so thin and I knew it but I had to try something. I then had to listen to the doctor giving me a real dressing down. How awful he made me feel. He ended his lecture by saying, ‘You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. Men are dying for the likes of you.’ Feeling very subdued I then quietly said, ‘But doctor, I only want releasing from munitions because I volunteered and been accepted for air crew. The RAF won’t take me if you don’t release me.’ With my heart in my mouth I waited as he fixed his gaze on me for what seemed an eternity. He looked me straight in the eye. Then without another word he reached for his pen and signed my release. As I got up to leave the surgery he leaned forward and shook my hand and wished me luck. All these problems had taken a year to resolve. Is that?
MJ: Yes
HJF: Now, having reached my ninetieth year I can’t help thinking how much slimmer my chances of surviving this terrible war would have been if I’d been allowed to leave my reserved occupation in 1943. Although I knew that being a rear gunner was a very dangerous job with a very high casualty rate, so much so that rear gunners were named Charlies and that’s another name for stupid fool, it didn’t matter to me what others thought. This was the way I wished to serve my country. Yeah, so that goes on to my “Tail End Charlie’s Story”.
MJ: Ahum
HJF: This was the title I gave to my book which I’ve, which I’ve had produced, “A Tail End Charlie’s Story” ‘cause I think that fits the bill. Right, on the 6th of March 1944 I reported to the induction centre at Lords Cricket Ground, London along with hundreds more recruits for entry to the RAF. Lords Cricket Ground was used during the 1939 ‘45 war as an induction centre for air crew. A roll call, a roll call was made during which, to my astonishment, a second HJ Flowers’ name was called out. It was then that I first met Henry James Flowers. Henry told me that he came from a village called Bargoed in South Wales. From then onwards we became constant companions. We remained together during basic training at RAF Bridgnorth after which we were posted to RAF Stormy Down for air gunnery training. Fortunately, we were kept together during flying training and in actual fact ended up serving on both 50 and 44 squadron, squadrons. Now, ok, recruitment before I get on to?
MJ: You can put it whatever way you like.
HJF: Does that sound alright?
MJ: Yes it’s fine. It’s superb. I mean I know exactly what you mean when you said that London had had a right bash of it.
HJF: Yeah.
MJ: I mean, my nan got bombed out twice. You know, nothing left.
HJF: We got friends, we’ve got a friend that lost everything twice. Absolutely everything.
MJ: Yeah, yeah.
HJF: She lived near where I was stationed yeah.
MJ: ‘Cause the road that they lived in doesn’t exist.
HJF: Yeah.
MJ: And so on. You know people don’t-
HJF: Yeah.
MJ: Realise this sort of thing. Are you ready?
HJF: Yeah ok. After disembarking from the troop train at Bridgnorth railway station we formed up in threes. Shouldering our heavy kit bags we began the long march to camp. The last mile was up a steep hill. As new recruits, unfit, with no marching experience at all, all carrying a heavy kit bag the formation rapidly turned into a gaggle. By the time we reached the camp everyone was on the point of collapse. Next morning, after the recruits had been formed up on the parade ground the NCO in charge of the parade informed us that we’d be confined to barracks for the entire six weeks - square bashing, ‘You will not be allowed in public until you can be a credit to your uniform.’ From that moment on we spent every minute of every day drilling and exercising. My muscles screamed out from the strains. The course seemed never ending. Much to my surprise the strain became less. I was obviously getting fitter. Not content with keeping us hard all day we were also given guard duty at night. On Saturday and Sunday a percentage of recruits were picked out to stand guard throughout the weekend. It was just the luck of the draw as to whether your name would come out. By the end of the fourth week I was badly missing my girlfriend Eunice so despite the ban on boots, new boots, new recruits leaving camp I began to make plans. Now, having been on guard duty at a sentry box on the edge of the wood at the rear of the camp I knew there was a way in and out. Those on guard duty were given instructions to arrest anyone there but be that it may I let loads of them through expecting them to make the, make the favour, if I, if I needed it. I noticed. Now desperate to return home I was willing to risk anything. So after duty on the fourth Friday I slipped out of camp by the back way and began thumbing lifts. In uniform they came very easily and with a matter of hours I was back home again. Early next day I walked the two miles to my girlfriend’s house. This was the first time that Eunice had seen me in uniform and I knew that I’d created a good impression. We had a lovely day and a half together. I can still remember going for a walk that Sunday morning along a very attractive country walk known locally as Skegby Bottoms. The sun shone brightly as we sat there. I was at peace with the world. I wanted it to go on and on and on. Late Sunday night I successfully re-entered the camp through the back. Through the woods. In no time I was back in my billet. The moment Taffy saw me he exclaimed, ‘Your name was called out several times for guard duty over the weekend.’ ‘Oh dear,’ I thought, ‘Blimey I shall be on a charge on Monday morning’. Sure enough I was called off the parade ground and told to report to the commanding officer. Shaking like a leaf I stood to attention in front of him. ‘Sorry. I didn’t hear my name called out.’ Not impressed, he said ‘Fourteen days jankers and do it again and I’ll throw the book at you.’ Next day I reported to the cookhouse in full pike. Just my luck to be the only one on jankers, jankers at the time to peel the thousands and thousands of potatoes needed to feed a camp full of hungry airmen and then to wash the pots that had to be used for meals. Gosh it was hard work. You may have thought that all this effort made my weekend worthwhile. I’m in no doubt at all. It was.
Now then, what did I get to? 3rd of, 3rd of June 1944 see us arrive at Bridgnorth for flying training. Now this training was on Avro Ansons. It had one mid upper turret and we used to fire at drogues that used to come by with a, with a Spitfire travelling a drogue alongside us. And quite honestly, quite honestly it was I think, I think the pilot was, of the Spitfire, was in more danger of us hitting him than us hitting the drogue. Anyway, when, when we finished this course, at the end of this course I managed to get a day’s, a weekend off so I travelled home to see Eunice. She was in the Land Army near Grimley and I remember as I arrived at the, at the hostel, at the hostel Eunice was telling me about the, about someone who was getting married. One of the Land Army girls getting married. And I could feel that this was the, that there seemed to be a longing in her voice which suggested to me that this was the right time to once again, for the hundredth time ask her if she’d marry me. And so as she turned to me I said, ‘Well shall we get married then?’ and she said, ‘Yes, let’s.’ I’m not joking with you I could have fallen through the floor. Anyway, we decided there and then. She said, ‘What are you doing now?’ I said well I’m going now to Husbands Bosworth for a ten week course on OTU training and she says, ‘Ok when will that finish?’ Well we calculated it out that it would finish about October the 14th. She says, ‘Ok we’ll add a week to that. We’ll add a week to that. We’ll get married on the 21st of October.’ Not for one minute did we think the things that could happen in a flying training. So naïve we were. Anyway, a week before, two weeks before the October the 21st flying training, all flying training was cancelled through bad weather. We didn’t fly for nearly eight days. Comes the 20th, comes the 20th of, of October and I’m getting married the next day. I’d still got four hours flying to do that morning. Anyway, by sheer luck we got the flying training finished, finished by dinnertime. We then needed to, to get cleared from the station, and of course collect all our gear because we’re moving to another, another station. And, and we’d got, in those days, today if you wanted to get cleared from a section they do it on computer, can do it in five minutes. In our day we used to have to go to every section to get our chitty signed, mainly on foot. Fortunately, Taffy managed to borrow a couple, a couple of bikes. He was going to be my best man so he’s coming with me. We circulated and of course there’s a tremendous area in, in, on an RAF aerodrome and we circulated the area on these cycles and I’m certain that everybody, every section knew we were getting married because as we were, the next day every section and as we, the next day, and as we came in they immediately signed my chit. Bless them all. Anyway the admin section was closing at 5 o’clock. We arrived there at five minutes to five. The admin, the officer then cleared us from the section and, and he says, ‘Ok, right, you can go now. Report to RAF Wigsley on Monday the 23rd.’ I thought, bloody hell, two days. We then had to start [laughs] we then had to start our journey. Now in those days, in those days there was very little transport. We had to, we had to cadge lifts we had to catch buses, local buses, train journeys, local train journeys. It took us all night. We didn’t arrive in Sutton in Ashfield until half past eight on the Saturday the 21st. Having been awake all night I was absolutely shattered. Anyway we walked out of Sutton in Ashfield railway station and Eunice lived a mile to the right and I, and I lived two miles to the left. Taffy walked to tell Eunice we’d arrived. I walked the two miles to Huthwaite to, to my parent’s home. Now there was so much happening. The wedding was planned for 2.30. There was so much happening I never got any rest. I was absolutely cream crackered. By, I remember, I remember we were in, as we got in, as we got in to the taxi turned up to St Mary’s Church at Sutton in Ashfield and I says to my mum ‘Oh I can’t.’ ‘Go on, go on, ‘she said, ‘Oh no. You’re here now. Go on. Get going.’ Anyway we got into the church and I’m not joking I stood at the altar and I was absolutely asleep on my feet. I can’t explain how tired I was. Anyway, after a while suddenly there was a thump in my ribs and I opened my eyes and said. ‘I will’ and it was back to sleep again and quite honestly that’s all I remember of my, of my, of my wedding. And then photographs. The photographer wouldn’t take any photographs at the church. He insisted that we went down to his studio which was a couple of miles away and then he only took, would agree to take two photographs. One of Eunice and I and the wedding group. How different it is these days. Wedding photographers dominate the wedding and take millions of photographs and charge a tremendous amount of money. They do, don’t they? Anyway, Eunice was late when she arrived at the, at the church. She told me later, she said as the taxi drew away from her house a funeral appeared. Now it’s bad luck for you to go past a funeral. That’s what they said. So, quickly the taxi driver changed direction, changed direction to, to avoid it. Lo and behold they were just about to turn up the drive to the, to the church it was quite a long drive two or three hundred yards long and another, another funeral appeared so quickly he turns around and went back again and made another deviation. Well, she says she thought this a sign our wedding wouldn’t last. Well sixty nine years, seventy years later I think probably her premonition was a little bit wrong.
[laughs].
Fortunately, the Sunday, Sunday, a telegram arrived at my home to tell me that I’d been given eight days leave. So, so we didn’t have to report to Wigsley until eight days later but I want to go back a little bit now to my flying training because quite honestly flying training on Wellington bombers, it was a marvellous experience. Dangerous. Always exciting. Mostly enjoyable but quite honestly we were like kids playing with big new toys and we couldn’t get enough of it. Now, many things happened, happened, that quite honestly, that could, we could have bought it there and then. I remember one instant. One instant comes to, comes to mind. This was a training flight up to the north of Scotland and, and this was one for the first night trips that we had. Now, navigation in those days was very, very difficult because they didn’t have radar, the navigator didn’t have radar. He had to use his maps and they used to even use the stars and, and even used to ask us, ask us for things on the ground so that was how primitive it was. Anyway, we flew up to the north of Scotland. It was six and half hour trip and when we got to the north of Scotland we were due to turn, to turn starboard to come down the North Sea but instead of telling us to turn starboard the navigator told Skip to turn port so instead of travelling down the North Sea we were travelling down the Irish Sea. In fact we were rapidly going towards bloody America [laughs] and extended the flight trip quite a long way. He said the reason why this happened was because he accidently pulled his, we were flying above twelve thousand feet and he accidently pulled his, his oxygen cylinder thing out, connection out so he, but that was his story. Anyway, we goes down the North Sea. I remember we got back to, we got back to the Husbands Bosworth area and I remember looking down. It was absolutely, early hours of the morning, it was absolutely pitch dark. You could not see a thing on the ground and Jack the navigator says, ‘Ok Skip. We’re over base.’ Skip says, ‘Can’t see anything.’ So he says, ‘Ok, dog leg.’ so he does a five minute dog leg, comes back again and he says, ‘Right Skip. We’re over base.’ And when he says that there’s a chorus of voices says, ‘You’re up the spout, you’re bloody up the spout we can’t see anything.’ Ok, another dog leg. We did another dog leg and another dog leg and then when we gets to the fourth one there’s a voice, the flight engineer butts in and says, ‘Hey. Hey, we’ve only got, you’d better pull your fingers out, we’ve only got four minutes of fuel left.’ I was sitting, I was in the rear turret listening to all this going and quite honestly my ring was beginning to twitch. I thought to myself, ‘bloody hell if they don’t do something about it we’re going to crash’. So I switched it on. I say, ‘Skip why don’t you call somebody up?’ He says, ‘Oh yes.’ He then calls out the base. The base called in the, the aircraft codes, signs and immediately lights, the aerodrome lights flicked on straight beneath us. Navigator, nav, had been right all the time. We made an emergency landing. We taxied around this, we taxied round, around the perimeter. We turns in to, turns into our bay and as we turned into the bay, before we were in, the engines stopped. That’s how close we were. Ok now then. I’ll go forward now to after my wedding ok.
MJ: Yeah.
HJF: Are we still going?
MJ: Yeah.
HJF: After, after the wedding I reported to, to Wiglsey. Now, once again we, one, one time comes to mind we had a complete and utter cock up on Stirlings. I remember we were corkscrewing, corkscrew starboard, corkscrew port and the Skipper was saying to me diving starboard, diving starboard, climbing port, climbing starboard, rolling port, so on. The corkscrew. And in the middle of this cork, and this Spitfire was attacking us, was attacking us from behind and I was giving a running commentary on, on him coming in and all of a sudden the aircraft levelled out and a panicked voice came over the, came over the intercom, ‘Put on parachutes, jump, jump, jump.’ And I thought, ‘bloody hell, I can’t believe this’. The next second, ‘Put on parachute. Jump, jump, jump. I can’t hold it, I can’t hold it, I can’t hold it.’ I thought to myself ‘bloody hell there’s something happening I can’t see’ and I thought to myself, I thought ‘I’ll have a go’. So I drags the turret around to the beam, pulls on my slider, green as grass I was at the time. Now with experience I’d have opened the door and just flopped back outwards but green as grass I dragged myself out of the turret outside and I was standing outside and the wind was terrible. You can imagine. We were twelve thousand feet, travelling two hundred miles an hour and I’m looking down. I remember standing there with one, with my feet on the edge of the turret, one arm’s holding the top of the turret and I looked down and cows in fields looked, looked like flies. I thought, ‘Bloody hell I wonder if my parachute will open.’ Anyway, I thought to myself I’ll have a go. So therefore, I thought, I started, I released one hand and took, took, began to take my helmet off and quite honestly it was, there was so much noise outside I could hardly hear anything. All of a sudden I heard a faint voice and I didn’t care what it was it I thought, that’s somebody shouting something. It took me twenty minutes to get out but five seconds to get back in. I was back in like a bloody flash and I held my hands to my ears and it was the flight engineer. We’d got a, we’d got a extra member of the crew that time, he was a tour expired extra flight engineer and he was shouting, ‘Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go.’ So, right, well what happened? When we got down as we came down to land I was so stressed up with this thing as I climbed, as I came out of the turret into the fuselage I just asked myself, I just had to know whether my chute would have opened. So I immediately, I pulled the rip cord and my parachute spilled out into the fuselage. It cost me two and six pence to have it, now that’s a lot of money. When you think it’s only two pounds a week for me and I was giving a pound to my Mrs that was a lot of money to me but I didn’t care. It gave me the confidence that at least, at least it opened. Now, when we got out, when we got out I say, I says, I says to Skip, ‘What happened?’ He says, ‘Well’ he says, ‘We were diving,’ he says, ‘We were diving and climbing and rolling in the what do you call it,’ he says, ‘And all of a sudden a window just at the back of my head, unbeknown to me, flew out.’ The window had got, on the inside, had got a lead weighted curtain and as it, as the window blew out it sucked this lead weighted curtain out and he says it just started banging on the side of the fuselage bang, bang, bang, bang he says, ‘I suddenly heard this bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang tremendous noise’ he says, and at that precise moment by sheer coincidence the instructor, flight engineer, the bloody fool, sitting at the side of me, the starboard outer oversped. Now, the standard procedure is to pull the nose of the aircraft like climbing a hill to steady it down. Now, instead of just poking the Skipper or, or switching his intercom on which was at his mouth and saying what was happening he immediately dragged on, dragged as hard as he could on the controls to lift. Now, the Skipper at the time because he was hearing this banging noise was trying to keep the aircraft straight and level and at the same time the flight engineer, and they were pulling against each other and I’m not joking it was a complete and utter cock up but I’ve often thought to myself what did that bloody Spitfire driver think of me when he saw me standing outside, climbing out, he must have thought I were doolally.
[laughs]
Another thing happened whilst we were in flying training. We were doing the corkscrewing. All of a sudden all four engines cut out. Quick as a flash Skipper slammed the aircraft in to a vertical dive and kick-started the engine. Fortunately got them going, fortunately we got plenty of height, kick-started them. By golly that did make your heart flutter [laughs] and then our final training, training trip with, on Stirlings we had an emergency landing and we had, we had to make an emergency landing at Woodhall Spa, the home of 617 of all places, and as we, as we touched down all of a sudden the Stirling swung off, swung off the runway and headed straight for flying control. Now the Stirling was a massive aircraft and, and the cockpit, when the cockpit, when it was stopped, when it was stationery the cockpit was level with the windows in flying control and we, we careered across the, across the, the grass and stopped about a couple of foot from the, from the flying control windows and Skip said he could see flying control people running away from the windows in panic and when we stopped he says, he switches on, he says, ‘Flying control, ‘he says, ‘Can you see where we are?’ and a droll voice, a dry voice came over, ‘Yes’.[laughs] Anyway, the bonus for this was we spent the night at Woodhall Spa and we were, we were able to spend the night in the mess and we were able to mix with those elite airmen, the 617 people. It was absolutely wonderful. Anyway, the next morning we flew the thirty five minutes back, back, back to base at Wigsley and that was our last training trip, flying training trip. The next day we went to, we transferred to RAF Syerston for Lanc finish school which we spent two weeks there. At the end of the two weeks we were being moved to squadron. We were now fully trained. Now, for some reason we, on the 24th of January 1945 we, we boarded a RAF transport to take us from there to squadron. For some reason and I don’t know why we were taken to RAF Balderton for the night. Now, we were absolutely dead beat when we got there. It’s a bit sexy.
[laughs]
Absolutely dead beat so we went to bed very early. Now, we were in a Nissen hut with about twenty beds and there was entrances both sides. Now, fast asleep, late on, I don’t know, about midnight, all of a sudden there was a door opened the other end and a couple, excited couple came in and they obviously didn’t know there was anybody there. Short time later the excited talk, sexual. [laughs] and this went on and on and on and on. Anyway satisfaction came in time and they crept out laughingly and after they’d gone a quiet voice says, ‘Did you hear all that?’ [laughs] It goes without saying that fit aircrew fully trained wouldn’t miss a thing like that. It certainly brightened my night up. The next day we were a, to 50 squadron Skellingthorpe. We arrived at RAF Skellingthorpe on the 25th of January 1945. Now, the atmosphere, there was quite an atmosphere on training, training, on training stations but it was nothing like this. There was that feeling like an electric feeling. There was so much bustle and things going off, watching, actually we were nearly month before we did our first operation but we, all right? Seeing aircraft take off, disappearing, new aircraft coming in, the wild, wild parties that were in the mess. The atmosphere was absolutely wonderful. Now as I said we were a month, we were doing training during the time and I remember wonder, wonder if, if I’m going to be up to it because you never know do you? Anyway, it was the 5th of March, the 5th of March by the time we, we did our first operation and what an operation. What an eye opener. Now, I remember we walked into the, we walked into the briefing room, and The excited chatter and then all of a sudden the briefing officer came in quite pleased and deathly silence instantly. Your target for tonight will be Bohlen. Bohlen. Apparently, I found out, it was going to be a ten hour trip. Your, your route will be passing the Ruhr, in the Ruhr, in the Ruhr 3 Group will be attacking the Ruhr. In that area expect to see enemy fighters attacking in pairs. One from above and one below. If one gets above, if one gets beneath you they will shoot you to pieces. So be careful. Beware. Anyway, briefing finished and we’re standing outside. They’re all chatting all excitedly together and I’m talking to Flight Lieutenant Ling’s rear gunner and I can’t remember his name but I knew that he’d been, he was getting towards the end of his tour. I says to him how are things going, what was the flight like? Obviously, obviously I was quite uptight and he said, ‘Oh don’t worry, there’s nothing to it. Nothing to it. And I said something to him which I’m not going to tell you about which made me think, made me think ‘You’re not taking it seriously enough.’ He said, ‘Oh’ he says, ‘Don’t worry. I’ve never seen, I’ve never seen a fighter at all.’ Unbelievably, we came, we came across our first Messerschmitt less than four hours later. He say, ‘Don’t worry. There’s nothing to it’ and I thought, anyway they got the chop on the next trip, the next what do you call it, you see. Anyway, I remember going out to the aircraft at Skellingthorpe and the tension in me was absolutely sky high and I remember it didn’t seem to take us long, didn’t seem to take us long before we were taxiing out and as we were taxiing out I was looking around and there was all, I’m certain as I remember 61 squadron were also going that night and there were all these aircraft taxiing around the perimeter. The atmosphere was absolutely electric and all above, above, above all above us we could see the Lincoln cathedral in front of us and all above we could see heavily laden bombers gradually circling up, circling around. The tension inside me just went just like that. I was ready for it. Anyway, we turns on to the peri track, taxies up to the runway, waits our turn, turns on to, turns on to the, turns on to the, on to the runway. Skip calls, ‘Brakes on. Full power.’ And then, ‘Right, brakes off’ and, and we began to surge forward and alongside the, alongside the runway was a line of ground staff waving us off. What a wonderful take off. What a wonderful send off. Anyway, this was the first time that we’d been in a, in a Lancaster with a full bomb load. We’d got fourteen thousand pounds of bombs on and two thousand two hundred gallons of fuel. It was as much as any aircraft, Lancaster aircraft could carry in those days. I remember we were surging along, we were surging along, the vibration, this was the first time I’d heard the engines on full throttle right through the gate. The aircraft was absolutely, all the fuselage was vibrating with the tension of it. Anyway, as I, as I remember one two five was the one, was about the speed that you used to take off. I remember engineers started to call out one twenty, one twenty one, one twenty two, one twenty four, one twenty five and then Skip dragged the aircraft and you could feel the fuselage vibrating as he was fighting to get the aircraft into the air and then we had another problem. The Skellingthorpe runway was aimed straight at Lincoln Cathedral on top of that hill. Now that’s like a pimple today but to us in, in 1945 it was a terrible object to get over and we used to have to be banking while still at stalling speed. We used to be banking to miss that, well, I say ‘bloody cathedral, oh God’ and then when we got to a thousand feet it was such a relief. Anyway, I remember, I remember gradually climbed up. Our operation height was twelve thousand feet. I remember circling around. There were hundreds of aircraft. I think there were about two hundred and fifty aircraft involved in that operation. They were oh wonderful sight, wonderful sight gradually, circling around getting up to height and then a green light, Very light came from came out of one of the, the leading aircraft and we immediately began into a bomb, into a stream and we started to head out for Germany over the North Sea. Now, gradually, we’d set off at half past five at night, March and it was getting dark, getting quite dusk and as we set out, as we set out over the, over the North Sea gradually the light disappeared and so the aircraft, the aircraft, gradually, my night vision was developed. It used to take you twenty minutes for your night vision to develop and, and gradually all you could see was just, you could see Lancasters when they were the image of them when they were very close and you could see the sparks of the engine and we used to, we used to, we’d been told, warned about these twin fighters so we were swaying from side to side so we could look straight beneath us so we wouldn’t be caught out and I remember we’d been flying over the North Sea and were now entering, entering, enemy territory for the first time. The tension built up in, the adrenalin. I should say adrenalin building up inside me and I remember I was looking, it was now almost pitch dark, although it was a moonlit night it was still dark and I remember watching this, watching this Lancaster drift slowly underneath us, about twenty or thirty feet beneath us and it had just drifted underneath us. I could just see the sparks from its engines and just as he drifted there was a tremendous explosion just a short distance behind us and the explosion, the light split in half, then the next second, two, two seconds later there were two tremendous explosions. Two Lancasters rammed each other and both exploded in mid-air and then it was back to complete darkness. It hadn’t, the shock, the shock it hadn’t taken me long to realise the difficulties of being on operational active service but you know sadly fourteen air crew, airmen had lost their lives in that second but the shockwave was, it was so close to us the shockwave came right through our aircraft, violently vibrated us and quite honestly I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had blown us down. Anyway, we carried on. We climbed up to twelve thousand feet. Now, it was a moonlit night, a moonlit night and the clouds, the clouds looked like a rolling sea. It was so picturesque. The clouds were up to ten thousand feet, we were two thousand feet above and it looked so picturesque. It was lovely and I remember my concentration was absolutely sky high and all of a sudden I saw something which could have been a fly on a window, it was just a slight movement right down deep, deep on, on the starboard side and I thought to myself, bloody hell a fighter. Can’t be. Who said he’d never seen a fighter? Yeah, I thought, anyway it was at that moment that I made, through inexperience, something which could have been, could have been fatal to us because I should, all my, all my training, I should have in actual fact immediately called and, and warned the crew what was happening. Nevertheless, despite this mistake I automatically aimed my guns at it. Gradually this object moved gradually astern and when it was dead astern at ten thousand feet gradually it started coming up. Now when it got to, when it got level with us the image of the aircraft filled my, filled the ring on my gun sight and it was at that moment that the hundreds of hours that I’d spent viewing, viewing pictures, silhouettes of, of fighter, of enemy fighters, fighters on screens in training paid off because I recognised it a Messerschmitt 109. Immediately, without, without a second thought I pressed my, pressed my button and gave it a prolonged burst straight at the fighter and I watched my, I watched my tracers go straight in it. At this fraction of a second I immediately switched on and shouted, ‘Fighter. Fighter. Dive, dive, dive.’ And the Skipper slammed the aircraft straight into a, into a vertical dive and he’s shouting me, ‘You mean corkscrew. You mean corkscrew.’ But I didn’t. I meant dive because there was no deflection required because he was absolutely dead astern. Anyway, I watched my tracers go straight into it, straight into it and the fighter immediately went straight down as if out of control straight into the cloud. I’m convinced now that I shot it down but of course rules do not allow you to claim anything when you don’t see the ground and we were at ten thousand, the clouds at ten thousand feet so therefore that’s but I’m convinced that I got him. Anyway, we carried on to the target, this was another couple of hours RT silence and all of a sudden, all of a sudden a voice, RT silence was broken. Now, a voice came over as calm as I’m talking to you, ‘Control to Link One how do you read me?’ And it was the, it was the voice of the controller who I feel certain was Wing Commander Stubbs, a man I had a great respect for. ‘Link One to control. Loud and clear. Control to Link One go in and mark the target.’ Ok. Right, carry,’ I listened to this conversation. We’re gradually, now we’re quite some distance from the target but gradually now the pathfinders are now beginning to drop their flares so the sky’s beginning to light up so I’m beginning to see lights in, lights in the sky and gradually as we are approaching as we are getting nearer and nearer the target. I’m listening to the conversation of the controller and the Link One now when everything was done and everything had been marked with satisfaction controller says, ‘Ok. Ok Link One, go home, go home.’ Then he called out which I’m certain was Bandwagon. They called the bomber stream Bandwagon, ‘Hello Bandwagon,’ and that was our call sign, ‘Hello Bandwagon. Come in and bomb the target. Bomb red flares,’ and he was giving instruction to which flares to bomb and when he’d finished all that he says, he says, now, ‘No flak. Watch out for fighters.’ So, anyway, we approach the target and just before the target, just before we reach the target all of a sudden a single engine fighter which I’m certain was a Messerschmitt 109 suddenly made a run at us. I immediately, now I was listening to the bomb aimer and Skipper beginning to give instructions for our bombing run and our instructions was that you should not corkscrew during that time. We were taught to be quiet so immediately I aimed and fired. Calamity. The back of my gun sight dropped out and a white light there, I’d been five hours in pitch darkness, and this white light bomb sight bulb was right in front of me. Now, it only took me seconds to put it together but twenty minutes for my, for my night vision to come back and during that time anything could have happened. I couldn’t have done a thing. I could hear what was happening and all the talk and I couldn’t see a thing. What happened to that fighter I will never know. Anyway, we went on our bomber run and, and I could hear the bomb aimer saying, ‘Left, left, steady, steady, steady. Ok bombs gone.’ Now, the bombs used to drop at about a thousand feet per second. We were twelve thousand feet so twelve seconds later he says, ‘Photograph taken.’ Now, immediately Skipper slammed the nose of the aircraft right down. We went straight down a couple of thousand feet straight into the cloud and we stayed in those clouds for hours. Anyway, we came out of the clouds eventually and then lo and behold as we came out of the cloud over to our, over to our side I can’t remember if it was port or starboard there was a bloody Lancaster flying on with all its lights on. The stupid buggers. With all his lights on. We scooted away from it as quick as we could. So anyway we got back to our area where the cathedral, over the cathedral. Now, Skellingthorpe, Scampton and Waddingon, their circuits almost intertwined around the cathedral, more or less. Now, when we used to come over the cathedral you can- now you can imagine everything was visual so therefore there were loyal scores of very, very tired, tired aircrew so all, all desperate to get home, desperate to get home so there was a tremendous danger of collision and another thing, another thing, the night before this, the night of the 4th , 4th of March, three intruders had shot three Lancasters down in the circuit at Waddington and one at Fulbeck so this had immediately filtered through us so instead of relaxing as one do after, after being in the turret for nigh on ten, eleven hours my concentration as we switched our landing lights on, we just used to have landing lights while we were in the circuit, and I remember as we switched our landing lights on about, about twenty aircraft close by and they must have been in different circuits switched their lights on. Now, I remember I was, my concentration was sky high and I remember thinking Skip calls twenty degrees of flap, a hundred degree of flap and I was all the time searching all the way around thinking to myself I’m not going to be caught out by an intruder because this was the dangerous, you’re like a sitting duck then. We came in to land we stopped in dispersal all the twelve hours of tension drained out of me. I thought to myself ‘bloody hell and this is only the first one’. And that was my first operation. Yeah. Another interesting operation was the one to Lutzkendorf which was on the 14th of March 1945. There were two hundred and forty five Lancasters involved and eleven Mosquitos. Eighteen aircraft failed to return. Never even reported in the paper and that’s nearly two hundred people it’s just, yeah, anyway. Anyway, took off about ten minutes to five. I remember we, we flew past the Ruhr and once again rear group, 3 Group were attacking the Ruhr and I remember as we passed by I could see the fight that was going on. I could see flak shells bursting in the air. Tremendous. I could see air to air tracer bullets from, from bomber to fighter. I could see bombs dropping and I thought bloody hell we’ve got another, we’ve got another two hours to go yet and then we continued a short distance away and now there was another problem. We’d been warned that there was a fighter, a fighter aerodrome, a night fighter ‘drome in this area which had a light shining from its roof, from the top of flying control so that, so that we knew from one that there would be, there would be fighters, night fighters in strength in this area and this light was on specifically so they could stay in the air until the last minute, down, refuel and be up again. Now, I remember I suddenly saw this and the adrenalin was such, I thought to myself God the night fighter are bound. All of a sudden I saw the airfield had been strafed. The light disappeared. Obviously, it must have been one of our aircraft. One of our aircraft. I know full well that putting the light out didn’t, didn’t make much difference to the fact that fighters were around but boy it did relieve me. Anyway, we carried on to the, we carried on to the target and once again, once again, I can’t remember the controller it might have been Wing Commander Stubbs but he went through the same procedure, went through the same procedure. I remember him saying at the end, ‘No flak. Look out for fighters. Watch out for fighters’. This was our fourth trip and the tension was beginning to build up in me as we were going through the target and I remember without me intercom switched on I was listening to the, I was listening to the bomb aimer saying, ‘Left, left, left, steady’ and I was shouting, I was shouting in a loud voice, ‘Drop the bloody thing. Drop the bloody thing and let’s get out of here.’ Anyway, after what seemed an interminable length of time he said ‘Bombs gone.’ Skip immediately slammed the aircraft down into a dive and disappeared from the, and as we as we left the target I thought to myself, ‘thank God, we got away with it’. Little did I know. Now, I remember we’d left the target, we’d been gone probably ten and fifteen minutes and I could still hear that controller over the target. ‘Bomb green, the green flare,’ do this, undershoot it, do this, do that. It was absolutely inspirational. He must have been, he seemed to have been over the target hours. Anyway as I’m listening to this left from the target about approximately fifteen minutes when all of a sudden a fighter flare burst straight above us. From complete darkness it was like switching the light on, an electric light on in a pitch dark room. The shock of it made me sink deep in, deep in to my, in to my turret. My seat. Mind you, immediately my mind started working like lightning and I, looking out of the, looking out of, I searched the area. I searched the area all the way, all the way. I searched the area all over and sure enough high on the starboard side I could my left I could see an FW190 coming in fast dragging all I’d been looking I hadn’t been turning my turret around so as quick as I can I’m dragging my turret around. I didn’t have time to aim. So, immediately I got anywhere near I pressed my, I starts firing, my gun starts rattling away I’m dragging, trying to drag my tracer, tracer bullets into it and I’m watching it. Then all of a sudden with this, this aircraft coming in fast I felt rather than saw something on my, deep on the starboard side and forcing myself to take my eyes off this aircraft I had a quick glance to the right, to the right, and there deep down, deep down on the port side. It’s my right but it’s the port side of the aircraft, deep down on the port side was a JU88 almost underneath us and I thought, bloody hell. Immediately I realised that if he could get underneath us he was going to shoot us to pieces so I stopped firing at him, drags my turret around and as soon as I can, as soon as I can I began firing at this JU88 and immediately, immediately they both of them broke away. Now, they played cat and mouse with us for twenty six minutes. Now, that might not seem a long, a long time but as each, each attack only lasted about ten seconds. How many times they came in I don’t know but anyway Lancasters, Lancasters didn’t have any power assisted controls. The Skipper was corkscrewing continuously for forty minutes. The physical effort on him must have been absolutely terrific. Anyway, the tension inside me remained after. I didn’t realise they were twenty six minutes. After a time, after a long time with my tension, with my concentration, still sky high they disappeared. They must have decided that, that, you know, either run out of fuel or they realised they might as well go for an easier target. Anyway, the navigator, I only know it was twenty six minutes because the navigator told me later but when we got back I remember the relief as we passed over the English coast. It was absolutely fantastic. I know we weren’t safe but the relief to be over. It seemed so much comfort to be coming over, over this country. Now, when we, when we, after we came in to land I found out that all ten thousand rounds that I’d supplied to my rear turret - I’d fired every one. There wasn’t one left. So if we’d have had another attack by one of those fighters I couldn’t have done anything about it. That was as close we were to disaster. Phew. And sadly, sadly Flight Lieutenant Ling and crew did not return from this, from this operation and I’m not surprised. Well I shouldn’t say this but, no I won’t say any further. I did think that the rear gunner was getting a bit blasé and probably he wasn’t doing what he should have been doing but I don’t know. I can’t say anything more about that. But that was my fourth operation.
Another interesting operation was a daylight operation to Nordhausen. There were two hundred and forty Lancasters involved. Now during briefing we’d been told that the SS troops had been transferred to Nordhausen to protect Hitler. Now, this was what made it interesting with thoughts that we might be bombing Hitler. Now, we didn’t have any flak or fighters to contend with but all we had was problems. Now, I remember we took off. Generally speaking most of my operations in fact all of the other operations we used to take off from, from Skellingthorpe and go straight out to the North Sea. On this occasion we were going to travel south, south and meet up with 3 group aircraft and, and, and travel to Nordhausen with them, you see, which, which meant we were going to drive past the London area. Now, we’d been warned at briefing be careful near the London area. Their ack ack gunners don’t like strangers, unidentified aircraft flying over. They will fire first and ask second so beware. Anyway, having taken off in the early hours of the morning it was still absolutely pitch. 2.30 we took off. It was still pitch dark as we went by, went by the London area and I remember as we arrived there, there were absolutely hundreds and hundreds of searchlights shining up and quite honestly we were so close to them I thought, I was really on tenterhooks, because I thought bloody hell, thinking about the fourteen thousand pound of bombs underneath us and those, those twitchy ack ack gunners. Anyway, I was looking down, all of a sudden Skip slammed the aircraft in to a vertical drive. Now the g-force on me was tremendous. It drew me, stretched my body up and my body, my head hit the top of the fuselage with a bang, the top of the turret rather with a bang and just at that precise second, now you’ve got to remember that I had no perspex at all in front of me, so, therefore, therefore the open air was just there and just as that happened a Lancaster aircraft flew just over and I swear to this day that if I’d have put my hand out I could have touched that aircraft. Another one of our nine lives. Anyway we carried on. We met with up 3 Group, over Reading it was, and we drifted out over the, over the, on to enemy territory. I remember we were so widely spaced out well, we were used to flying at night-time, we didn’t need to be in a gaggle when all of a sudden there was a voice came up, RT silence broken and it was obviously the fighter leader controller, fighter leader and he shouts up ‘Close up. Close up. How do you expect me to bloody protect you?’ Anyway, we got to Nordhausen and boy did we close up. Our operational height was about twelve thousand feet as far as I could remember. I can’t remember. Somewhere in that region. But two hundred and fifty aircraft then from being miles apart suddenly homed in together in to a thin line and I remember there was aircraft all the way around us, almost touching us. Now, I didn’t mind the ones at the side or the ones below or the ones straight above us but I was leaning forward in my turret and looking up. The ones I was concerned of one above in front that I couldn’t see because I thought to myself they’ll be dropping bloody bombs on us and I’m looking at them when all of a sudden, all of a sudden a full load of bombs missed the back of my turret with this, with a fraction. Almost touching us. Ten, ten one thousand pound bombs and a cookie. Now, they go down like lightning. Fifty foot beneath us was a Lancaster. The first, the first thousand pounder hit this fuselage right in the middle, right, just at the back of the mid upper turret. I cringed, expecting it to explode but lo and behold the bomb went straight through the fuselage and disappeared, continued down. The next, the next thousand pounder hit the middle of the wing and I still couldn’t believe it. I’m still cringing again and it bounced back and bounced off. Now the cookie, which was a contact bomb, they must have had err, you know biometric things that didn’t explode above five hundred feet or something but the cookie was a contact bomb. It missed the side of the fuselage by a skin of paint. Anyway, I remember the, the aircraft disappeared and there was a lot, there was a lot happening. I forgot about it. Anyway, by sheer chance at the end of the war I was listening to Canadian troops embarking on to the ship to go home and, and the person being interviewed was a pilot and it was an interesting story and do you know he went through what I’ve just told you. It was the, it was the pilot of this aircraft and he said, he said, and it was so pleasing to know, that they’d staggered back to the North Sea and dropped their bombs and got, and they survived the war. Anyway, anyway we were coming over the North Sea about, about ten thousand feet and all of a sudden I saw two Lancasters drop right down to zero feet and I thought bloody hell they’re going in. They’re going in. And all of a sudden from the back of one of them I suddenly saw foam appear and it was like watching a motorboat swing, speeding along and this foam behind, I can’t remember, two engines, two of the engines, this foam was behind it for about four hundred yards when gradually it picked up, climbed up and I thought to myself, ‘oh they’re ok. They’re alright’. Anyway, by sheer coincidence four days later when we returned from an operation we were diverted to Spilsby of all places, 44 squadron which I eventually finished up on and we were able to get out of the aircraft to have a walk you know and have a stretch and I was walking by this aircraft which had got props bent and all the props on one side. I think it was just on one side [laughs] I think it was just on one side. They were bent almost double and I, and there was a ground staff working on it and I said, ‘God, what happened to that aircraft?’ He said, ‘The silly buggers,’ he says, ‘This bloke and another bloke coming from an operation a few days ago, they were playing about to find which one could get closer to the sea. This silly bugger dragged his props in the water. Nearly drowned his rear gunner.’ I thought to myself, ‘God, how did they manage to keep the aircraft flying with damage like that?’ Anyway, he said they were being court martialled. I don’t know. Anyway, and that was that.
[laughs]
Another very interesting operation was a daylight operation to Hamburg oil installations, Germany on the 9th of April 1945. During this operation twenty five jet fighters ME262s attacked the bomber force. This was, I believe, the first time that any fighters were ever used during any war, first attack. Anyway, there were, there were, there were fifty seven bombers involved. 50 squadron, 61 squadron I think we got twelve and something like that, 61 squadron and 617 and 9 squadron. We were to, we were to drop, we were to drop thousand pounders on the oil installations and 617 and 9 squadron were to drop a tall boy. I can’t remember if eight thousand or twelve thousand pound bombs on the, on the submarine pens. Now, the thing was that because of the weight of the Tall Boy they’d taken out of the Lancasters, 617 and 9 squadrons they’d taken away the bomb doors and had actually taken off the mid upper turret to lighten the aircraft so to be able to carry it ready to take off and because of this we were, we were instructed that we were to fly in a gaggle and fly as quick, as close as possible to support them. Now another thing the apparently 309 squadron, a Polish squadron flying mustangs, would escort us and 65 squadron were also taking part. Now, we took off at about well 14.48 I believe it was. The weather was perfect and I remember our operational height was twelve thousand feet. Now, I remember we were passing over, we were passed quickly, over, over the, over the North Sea and I’m thinking to myself now Hamburg was a very, very dangerous place. A very important place to Germany. Still is. Still is. But because of this over the war, during the war they’d built up a tremendous defence and if you had any aircraft attacking there we could have heavy losses so we knew that we were in for a difficult time when we got there. I remember passing over, over Germany and all of a sudden every so often the flak was bursting, shells were bursting shells were bursting around us but quite honestly I never gave them a thought. You know I was used to night, night bombing where the flak was a bright light but I never gave as I say, probably I should have done. Anyway we got to, got to Hamburg, near to Hamburg and I rotated my turret. I can’t remember port or starboard side but we were coming up and turned square to the right over Hamburg.
Other: Can somebody come in here?
Going back a little bit I remember as we were going over the, going over the North Sea it was a completely cloudless sky, brilliant sun and I remember thinking to myself where are those bloody fighters supposed to be, that are supposed to be protecting us? Three squadrons were supposed to be protecting us but every so often, every so often we saw right in the distance swirling around oh I thought, ‘Oh lovely. There they are.’ Anyway we carried on. I remember as we, as we, as we entered, got over mainland Europe gradually every so often we’d hear the phuf phuf of flak shells at the side of us which I just ignored. I don’t know a bit complacent probably but I just didn’t care about them. Didn’t take any, anyway we gets to Hamburg and Hamburg, I’m just, I’m repeating myself now. Hamburg was a very special place. Was then. Is now. And during the war years they’d built up a tremendous, tremendous defensive force. They, they could send up a box barrage of flak in an instant and I remember we were approaching, approaching Hamburg and I can’t remember which side we were. Left or right. But I leaned forward, leaned forward and I looked and turned my turret to the beam and leaned forward to look forward and I could almost see in front of us and I could see the target as we were approaching her and I’m not joking I have never seen flak like it. We were, we were, I think we, I think we were, our height was we bombed from about sixteen thousand feet but up to around our bombing height there was a complete black cloud of flak shells bursting out and I remember thinking to myself, bloody hell we’re never going to get through that. Now I’m just going to divert a little bit because we were at the back of the fifty seven aircraft and a friend of mine on 61 squadron, Ted Beswick, he was in the front aircraft and he was telling me later he says they were watching this predict, this flak. I forget what you call it. Predicted flak. It gradually approaching him and he said until one burst right in front of the nose and he says and, and, and parts flew through the front through the bomb aimers position and, and, and badly injured the engine, the bomb aimer. Anyway, we carried on to the target. We turned on to the target and we, I’m not joking with you, I can’t describe what it was like going through the flak. It was absolutely frightening you. I was thinking, I say, frightening. Anyway, believe it or not we went, we got through the target unscathed. We dropped our bombs and I understand it was a successful bombing. Anyway, we left the target and I could see aircraft. I feel certain I could see aircraft around, some damaged but nobody shot down. Anyway we’d left the target and we’d been left a few minutes. I then turned my turret around and I thought to myself, bloody hell, we’re back marker. Sitting duck for any fighters. So immediately I switched on. I said, ‘Skip, Skip we’re back marker. Sitting duck for any fighters.’ He says, ‘Ok. Ok.’ So he immediately shoves full throttle on and gradually, gradually we moved forward so we could see aircraft behind me. That made me feel a bit better. Now, a short time later and I can’t remember how long, all of a sudden twenty five ME262s attacked the formation. I only saw five but I know from later reports it was twenty five but I saw five aircraft coming along the, coming along the ground level and I, I called, ‘Skip Skip I can see, I can see five small aircraft on almost at ground level.’ God, I’ve never seen aircraft travelling so fast. They, they, they began to climb. I says, ‘God they’re climbing faster than I’ve ever seen any aircraft dive.’ Within seconds they were up to our operational height. They levelled out and came straight at us canons blazing. Canons blazing’s straight through us like a dose of salts. Now, one of them come straight at us and I’m firing as hard trying, trying as hard as I could ‘cause it’s like lightning is happening, trying to drag my tracer bullets into it and it came so close I thought to myself it’s going to ram us and I’m not joking he then swung in between us and another Lancaster by my side, by our side and, and I could see the, I could see fighter, I could see the fighter pilot as close as I can see you now. Anyway, I’m swinging and firing my turret and all of a sudden I realised that I’m firin my, still firing my bullets straight through this Lancaster at the side of me. I lifted my arms like lightning off, off my, off my off my controls and, and, and I thought to myself bloody hell, I thought to myself might have shot down my, the aircraft but of course you can’t shoot an aircraft down by firing straight at it you have to fire in front of them but that was fortunate because it was a 617 aircraft. I don’t know what would have been said. Anyway, we, we’d left the target, we left the target and only a few seconds later after they’d attacked us all of a sudden by the side of us the aircraft, the back marker aircraft exploded, broke in half and began to drop straight down. Now, when it had dropped about a thousand feet I saw although the rear turret would immediately lose, as it broke in half, lose, lose any control we had we had a handle which we could turn and swing the turret around. Anyway, after about a thousand feet I saw the, this is another story I’ll tell you in a bit which I’d forgotten to tell you. Forgotten to tell you. I watched this rear gunner drag himself out of the, out of the turret and fall away and I thought to myself oh thank God, he’s, thank God he’s, going to get away with it. He was a friend of mine. Anyway, the parachute opened and a few seconds puff it exploded in flames and then I had to watch this friend of mine, friend of mine struggling, drop away, gradually drop away to his death. Now, I’ll tell you a little, I’d forgotten to tell you but when we went out to the aircraft, when we went out to the aircraft after we’d had the briefing you all race out and you all try to get on to the buses as there were buses and lorries. Now, the buses were a lot of comfort so therefore you raced to get in those. Now we raced in and I sat in the front seat and, and sitting at the side of me was Norman, Norman Garfield Fenton. Friend of mine. I say he’s a friend, he was a squadron friend not that I knew much about his private life other than that he was from Kettering. But I says to him, ‘What aircraft are you in? He says, ‘Fred. F Freddy.’ Now F Freddy, we did four ops in there so it gave us, gave us chat, you know, something to talk about. Anyway we got to the dispersal area and, and climbs out. All of us rush to our aircraft and climbed aboard and did our pre-start checks and afterwards there was still an hour or so to go. We climb out of the fuselage and, and, and went Taffy and I went, went and sat down, sat down on the grass and a few seconds later Norman walks across and we sat down and there we are. I think we took off at 2.30 so it was quite warm and where we sat there chatting away talking about what we were going to do. I remember I do believe he said he’d got a little child. I can’t remember but I think he said he had a young family but we were chatting about what we were doing and four hours later I watched him die. You know, it really did affect me. I mean, at night time you just disappeared, didn’t have the same effect on you but knowing, I recognised the aircraft as it dropped away as V and F. I could see it clearly so I knew this was Dennis, Dennis struggling and nearly got out and I had to watch him fall and it did affect me for quite a long time and poor Dennis and Flying Officer [Berryman] who was his Skipper and, and one of the other crew are buried in, in Hamburg but oh dear it did affect me for quite a long time that. Ok. Now one thing I’ve got when we got back to briefing. When we got back to briefing we turned around and told the briefing officers we’d been attacked by jets and they says not possible. Not possible. Not possible. There’s no, there’s no airfields around Hamburg for jets but little did we know, little did we know that jets, the Germans were taking off from motorways. Ten out of ten for them for innovation. But apparently the, the powers that be killed the story because they were so fearful of the effect it might on morale, of morale of our aircrew. But then I want to go back a little bit now to Ted Beswick. He saw all, I only saw five but he saw all twenty five. Now, one of them came at us came at them and he shouts port corkscrew, corkscrew, go, go but of course they couldn’t because they were in gaggle. Anyway when the, when the ME262s had attacked they began to swung around and began to go around to reposition they could only do one or two attacks because of limited fuel but one drew up by accident right on, right on their starboard side I can’t remember starboard or port side. Anyway he immediately fired and saw his tracer bullets go straight into it, straight into it and immediately, immediately the aircraft went straight down as if out of control and he watched it spiral down. Ted is convinced that he made a kill, he made a kill. Of course he couldn’t claim it because once again he didn’t see the ground. But they had another incident they did. They had a hang-up bomb. They couldn’t get rid of it and try as they might they couldn’t get rid of it so they started to go back and try to get rid of it in the, in the North Sea. They still couldn’t get rid of it so they decided to bring it back, bring it back to Skelly. Now as they came in, in to land there was a bang as they touched down and the bomb dropped on to the bomb doors. Now, they pulled up immediately at the end of runway, got out of the aircraft, scooted away from the aircraft called up and a short time later, a short time later well some time later along comes the ground staff, gingerly opens up the, opens up the, winds open the, the bomb doors, bomb doors. Two of them stands there, catches a thousand pounder and then, you know, we have got a lot to thank those air crew people, ground staff people for. Wonderful, wonderful unsung heroes. One, one interesting operation was to [?] in Norway. I remember there was, I can’t remember how many aircraft, several hundred aircraft involved. But we’d been in we’d been told that we were to fly at zero level up the North Sea and I remember in the half-light seeing probably a couple of hundred Lancasters flying, almost touching, almost touching the waves. It was so exciting. I loved it I did. And I’m certain Skip enjoyed it just as a much as I did. Anyway, we got to the, we got to the, got to Norway and, I can’t remember how long it took us. Anyway, we climbed up to bombing height which would be, it would have been about ten to twelve thousand feet. Now, I seemed to remember one gun, one heavy gun but if I’m to believe records, records say there was no, no flak but I seem to remember one gun as we approached. One heavy gun. Anyway, we came in, we came in to bomb and, and we’re virtually on our bombing run and I’m listening to the Skip and the bomb aimer conversing when all of a sudden, now, always before when the Skip had had to dive the aircraft had to change direction of the aircraft it had always been a dive. On this occasion it was different all together. All of a sudden the aircraft reared straight up. Now, I remember I’m clinging on to my controls and I was transfixed. I was transfixed and even though my head still thumped the top of the turret because of the reaction of the aircraft swinging and at the same time we used to carry our flasks and sweets and chocolates given to people, aircrew and I remember them coming straight up in the air, straight up in the air and as the aircraft, aircraft levelled they all went straight out of the window and I said oh sod it. I was saving those for the return. But another thing happened. Ass this was happening. I’m hearing a swirl, a swirling noise of machine gun noise coming into my turret. Thousands of bullets was coming along the ducts into the aircraft. Now, I didn’t realise this was what happened but they came in and completely jammed the turret. Anyway, we levelled out. We crept back over the sea and got back home but if anything had happened we couldn’t have done a thing about that. Now, the thing is when I was on that operation, in our billet, in our billet was another crew err if you just give me a second I’ll remember his name. I’ll just get, now this operation was on the 25th, 26th of April 1945. Now, in my billet, in my billet was another crew. Now this crew, they disappeared and I didn’t know what happened so I just, this is when people got the chop things, just used to take there was usually two crews to a Nissan but when they got the chop they used to take, just take their things out. They disappeared. Never heard anything about them. Anyway, last year, last year at our reunion, our reunion a fellow approaches near our memorial. He says, ‘Hello James. Do you remember me? And I says to him, ‘I don’t think so. I can’t remember.’ Well, he says ‘You were in the next bed to me on 1945. January 1945.’ I says, ‘Oh yes.’ I said ‘What happened to you then?’ I said, ‘You disappeared didn’t you?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He says, he said, ‘When you were going on [?] we were on Exodus.’ Exodus operation. Fetching prisoners back from, from Europe, probably Brussels. Anyway, he says, ‘We dropped the prisoners, the POWs, ex-POWs down he said and headed for home and on the way back we crashed.’ He said, the, the ‘We had problems, engine problems and in trying to avoid these houses the wing tip hit the ground and, he says, ‘And it slewed into the ground. My turret was thrown off into, into a field.’ He said, ‘My guns were buried in the ground.’ He said, ‘I was in hospital for a week.’ He said the mid upper turret, the mid upper gunner got away with it he got a broken leg but the rest of the crew were all killed. I said, ‘Oh good God.’ I says, ‘I wondered what happened.’ They just disappeared. So there you are. Made contact all those years later but how did he finally manage? Probably he managed to find me because with me doing so much on our website. I’m better known. More people know me then I remember them. That’s probably it isn’t it. Could be couldn’t it? But an interesting story that isn’t it? There you are.
MJ: Ahum
HJF: Now then. I want to carry on. On the 1st of June, is it on? Switch her on.
MJ: It is on.
HJF: Yeah. On the 1st of June ‘45 we were transferred from 50 squadron to 44 squadron to be part of, to be part of Tiger Force. The intention was to, to, to fly us straight out, quickly out to the Far East. As a matter of fact Okinawa was going to be our base. So we, we went, we transferred to Spilsby. Now, from day one we started doing high level training. Anyway, I can’t remember but it was a few days after we got, one of our trips, it was only one and three quarter hour trips I think it was just about the worst one of all. I remember we’d got fourteen thousand pounds of bombs we were going to drop into dispersal area in the North Sea and as we taxied around all of a sudden, the port, the port inner set on fire. Now, the smoke was coming and filling my turret and I thought to myself silly bugger put your oxygen mask on, puthering in to me. Anyway, rapidly the, the engine was feathered and after a few minutes the Skip calls up flying control and tells them, ‘Engine fire. Waiting for instructions.’ We waited for instructions and a few minutes later the flying control calls, ‘Right, start the engine up. Give it a run up. Take off when you’re ready.’ When he switched off there was a chorus of voices, ‘We’re not bloody going, the stupid buggers, that engine wants checking. We’re not bloody going.’
MJ: Ahum
HJF: ‘We’re not bloody going.’ Anyway, Skipper in the meantime started the engine up. He revs it up, he says, ‘It seems ok to me. We’ve got to go.’ And we kept saying, ‘We’re not bloody going.’ Anyway, we turns on to the, and eventually gets and I’m not joking I was full of trepidation. I could feel in my water that something else was going to happen. Now, anyway we’d just got our wheels off the deck and the starboard outer seized. Now, let’s just think about it. We’ve got a dicky port inner and we got a, a seized starboard outer and we’ve got fourteen thousand pound of bomb. I’m not, that’s as much as an aircraft immediately started to vibrate telling me, telling me she’s going to stall. She’s going to stall. Now, quick as that I thought, my apprehension just disappeared. I thought to myself I’m going to, I’m going to jump no matter what the height. So, quick as lightning I swings my turret to beams, pulls open the doors. like a flash I was sitting outside and there I sat outside listening to, feeling the violent vibrations of the, of the aircraft as it gradually gained speed and height. It took us about thirty minutes to get up to about two thousand feet and while I’m sitting there just thinking about myself there our poor old Skipper was at the front fighting to keep this aircraft in the air. What a brilliant, brilliant Skipper. Anyway, we eventually get, gradually the vibration stopped. We got to the dispersal area, drops the bombs as near, as near as we could and returned. That, that trip took an hour and a quarter and it seemed the longest one of all. Good God we were so close and then what turned out to be our final trip, final flight actually for seventy, nearly seventy years as far as I was concerned. We were taking part in a dodge operation. Which, Dodge Operations were returning, returning British soldiers, taking, taking Italian troops back to Italy, to Bari in Italy and bringing British soldiers home. Now, we’d been so many times we used to fly visual. We used to go down to Marseilles, turn left over Marseilles, out over, out over the North Sea to the tip of Corsica and, and, and then make for Rome and over Rome straight for Bari. Now we were so casual about this we used to fly you know, anyway as it turns out the engineer, the engineer used to do a bit of piloting every so often. They used to keep their hand in. Anyway, fortunately the engineer had strapped himself in. Now we were carrying twenty one, twenty one Italians and I was sitting in the fuselage, in the fuselage. I was more or less a steward. Now, we were climbing, we were climbing up to ten tenths cloud. Now it was a very, very stormy day. Very, very hot day. Tropical storms everywhere and as it turned out we were the only aircraft only two of us arrived at Bari. Aircraft were diverted all different places. Anyway, we were climbing up through ten tenths cloud at ten thousand feet when all of a sudden cause safety height over, to cross the tip of Corsica, safety height being eleven thousand feet when all of a sudden the aircraft veered straight up, straight up and we flew slap bang into the centre of cunim, Now the tremendous upward force hit the belly of the, hit the aircraft and flung it straight up in the air. She stalled, dropped on her back and started to vertically drop down. Now, the Skipper standing by the side of the engineer as I say he was, he was, he was piloting was thrown up to the roof and he dragged himself around the, and for a time he thought to himself bloody hell we’re going. I’m going to drag myself back. Then he realised that the flight engineer was beginning to get a bit of joy so he drags himself around the fuselage, the side of the fuselage to a standing position alongside him and there was only single controls in a Lancaster. He then grabs hold of the controls and the two of them used all their strength to pull the aircraft out, out of its vertical dive. Now, as I told you I was in the back of the aircraft looking after these, looking after the Italians. I was thrown up to the ceiling and a water tank that was there for them floated up in the air, floated up in the air and were virtually trapped beyond the fuselage and as I looked, I could look at the back and there was, we’d got a Lancaster wheel in in the back, in the back which we were taking. Probably somebody had a burst tire. They’d left it loose. The silly buggers had left it loose. I watched this, watched this Lancaster wheel do a full circle of the fuselage. It smashed the auto gyro and it went around and it hit the machine gun ducts and right to the side of the ducts were the, were the rudder bar controls and I thought to myself, I was praying that it wouldn’t come rolling towards us when the next second, the next second with a slam I was banged down, banged down on to the floor, banged down on to the floor and I dragged myself up. All the Italians were in a complete panic and without thinking I just slotted the bloke at the side of me, slotted him, knocked him down and said, ‘Lie down.’ I made him lie down. Anyway, then I thought to myself, I thought as I’m standing there I thought to myself, actually I called Skip up. I said oh I think one of these, one of these Italians had pulled the [aerial] controls and we knew we’d lost an aircraft through somebody pulled themselves, their all external inside the aircraft and pulled them up and it had caused the aircraft to crash because it was almost you know in a position where they couldn’t change so I thought that’s what had happened, Anyway, as I’m standing looking all of a sudden the aircraft reared up again but not quite as bad. So I thought sod it I’ll have a look at this. Now our mid upper gunner had been transferred because of the end of the war you see, had transferred so I climbed into his turret and I was amazed. We should have been at eleven thousand feet to cross over safely over the tip of Corsica. We were then travelling along the coastline on the edge of the mountains, parallel. Somehow or other in the process of diving vertically we’d changed direction. Now, I don’t know whether it were luck or whether it was the skill of our pilot but anyway we turned, we were flying along the coast of, coast, coastline. Now then we came into land. Now at Bari, at Bari there was only one single runway. One single runway. And, and aircraft were, aircraft were positioned, were parked either side of the runway. Yanks on the left, yanks on one side and all Lancasters on the other. Now, as we came in to land, another thing, just at the end of the runway was a, was a large quarry and on very hot days, on very hot days used to cause an air pocket above the, right above the end of the runway. Now Skipper might have forgotten that or it might have been just because let’s face it I was stressed up and I was only looking after them, so God only knows how he was feeling but anyway as we came in to land we dropped from about sixty foot straight down. We hit the ground, we hit the tarmac with such a bang and the aircraft reared off, reared off, slewed to, slewed to port and, and coming, taxiing right down, right down just in front of us was a, was a flying fortress. We were heading straight for it. Skip immediately slams port throttle, full port throttle on, slews the aircraft and I could feel the undercarriage bending. Why it didn’t break I don’t know and there we are slewing across to the other side and going straight for the Lancs and he shoved full throttle on the other side and we straightened out and that was it and we levelled out. Now, you might have thought that was enough trouble for one thing but when we were coming up, we stayed there four days and I remember I was standing, we were waiting to return and we were standing about halfway along the runway and there were thousands of troops, thousands. There were hundreds of aircraft and thousands of troops, American and British, and we were watching the first Lancaster to take off and it came by us and it was almost as it came flashing by us it was almost at take-off speed when all of a sudden it turned completely ninety degrees. Now there were four line I think, I can’t remember whether it was three line or four lines but it went through the first ones, first ones, missed all the aircraft but hit another one in the line absolutely broadside and just as it hit its undercarriage collapsed but when it hit it’s props were churning into the side of the aircraft churning, churning. Now, thousands of us ran across thinking to ourself, expecting that there would be many many fatalities, many many fatalities but when we got to the aircraft, when we got to the aircraft there was a great big hole in the nose of the aircraft. Three, three, three soldiers climbed out of the front of the nose and do you know and people were pouring out of all sides of the engine. All sides of the aircraft. Do you know there were thousands of people out but do you know to my knowledge there was only one person, there were nobody killed and one person injured and that was he was injured through flying glass. Absolutely fantastic. I thought to myself this is a bloody mugs game. It’s time I pack this game up. Well I’ll tell you now it was an uneventful trip back to the, back to the, back to England but that was the last time I flew in any aircraft until about 2012.
[laughs] 1.38.08
Now, at the, I now over the years, over the years over the last, nearly twenty years I’ve been involved with the 50 and 61 Squadron Association website. Now, quite honestly I never, until, until I was in my seventies I’d never used a computer. But anyway, anyway I was instrumental in helping, helping, eventually, not for a start in helping to start up our website 50 and 61 Squadron Association websites. Now, I have a veteran’s album. I don’t do hardly anything these days Mike [Connock] does it but until, at our reunion 209 Air Vice Marshall Nigel Baldwin came up to me and says, ‘James, I’ve got a story here, an interesting story which would be good for your veterans album.’ Now, it was then I was interested to, I was then introduced to a person called Chris Keltie. Now -
Other: I don’t want to hear your secrets.
HJF: Yeah Chris Keltie. He then, Chris told me a story which at the time -
Other: Make him at least give you a drink.
HJF: No. No. You’re alright.
Other: At least make him. Now I’m telling you. Go on.
HJF: Oh did, did we bring that cup of coffee in? Did we leave that coffee in there? I don’t think we did did we?
MJ: No.
HJF: Oh bloody hell we forgot. Oh sorry.
HJF: As I say. Chris Keltie. Chris Keltie. He told me a story which at the time I just didn’t believe. I couldn’t believe that anybody, because of my experiences, I couldn’t believe that anybody could do what I was being told but he was telling me that a pilot whilst severely injured and weakened by loss of blood had regained control of an earthbound Lancaster and, and in pitch darkness brought the thing in to land and thereby saved the lives of, as it turned out, three of his crew members. For this he got nothing. Not even get, now I’ll tell you the full story. On the, it’s Victoria stuff. Victoria Cross stuff. I’m not joking with you. It was in July 1944 I can’t quite remember exact date. It might have been the 4th or 5th. Anyway, they successfully, they were bombing a V1 bomb site. It was 61 squadron aircraft. QR D Dog was the aircraft. Bill North was, Bill North, flight lieutenant. He was the flying officer at the time but it was Bill North, Bill North was the pilot and his aircraft was QR Dog. Now they were to, from thirteen thousand feet they were going to bomb the V1 sites. Now, which they were the first aircraft to bomb it and after, as they left the target an FW190 sprayed their aircraft. It blew away the fin, the port fin. It blew away the port fin. Blew away the port outer engine and fuel tank and it also it splattered the middle of the turret. Now, the mid upper gunner, now I used to say it was either between six and eight bullets, non life saving bullets in his body. Unbelievable. Splattered the turret. Anyway, it splattered all the Perspex, the cockpit Perspex and, and the pilot screamed out in agony as four bullets hit him. Two in his thigh and two in his left arm. Now, his left arm one of them hit the nerve and it paralysed his arm so his arm was flailing there. Now, immediately and the aircraft immediately begins, it’s earthbound screaming towards the earth. He immediately gives instructions to bail out and begins to drag himself out to go to the escape hatch. Now, as he drags himself out of the seat the flight engineer who is sitting by his side reaches back. Now, as the pilot had sat on his parachute. Now, but the, but the flight engineer and the rest most of the crew, the rear turret and rear gunner all had clip on chutes now his was clipped on the fuselage. Now, he reaches back to unclip his, his ‘chute off the fuselage, the side of the fuselage and as he pulls it off it’s been shot to pieces by bullets. It’s just at that point Bill was about to drop out of the escape hatch. Quickly he grabs hold of his shoulder and shouts my parachutes gone, my parachutes gone. Now, nobody would have blamed Bill North If he’d have thought to himself nothing I can do. I’m badly injured myself and just to have gone just to continue to drop out but without one second thought he made a conscious decision to drag himself back into his to his controls. Now, the, the landing an aircraft, a Lancaster is a two man job. You need, you need the help of the flight engineer. The flight engineer was frozen with fear. Couldn’t do anything. Now, Bill North, with one hand, his adrenalin must have been five hundred percent I have no idea how he did it but unbelievably with the aircraft screaming earthbound he regains control and in pitch darkness not only did he regain control but in this very heavily wooded area he found, he found a clearing, brought the aircraft in to land from an impossible height at an impossible speed. No, no flaps involved because the bloke couldn’t, the flight engineer couldn’t do anything. Had the presence of mind as he brought the aircraft in to land it tail down so there would be less danger of fuel tank, of fuel explosion and landed and when it became stationery he was so weak from the loss of blood that he slipped into unconsciousness. Now then, as it turned out not only had he saved the life of the flight engineer alongside him but apparently the mid upper gunner and another person, I think wireless operator, were both trapped in the fuselage because their turret ‘chutes had been shot to pieces, so they, as I say he slipped into unconsciousness so they had to carry, carry him, they had to carry him out of the aircraft and as they laid him on the grass at the side of the plane he slipped into unconsciousness and they thought he was dying. Anyway, time went by. The French were involved but I can’t remember who else was involved but in time the Germans came, whisked him into a hospital and he remained in hospital for several months after which he was, he was transferred to a concentration camp and he finished the war, and finished the war in a concentration camp. For this he didn’t get any mention in despatches. Not even a mention in despatches. Absolutely disgraceful. This is, this is, this is VC stuff. Now when Mr Ball when, when Nigel Ball contacted me I, I wrote this story, this was several years before, I wrote his story on my website. Now last year, October during last year the, the sons of, of Bill North, he’d passed away the year before, wrote to David Cameron to thank him for what he’d to done to get the air crew their memorial in London and thanked him for getting the clasp. Bloody clasp. Ridiculous. Anyway, anyway out of the blue, credit to David Cameron. David Cameron phoned them personally. No wrote to them personally and invited to them to come and see him at the, at the House of Commons. Now, they decided that what a golden opportunity this to try and get a posthumous award for their father. So they put together a delegation of about ten people and they wanted a representative of the squadron association to be, to be, to be with them. Now, as to whether I was the only one or not I’ve no idea but I was the person that was invited to go. Now, I travelled down to London and I remember, I remember we, we, David Cameron was wonderful actually. I remember he took us and we were chatting to him in his office and he was chatting to all the party and I couldn’t hear him he was right at the far end of the room and I says, ‘I can’t hear.’ And he says, ‘ok’ and got, upped sticks and came and sat right to the side of me and I’m listening to them talking. Now, quite honestly as I was listening to him you know how people are when they’re talking to someone of higher authority? They, they become meek and mild don’t they? And I’m listening and I don’t hear very well. After they’d been going on for quite some time I thought to myself they’re missing the point so in actual fact I had spoken to him and told him that why I was there to represent the association and I, I interceded. I said, ‘But sir, we’re missing the point of our visit.’ and I says and I then went into detail of this, of what Bill North had done and I says to him this is bloody Victoria Cross stuff and for this he gets nothing. Not even a mention in despatches. This is a complete disgrace and I remember, I remember David Cameron looked set aback and he looks at me and says, ‘Well I don’t know. All the hassle I’m getting here.’ He said in a friendly way. It wasn’t nasty. ‘All the hassle I’m getting here and he says the hassle I’ve had in question time today and he says and it’s my birthday today.’ And I said, ‘I beg your pardon?’ He said, ‘It’s my birthday today.’ I says, ‘It’s mine as well’ and he reached over and he said, ‘Birthday boys.’ [laughs]
[laugh]
There you are but do you know something we had, we had a celebration last year for my ninetieth birthday and, and, and seventieth wedding anniversary and last year. It was in October. October. And last year, about three weeks before our, before our party a friend of ours and I don’t know how he got this phone number my friend answers the phone and this voice says, ‘Hello, this is David Cameron here’ and she says, ‘Oh don’t – tell me another one.’ And he said, ‘No. This is David Cameron ringing from the House of Commons. Can you give me the details of Mr and Mrs Flowers celebrations’ on the, and you know he said, ‘Because I want to send them a letter’ and lo and behold lo and behold on the, on the, my birthday arrives a letter comes, ‘Dear Mr Flowers,’ from the House of Commons ‘I’m writing to you wish you a very happy ninetieth birthday. This is a marvellous occasion and I’m sure you will use this opportunity to celebrate all your many achievements and all you have seen and experienced. I would like to send you, Samantha and my best wishes for a wonderful birthday.’ That was on the 9th of October. On the 21st of October we gets another one. ‘Dear Mr and Mrs Flowers I am delighted to send my congratulations to you both on your seventieth wedding anniversary. It’s a huge achievement to celebrate such a long and happy marriage. A great example to family and friends and your local community. Samantha and I would like to wish you all the best on your anniversary. We very much hope you enjoy your celebrations. Have a lovely day. David Cameron.’ We of course did have the letter from the queen we all know the queen the queen had millions. She can’t do it personally do it you know that’s a secretary but to think that David Cameron made the effort during such political time to ring my friend up to find out details of our celebrations and then to ring us up and send this. As a matter of fact I sent him a Christmas card and he sent me a Christmas card back.
[laughs]
There you are, now, that’s different isn’t it? In conclusion I would like to go back to the time in 1941/2, I can’t remember the exact date, my first sighting of my dear wife. Of my Eunice. I remember at the time I was working on munitions twelve hour shifts a day, week about and I was on daylight day shifts this time and I’d finished at 7 o’clock, cycled home and, and home and quick change and cycled back two miles to Sutton in Ashfield baths which had been converted to a dance hall and as I went in it had a balcony. I went in about 9 o’clock. I climbed the stairs to the balcony and I remember looking down and it was a teeming mass of dancing local people, RAF, navy all having an absolute, and a wonderful band with all the top, all having, and the RAC band was there. It had top musicians in it and I remember I was looking down and I saw right beneath me I saw this beautiful young lady in a yellow and white check dress. I’m not saying anything wrong but she was flitting from one male to, from one friend to another. She was obviously the life and soul of the party and I thought to myself God what a cracker. So, quick as lightning I rushed downstairs and I stood in the background until the opportunity came and I tapped her on the shoulder and I said to her, ‘Can I have a dance please?’ and ‘ Yes.’ And the first time I held her in my arms oh she didn’t have make me quiver and it was the first time that I met my dear wife. [laughs] How I ended up with her I will never know. She was so beautiful and so energetic. She was out every night dancing. There were thousands of soldiers all around training all on the lookout, all on the lookout for, for, for as beautiful women and here I was just working on munitions. Nothing going for me. My chances of making a go with her were very very slim. Anyway, gradually I became a friends. It was two years before she’d call me a friend. But there you are. That’s how I met my dear wife and there we are seventy years later. Love of my life. Still feel as we did as all those years ago. Beautiful woman. Still beautiful woman still beautiful in my eyes. How’s that. As I say I’m in my ninetieth year and I can’t help thinking of my family. Thinking of the time on the 25th October when our first son Ian was born and when he was accidently deaf when he was only thirteen and a half you never get over it, time never heals it. The birth of my second son Richard and when he was accidentally shot in the head by his wife. He was so lucky to have survived. Then my third Phillip born ‘68, ‘58 and to his lovely daughter. She was absolutely beautiful. Passed away when she was two years and nine months. Then there was my fourth son was a whopper when he was born and the, and the midwife says to my he’s the biggest baby I’ve ever had and she said ironically he’s the biggest baby I’ve had as well. Then I think to the stresses and strains and excitement I felt during my aircrew years and the thirty two years as a driving examiner and to the pleasure we felt on the birth of two granddaughters, eight grandsons, fourteen great grandchildren and finally I recall the seventy years that I’ve been married to my dear wife Eunice. I can’t help thinking of all the times I felt like throwing her in the bloody river or burying her with the plants in the garden yet despite all this she still remains the love of my life. Such wonderful memories.
I would like to end by saying that during the time that we, as a crew, were involved in bomber operations we were attacked by ME109s, JU88s, FW190s, ME262s jet fighters, passed through flak you could have walked on, almost touched passing aircraft, almost crashed through fuel shortage and fell vertically from eleven thousand to five hundred feet. Nothing special. Just the normal sort of thing that most Bomber Command aircrew had to put up with during World War 2. Happy days.
MJ: On behalf of the Bomber Command I’d like to thank James Flowers for his interview on the 2nd of June 2015. This is Michael Jeffries, recordist.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with James Flowers
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Horace James Flowers was born and grew up in Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire. He became an apprentice butcher before being released to volunteer for the Royal Air Force in 1944. He trained as an air gunner at RAF Bridgnorth, RAF Wigsley and RAF Syerston and attained the rank of flight sergeant, serving largely with 50 Squadron at RAF Skellingthorpe. He recounts his experiences on several operations, including Bohlen, Nordhausen, Lutzendorf and Hamburg. He was transferred to 44 squadron in June 1945 as part of the intended Tiger Force and also took part in Operation Dodge. He also discusses how he met his wife, Eunice, and their marriage in 1944, his role with the 50/61 Squadron Association after the war, authorship of a memoir ‘A Tail End Charlie’s Story’ and the occasion of his ninetieth birthday when he received a call from the Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Michael Jeffries
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Heather Hughes
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:58:11 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AFlowersHJ150602, PFlowersHJ1501, PFlowersHJ1502
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
Germany--Böhlen
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Germany--Lutzendorf
Germany--Hamburg
Germany
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
44 Squadron
50 Squadron
617 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
bomb struck
bombing
fear
final resting place
Fw 190
Ju 88
love and romance
Master Bomber
Me 109
Me 262
military discipline
military ethos
military service conditions
Operation Dodge (1945)
P-51
Pathfinders
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Skellingthorpe
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Syerston
RAF Wigsley
recruitment
Spitfire
Stirling
Tallboy
target indicator
Tiger force
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/21/50/Memoro 1031.2.mp3
88b700827a065365bf7920cc4a244493
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Memoro. Die Bank der Erinnerungen
Description
An account of the resource
18 items. The collection consists of interviews with German bombing survivors originally videotaped by Memoro, an international non-profit project and open archive of audio or video interviews of people born before 1950. The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Nikolai Schulz (Memoro - Die Bank der Erinnerungen e.V) for granting permission to reproduce and transcribe the testimonies. To see them in their original video form please visit www.memoro.org/de-de/.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC staff
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Memoro. Die Bank der Erinnerungen
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Brigitte Terboven: Ja, es war im Mai 44. In dieser Nacht mussten wir wieder mal, wie so oft, jede Nacht mussten wir ja raus, weil es Fliegeralarm gab, nicht nur tagsüber sondern insbesondere nachts kamen die Fliegeralarmen, die Bombergeschwader und flogen über uns weg, irgendwohin und in dieser Nacht war ein Angriff auf Essen. Das Ziel war eben die Stadt Essen, das Ruhrgebiet überhaupt. Ein Britischer, wie es hiess, Bomberverband kam und die in der nähe gelegene Flakbatterie durfte nicht schiessen, so hiess es später, weil Deutsche Nachtjäger in der Luft waren, nicht, da hätte ja dann möglicherweise ein Nachtjäger getroffen werden können. Ein Nachtjäger verfolgte einen Britischen Bomber und der, um schneller weg zu kommen, warf eine Luftmine einfach irgendwo runter und die kam 20 meter neben meinem Elternhaus nieder und das ganze Haus fiel zusammen wie ein Kartenhaus. Die Kellerdecke blieb zwar erhalten, aber in dieser Nacht war niemand von uns im Keller. Wir waren auf dem Wege in den Keller aber das war auch alles. Es sind vier Personen, meine Mutter, ein Ehepaar aus der Nachbarschaft und die Frau des Hauptmans dieser Flakbatterie ums Leben gekommen. Mich hat man rausgeholt. Ich soll, ich weiss es nicht mehr genau, ich war ja 14 Jahre alt, nach meiner Mutter gerufen haben, weil ich merkte, ich liege, aber ich liege nicht im Bett, ich liege, ich bin furchtbar eng, das weiss ich noch, und ich schmecke, ich habe Sand im Mund, oder Dreck, oder irgendwas, das habe ich gemerkt, das ist meine unmittelbare Erinnerung, und dann bin ich bewusstlos geworden und erst am nächsten Vormittag im Krankenhaus wieder zu mir gekommen. Und es hatt mich schon sehr gewundert dass mein Onkel, der Bruder meiner Mutter, im Verlauf des Vormittags kam, aber es gibt ja Zufälle im Leben und ich habe da nicht weiter drüber nachgedacht. Man hat mir die ersten acht Tage nicht sagen dürfen, das meine Mutter ums Leben gekommen war weil ich so schwer verletzt war, so das man nicht wusste, ob ich überhaupt überlebe.
Mein Vater war, wie gesagt, eingezogen und man kannte nur seine Feldpostnummer und hat an diese Feldpostnummer ein Telegramm geschickt, was er aber nicht bekommen hat. Mein Bruder war Luftwaffenhelfer, den hat ein Lehrer unserer Schule freundlicherweise geholt, als er erfuhr, was passiert war. Und mein Vater kam eine Woche später, da hätte meine Mutter Geburtstag gehabt, ihren 47sten, da hatte er es geschaft Urlaub zu bekommen und er kam, er stieg in Wuppertal in die Strassenbahn, damals fuhr noch eine Strassenbahn nach Cronenberg hoch, und traf einen Bekannten, der ihn kondolierte und mein Vater wusste überhaupt nicht, warum und weshalb und das war natürlich entsetzlich für meinen Vater. Mein Vater erst hat mir dann gesagt was wirklich passiert war. Mein Bruder hatte mich schon einige Tage vorher im Krankenhaus besucht. Als Luftwaffenhelfer trug er ja diese Hakenkreuzbinde mit, die rot-weiße Binde mit einem Hakenkreuz drauf, und auf dieser Binde hatte er einen Trauerflor, auch eine schwarze Binde. Und ich fragte ihn, “warum hast Du das schwarze Ding da drauf”, und er sagte, “damit es nicht dreckig wird”, so ganz beilaüfig, und sprach dann schnell von was anderem und ich habe ihm geglaubt. So naiv war man und man wehrte sich ja auch gegen tragische Erkenntnisse. Es war, das Leben war bedrolich, das wussten wir alle. Wir hatten kaum was zu essen, wir hatten im Wuppertal, als die Amerikaner dann ein Jahr später kamen, wären 1200 Kalorien pro Tag im Ruhrgebiet an Nahrungsmitteln auf den Lebensmittelkarten auszuteilen gewesen. Im Wuppertal war es besonders schlimm, da gab es nur 600 Kalorien pro Kopf. Und es war eine so schreckliche Zeit, die 44-45, die Zeit, da gab es so viele Tote zu beklagen, nicht nur gefallene Soldaten, sondern auch Bombentote, so das die Todesanzeigen in der Zeitung etwa 6-7 cm im Quadrat gross sein durften, weil einfach der Platz nicht ausreichte in den Zeitungen. Und jeder gefallene Soldat, und jeder Bombentote hatte dieses eiserne Kreuz in der Todesanzeige, links oben, glaub ich, oder rechts oben, das weiss ich jetzt nun nicht mehr, in der Ecke was dieses eiserne Kreuz angebracht. Ich weiss nicht, wie viele Seiten in der Zeitung voll waren mit diesen kleinen Todesanzeigen.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Brigitte Terboven
Description
An account of the resource
Brigitte Terboven (b. 1930) recalls the bombing of Essen and the dropping of an air mine by a British bomber which was trying to evade a German night fighter. The bomb hit the ground about 20 meters from her home which collapsed like a house of cards. Remembers the death of four people, including her mother; how she was severely injured, barely survived and kept in the dark about her mother’s death for a week. Describes the attempt to bet in touch with her father with the news of his wife’s death and how he was informed only a week later, coming home on her mother’s birthday. Emphasises wartime hardships: food rationing; daily calories intake dropping from the notional 1200 calories to 600; reduced spaces for obituaries in newspapers.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-09-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:06:25 audio recording
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Memoro#1031
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Essen
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-05
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Memoro. Die Bank der Erinnerungen
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Schulze
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content has been originally published on Memoro – Die Bank der Erinnerungen, which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it as an audio track. To see it in its original video form and read the terms and conditions of use, please visit www.memoro.org and then click on the link to the German section. Please note that it was recorded by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre.
Language
A language of the resource
deu
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
License
A legal document giving official permission to do something with the resource.
Royalty-free permission to publish
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
civil defence
home front
Luftwaffenhelfer
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/20/86/Memoro 11862.1.mp3
444b0024843517311e1dd340dd732716
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
SS: Ha capito e così mi diedero i gradi da sottotenente e lì stavo nella Corecom [?] in attesa di destinazione capito? Ecco, e niente, son stato lì un mese poi dopo mi trasferirono a Brescia sempre in attesa di nomina, finché poi mi diedero la prima destinazione. La prima destinazione mi mandarono a Piacenza, a Piacenza a una batteria antiaerea che difendeva il ponte sul, no sul Po, sul Brenta se non me sbaglio, sul Brenta, il fiume Brenta, eh sì. Perché il ponte l’avevano distrutto, però i tedeschi l’avevano fatto un ponte sommerso di calcestruzzo che stava sotto l’acqua tanto così, ha capito? E c’era lo sfogo per l’acqua, e loro passavano pure di giorno però arrivavano sempre i bombardieri che bombardavano e ci portarono, e niente, c’erano italiani che stavano in queste batterie e io avevo per, diciamo, per, no per controllo, per punto di riferimento un sottotenente che parlava benissimo tedesco, che faceva, un tenente anzi che faceva da ufficiale di collegamento tra comandi tedeschi e quelli italiani. E un giorno mi ricordo ci portarono a pranzo dove stavano tutti questi ufficiali, che voi fa’ quando siamo entrati noi, wroom saluto fascista, tutti, e tutti schierati lì, tutti coi gonnelli, tutti bardati co’ tutti quelli co’ la croce de guerra, tutti colonnelli, generali, e noi se sentivamo in imbarazzo e poi non parlavano la lingua. Insomma, poi servirono da mangiare e quello che mi è restato impresso: il dolce, il dolce, lo chiamavano ‘il dolce di guerra’. Allora passava un cameriere, passava davanti e ci metteva nel piatto una patata, grossa così, sbucciata, una patata, poi ci metteva lì sopra vicino un’altra cosa, ci metteva zucchero e cannella, [laughs] mettevi sopra là quello era il dolce de guerra, zucchero e cannella. Io me recordo che poi, tutti quanti loro se misero a cantare i tedeschi, se presero per braccio e cantavano “Rosamunda”, non so se la conoscete ‘Rosamunda, tu sei…’ [sings] allora andava molto di voga, e tutti questi qua eh, che faceveno. E insomma alla fine questo ufficiale regolarmente [?] si riuscì a farsi, insomma a congedarsi, andammo via, andai via e andai a trovare i soldati in batteria, ecco il motivo per cui mi avevano mandato, i sodati italiani che erano in queste batterie tedesche. Noi dovevamo provvedere a loro, allora me dissero: ‘Tenente, devi vedere quali sono le loro necessità, di che cosa hanno bisogno’. Allora io presi tutti i nomi de tutti quanti loro, eh? Ognuno la taglia, il piede quanto era, eh? Mi diedero un camion per andare a Brescia al comando generale, un camion me ricordo che era a gasogeno, non so se sapete che è il gasogeno: è un grande serbatoio dove c’è messo il carburo, il carburo, il carburo fa del, con l’acqua reagisce fa del, come insomma na’ polvere, un, che va a finire nel motore e il motore funzionava con quello là, in più se fermava per strada, oooh na’ tragedia fu per arrivare a Brescia. Però arrivai a Brescia e mi diedero tutto quello che mi serviva, un sacco de’ robba, e ritornai, portai in batteria tutti contenti, così, ecco, e lì [pause] e lì ebbi la prima volta il battesimo del fuoco e diverse volte arrivarono gli attacchi pure di giorno e allora lì tutto bisognava mettese in un posto riparato, io ancora non stavo nelle batterie come ero, come andai poi dopo. E niente lì so stato un po’ di tempo poi mi chiamarono a Brescia, n’altra volta, poi dopo ho capito perché mi hanno mandato a chiamare per tante missioni, sa perché? Perché ci sono stati tanti ufficiali come me disertori. Me mandaveno, siccome la situazione era critica, come ripeto, mancava solo l’inverno e poi sarebbe finita, la guerra ormai era persa, allora. Io invece ogni volta facevo la mia missione e ritornavo al comando generale, mi mandavano in un altro, allora hanno capito che ero uno di fede che non sarebbe, non si sarebbe dato disertore, m’hanno sempre mandato a chiamare, sempre.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Silvano Scarnicchia
Description
An account of the resource
Silvano Scarnicchia (b. 1925) recalls his first assignment as a soldier, when he was posted to an anti-aircraft battery defending a bridge in Piacenza. He also recalls a lunch with high-ranking German officers, especially the wartime dessert made of a potato topped with sugar and cinnamon, and singing “Rosamunda” (a popular song) together. Silvano describes his journey to Brescia on a lorry fitted with a wood gas generator. He also mentions how his commanders sent him on several operations because they knew he would not desert.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:05:56 audio recording
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Memoro#11862
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Piacenza
Italy--Brescia
Italy--Po River Valley
Italy
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Memoro. La banca della memoria
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
License
A legal document giving official permission to do something with the resource.
Royalty-free permission to publish
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/91/PFilliputtiA16010001.2.jpg
9f7d1a7ba00b362e1c3a0caf7a06c79c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
P-38 crashing near Pocenia
Description
An account of the resource
A P-38 crashes in flames near a canal which is bordered by vegetation. Four other aircraft are visible in the sky amongst bursts of anti-aircraft fire.
Label reads “121”; signed by the author; caption reads “13 LUGLIO 1944. Cacciabombardiere Loke P 38 [Lockheed P-38]precipitato presso il mulino di Pocenia UD, l’equipaggio è deceduto”. Caption translates as “13 July 1944. Lockheed P-38 fighter aircraft crashed near the Pocenia watermill (Udine province), crew died.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
121PFilliputtiA16010001
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Udine
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-07-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
P-38
shot down
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/134/PFilliputtiA16010045.2.jpg
f3faa6e25bdd040d6b1a286fb1417a2b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bombing of San Giorgio di Nogaro
Description
An account of the resource
A group of civilians takes shelter in a ditch at night. In the middle distance, a bare landscape with sparse trees is illuminated by bursts of anti-aircraft fire and flares.
Label reads “93”; signed by the author; caption reads “9 Gennaio 1944. S. Giorgio di Nogaro, il mio primo disegno dal vero, il primo bombardamento degli Anglo-Americani con il lancio di “bengala” ad ovest del Friuli. E stata un’esperienza traumatizzante, era notte, fuggii con tutta la mia famiglia oltre i fiumi, ci seguì perfino un superbo gatto che in casa faceva da sopramobile permanente sopra la radio”.
Caption translates as: “9 January 1944. S. Giorgio di Nogaro, my first true-to-life artwork, the first Anglo-American bombing using flares in western Friuli. A most shocking experience, it was night-time, I ran away with my whole family, crossing the rivers. Even a splendid cat followed us: always ensconced on top of the radio as a permanent ornament.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010045
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--San Giorgio di Nogaro
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-01-09
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
animal
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bombing
target indicator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/144/PFilliputtiA16010055.1.jpg
d45b27d5a7eb86fad1a424bef626847d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
P-38 shot down
Description
An account of the resource
A P-38 crashes in flames while other aircraft are visible in the sky amongst shell bursts. A body of water flanked by trees and gun emplacements is visible in the background.
Label reads “120”; signed by the author; caption reads “13 Luglio 1944. Improvviso attacco di “Lokeed P38” alle piste aerre di Lavariano-Risano-Sammardenchia UD, un cacciabombardiere colpito dalla reazione anti-aerea si incendiava.”
Caption translates as: “13 July 1944. The unexpected attack of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning on Lavariano, Sammardenchia, and Risano airstrips (Udine province). A fighter was hit by anti-aircraft reaction and caught fire.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010055
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Italy--Lavariano
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-07-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
P-38
shot down
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/149/PFilliputtiA16010060.1.jpg
d7a52f3f80e0cd137b5430e0dffd8bf2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bombers bound for Bavarian targets are attacked by anti-aircraft fire over Grado
Description
An account of the resource
Four aircraft have been coned by searchlights amidst scattered bursts of anti-aircraft fire. The countryside is an indistinct mass of darkness, save for the yellow of the searchlights. Label reads “136”; signed by the author; caption reads “Caption reads “NOTTE del 20 AGOSTO 1944. Grosse formazioni della R.A.F. dirette contro obiettivi in Baviera contrastate dalla contraerea di Grado. S. Giorgio di Nogaro. UD”<br /><br />Caption translates as: “Night-time, 20 August 1944. Large Royal Air Force formations en route to targets in Bavaria being shot by anti-aircraft batteries in Grado. San Giorgio di Nogaro (Udine province).”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010060
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--San Giorgio di Nogaro
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-08-20
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bombing
searchlight
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/171/PFilliputtiA16010082.1.jpg
adebecc2bf087069657b48a0830f2617
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bombers flying over San Giorgio di Nogaro
Description
An account of the resource
Bombers fly over a town. In the scene, every window is lit up. Civilians are running for shelter. A woman reaches out for her child. One man remains stationary and seems confused. The five aircraft are being targeted by anti-aircraft fire.
Label reads “207”; signed by the author; caption reads “Caption reads “3 GENNAIO 1945. Bimotori alleati, provenienti dalla marina in formazione libera, sorvolano S. Giorgio di Nogaro UD nelle ore serali sotto il tiro dei proiettili traccianti delle batterie tedesche della Baiana.”
Caption translates as: “4 January 1945. Allied twin-engines aircraft coming from the sea in an open formation, fly over San Giorgio di Nogaro (Udine province) late at night. They are targeted by tracer shot by German batteries at Baiana.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010082
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Antiaircraft artillery
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--San Giorgio di Nogaro
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-01-03
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bombing
childhood in wartime
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/173/PFilliputtiA16010084.2.jpg
f252c4a5ae275b08e8dab9668616aef2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bombing of Udine
Description
An account of the resource
On a starry winter’s night, a yellow glow is visible on the horizon, accompanied by bursts of anti-aircraft fire and tracers. Naked mulberry trees are visible in the distance.
Label reads “212”; signed by the author; caption reads “20 GENNAIO 1945. Il centro cittadino di UDINE bombardato nelle prime ore della notte, visto da S. Giorgio di Nogaro.”
Caption translates as: “20 January 1945. The city centre of UDINE being bombed at early night hours, as seen from San Giorgio di Nogaro.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010084
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Udine
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-01-20
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bombing
target indicator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/188/PFilliputtiA16010099.1.jpg
ea0491d7271d59e9fb7d8248e204b172
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Spitfire shot down by Kriegsmarine anti-aircraft fire
Description
An account of the resource
A Spitfire is crashing in a rural landscape. The aircraft is pictured in the act of disintegration and is in flames and trailing black smoke. The pilot has bailed out and his parachute has opened.
Label reads “243”; signed by the author; caption reads “6 MARZO 1945. ORE 11.30 “Spitfire” colpito da mitragliera della “Kriegsmarine” precitato [sic] al suolo a est di Carlino UD il pilota si è salvato con il paracadute.”
Caption translates as: “6 March 1945, 11.30 am. Spitfire fighter aircraft hit by heavy machine-gun fire from the German navy. It crashed East of Carlino (Udine province). The pilot survived since he parachuted outside the aircraft.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010099
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Carlino
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04-06
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bale out
shot down
Spitfire
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/27/215/PFilliputtiA16010126.2.jpg
ee52b1ff372bfb0380d0df36c0f70393
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Eder, Möhne and Sorpe operation
Description
An account of the resource
A Lancaster flies over the explosion of an Upkeep bouncing bomb against a dam. A second aircraft has been hit by anti-aircraft fire and is plunging towards the water, engulfed in flames and smoke. A third Lancaster is visible on the right with a bomb visible below it.
Label reads “320 bis”; signed by the author; caption reads “16 MAGGIO 1943. Ore 21.28 il primo “Lancaster” inglese dell’operazione “castise” [Chastise] si alza in volo da Scampton, con a bordo il tenente colonello Guj Penrose Gibson [Guj Penrose Gibson] della RAF, pilota notturno dagli obiettivi impossibili, prima sull‘Italia settentrionale, poi sulle dighe della Rhur. Si prova la bomba rotante, o rimbalzante a forma cilindrica, alta m 1.50 diametro di 1.27 pesa 4.196 Kg con carica esplosiva di 2.992 Kg. – 18 bombardieri in 3 ondate attaccano le dighe di Mohne [Möhne], di Sarpe [Sorpe], di Scwelme [Schwelm], e al 3o tentativo quella di Eder, squarciata, 110 milioni di metri cubi d’acqua precipitano a valle. La contraerea spara a zero, 8 bombardieri su 19 sono abbattuti, il 20 settembre 1944 Guj Penrose Gibson [Guy Penrose Gibson] decorato con “Victoria cross” in azione con “master bomber” su Rheidt [Rheydt], sarà abbattuto.”
Caption translates as: “16 May 1943, 9.28 pm. The first British Lancaster involved in operation Chastise took off from Scampton, carrying the RAF Lieutenant Colonel Guy Penrose Gibson. He was the night pilot of impossible operations: at first on the North of Italy, then on the Rhur dams. They tried the rotating bomb, or the bouncing one, a cylindrical device which measuring 1.5 metres in height, 1.27 metres in diameter, weighing 4,196 kilograms, and with an 2.992 kilograms explosive charge. 18 bombers attacked the Möhne, Sorpe and Schwelm [sic} dams in three waves. On the third attempt they hit the dam in Eder. They collapsed and 110 million cubic metres of water rushed downstream. The anti-aircraft artillery fired point blank, shooting down eight bombers out of nineteen. On 20 September 1944, Guy Penrose Gibson, who was honoured with the “Victoria Cross”, was shot down in action as “master bomber” over Rheydt.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010126
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Eder Dam
Germany--Sorpe Dam
Germany
Germany--Möhne River Dam
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-05-16
1943-05-17
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
617 Squadron
anti-aircraft fire
arts and crafts
bombing
bouncing bomb
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Lancaster
Master Bomber
Victoria Cross
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/38/270/MRadacichM[Ser -DoB]-170206-040001.jpg
e6192e823bb6fbba0ee2d5721181d9f8
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/38/270/MRadacichM[Ser -DoB]-170206-040002.jpg
90c0bfc22c0dff598198eb2730b002db
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Radacich, Maurizio
M Radacich
Description
An account of the resource
11 items. The collection consists of propaganda, civil defence material, documents and correspondence related to the bombing war in the Italian theatre. The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Maurizio Radacich and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Radacich, M
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Il gioco della protezione antiaerea
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
The board game has 78 spaces, numbered from one to 78, and arranged in spiral fashion. Players’ pieces are moved according to throws of one or two dice. Each square contains simple figures and a brief text about anti-aircraft precautions. Players who land on a square with good advice are rewarded with shortcuts, whereas those who land on numbers that show examples of foolish behaviour pay the consequences. On the reverse, information on the Unione Nazionale Protezione Antiaerea and advertising of household products marketed by the Florence-based company H. Roberts & Co.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Italia. Unione Nazionale Protezione Antiaerea
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935-04-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One board game
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Physical object
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MRadacichM[Ser'#-DoB]-170206-04
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
civil defence
entertainment
home front
Unione Nazionale Protezione Antiaerea
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/46/400/ACommissoM161028.2.mp3
0fd58164789c1667fe2ee2f1c970a722
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Commisso, Mario
Mario Commisso
M Commisso
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Mario Commisso who recollects his wartime experiences in the Codroipo area.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Commisso, M
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
PC: Sono Pietro Comisso e sto per intervistare Mario Comisso. Siamo a Monfalcone, è il 28 ottobre 2016. Grazie Mario per aver permesso questa intervista. La sua intervista registrata diventerà parte dell’archivio digitale dell’International Bomber Command Centre, gestito dall’Università di Lincoln e finanziato dall’Heritage Lottery Fund. Prima di cominciare, la prego di rispondere alle seguenti domande, in modo da essere certi che questa intervista venga registrata secondo i suoi desideri nonché in accordo con le condizioni poste dai nostri finanziatori. È d’accordo che la sua intervista sia conservata in perpetuo come documento liberamente accessibile al pubblico da usarsi per mostre, attività di ricerca, istruzione, nonché come risorsa online?
MC: Sì.
PC: Sia resa possibile, sia resa disponibile al pubblico mediante una licenza Creative Commons attribuzione non commerciale, indicata come CC-BY-NC il che significa che non potrà essere usata a scopi commerciali?
MC: Sì.
PC: Sia attribuita a lei?
MC: Sì.
PC: Acconsente a concedere all’università il copyright del suo contributo per l’impiego sotto qualsiasi forma ed è consapevole che ciò non preclude il suo diritto morale ad essere identificato come esecutrice ai sensi del copyright, design and patents act del 1988?
MC: Va, va bene.
PC: Acconsente di essere fotografata per il Bomber Command Digital Archive?
MC: No.
PC: Bene, possiamo cominciare. Mario, se ti parlo dei bombardamenti aerei della seconda guerra mondiale, qual è il primo ricordo che ti viene in mente?
MC: Il primo ricordo è quello della notte del 28 febbraio 1900 e 41, la notte in cui mio fratello è nato e il gran bombardamento alleato; l’antiaerea tedesca si batteva contro, contro gli aerei, sì, loro passavano, passavano andando forse in Germania e no, noi eravamo lì e la contraerea tedesca stavo, stava difendendosi come poteva; poi, poi altre, altri bombardamenti erano sempre quelli, che gli aerei alleati passavano sopra di noi e che andavano sempre in Germania, ed era i grandi combattimenti della Luftwaffe di Messerschmitt contro gli aerei da bombardamento alleati. Ricordo che piovevano schegge, pezzi di ferro, bossoli, robe, eccetera eccetera; poi la notte venivano bombardare la ferrovia di Codroipo, la stazione di Codroipo, la ferrovia da Codroipo a Udine; durante la notte, poi, gli operai andavano a riparare tutte queste robe; poi la notte era il famoso “Pippo”, che veniva per ricognizioni o qualche volta sganciava qualche bomba; la resistenza italiana li segnalava con i razzi: qualche volta sbagliavano il tiro e Pippo lasciava qualche bomba sul campanile o sulla chiesa della Madonna di Rivolto; poi altri bombardamenti sulla pista creata dalla Lu, dalla, dalla i tedeschi, dove ora ha sede la pattuglia acrobatica italiana. Su tutta la pista, circonvallazione della pista centrale, avevano, ‘vevano costruito i box per nascondere gli aerei, dunque: i bombardamenti a tappeto con spezzoni, attaccati a due tubi, che si trovavano poi, eccetera eccetera; durante tutto il resto della guerra son stati bombardamenti nel vicinato, aerei che non potevano, sì, aerei caccia, i caccia Spit, Spitfire, che qualche volta non potevano sganciar la bomba sulla stazione, allora cercavon da fare il loro possibile per non sganciarla sulla popolazione, ma nei campi, onde facevano buchi tremendi. Poi, gli alleati arrivarono e i tedeschi se ne sono ‘ndati, e hanno lasciato molte munizioni sulle piste, nei, nei canali, eccetera, eccetera; son stati da, noi si andava a recuperare questi, queste munizioni di, di ferro e di ottone, e poi si vendeva, era’amo bambini, gente, gente che al dopoguerra avevamo un po’ bisogno, poi, poi gli allea, gli inglesi specialmente facevan scoppiare tutte questi resti di bombe, poi pallottole mitragliatrici, pallo, pallottole da cannone, e dopo noi si andava ancora a recuperare per venderle per guadagnare qualche soldo, no. Durante tutto questo periodo noi ragazzini si dis, si doveva disimpegnare per, per raccattare un po’ di soldi per vivere insomma. Questi periodi della guerra piuttosto duri e tristi stanno rivivendo in noi ancora, se questo può fare del bene alla società e alla storia siam ben felici.
PC: Una domanda Mario.
MC: Sì.
PC: Tu praticamente vivevi.
MC: Eh.
PC: Eri un ragazzino, avevi.
PC: Undici, dodici anni.
MC: Io allora, allora avevo da, avevo dieci, undici e dodici anni, dieci, undici e dodici anni.
PC: E vivevi vicino a un grande aeroporto militare.
MC: Gran, grande aeroporto, come già detto, ora siede la Pattuglia Acrobatica Italiana, la PAM [PAN], e dunque lì i bombardamenti e le battaglie, sia alleate sia della resistenza partigiana, eccetera eccetera erano quotidiane, no, si viveva quei giorni lì così anche senza tanta paura perché eravamo troppo giovani per aver paura, no.
PC: Ma gli allarmi erano frequenti?
MC: Ehh [emphasis] gli allarmi erano specialmente la notte, sì, e poi il giorno si vedeva passare le pattuglie di, di aerei da bombardamento ‘lleati, che andavano sempre in Germania, ma insommanon bombardavano da noi, solo passavano per andare verso la Germania , no; ‘peta, sì, tutto lì, a parte i bombardamenti qualche aereo, qualche aereo, ma poca roba, che cadeva, no, sotto i colpi delle mitragliatrici dei Messerschmitt tedeschi. Dopo, poi, è stato il momento dell’armistizio, ché l’Italia ha chiesto l’armistizio. Gli alleati, allora la, i tedeschi ci hanno reso un po’ la vita difficile, lì dopo la disfatta dell’esercito italiano si trovamo munizioni dappertutto, come ripeto, e poi sono state anche casi di feriti e morti, ragazzi di dieci dodici anni, perché andavano a prendere queste munizione e poi le trattavano poco bene, insomma cercavano di smontarle, e succedevano che sono stati morti insomma, tre [emphasis], che io conosca. Altri bombardamenti: sì, hanno bombardato la stazione di Codroipo quella volta che erano, qualche, qualche ca, qualche vagone munizione, polvere eccetera, eccetera ed è stata dura, ed ha molt, ha molt, ci ha fatto molto paura perché l’esplosione erano molto dure, molto alte, molto fuoco, eccetera; e pezzi di, pezzi di ferro della stazione cadevano anche a un chilometro lontano della stazione, no, tutto questo, tutto questo ehhh, questa storia [emphasis] insomma ci rendeva un po’ la vita difficile. Poi liberazione, il mese di settembre, gli alleati sono arrivati e abbiamo avuto un po’ di pace; si cercava di disimpegnarsi guadagnando un po’ la vita col resto delle armi che avevan lasciato i tedeschi.
PC: Tu mi hai parlato della nascita di tuo fratello il giorno di un bombardamento.
MC: La notte di un grande bombardamento, sì!
PC: Cosa ricordi di quella sera?
MC: Molte, molti tuoni, molto fuoco, molt, molta paura perché era il primo, e insomma rimane come ricordo quello della nascita di mio fratello, quello dei primi bombardamenti e della contraerea tedesca, che non era distante poi, era a cinquecento metri dalla nostra abitazione, no, dunque in famiglia la paura era abbastanza grossa, ehm.
PC: Faccio ancora una domanda: sempre parlando di tutti questo grande quantitativo di materiale che si trovavano in giro, questi spezzoni che cadevano, questi.
MC: Sì, eh. Poi, poi anche munizioni che avevano lasciato l’esercito italiano, quando è stato chiesto l’armistizio tutti i soldati lasciavano le armi eccetera, no, nei campi, nelle robe, nei corsi d’acqua e anche sulla famosa pista, non la pista di lancio ma la pista di circonvallazione dove erano stati costruiti i box de, per i rifugi degli aerei tedeschi, dunque poi alla disfatta hanno lasciato tutto; anzi, avevan anche cominciato, la pista di lancio era stata minata, avevan fatto dei buchi e messo delle mine dentro, che hanno cominciato a far saltare il momento della Liberazione, quando i partigiani poi avevan preso quei quattro tedeschi che rimanevano per evitare insomma disagi alla gente, poi, abbiam anche trovato dei carri, dei carri che avevano abbandonato verso Passariano, Sede dei Do, dei Dogi, che anche lì i carristi della caserma di Codroipo li avevan lasciati e noi si andava a smontare pezzi, robe, eccetera, le bie, le sfere per giocare, eccetera eccetera, no, e poi le ruote e poi i grandi, invece loro, smontavano pezzi più grandi, più grossi, no; noi eravamo lì per prendere qualche coperta, magari qualche cappotto militare per i giovani eccetera. Si sbarcava il lunario in questa maniera, no. Tutti i ricordi della nostra gioventù.
PC: Bene Mario, io ti ringrazio moltissimo per l’intervista! Questo qui è un pezzo di storia che verrà conservato.
MC:E io, mi ha fatto molto piacere. Pietro Comisso è un caro ragazzo che merita gli elogi.
PC: Grazie.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Mario Commisso
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
Mario Commisso remembers his early years when he lived in the Codroipo area, close to the Rivolto air base. Describes his brother being born on 28 February 1941 during a severe bombing raid during which the bombers were attacked by anti-aircraft fire and German fighters. Describes how "Pippo" was guided with the help of ground signals lit by the partisans, sometimes with tragic results. Describes how civilians salvaged scrap metal and mentions acquaintances who died when mishandling live ammunition. Recalls a big explosion at the Codroipo railway station and Spitfires dropping bombs on open fields, trying not to hit civilian buildings. Recalls stories about the end of the war: how the Rivolto air base had been prepared for demolition and abandoned tanks at Passariano being disassembled by adults while youngsters were salvaging clothing, blankets and ball bearings.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Pietro Commisso
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-28
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:12:59 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Codroipo
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-02-28
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Marco Dalla Bona
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ACommissoM161028
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
home front
Pippo
Resistance
Spitfire
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/51/403/ARapozziF-MG161019.1.mp3
7e45776083afba080a859f7ab3d5e18c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Rapozzi, Francesco and Maria Gigliola
Francesco and Maria Gigliola Rapozzi
F and M G Rapozzi
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Francesco and Maria Gigliola Rapozzi who recollects their wartime experiences in Monfalcone and surrounding areas.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Rapozzi, F-MG
Date
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2016-10-19
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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PC: Sono Pietro Commisso e sto per intervistare Rapozzi Francesco e Rapozzi Maria Gigliola. Siamo a Monfalcone, è il 19 ottobre 2016. Grazie Francesco e Maria Gigliola per aver permesso questa intervista. Sono inoltre presenti all’intervista Gianmaria Bugato. La sua intervista registrata diventerà parte dell’archivio digitale dell’International Bomber Command Centre, gestito dall’Università di Lincoln e finanziato dall’Heritage Lottery Fund. Prima di cominciare, la prego di rispondere alle seguenti domande, in modo da essere certi che questa intervista venga registrata secondo i suoi desideri nonché in accordo con le condizioni poste dai nostri finanziatori. È d’accordo che la sua intervista sia conservata in perpetuo come documento liberamente accessibile al pubblico da usarsi per mostre, attività di ricerca, istruzione, nonché come risorsa online?
FR: D’accordo.
MGR: D’accordo.
PC: Sia resa possibile, sia resa disponibile al pubblico mediante una licenza Creative Commons attribuzione non commerciale, indicata come CC-BY-NC il che significa che non potrà essere usata a scopi commerciali?
FR: Sempre d’accordo.
MGR: Sì.
PC: Sia attribuita a lei?
FR: Sì.
MGR: Sì.
PC: Acconsente a concedere all’università il copyright del suo contributo per l’impiego sotto qualsiasi forma ed è consapevole che ciò non preclude il suo diritto morale ad essere identificato come esecutore ai sensi del copyright, design and patents act del 1988?
FR: Non coscrisco la domanda ma sono d’accordo.
MGR: [laughs] Anch’io.
PC: Acconsente di essere fotografato per il Bomber Command Digital Archive?
FR: Grazie, no.
MGR: No, no, che no I se spaventi [laughs].
PC: Grazie possiamo cominciare. Allora, se vi parlo dei bombardamenti aerei di Monfalcone, qual è il ricordo che vi suscita questa domanda?
FR: La fotografia più importante?
PC: Il primo, il primo ricordo.
FR: Mmh. Dunque, noi abitavamo dentro l’attuale recinto del cantiere, mio padre era medico di fabbrica eccetera, ci siamo spostati prima dei bombardamenti, e la casa in cui abitavamo, una gran, c’erano tre palazzi praticamente, il secondo era il nostro, in frazione del palazzo, è saltato, quindi noi non abbiamo perso assolutamente niente, ci siamo trasferiti più distanti, vicino all’albergo impiegati. Una delle fotografie de tre che mi restano e che è il primo bombardamento, [pause] noi abitavamo a cento metri dal, dall’anticrollo dell’albergo praticamente: sentito l’allarme, alzati, rappezzati eccetera, siamo andati nel, nell’anticrollo; le due femmine, mia madre e la Lilli sono passate, io e mio padre eravamo più indietro e siamo passati attraverso la vetrata dell’albergo che saltava. Quindi l’unico ricordo importante, diciamo, è questo. Quindi, poi, niente, dopo successi, non c’erano rifugi ancora praticamente, dopo avevano fatto quei rifugi a cupola, no, quello in cui andavamo noi era davanti al vecchio cimitero, e in un bombardamento x poi sono arrivati tanti feriti dentro, ecco, e io ero ragazzino, queste cose le ricordi. Questo, terza fotografia, dopo un bombardamento, siamo andati in valle, viale San Marco a vedere [laughs], curiosi, e c’era, avevano colpito il cantiere ovvi, era quello lo scopo chiaramente, e c’erano delle fiamme enormi coi gabbiani che vol, che giravano, no, sono quelle cose che ti restano fotografate, e qui finisce praticamente [laughs].
MGR: A proposito delle fiamme.
FR: [unclear], no.
MGR: No, no, decisamente no.
FR: Mi e mio padre sicuramente sì.
MGR: Sì, ma, mio ricordo che i tedeschi prima di andar via avevano bruciato tutte le o navi, o che avevano in porto.
FR: Motozattere.
MGR: E siamo andati su in terrazza, su, a vedere, e le fiamme che ricordo io sono.
FR: Ecco, Via Bolo, Via Bologna dove abitavamo dopo, sì, vicino all’albergo impiegati, aveva una terrazza in alto, ecco, sì ma non c’entrano i bombardamenti, e io da su ho visto nel, penso sia stato il 1° maggio, comunque il 30 aprile, un treno che andava verso Gorizia e che veniva bombardato dai mortai probabilmente, no, e si è fermato, quindi i tedeschi che andavano via si sono fermati, basta.
MGR: Noi poi siamo.
FR: Ma non c’entra niente coi bombardamenti questo chiaramente.
MGR: No no, ma noi siamo ‘ndati sfollati all’Isola Morosini fino.
FR: [unclear].
MGR: Fino al 1943. L’8 settembre, guerra finita [laughs], torniamo a casa; torniamo a casa e sul ponte di Pieri c’è stato quell’episodio che eravamo noi col carro che faceva un rumore terribile perché c’eran quei san pietrini, soli, è venuto questo aereo così, l’han colpito, io ho visto, lui non ha visto, e i paracadutisti che si son buttati e l’aereo che è cascato nell’Isonzo, che era quasi asciutto; quando siamo arrivati in fondo i tedeschi hanno preso me [ghigno], ‘l carro, e c’hanno messo nella casetta da dove bomb, tiravano, come si chiama? Contraerea, della contraerea, ecco. E quindi dopo siamo arrivati a casa e ci siamo fatti tutti i bombardamenti che han fatto, là non c’era niente [laughs] da Isola Morosini, no, eh.
PC: Francesco, tu, quando abbiamo parlato assieme prima, mi raccontavi del, dei giochi che facevate, del fatto che quasi ti eri divertito durante i.
FR: Sì, sì beh avevo tredici anni, quindi è un’età, ho visto morire un tedesco, faceva la curva davanti l’albergo impiegati in moto, è andato contro il recinto, sì stupidaggini, ecco, no, che non c’entrano niente coi. Ah, un’altra cosa forse, così, che c’entra coi, relativamente coi bombardamenti, da Isola Morosini venivo in bicicletta a Monfalcone, tredici anni, e c’erano quei buchi, quei anti, gli antischegge dei tedeschi, no, due metri circa, profondo uno, largo cinquanta centimetri, passava un aeroplano, mi son messo lì, ed è caduto giù il serbatoio ausiliario, no, che quando cade non sai cosa succe, è caduto a pochi centinaio di metri, ecco, ma quando vedi sta roba che vien giù, sì [laughs].
MGR: [laughs] Si è divertito un poco meno [laughs].
FR: Ho apprezzato il fatto ecco, diciamo così.
MGR: E tu, e lui si ricorda del, del, come si si, sotto così, era sotto una cantina, sotto all’albergo mio.
FR: ‘ndati in cantina, un anticrollo, no.
MGR: Un anticrollo.
FR: [unclear].
PC: Com’era, com’era allestito dentro? Cosa c’era nel rifugio anticrollo?
FR: Niente: una stanza con un, con degli, con dei sostegni per il tetto, qualche panca.
MGR: Ma papà gaveva fat anche a casa, in cantina.
FR: No.
MGR: Aveva messo pali, qualcosa.
FR: No.
MGR: No?
FR: In Via Roman no, sicuram.
MGR: No, no in Via Roman.
FR: Ma dall’altra parte forse, ma in Via Roman no, certamente no, proprio perché avevamo sto, possibilità vicina.
MGR: Sì, sì, vicino.
PC: Ma comunque vi portavate dietro dei.
MGR: Mah.
PC: La coperta, qualcosa?
MGR e FR: No, no.
MGR: E però il papà che non aveva le, le chiavi, c’aveva le chiavi del portone, ma la prima notte, prima notte che l’allarme era sul bar impiegati quindi era come averlo in casa, non trovava, e c’erano i, quelle, come si.
FR: Bengala.
MGR: Bengala, ecco, che venivano giù [laughs] e ti sembrava di essere proprio sotto ai [laughs], co’ ste luci, co’ la pila.
FR: No, ecco, per dire che erano molto attenti , no, perché prima di bombardare illuminavano tutto, quindi, sì, facevano le cose.
MGR: E noi eravamo lì che ci si, almeno io.
FR: Seriamente, seriamente mi sembrava.
MGR: Mi sentivo proprio presa di mezzo perché papà co’ la pila [divertita], che cercava la chiave del portone, e questi ‘ti ti ti ti’, sembrava.
FR: Un po’, un po’ d’emozione nel mezzo sicuramente.
MGR: Sì, sì, ecco.
FR: Chiaro.
MGR: Perché non trovava ‘l, e dopo andavamo dove c’era l’alber, proprio di fronte al cimitero, dove ci son le scuole medie adesso, c’era questo bunker e io ho vissuto parte [laughs] della mia vita lì dentro, perché suonava qualche volta suonava l’allarme, poi c’era il cessato allarme e venivi a casa eccetera, ma comunque d’estate [unclear]
FR: Ah ecco, grato, grato ai tedeschi, eheh tedeschi, agli inglesi, io facevo, dunque nel ’44, facevo le scuole medie non so se, no, sì le medie, no so se la terza o la seconda, è stato un lungo periodo tutta l’estate, sì primavera, in cui andavamo a scuola un giorno a settimana e alle nove di mattina di solito suonava l’allarme.
FR e MGR: [laughs]
FR: Meraviglioso! Ecco, uno dei ricordi felici. [laughs]
MGR: No, io ero in terza elementare e si andava a scuola così, anche a giorni alterni quando capitava, però sì, non ero [laughs] tanto che andavo volentieri, ecco, non facevo, lui era il più grande [laughs].
FR: No, guarda, mi la scuola la sé sempre stada contraria.
MGR: Sì ecco, mi son diventada maestra però [laughs].
FR: Mi go comincià ad odiar le monighe del asilo, quindi te ga voia.
MGR: Sé morta.
FR: Ben fatta! [laughs].
MGR: [laughs] L’Alma Fides sé morta.
PC: Una domanda per Maria, mi raccontava del, del bombardamento di, del mago Delfo.
MGR: Sì, ecco, c’è di domenica, era proprio per i bambini, naturalmente ‘vevo sette anni io, accompagnati, a me aveva accompagnato la ragazza che avevamo, e a un dato momento si è sentito ‘Vuoo vuoo’, che era un rumore che quando ancora passavano quelli aerei che andavano a bombardare in Jugoslavia, [laughs] ti ricorda sto rumore, e son sal, son ‘ndata fuori, son passata tra le gambe e ho cominciato a guardare sti aerei, e loro ‘Uh, caccia, caccia! Uh non c’è pericolo’, e son partita: son arrivata prima in un bunker che era quasi vuoto, dove c’eran due feriti con schegge, tutti sporchi di sangue e non so la, la gravità ma comunque da vedere per me è stata.
FR: Beh ma se i sé arrivai fin in rifugio.
MGR: No ma iera seduti su, distesi su le panchette che iera lì. E dopo ho tagliato da, vicino, perché ‘l , per arrivare verso ‘l pol, ‘l campo sportivo son arrivata nel bunker dove c’era la mamma, papà era dentro in cantiere, e noi andavamo sem, perché c’era una parte sopra e una parte sotto, sopra non c’era più posto e son ‘ndata sotto, sicché mia mama non sapeva che io ero lì, era un po’ in pensiero e ‘l papà anche, ecco. E questo è un ricordo, e l’altro, quello del primo bombardamento, che è caduto proprio di fronte, dove ci sono le scuole “Sauro” adesso, in un campo di patate, e siccome l’entrata del bunker, un corridoio così, poi c’era, andava da fuori a dentro, poi c’era una porta che entravi proprio, venivan tutto lì.
FR: I sé vicini, no, no i sé entrate con.
MGR: Questo faceva ‘l giro d’aria, e dopo veniva dentro, quando siamo usciti nel corridoio, e c’eran tutte patate [emphasis and laugh], perché è cascata la bomba in un campo, tutto patate e terra, mi ricordo. E poi, il papà, uscendo proprio non so in che occasione, e gli è arrivata davanti, così era, che ‘l gaveva sul caminetto, una specie di, pff, mezza bomba, no so.
FR: ‘Na spoletta.
MGR: ‘Na spoletta forsi, che gli è caduta proprio davanti e che l’ha messa [laughs], mi ricordo, lì per dire quel.
FR: Se sé l’ogiva [unclear] la spoletta.
MGR: Sì, ‘se mi cascava in testa’.
FR: No, non sapevo questa.
MGR: No? Ah sì.
FR: Non apprezata.
MGR: La iera, la iera sul cainetto verde, ‘n entrata là.
FR: Quella iera tedesca allora che ‘l tirava su?
MGR: Eh sì, probabile, sì. E poi ‘n’altra cosa che ricordo, che Capodanno bisognava, perché come i tedeschi tiravano verso le finestre, e noi camminavamo sotto così, piccolini, con le luci, sempre con le finestre con la carta blu, e dopo quando sono arrivati gli americani noi ci siamo trovati.
FR: Neozelandesi.
MGR: Neozelandesi primi, sì, e anche indiani.
FR: Sì.
MGR: Perché avevano la cucina da una parte di casa nostra e nel campetto di fronte, dove c’è una scuola, un asilo, la mattina si ci siam svegliati e c’eran tutti questi coi carri. E anche la liberazione dei gli ugo[unclear].
FR: Sì, beh.
MGR: Coi carretti.
FR: Nel campo davanti appunto c’erano tre o quattro quadricanne, no, quelli da venti millimetri tedesche, tiravano da bassi.
MGR: Sì, sì.
FR: Perché non andavano da alti, ‘ndavano da bassi, relativamente bassi.
MGR: Sì, sì.
PC: Avrei ancora una domanda per Maria, sempre riguardo il bombardamento di Delfo: mi parlavi dei tuoi compagni di classe.
MGR: Sì, sono morti due, ecco, e una era proprio amica, abitava di fronte alle case nostre, è morta lei e la mamma, perché la mamma l’aveva accompagnata; dopo siamo andati a scuola un paio di giorni dopo, e abbiamo messo i fioretti sul banco, e sono i primi due morti che ho visto io; sta bambina era vestita col vestito da comunione, presumo, perché , e la mamma aveva un abito lungo celeste che, sono ‘ndata dentro e sono venuti fuori, perché non era proprio uno spettacolo [laughs]. Ma tanti [emphasis] bambini sono morti, sì, arrivavano proprio perché. Questo era nella sede dell’albergo operai, sotto nel salone dell’albergo operai, quindi papà era vicino, eh sì.
PC: Ancora una domanda per Francesco, riguardo, sempre riguardo al rifugio: mi parlavi di giochi che facevate dentro, che scherzavate, ridevate, che, che?
FR: Solite stupidaggini dei bambini, ecco, niente di, la pallina tirarsi addosso, cose del genere, niente di particolare.
PC: Ho capito. D’accordo, avete qualche altra, qualche altro ricordo che.
FR e MGR: No.
FR: Ecco, no. Notizia: che a un certo momento verso l’ultimo, penultimo bombardamento, tanti cantierini sono andati verso la pista, c’era la pista davanti alla vela praticamente, no, e ne sono morti parecchi, ma non visti, sentito dire, ecco.
MGR: Sì, sì perché prima [unclear].
FR: Sbagliata la direzione diciamo.
PC: Ancora una domanda per Maria: mi parlavi dell’aereo caduto nell’Isonzo.
MGR: [together] Quello di. Sì, sì. Io no, l’ho visto ma ci è passato proprio sopra eh, perché sarà cadu, è caduto tra, tra ‘l ponte della strada a quello della ferrovia, quindi in uno spazio relativamente.
FR: Ah fra i due ponti?
MGR: Sì. Relativamente bre. Fatto ‘boom’, il suo solito tiro, e dopo di qua son venuti dalla parte verso il paese, son venuti giù questi due.
FR: [unclear].
MGR: Però no, io non li ho visto, e non so che gli avessero sparato addosso o robe del genere, no. Perché poi quando siamo arrivati in fondo lui è saltato per conto suo, a me mi ha preso, [laughs] ficcato dentro la, non mi ricordo altro. Però lo era, eravamo e c’han detto se siamo matti, perché questo signore, la mamma ha detto ‘Ma cosa fa? Si fermi!’ ‘Ehhh se mi fermo è ancora peggio perché siamo sul ponte, via avanti’ [laughs].
FR: Sì fermarsi in mezzo no iera una bona idea.
MGR: No.
FR: [laughs].
MGR: Sì, perché faceva un rumore, iera, c’eran quei san pietrini e poi avevamo le, io e la mamma eravamo davanti.
FR: Iera probabilmente i carri co’ le rode de ferro.
MGR: Co’ le rode de ferro, sì.
FR: E io co, col.
MGR: Col cerchio, sì, e conigli. Tutti immobili però, perché avevamo masserizie varie [laughs], e siamo arrivati a casa tutti contenti che eravamo ‘rivati a casa [laughs]. E poi mi ricordo un’altra cosa, quando eravamo nella casa dentro al cantiere, che loro sono andati al rifugio, perché iera qualche rifugio vicin el teatro. Sì ecco.
FR: Sì, no me ricordo.
MGR: L’ubicazione, perché eravam piccoli. E io, papà e l’infermier Battilana, che era col papà, siamo andati nella garitta, che c’era proprio attaccata nell’infermeria, e là eravamo in tre [laughs]; loro eran tranquilli.
FR: Dio bon, iera quattro posti nella garitta, non di più.
MGR: Sì, sì, ecco. Coper, con le coperte perché avevo la febbre.
FR: Vista, vista [unclear]co’ ‘e garitte, sé ancora che gira, no?
PC: Una è ancora.
FR: Sì.
PC: In via Bonavia proprio.
MGR: Sì, sì. La, quela di notte, naturalmente di notte perché [laughs].
FR: No, gli inglesi iera sempre vegnui de notte.
MGR: E Pippo poi, e Pippo che c’era, c’era questa ragazza che avevamo, che era friulana, e non sapeva né leggere né scrivere, e dormiva sulla cameretta su, e questo Pippo lo sentiva da su [laughs], che passava, [laughs] correva giù come una matta, perché era sempre presagio brutto quello di vedere, perché venivano, non so se uno ‘veva idee che non so qualcuno ha detto quel signore che c’eran tre, quattro Pippi, non so, ma venivano sempre a dare uno sguardo prima di bombardare, no, e quindi il giorno dopo, due giorni dopo, ci si poteva aspettare le bombe, sì. E proprio lei era qua quando ha fatto quello, quello delle patate, e non sapeva leggere e c’era scritto ‘Gesù mio, Misericordia’ e lei ha detto ‘Oddio’, ha imparato a leggere [laughs], non potevo capire come avesse detto sta roba che era scritta là.
PC: Signori Rapozzi io vi ringrazio per l’intervista, grazie mille.
FR: Bon finito perché i ricordi erano proprio.
PC: No no erano interessantissimi.
FR: Minimi.
PC: Interessantissimi, grazie mille.
MGR: Posso offrirte un caffè? Qualcosa?
PC: Va ben d’accordo.
MGR: Ecco. E ti te bevi caffè?
FR: No, no, non m’interessa grazie.
MGR: Ti te bevi caffè?
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Francesco and Maria Gigliola Rapozzi
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
Francesco and Maria Gigliola Rapozzi remember wartime life in Monfalcone. They recollect the day the shipyard was engulfed in flames after a severe bombing raid and mentions the high number of casualties among civilians. They remember various stories: their life as evacuees, an aircraft hit by anti-aircraft fire, an aircraft falling into the Isonzo river after the crew had bailed out, and the frightening presence of "Pippo". They recall the day when, just as a magician's show was about to commence, a bombing raid started and people dashed to the shelter,Two of the victims of this event were acquaintances. They recall a bombing raid when they couldn’t find the house keys and saw target indicators falling on the town. They remember the Germans retreating at the end of the war, having completely destroyed the shipyard.
Date
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2016-10-19
Contributor
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Marco Dalla Bona
Format
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00:18:57 audio recording
Language
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ita
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Italy--Monfalcone
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ARapozziF-MG161019
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Creator
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Pietro Commisso
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Coverage
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Civilian
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-09-08
anti-aircraft fire
bale out
bombing
childhood in wartime
civil defence
evacuation
fear
Pippo
shelter
shot down
target indicator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/54/414/AMiniussiM161010.1.mp3
8c273ab60ea0ab39e6313b4151d4de5c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Miniussi, Mario
Mario Miniussi
M Miniussi
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Mario Miniussi, who reminisces his wartime experiences in the Monfalcone area.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Miniussi, M
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-10
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
PC: Sono Pietro Comisso e sto per intervistare Mario Miniussi. Siamo a Monfalcone. E’ il 10 ottobre 2016. Grazie Mario per aver permesso questa intervista. La sua intervista registrata diventerà parte dall Archivio Digitale dell’International Bomber Command Centre, gestito dall’Università di Lincoln e finanziato dall’Heritage Lottery Fund. Prima di cominciare, la prego di voler rispondere alle seguenti domande, in modo da essere certi che questa intervista venga registrata secondo i suoi desideri nonchè in accordo con le condizioni poste dai nostri finanziatori. È d’accordo che la sua intervista sia conservata in perpetuo come documento liberamente accessibile al pubblico, da usarsi per mostre, attività di ricerca, istruzione nonché come risorsa on-line?
MM: Sì
PC: Sia resa disponibile al pubblico mediante una licenza Creative Commons “Attribuzione - Non commerciale” indicata come CC BY-NC, il che significa che non potrà essere usata a scopi commerciali?
MM: Sì
PC: Sia attribuita a lei?
MM: Sì
PC: Acconsente a concedere all’Università il copyright del suo contributo per l’impiego sotto qualsiasi forma ed è consapevole che ciò non preclude il suo diritto morale ad essere identificato come esecutore ai sensi del Copyright, Design and Patents Act del 1988?
MM: Sì, accetto.
PC: Acconsente di essere fotografata/o per il Bomber Command Digital Archive?
MM: Sì
PC: Grazie, possiamo cominciare! Mario, se le parlo dei bombardamenti aerei della seconda guerra mondiale, qual è la prima cosa, il primo pensiero che le viene in mente?
MM: Primo pensiero è, ho assistito al bombardamento del cantiere del 18 marzo 1941 [pause]. Certo ’41 era?
PC: ’44.
MM: ’44
PC: ’44
MM: Mi correggo, ’44.
PC: Va va benissimo.
MM: Ero giovane, avevo dieci anni quei, in quel tempo, e dopo essere stato dai nonni, perché era il giorno di San Giuseppe, e ho un nonno che si chiamava Giuseppe, sono rientrato da Fiumicello, qui vicino, e abito, abitavo a Monfalcone nei pressi del cantiere navale; sono andato a letto, con tutta la mia famiglia, e verso le dieci, così, nove e mezza, dieci, è suonato l’allarme e abbiamo cominciato a sentire dei gran botti, sono uscito, e da casa mia si vedeva, si vedevano le fiamme perché abito appunto vicino il cantiere, della zona del cantiere dove tenevano forti quantitativi di legno, e quindi c’erano delle fiamme altissime, ha illuminato tutto, tutto il cielo [pause]. Poi non, passato questo momento, siamo andati e abbiamo, finita l’allarme, finiti i botti, finito tutto quanto, siamo andati a dormire. Il giorno dopo, quando siamo, che sono uscito con i miei amici, compagni di scuola, siamo andati a vedere un po’ vicino com’era, com’erano le, le situazioni; abbian trovato, in corrispondenza della linea ferroviaria che passava davanti casa mia, una serie di fóri, perché avevano cercato di bombardare la ferrovia; erano sei, sette grandi buchi nel prato vicino, ma molto distante dai fuochi della notte. Quello, questo era un, un ricordo molto, molto forte perché uno non, non pensa di vedere un bom, di assistere a un bombardamento e vedere le conseguenze visive di un foco notturno [pause]. Poi altre, altre cose che mi ricordo dei bombardamenti, soprattutto dei, dell’allarme: quando suonava l’allarme noi eravamo a scuola, suonava, si, ci si metteva assieme e si andava sulla rocca, si assisteva alla, all, agli eventi da lontano; mi ricordo che da là abbiam visto due, tre bombardamenti, perché le volte precedenti si andava in, in una galleria, scavata sotto la rocca, assieme ai ragazzi e lì cosa facevamo? si giocava perché nove, dieci anni avevamo, quindi in gruppo si andava sempre; magari si aspettava che suonasse l’allarme, e dopo ci si metteva d’accordo, si correva in galleria e scherzosamente ci si pitturava prendendo il gesso dalla lavagna della, della classe, si, si faceva qualche disegnetto sulle, sulle mani, o qualche frasetta, qualcosa così. Andando in galleria quando c’erano delle bambine, scherzando, si dava, si segnava qualcosa sulla mano e si dava una pacca sulla spalla, sulla schiena, grande risate perché c’erano questi, restavano i calchi dei delle frasi, delle stupidaggini che si scriveva in mano. Così, per giocare, per passare il dramma della, dei eventuali bombardamenti e le eventuali difficoltà della guerra.
PC: [sighs] Lei mi, mi parla degli allarmi e della galleria, mentre i bambini giocavano all’interno, quindi c’era questa dimensione quasi inconsapevole di quello che succedeva fuori, ma, gli adulti cosa facevano all’interno della galleria-rifugio?
MM: Eh, gli adulti erano lì che chiaccheravano, il più delle volte tra loro, fra amici, fra. No facevano nessuna attività, non era che giocassero a carte o altre cose, chiacchieravano commentando le difficoltà che c’erano nel vivere, di, per vivere, perché c’era molta carestia, non c’era pane, non c’era [pause] possibilità di avere da mangiare, quindi erano pieni di problemi, mentre noi ragazzi i problemi li superavamo giocando, o facendo scherzi, o correndo, andando sui prati, andando in galleria, oppure sul monte a mangiar more. [pause]
PC: Eh, sempre riguardo ai bombardamenti, mi parlavi del bombardamento che ha subito il deposito legname, cosa ti ricordi di quel, di quel frangente lì? Del cielo? La concitazione dell’allarme. Stavate scappando? Avevate un rifugio vicino a casa?
MM: A noi, tutte le volte che suonava l’alarme che eravamo a casa si andava giù in cantina; in cantina aravamo eravamo abbastanza sicuri; venivano anche delle persone che abitavano vicino a noi, che non avevano la cantina, e quindi si andava giù in cantina soprattutto se c’era di notte, o anche di giorno; di giorno soltanto se si sentiva il rumore degli aerei o qualcosa di più pericoloso si scendeva, e se no si restava fuori. E ricordo un’altra volta che ero, così, primo pomeriggio, assieme ai miei amici, che, ragazzi che si giocava attorno, per, vicino ai prati e siamo andati verso Staranzano, verso la periferia e son venuti gli aerei e han fatto un grandissimo bombardamento: ci passavano sopra, e le batterie antiaeree sparavano alla grande contro questi aerei che passavano; e ho avuto anche un po’ di paura perché quando esplodevano le, le scariche antiaeree, e scoppiavano su in cielo, venivano giù le schegge dei proiettili che esplodevano in corrispondenza dei aerei che passavano, eh [laughs] e mi è venuta giù una scheggia a pochi centimetri, ma bella grossa, a pochi centimetri dalla gamba: ho preso un paura [emphasis], ha fatto rumore di, di, di, il fischio che arrivava, e aver questa pezzo di ferro a pochi centimetri dalla gamba, ho detto: ’Guara, mi è andata bene che se no se mi prendeva la gamba me la rompeva’. Questo è stato il punto più, più forte del pericolo che ho avuto, fisico e psicologico dei tempi dei bombardamenti, delle cose.
PC: Ehm, parlando sempre di cose, di cose psicologiche, come, com’è stato il passaggio, diciamo, da una vita quotidiana abbastanza comunque tranquilla, perché Monfalcone fino a che non ha conosciuto il bombardamento aereo la guerra l’aveva conosciuta sotto forma di razionamento del cibo, cose di questo genere, genere qui; la violenza che si è scatenata, come l’avete affrontata? Come l’hai affrontata tu, i tuoi genitori, anche gli altri bambini che conoscevi, che erano i tuoi compagni di scuole, eccetera, eccetera?
MM: Bah, sul primo momento eravamo assai impressionati, tant’è che i miei genitori mi hanno portato dai nonni, come dicevo prima che eravamo, i nonni abitavano in, lontano da Monfalcone, a San Lorenzo di Fiumicello. Ehm, mi hanno portato là per sicurezza, finché io non, non abbia da soffrire, sia la fame che ‘l pericolo dei bombardamenti, delle atrocità delle cose che venivano in Monfalcone. Eh sono stato via per, un anno, un anno e mezzo, e poi sono ritornato a casa, ma non ho patito perché, non avevo la coscienza del pericolo che c’era. Ero giovane, non avevo paura di niente, e per cui si giocava, come dicevo, quando si andava in galleria [chuckles], non era che si tremava di paura, ma si cercava di scherzare con, con le nostre ragazzine, che erano lì dei nostri anni: si scherzava, si giocava, si faceva, non a, non ho ricordo di aver patito, soltanto la paura de quella volta che ho preso questa scheggia a pochi centimetri dala gamba. Eh, il resto i nostri genitori han fatto sempre di tutto perché, per non far pesare la difficoltà economica e che avevamo tutti quanti.
PC: D’accordo Mario, ti ringrazio per la testimonianza. Grazie molte per quello che hai ricordato, che, l’aspetto giocoso, questo strano aspetto giocoso. Grazie mille per, avevi ancora qualcosa da aggiungere?
MM: No, perché dopo, quando è passato il momento dei bombardamenti, poi è finita anche la guerra e abbiamo, ho tanti ricordi di, dei momenti posteriori ai bombardamenti; quando la guerra è finita è stata forte qua l’invasione dei iugoslavi, e la liberazione delle truppe inglesi, scozzesi, e non so altri; gli americani non son venuti qua subito, son venuti dopo e son ‘ndati a Trieste.
PC: D’accordo. Grazie mille Mario!
End of transcription
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Mario Miniussi
Subject
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World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Creator
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Pietro Commisso
Date
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2016-10-10
Contributor
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Marco Dalla Bona
Format
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00:13:18 audio recording
Language
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ita
Identifier
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AMiniussiM161010
Spatial Coverage
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Italy
Italy--Staranzano
Italy--Monfalcone
Temporal Coverage
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1944-03-18
Description
An account of the resource
Mario Miniussi recalls the 18 March 1944 Monfalcone night bombing. He was sleeping when the siren sounded; then he saw the bombs falling on the shipyard among explosions and fires. Remembers how he was normally at school during alarms, so he and his schoolmates had to dash to the castle for cover. Mario describes different attitudes of civilians under the bombs: children were cheerful and played games, while adults preferred to talk. Describes the day an aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and some splinters nearly injured him. Mentions how his parents eventually took him and his brother to their grandparents house at Fiumicello, where they spent one year as evacuees.
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
civil defence
evacuation
home front
shelter
shot down
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/60/528/PDellEraG1701.2.jpg
256939ba01c61bf2c5e2007b8c645f83
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/60/528/ADell EraG170225.2.mp3
94a9f104f1910111032202d949bf8b81
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
EP: Ok. L’intervista è condotta per l’International Bomber Command Centre. L’intervistatrice è Erica Picco. L’intervistato è il Signor Guido Dell’Era. Nella stanza è presente Sara Troglio. L’intervista ha luogo in [omitted] a Milano e oggi è il 25 febbraio e sono le undici del mattino. Possiamo cominciare. La prima domanda che le faccio, come si è detto, partiamo da prima della guerra.
GD: Si’
E le chiedo, cosa faceva lei prima della guerra? Studiava? Quanti anni aveva? Come organizzava la sua quotidianità? Quali erano le sue impressioni riguardo a quel periodo?
GD: Prima della guerra, io ero studente. Sono stato studente fino a diciott’anni. Diciott’anni fino quando ho preso il diploma di geometra conseguito presso l’istituto, dunque, Carlo Cattaneo di Piazza Vetra a Milano. Per raggiungere l’istituto dovevo prendere il tram su Viale Monza, la linea Milano-Monza, scendevo a Porta Venezia, da lì prendevo un altro tram per portarmi verso il centro di Milano. Questo è il percorso che facevo, e l’ho fatto per parecchi anni, finché avevo finito la scuola. Il periodo significativo, cioè che ricordo bene è stato il 25 aprile del 1943, quando è stato defenestrato Mussolini e anche lì bisognava vedere le reazioni del popolo. Ricordo la stazione centrale, c’erano due fasci enormi di bronzo, sono stati proprio abbattuti [emphasis] completamente, e si sentiva proprio l’odio verso Mussolini perché indubbiamente, tutti quanti nel giugno del ’40 sembrava che fossero osannanti Mussolini, ah meno male perché, ci sembrava che fosse un motivo logico perché i tedeschi stavano invadendo tutta l’Europa, ‘come mai Mussolini non entra? ah deve entrare’. Sapevamo tutti quanti, lo sapevamo noi che eravamo giovani, che parecchie armi erano finte. C’erano i carri armati di legno per scrivere agli atti. Quando Mussolini ha invitato Hitler in Italia e ha fatto vedere che erano carri carmati di legno, i cannoni di legno, cosa incredibile. Siamo, per cui siamo entrati in guerra nel modo peggiore, tutto perché c’è questa fretta di voler agganciare, agganciarsi ai tedeschi perché, se per caso i tedeschi avessero vinto, noi saremmo rimasti fuori, invece partecipando è stata poi la nostra rovina. E adesso, diceva, scusi?
EP: Le chiedevo appunto, prima della guerra.
GD: Ah, prima della guerra, sì, sì.
EP: Prima proprio dello scoppio.
GD: Appunto, facevo questo dopo scuola. Poi c’è stata l’interruzione nel giugno del ’44 quando mi avevano chiamato per andare a fare lavori agricoli leggeri in Germania. Per cui sono rimasto da quel momento senza tessera, senza niente, ero un isolato, un disertore praticamente perché non mi ero presentato alle armi. E c’era il pericolo effettivamente che se per caso avessero beccato un qualche volantino contro il Fascismo c’era la galera, tant’è vero che un mio compagno di scuola, delle elementari questo di Sesto San Giovanni, Renzo Del Riccio è stato fucilato nell’agosto del 1943, fucilato in Piazzale Loreto, perché Loreto è diventato così famoso in seguito prima di questo omicidio, di questo fatto eh [pause]. Dunque della Svizzera ho già raccontato mi sembra, no.
EP: Ci racconti ancora, ci racconti meglio.
GD: Ho tentato di entrare, ah sì, ero entrato già in Svizzera attraverso il valico ferrovie dello stato sceso a Bienzone un paesino che c’è in Valtellina ho valicato questo pezzo di non dico di Alpi, di montagne, sono arrivato nel, in Svizzera e mi ha colpito molto avendo qui abituati agli oscuramenti a vedere questa vallata tutta illuminata proprio mi ha colpito in un modo terribile perché di la non c’era la guerra di conseguenza bisognava tutto. Dopo due giorni ci hanno rimandato indietro perché non potevamo. Comunque con noi c’era una famiglia, una piccola famiglia costituita da padre, madre e questo bimbetto, si sono fatti cura gli svizzeri di telefonare a Zurigo dove viveva questa nonna, l’hann chiamata e hanno preso il bambino praticamente è rimasta la bambina. Di cinque persone, beh tre sono rimaste, due prigionieri russi che erano con noi, il bambino e noi due invece, noi tre siamo venuti indietro. Io ho potuto riprendere la scuola, mi ero rivolto al presidente, al preside della scuola, ho detto, guardi che io sono nato a febbraio però se lei mi fa un documento come risulta dalla carta da me falsificata, è stato molto gentile tra l’altro, è stato molto comprensivo, e ho potuto finire la scuola. In quel periodo mi ricordo che erano venuti anche a fare propaganda, addirittura c’era uno, me lo ricordo come se fosse ieri, piccoletto, grassoccio con i baffettini, che faceva propaganda per le SS italiane, pensate un po’ che roba. Perché purtroppo in Italia in quel momento lì c’erano quelli che andavano alle SS, quelli che andavano alla Muti, quelli che andavano alla Resiga, insomma [pause] e in questo frangente mi ricordo che.
Unknown person: Scusi, io vado signor Guido, ci vediamo dopo. La chiave è lì al solito posto.
GD: Va bene, grazie ciao. Scusate che mi fermo ogni tanto perché devo fare un po’ mente locale.
EP: Ci mancherebbe altro.
GD: Sono passati troppi anni. E poi, dunque, un momentino, quando ho detto che ho lavorato per due o tre anni in un impresa di costruzioni a Sesto San Giovanni poi mi sono fatto la domanda all’ENI. Combinazione stavano facendo un pezzo di gasdotto e io ho spostato dei materiali di che [unclear] da parte voi ma esistono su alla SNAM, la SNAM non si sapeva cos’era di preciso e allora cosa ho fatto ho presentato domanda in Corso Venezia 16 e mi hanno assunto. Andavano a vedere però se una persona era a posto, se era idee politiche o altro, questo lo guardavano eh, il servizio del personale della SNAM. Poi, non so, l’ho già detto, sono stato all’AGIP mineraria in via Gabba, poi via Gabba siamo, tornati, andati tutti a San Donato Milanese quando San Donato Milanese è diventato grosso quartiere non solamente residenziale ma anche di uffici, hanno fatto il primo palazzo uffici, secondo palazzo uffici, vabbè insomma sono arrivato là. Io sono andato in pensione nel milenovecento, cento, sai che non lo ricordo, beh trentacinque anni dopo, dal ’50 all’86.
EP: Vorrei riportarla al periodo appunto dello scoppio della guerra.
GD: Sì.
EP: Innanzitutto volevo capire meglio la sua famiglia, se era figlio unico, se ha altri fratelli.
GD: Sì, figlio unico.
EP: E in famiglia, l’avvento della guerra com’è stato vissuto, ne avete parlato a casa, come, come è stato vissuto?
GD: Mah, cosa vuole, allora non si poteva parlarne a casa, perché eravamo un po’ inquadrati tutti quanti, no. Beh, io sono stato Balilla, sono stato Avanguardista, tutte queste, marinaretto anche a Milano va bene comunque [laughs] e abbiamo seguito questo però Mussolini era un grande uomo finché è venuto fuori tutte le magagne che sono venute fuori. No, io ricordo per esempio che il primo, nel giugno, non so esattamente se il trenta quando, il primo allarme d’aereo ecco, il primo allarme è stato una cosa scioccante mi ricordo dormivo e c’era mia mamma che veniva a scrollarmi ero in sonno profondo, ero giovane e dice ‘Guido guarda che c’è il bombardamento, c’era l’allarme allora abbiamo incominciato ad assuefarci agli allarmi aerei c’era la prima sirena, la seconda sirena, il pericolo grave, il pericolo non grave, c’era tutto un sistema. Milano, ecco questo, era circondata da batterie di contraerea. Erano cannoni che ci hanno forniti i tedeschi perché anche noi [unclear] andavamo a prendere le inferriate delle case, come a casa mia per fonderli e fare l’acciaio, figurati un po’ che l’autarchia . E quando venivano gli aerei entravano in funzione le batterie e sparavano, sparavano non si sa. Sembrerà che ci fossero anche i tedeschi a aiutarci a usare le batterie. Ho saputo poi che gli aerei, i cannoni arrivavano fino a ottomila metri d’altezza e gli aerei cosa facevano, stavano su una quota superiore per cui non si prendevano mai. Infatti in tutto il periodo di guerra mi sembra che Milano abbia abbattuto tre aerei, tre aerei, pensate un po’. Quando, quando è arrivato, quando sono arrivati dal, sempre dal sud arrivavano, a bombardare Precotto, eh quello me lo ricordo bene, i bombardamenti di Precotto, eravamo io e mio padre sul terrazzo di casa, un po’ incoscienti vediamo cosa c’è, abbiamo visto in cielo un gruppo di aerei ma erano parecchi eh sembrava che, da sotto sparavano ma, mah, dico chissà cosa sono poi abbiamo sentito come il sibilo delle bombe che scendevano e le esplosioni perché per la prima bomba che noi abbiamo scoperto qui da noi era a chilometri di distanza davanti alla chiesa di Precotto era scoppiata la prima bomba. Eh niente c’era un tram, mi ricordo, un convoglio tramviario che era stato bloccato perché c’era l’allarme ma non solo ma perché era stata bombardata la strada. Allora cosa ho fatto io, come mia madre era andata non so per quale motivi in comune, allora io parto alla ricerca di mia madre, speriamo che non sia su questo tram che è stato colpito. E sono arrivato fino a Porta Venezia. A Porta Venezia c’erano ancora le, i baracconi delle fiere lì, tiro a segno, altre giostre, ed era lì che c’erano tutti, guardate cosa è successo, a due chilometri di distanza è stato un bombardamento orca miseria lo sapevo io portavano adesso con i telefonini si sa tutto quanto ma allora e dico guardate che è successo sta roba ma no e dico purtroppo è così allora a piedi torno poi mia madre era riuscita a venire a casa da sola, siamo venuti con dei miei amici siamo venuti a piedi. Ecco un’altra cosa per esempio quando c’era l’allarme a scuola maggior parte cercava di fuggire, di non andare nei rifugi [unclear] per venire a casa, perche’ insomma e facevamo a piedi dal Carlo Cattaneo, Piazza Vetra fino qui a casa. Quando si arrivava a casa arrivava, finiva l’allarme e arrivava il tram, questo è un particolare. Serviva a noi per fare un po’ di ginnastica. Ecco. Vabbè
PD: Permesso, buongiorno
EP: Buongiorno.
GD: Patrizia, Ciao, Patrizia. Mia figlia.
PD: Buongiorno.
EP: Piacere. Possiamo riprendere?
GD: Sì, se volete possiamo parlare anche semplicemente di fatti politici. Perché prima abbiamo parlato, no del momento la caduta di Mussolini è stata il 25 aprile del ’43 e anche lì sfogo della gente perché insomma. E mi ricordo a Porta Venezia c’era ancora uno con i fascetti lì [laughs] ma scusi ma cosa sta facendo lei e gli dico guardi che non c’è più Mussolini dovrebbe averli al contrario [laughs] quello si è preso, è scappato via di volata, vabbè. Ecco invece nel bombardamento di Precotto cosa visto una cosa gravissima, sembra che sia stato un errore logistico cioè anziché prendere le ferrovie dello stato hanno preso il Viale Monza e purtroppo ci sono stati duecento e rotti morti al Gorla. A Precotto invece è stata colpita anche lì la scuola di Precotto infatti c’è ancora la foto, l’ho fatta fare io quella targa ‘scuola bombardata il 20 ottobre del 1944’. I bambini che mi dispiace perché avrei detto a un mio amico se vuoi venire lì per l’intervista era un bambino d’allora [unclear] però insomma fatto sta che grazie alla partecipazione di questo Don Carlo Porro si chiama questo, è intervenuto e altri cittadini che erano li, avevano aiutato hanno passato l’inferriata della cantina e hanno fatto uscire tutti i bambini. Come sono usciti i bambini, è crollato il rifugio antiaereo, che poi momento rifugio antiaereo per modo di dire perché cos’erano delle travi di legno con dei puntelli sotto, no, non c’era niente di particolare. E tant’è vero che Don Carlo Porro è stato insignito della medaglia d’oro al valore civile. Ecco poi andando avanti nel, in questo percorso che facevamo, mi ha colpito una ragazza giovane stesa sul marciapiede. Come pure anche un cavallo, pensate un po’ che roba, quel cavallo ce lo siamo ripresi, ripresi io e un altro mio amico che combinazione era di guardia alla stazione di Greco e dice ma ti ricordi eh? Mi ricordo quel cavallo, poveretto, era squarciato, tant’è vero che l’hanno accoppato subito, per non farlo soffrire [pause]. Ecco, il Viale Monza era, era come, vediamo, può girare la pagina c’era in fondo, ecco Viale Monza era così, ecco linea tramviaria, il percorso andata e ritorno e gli alberi. Era uno spettacolo, in estate sembrava di entrare quasi in una cosa, nell’aria condizionata perché questi rami che si riunivano in cima perché erano alberi molto alti quelli che poi fra l’altro gli alberi sono stati rubati [emphasis] in tempo di guerra perché non c’era niente. Non c’era carbone, non c’era niente. Ogni tanto si prendevano la fune, sotto con l’accetta, rompevano e facevano cadere l’albero e poi saltavano addosso come tanti topi a rosicchiare [laughs]. Insomma allora non c’era proprio più niente.
EP: Mi racconti un po’ meglio com’era il quartiere, com’era organizzato, come conducevate la vostra vita di ragazzi a quell’epoca.
GD: Allora questa zona qui di Milano, da Precotto arrivava fino a Sesto, era tutti terreni agricoli. I terreni agricoli venivano coltivati da dei contadini che risiedevano a Precotto [unclear] perché c’erano delle famiglie intere che venivano qui al mattino, i cascinotti , venivano a lasciare gli animali, facevano i loro lavori e poi alla sera ripartivano questo su con il cavallo, con le cariole perché c’è sempre un chilometro di percorso eh da qui a Precotto. I terreni erano coltivati dunque innanzitutto c’erano i bachi da seta perché ciascuna famiglia aveva un po’ il reparto apposta per i bachi da seta che rendevano qualche cosa, li portavano a Monza dove c’era il, come si chiama lì, il ricupero dei bachi da seta perché il baco da seta era un insetto un po’ schifosetto ma però eh era produttivo eh difatti in Cina per esempio la seta che ha uno sviluppo mica da ridere. Poi l’altra parte dei terreni erano coltivati a verdure. Infatti mi ricordo che c’erano gli asparagi, addirittura, insalate varie e il venerdì sera venivano raccolte questa frutta nei cesti, venivano lavati nei fossi che erano abbastanza fornito bene perché era l’acqua del Villoresi, sai, il Villoresi che usciva da Sesto e veniva qui da noi, si dischiudeva fino a Precotto. Venivano lavate le verdure e venivano portati il sabato mattina al mercato di via Benedetto Marcello, Via Benedetto Marcelo è abbastanza vicino a noi, e allora col carro portavano e vendevano i loro ortaggi e poi rientravano la sera, era una giornata abbastanza. Poi, momentino, poi molta gente invece lavorava negli stabilimenti che sono qua nei dintorni, tant’è vero che la fermata che c’era qui da noi in fondo alla nostra via la chiamavano l’agraria perche la Breda faceva macchine agricole ai tempi, poi si è messa a fare i cannoni, le macchine per, immagina l’agraria. Per cui tra le varie fermate c’era Sesto San Giovanni, agraria, Villanuova, che era a metà strada, e Precotto. Poi nel, quando hanno cominciato i lavori della metropolitana, ecco questo è un altro particolare, quando hanno iniziato i lavori della metropolitana, che qui in fondo c’era la rimessa della metropolitana, hanno scoperto ancora un paio di bombe che erano inesplose e c’era un maresciallo Bizzarri che si chiamava del genio militare, che era comandato qui a Milano, io l’ho visto personalmente proprio, veniva con una sua camionetta di carabinieri, scendeva con la sua chiave inglese, col petrolio perché lubrificava la parte filacciata, si metteva a cavallo e con la chiave inglese girava, un lavoro pericolosissimo. Non so quante bombe ha disinnescato, probabilmente lo troverete da qualche parte questo maresciallo Bizzarri perché è un personaggio troppo importante. E finiva il suo lavoro e senza prendere nessuna precauzione. Noi eravamo ragazzotti ancora e quella volta lì che era venuto eravamo tutti in giro a vedere. Imprudenza, eh, perchè successivamente i lavori che hanno fatto successivamente di disinnesco, adesso chilometri e chilometri li lasciavano completamente liberi eh. Era pericolo.
EP: E il gruppo di voi ragazzi, eravate compagni di scuola dell’istituto geometri e ragionieri?
GD: Beh qualcuno sì. Sì ma erano gli operai figli di contadini no. A parte che noi eravamo in quattro gatti erano pochi bambini qua, a Percotto c’erano, qui da noi. Le palazzine erano state costruite nel ’28, ’29, ’30 per cui non c’erano grandi famiglie. Ecco stavo dicendo che hanno sviluppato, dai terreni agricoli sono diventati, io ho una cartolina tanto che tu lo scriva, hanno lottizzato e fatto dei terreni fabbricabili tant’è vero che su una cartolina c’è scritto ‘acqua, luce, gas e il tram ogni mezz’ora’. [laughs] Questa, la pubblicità di questa cartolina probabilmente c’è anche sul. Ecco, non, altro non. Ah momento, ecco si’.I ragazzi cosa facevano, andavano al naviglio a fare il bagno ecco, il naviglio era diventato una piscina . Oppure peggio ancora e pericoloso le cave, la cava di Precotto, la cava di Crescenzago venivano utilizzate dai ragazzi, da me in particolare, a fare il bagno ed era pericolo perché l’acqua fredda poteva anche creare qualche malessere, ah. Oppure si andava al Villoresi, ma il Villoresi era molto pericoloso perché aveva una velocità d’acqua abbastanza veloce, il Villoresi. Vediamo se c’è ancora qualcos’altro che, ah ecco. Più che i bombardamenti erano i mitragliamenti. Quasi tutti i giorni dalla fine del ’44 all’inizio del ’45 arrivavano due o tre cacciabombardieri da sud, io li vedevo da casa mia, viravano all’altezza dei campi qui di Precotto e si dirigevano verso le Ferrovie dello Stato e mitragliavano, probabilmente su segnalazione del controspionaggio che c’era. E si direbbe i due piloti, guardi era una cosa incredibile, li vedevi che scendevano d’altra parte non c’era più contraerea, quelli venivano giù tranquillamente e mitragliavano ed ogni tanto si sentivano sbuffare il vapore perche’ le caldaie perforate fatti per dire [unclear], ma guarda un po’, tant’è vero che poi sono stati, della resistenza sono stati fucilati tre ferrovieri che facevano parte dei comitati antifascisti.
EP: E durante i mitragliamenti, voi ragazzi cercavate di stare a guardare o vi mettevate al riparo?
GD: No, ma io e mio padre eravamo un po’ incoscienti restavamo sul terrazzo del, perché li vedevamo [unclear] e poi giravano, perché era un percorso fisso non c’era ecco un momentino il Viale Monza tra l’altro era sbarrato, era chiuso da due muraglioni, uno sulla destra, uno sulla sinistra in modo che i metri che dovevano fare, a parte che c’erano pochi metri, dovevano fare questa esse, questo percorso forzato e lì era di sentinella, c’erano dei militari prevalentemente fascisti erano questi e mi ricordo che una volta mi sembra che su quel, su questo qui c’è scritto, era il due o tre gennaio del ’45, credo, si son messi hann visto che arrivavano questi aerei così bassi, si sono messi di sotto a sparargli sopra quelli cosa hanno fatto? Hanno virato ancora e hanno cominciato a mitragliare Viale Monza, la guerra italiana, ah povero. E il 25 aprile poi è stato l’esplosione finale che è la caccia. Ma io ricordo per esempio che i tedeschi avevano tentato, non si sono arresi ai partigiani e hanno tentato di sfondare verso la Svizzera e infatti su Viale Monza vedevo [unclear] un sacco di mezzi dei tedeschi che andavano poi a un certo momentino hanno fatto marcia indietro e son tornati e sono andati in Piazzale Fiume dove c’era la sede principale della Wehrmacht. Ecco un altro particolare per esempio. In tempo di guerra tutte le filovie di Milano erano sparite, erano state depositate al parco di Monza su dei mattoni, su dei supporti perché le gomme le hanno portate via i tedeschi. Pensate un po’ la guerra cosa faceva. Andavamo a rubare, andavano a rubare le ruote delle filovie di Milano per usarle su. Ah rubavano anche le biciclette i tedeschi, eh, intendiamoci. Ultimamente erano abbastanza accaniti contro di noi. Forse avevano anche ragione perché noi li abbiamo traditi eh, i Tedeschi, proprio uguale..
EP: Io vorrei tornare un momento alla, a quando eravate a scuola. Prima accennava al fatto che arrivavano a fare propaganda a scuola.
GD: Sì, sì sì.
EP:Con che modalità cercavano di, insomma ?
GD: Ma io mi ricordo nell’atrio dove ci sono la tromba delle scale no, e c’era lì questo tizio qui vestito da SS. ‘Eh ma dovete se volete partecipare, ah no, volontari vi trattiamo bene’ ci lusingavano un po’ sul mangiare perché c’era poco da mangiare allora e mi ricordo che a un certo momentino nel pieno di questa propaganda qualcuno dall’ultimo piano ha buttato giù volantini antifascisti oh [laughs] lo spaghetto, lo spavento generale e quello si è trovato completamente spiazzato eh, stava facendo propaganda per andare eh, e hanno buttato giù i manifesti. C’è stato indubbiamente qualche testa calda perché il capo era pericoloso eh. Ah poi gli americani dicevano ‘noi bombardiamo perché voi italiani vi dovete ribellare ai tedeschi’ ma come si faceva a ribellare. Chi si faceva. Non avevamo nessuna arma. Mah! E poi quando c’è stato il 25 aprile c’erano, andavano a cercare di prendere beh hanno fermato anche i grossi gerarchi sul ponte di Orla adesso non mi ricordo i nomi quali erano che poi la maggior parte sono stati poi fucilati, eh. Beh, sul Lago Maggiore per esempio, la, credo che sia la famiglia Petacci mi sembra che li abbiano fucilati si buttavano nel lago e venivano presi di mira. E insomma, cose tremende. Eh, insomma. Comunque per carità la guerra.
EP: Quando è scoppiata la guerra, qual’è stato il più grande cambiamento che lei ha potuto vedere, cioè dal momento in cui appunto si discuteva di intervento, non intervento, cosa fare, c’era dibattito all’interno, tra di voi ragazzi magari?
GD: No, non c’era nessun dibattito il 10 giugno del ’40. Non c’era, eravamo tutti inquadrati. Successivamente, allora, sentivamo Radio Londra, sentivamo la Svizzera, quelli si sentiva. Io avevo una piccolo radio a galena che allora e sentivo appunto questi giornali radio che arrivavano dall’estero. Faceva anche piacere sentirli, perché speriamo che finisca [pause]. Mah!
EP: E nel ’44, quando c’è stata appunto la chiamata che c’accennava prima,
GD: Sì.
EP: cosa è successo alla classe, ai compagni di classe?
GD: Eh non lo so perché io poi ho ripreso andare a scuola nel, alla fine di ottobre, ho saltato qualche mese o due mesi. Quando sono andato dal preside che mi sono presentato il quale così così poi mi ha lasciato questa carta bollata e sono riuscito ad entrare. E niente, ci siamo visti, eh allora come va. Come quando per esempio adesso non ricordo esattamente l’anno, c’è stata la campagna contro gli ebrei, ecco. Diceva, ‘allora quest’anno, guardate che il compagno Finzi, il compagno Coen’, nomi tutti ebrei, ‘non saranno più in classe con voi perche sono stati dirottati verso la scuola’. Era una scuola verso il centro di Milano e sapevamo che erano stati invece portati, non portati via ma comunque ma facevano parte di questo gruppo di persone che erano malviste dal fascismo. Anche lì. [pause] Ecco quello che mi ricordo che qualche anno dopo, magari una decina d’anni, sono andato a vedere i miei compagni di scuola quali proprio avevo perso di vista e ho visto che la maggior parte, laureati tra l’altro eh, professor Coen, la Finzi, erano diventate delle personalità perché indubbiamente la cultura di quei ragazzi lì era molto superiore alla nostra, noi eravamo più bambocci.
EP: E sulle leggi razziali, appunto, si diceva qualcosa tra compagni, vi chiedevate che cosa stesse succedendo?
GD: Appunto non sapevamo per casa, non sapevamo che Finzi era ebreo, che Coen era ebreo, non lo sapevamo. Poi dai registri segnati si sapeva che, ma indubbiamente influiva negativamente su di noi ma per quale motivo, se c’era un motivo, uno non si rendeva conto per quale motivo veniva ritirato dalla scuola e portato da un’altra parte. Non è che ti dicessero ‘guardate, li portiamo là perché adesso sono ebrei, sono di religione contraria dalla nostra’. Tant’è vero che bisognava essere, non mi ricordo, si, ariani credo, no, infatti sui nostri documenti ti scrivevano addirittura ‘razza ariana’ [pause]. Che brutte cose.
EP: Riguardo ai rifugi antiaerei
GD [laughs]
EP: [laughs] lei ha avuto esperienza di immagino?
GD: Io ho avuto l’esperienza di Precotto, quando è stata bombardata la scuola. Il rifugio era fatti di puntelli di legno, poi al massimo c’erano delle travi che venivano con dei cunei, rinforzati. Però si direttamente com era successo a Gorla, non servono a niente. C’era qualche rifugio in fondo Via Brera poi lo stavano costruendo, ma è finito la guerra e il rifugio è rimasto ancora lì. Tant’è vero che è stato riutilizzato il ricovero da un mio amico architetto, il quale anzi l’ha comprato e li vendevano gratis e quasi perchè a lungo andare un blocco di cemento non so, due, tre metri di spessore, allora cosa ha fatto quello ha costruito sopra, così maggiore sicurezza [laughs]. Tant’è vero che c’è stata dopo un esplosione in quella casa perché c’era un tizio che caricava gli accendini nel sottoscala, è stata un esplosione, e la casa è rimasta su, fortunatamente. Per esempio anche, al centro di Milano, in Piazza, rifugio di Piazza del Duomo di Milano è stato costruito dalle imprese Morganti, le imprese che ci sono qua dietro, ma probabilmente non è neanche riuscito ad entrare in funzione, credo, bisogna andare a verificare le date. Perché siamo entrati impreparati, inutile fare tante storie. Lo stabilimento c’è la fatto c’è un rifugio anche quello qua dietro in Via Adriano esiste una specie di siluro che scende dove è stata fatta la Esselunga, ecco quello lì è un rifugio antiaereo. Allora devo dire adesso, figuriamoci. Ah sì, il proprietario lì è morto qualche anno fa mi sembra, l’ha tenuto come emblema della sua vita. Per cui non eravamo assolutamente preparati. [pause] Poi la pericolosità dei rifugi antiaerei perché se non c’era lo sbarramento, lo spostamento d’aria fanno crepare tutti quanti che sono dentro, eh. I muri molto sostenuti erano quelli della stazione centrale, perche lì indubbiamente ci sono i muri che sono. [pause] Insomma.
EP: E dentro i rifugi cosa facevate?
GD: Ah niente, c’è chi pregava, chi stava seduto, si portava le candele perché il giorno che manca l’energia elettrica o come frequentemente succedeva [pause]. Non so se c’è qualche altro episodio da raccontare, mah.
EP: Avevate paura?
GD: Eh beh certo ah.
EP: Come facevate per cercare di scongiurare la paura?
GD: Ma io ricordo per esempio che c’erano tutti i campi, come ho detto prima. Gli stessi operai della Marelli quando succedeva l’allarme correvano tutti nei campi si rifugiavano dentro i fossi che asciutti, no. C’era proprio la. Insomma siamo entrati in guerra impreparati [emphasis]. Sì però non vuol dire niente, anche se fossimo stati preparati la guerra è sempre una cosa che [pause] Ha annotato qualcos’altro?
EP: Volevo chiederle se la sua famiglia è stata coinvolta in qualche modo nella guerra. Se ha avuto dei parenti che sono partiti per il fronte.
GD: Beh, Qualcuno sì.
EP: Com’era vissuto in famiglia questo distacco?
GD: Non era qui, perche io sono, mio madre e mio padre, mio padre era di Milano, mia mamma di Agnadello, un paesino vicino appena fuori ,già in provincia di Cremona comunque, dove tra l’altro era la nostra cappella quando saremo morti andremo tutti li. Ma lì avevo avuto, mia mamma aveva avuto innanzitutto un fratello a ventun’anni è morto il giorno dopo la fine della Prima Guerra Mondiale, pensate un po’ che roba. È morto all’ospedale di Chioggia, per ferite riportate. Poi c’era un altro parente che in Russia è sparito, un altro in Libia, anche lì avuto, tra dispersi e morti ce ne sono un po’ da tutte le parti. E poi ci sono quelli che sono morti in Germania, i deportati in Germania. Io avevo una signora, non so se la conosce, la signora Murri, l’avete conosciuta, perché questa signora racconta molto volentieri per quanto perché ha avuto il papà che è stato deportato in Germania ed è morto, è morto là. Deve sentire raccontare quando hanno, sono riusciti ad individuare il treno, i vagoni, perché i vagoni erano piombati, li inseguivano con questi vagoni non so fino a dove sono arrivati, e parlavano attraverso le pareti chiuse di questa gente. Questa è una cosa molto molto interessante. Tra l’altro lo racconta molto volentieri alle scuole, il suo passato molto molto duro. Abita qui vicino tra l’altro.
EP: E riguardo appunto la fine della guerra.
GD: Sì.
EP: Lei si ricorda quando è stato dato l’annuncio che la guerra stava finendo, era finita, che cosa aveva fatto voi?
GD: Eh, beh certo.
EP: Cosa avete fatto voi? Quali emozioni c’erano? Che tipo di reazione c’è stata?
GD: È stata un emozione generale perché la prima volta quando sembrava che l’8 settembre del ’43 fosse finita la guerra perché lì, si era sentito il marescaglio Badoglio, ‘le nostre truppe reagiranno da qualsiasi parte provenga’, ma cosa vuol dire, tu invece di, ti metti li a sparare ai tedeschi, a parte che un è atto non giusto tra l’altro e tutta la gente in mezzo alla strada è finita la guerra, ah bene l’abbiam preso con un sollievo enorme perché. La stessa impressione che ho avuto io quando sono andato in Svizzera a vedere i viali illuminati e qui invece invece l’oscuramento. C’era addirittura un aereo che lo chiamavano Pippo che di notte veniva a mitragliare o a lanciare le bombette le case che erano illuminate, pensate un po’ che roba. Ma non abbiamo mai saputo se erano italiani oppure no, probabilmente erano italiani. Pippo l’avete sentito nominare anche voi? [laughs] E c’erano i fabbricati, i capi fabbricato, ogni zona aveva il proprio capo fabbricato, il quale veniva a dire se il rifugio era a posto, cosa veniva, i rifugi a posto. Sì i puntelli, vabbè. Certo che se la bomba ti arriva lì dentro non c’era niente da fare, non c’era niente.
EP: E cosa pensavate voi ragazzi di chi stava bombardando, all’epoca?
GD: Quello che si pensava. Se eravamo a scuola, cercavamo di uscire senza andare nel rifugio della scuola e incamminarci a piedi per arrivare a casa. Si sentiva proprio il desiderio di raggiungere la propria casa. Perché la casa sembrava che, raggiungendo la casa, basta siamo a posto. Il senso della casa era incredibile [pause].
EP: E ripensare oggi a quegli eventi, ripensare a chi bombardava, alle, diciamo, vicessitudini politiche della guerra, che opinione ne ha adesso, a distanza di tempo?
GD: Sui delitti politici, dice?
EP: Sulla situazione che proprio era del periodo di guerra, di chi bombardava, che opinione le è rimasta?
GD: Ah, beh, certo ricordo per esempio tutte le case che venivano bombardate, c’era scritto no, ‘casa distrutta dagli anglo-assassini’, anglo-assassini proprio, ma a caratteri cubitali. E però siamo noi che li abbiamo provocati, eh. [pause] Poi le informazioni non è che giravano come adesso, adesso l’informazione se succede un fatto, , non so, Porta Ticinese, si sa subito, allora si sapeva, mah sembra che abbia fatto, aveva bombardato, non so, una certa zona di Milano. Comunque abbiamo fatto cinque anni infiniti, noi abbiamo passato la nostra gioventù in tempo di guerra. Tra l’altro bisognava stare attenti a chi uscire di sera, non si poteva, c’era il coprifuoco. Ci si muoveva tutto così di nascosto, io avevo un amico qui al confine con Sesto e uscivamo di sera di nascosto, cercando di non farsi vedere da nessuno perché c’era sempre il pericolo di trovarsi o arrestato o pigliare qualche pallottata, qualche pallottola di arma da fuoco. [pause] Qualche, io ho sentito qualche, avevamo un inquilino che era reduce dalla Russia, anche lì è stata una cosa tremenda, a piedi, non so quanti chilometri, facevano tra i tutti, tutti quanti cercavano di arrivare in Italia. Un’altra sensazione quando sono arrivati i prigionieri dalla Germania per esempio. Sono arrivati i prigionieri, [pause] la gente che non si sapeva, allora c’era la corrsispondenza erano distribuiti ai militari dicevano ‘oh è arrivata posta oggi’, tutto, la, cartoline no. E io mi ricordo la corrispondenza con mio cugino che era in Iugoslavia, ecco anche lì, che poi ti sparavano, anche di là ti sparavano, mo’ [pause]
EP: Va bene, Signor Dell’Era, io la ringrazio moltissimo del contributo.
GD: Se c’è ancora qualcos’altro ma non, penso proprio di no. [pause] Certo che a pensare la guerra è la cosa peggiore che possa mettere al mondo un uomo, un politico, oh, per carità, lasciamo stare. Ma il fascismo si era comportato bene fino alla fine della guerra. Noi eravamo inquadrati, facevamo i Balilla, facevamo gli Avanguardisti, facevamo, c’era disciplina, ordine, c’era amor di patria , tutto quanto, in apparenza almeno. [pause] Nella nostra zona abitava, ha abitato, oh madonna come si chiama quello lì, Bertinotti, abitava nella via vicino a noi, come si chiama. Poi c’è stato fino alla guerra, c’era Vanoni che era venuto qui a fare una visita a Precotto, non so per quale motivo e giocava, e ha giocato a carte, a carte che non si poteva neanche, in una osteria di Precotto, e lì è stato, non so forse l’ha preso Scala nel suo, ci deve essere, non avevo Vanoni, che gioca a carte, che non si poteva. Invece, Io invece ero a scuola invece con Cossutta, ecco anche lì la [unclear] della gente. Cossutta era un fascistello eh. Quando andava a scuola allo Zucchi di Monza, teneva concerto, teneva il filo lui, ah che, aveva gli stivaletti scuri, perché faceva parte dei piccoli gerarchi fascisti. Poi cos’ha fatto, ribaltato, è diventato il più grande comunista d’italia, anche lì. E’ morto poco tempo fa. La metamorfosi della gente. I politici fanno presto a cambiare idea, eh, e’ difficile che siano coerenti tra di loro.
Allora di questo libro qui posso darglielo, va bene? Questo è importante. Qui c’è tutto eh, c’è scritto tutto di equipaggi, tipo di aereo, la formazione, la provenienza, per cui.
EP: Grazie mille.
GD: Niente.
EP: Grazie dei preziosi materiali e della sua testimonianza.
GD: Eh no, se posso essere utile, qualcosa.
EP: Lo sa. Grazie.
GD: Niente, di niente.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Guido Dell’Era
Subject
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World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
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 the end of the conflict. Contrasts with the situation in Switzerland, emphasising the lack of wartime black-out precautions there. Describes the 20 October 1944 bombing, its effects on the Gorla and Precotto primary schools, and his own role in the subsequent memorialisation of the event. Stresses the ineffectiveness of anti-aircraft fire, the different shelters and what life was like inside them. Mentions the impact of racial laws on his schoolmates. Recalls memories of Italian military internees in Germany. Describes wartime life: execution of partisans, pastimes of children, strafing of marshalling yards, antifascist propaganda, SS recruitment, graffiti on bombed buildings, bomb disposal units, Pippo, and curfew. Mentions fascists who changed camp after the war ended and became active public figures in other political parties. Describes briefly his post-war life working for oil and mining companies.
Creator
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Erica Picco
Date
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2017-02-25
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Format
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00:50:44 audio recording
Language
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ita
Spatial Coverage
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Italy--Po River Valley
Italy--Milan
Switzerland--Zurich
Italy
Switzerland
Temporal Coverage
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1944-08-10
1943-09-08
Identifier
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ADell'EraG170225
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Lapsus. Laboratorio di analisi storica del mondo contemporaneo
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Coverage
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Civilian
animal
anti-aircraft fire
anti-Semitism
bomb disposal
bombing
bombing of Milan (20 October 1944)
childhood in wartime
civil defence
home front
Pippo
propaganda
strafing
Waffen-SS
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/543/NBoldyDA151130-03.1.jpg
3beee30d031d7fbb906d255fd3ee5be6
Dublin Core
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Title
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Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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[inserted] THE TIMES. MONDAY. JULY. 13.th. 1942 [/inserted]
DAY RAID ON DANZIG
U-BOAT YARDS BOMBED
1,700 MILES THROUGH STORMS
From our Aeronautical Correspondent
Several squadrons of Lancasters – the R.A.F.’s latest and fastest heavy bombers – flew 1,750 miles through violent thunderstorms and thick cloud to make a daring daylight attack on Danzig on Saturday evening. It was the longest daylight operational flight made by our bombers. A smaller force of Lancasters also bombed the Baltic port of Flensburg.
The Air Ministry report on the raid stated :-
In daylight on Saturday evening several squadrons of Lancaster bombers attacked the important submarine building yards at Danzig. The attack was made from well below cloud base, and the yards were heavily bombed.
At about the same time other bombers attacked the submarine building yards at Flensburg from a very low level. Bursts are reported on the slipways.
Three aircraft of Bomber Command are missing from these daylight operations.
During Saturday night our bombers laid mines in enemy waters. Two of our aircraft are missing.
VIOLENT WINDS
On the outward journey conditions were difficult for the crews, some of which failed to locate their target. The great bombers were thrown about by violent winds, and had to force their way through thick thunder clouds and sudden storms. Several of our machines were hot by flak,
[inserted] map [/inserted]
but the attack was pressed home. No German fighters appear to have been up, probably on account of the unfavourable conditions.
As in most of Bomber Command’s recent raids, the main targets were production centres of importance in the Battle of the Atlantic – U-boat and other shipbuilding yards – and the bursting of many heavy bombs in the target area was observed, while some of the crews reported big fires.
Danzig is the only submarine building centre which the enemy might reasonably have regarded as being outside the range of our bombers, and for that reason the dock and yard facilities have been further developed by the Germans.
[page break]
BOMBS DROPPED FROM ROOF HEIGHT
HEAVY DAMAGE CERTAIN
Near Denmark (states the Air Ministry News Service describing the raid) there was 10-10ths cloud, with base as low as 800ft., and its top at 15,000ft. There was severe icing along the route, and thunderstorms with much static electricity. The crews tried all heights, from 50ft. to 20,000ft. Inevitably they had to lose formation, though some were able to join up again for a time. Not every navigator was able to find the way, and some Lancasters had to turn for home before they could find Danzig. A formidable force, and certainly one big enough to do heavy damage, got there.
One pilot, a squadron leader, describing the attack, said: “All of us met at an appointed spot over England and flew out over the sea for 150 miles. Then we ran into thick clouds and lost formation for a quarter of an hour. We regained it in a large gap in the clouds, but lost it again when we got into the thick cloud once more. We flew on through this sort of weather for two more hours.
POWER DIVE TO 1,000FT.
“As I came towards the target I ran into a field of flak. I came down, first to 2,500ft. and then right down. Skimming over the roofs I saw light flak going over the top of the Lancaster and hitting houses on the other side. Though it was not dark there were searchlights. I told my gunners to shoot them up. The front and mid-upper gunner each put one out. Over the target I saw a number of other Lancasters. My bomb-aimer was sure he had the submarine yard in his sight.
Another pilot, a flight sergeant, described how he saw the southern area of the target well alight. Another, when over Danzig, made a power dive and came down to 1,000ft. at a terrific speed. Then he levelled out and bombed. Immediately afterwards a shell blew a hole one foot wide in the belly of the aircraft, cut the “intercom,” holed the mid-upper turret, and made a great number of small holes in the fuselage.
At Flensburg delayed action bombs were dropped from 50ft., and as the crews came away they saw the bursts on the submarine slipways and one very heavy explosion nearby. One aircraft went in so low that it hit a house. A great hole was torn in the bomber’s fuselage, and the main plane and propellers were damaged. But the crew went on to bomb and returned safely home. They suffered only from intense cold of the wind whistling in through the holes, which they vainly tried to stuff with cushions. At the interrogation they brought along bits of brick which had been forced into the cockpit.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Day raid on Danzig. U-boat yards bombed. 1,700 miles through storms
Subject
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World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Date
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1942-07-13
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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NBoldyDA151130-03
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Germany
Poland
Germany--Flensburg
Poland--Gdańsk
Temporal Coverage
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1942-07-11
Description
An account of the resource
Newspaper cutting from The Times about a day bombing on Danzig and Flensburg.
Format
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Two mounted newspaper cuttings
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Dianne Kinsella
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
Lancaster
searchlight
submarine
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/69/716/AVaresiP170308.2.mp3
fd6ab1d08c0b17f64c66276e8188629f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Varesi, Pietro
Pietro Varesi
P Varesi
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
This collection consists of one oral history interview with Pietro Varesi who recollects his wartime experiences in Pavia.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-08
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Varese, P
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
FA: Sono Filippo Andi e sto per intervistare il signor Pietro Varesi. Siamo a Pavia, è l’8 marzo 2017. Ringraziamo il signor Varesi per aver permesso questa intervista. È inoltre presente il signor Maggi. La sua intervista registrata diventerà parte dell’archivio digitale dell’International Bomber Command Centre, gestito dall’Università di Lincoln e finanziato dall’Heritage Lottery Fund. L’Università s’impegna a preservarla e tutelarla secondo i termini stabiliti nel partnership agreement con l’International Bomber Command Centre. Signor Varesi, vuole raccontarci la sua esperienza di ragazzo durante la guerra?
PV: Dunque, io mi ricordo il primo bombardamento che han fatto.
AM: Perché prima della guerra ti ricordavi quasi niente, ecco.
PV: Ecco, il primo bombardamento. Io, mia nonna con la cariola andavamo, faceva la lavandaia e portava i panni a lavare.
AM: In città.
PV: A Pavia, sì, noi chiamavamo Pavia la città. A metà borgo gli aerei cominciavano a girare. Erano a gruppetti, da quattro, cinque, non mi ricordo bene, no, giravano. E ha suonato l’allarme, ci siamo fermati, a metà borgo. Ohè, hanno cominciato a bombardare. Io mi ricordo, ohè, ero un bambino, il fischio [emphasis] che facevano le bombe. Facevano dei fischi che [unclear], però le bombe non si vedevano perchè, dopo un po’ s’è visto un polverone [emphasis], eh, ecco quello lì era il ricordo del bombardamento, il primo.
AM: Perché prima non avevano mai bombardato a Pavia. Questo nel ’44.
PV: È la prima volta.
AM: Qualche bomba qua e là, però loro non avevano avuto sentore.
PV: Beh mi ricordo i fascisti, che picchiavano anche la gente che ho visto. Però è il ricordo della guerra. Avevano una paura, la popolazione, una paura spaventosa. Che infatti, appena sono arrivati gli americani o gli inglesi figurati che, con le, la cicca americana [emphasis] la, sì, li accontentavano tutti. Al posto io mi ricordo che, adesso ho pensato, dico ma perché non li abbiamo odiati perché venivano qui a bombardare? Invece tutto il contrario. Il mio ricordo della guerra è quello. Appena sono, i liberatori, appena sono arrivati, la gente, gli americani qui. Però qualche mese prima hanno ucciso tutta la gente qui, li hanno ucciso loro eh, no i tedeschi, eh. Beh il mio ricordo è quello, della guerra. Mi ricordo dopo con la barca, con i miei vecchi no, siamo andati al Ponte della Becca giù, dove c’è il confluente, il Ticino e il Po, e son venuti a mitragliare il ponte e a bombardarlo. Io ero là la spiaggia, mi passava. Gli aerei prima mitragliavano poi sfioravano l’acqua e passavano, li vedevo, non so, a un quaranta, cinquanta metri da me. Erano sempre in due, cacciabombardieri eh, a un motore solo, erano solo in due, erano, adesso non mi ricordo più se erano inglesi, americani.
AM: Di che sapevi, no, tu non sapevi chi c’era sopra. Tu vedevi il pilota [unclear] ecco.
PV: Sì.
FA: E li vedeva proprio bene insomma. Ieran lì.
PV: Ho visto il bombardamento che facevano di notte. Pippo [emphasis] lo chiamavano, eh, lo chiamano Pippo. Ohè, da ragazzo scappavamo, andiamo [unclear], poi i ragazzi erano tutti, sempre in giro anche di sera eravamo in giro. Ohè ha buttato giù le bombe, si vedevano le scintille [emphasis], ero un po’ piccolo però ecco, le scintille lì. Poi hanno ucciso un mio parente al ponte, Pippo con le bombe, il Ponte Coperto non l’avevano ancora bombardato eh. Eh il ricordo è quello lì e la paura che aveva la gente, una paura spaventosa, infatti appena sono arrivati quelli là, ma se erano quelli là che bombardavano? Guarda . .
AM: Però erano considerati liberatori, no?
PV: Sì, liberatori. Morte ai tedeschi, infatti lì c’erano dei ragazzi tedeschi, che loro non c’entravano niente però li han picchiati [laughs], comunque. La popolazione, c’era un odio spaventoso. La guerra.
FA: Invece gli americani erano, erano ben visti gli americani.
AM: Anche se c’hann bombardato.
PV: Sì, fa niente. Hanno bombardato, però erano, boh.
FA: E quando era il primo bombardamento che ha visto lì sul borgo, poi cosa ha fatto, si è, è rimasto lì a guardare, si è nascosto?
PV: No, finito il bombardamento, c’era un polverone, mia nonna correndo [laughs] siamo venuti a casa.
AM: Son scappati a casa.
PV: Sì.
AM: Perché loro non erano ancora preparati. Non avevano capito che cosa potesse succedere la prima volta.
PV: Eh già.
FA: Non, non, non vi aspettavate.
PV: No, lui è uno che abitava vicino, più grande di me eh, era un giovanotto, io ero, avrà avuto diciott’anni, abitava qui, con la barca a prendere i pesci e il primo bombardamento. Il Ticino era pieno di legna perché [unclear] i legni del ponte e i pesci.
AM: [unclear]
PV: È il mio ricordo, adesso anche non mi viene eh, però. La guerra, c’erano i rifugi, quando c’era, ma i rifugi per modo di dire, facevano una buca e mettevano sopra qualche trave per andare, con un po’ di terra, erano quattro. Allora quando suonava l’allarme sotto le, che se buttavano una bomba li uccideva tutti.
FA: Sì sì.
AM: Tant’è vero che là, la Tumbina l’han ciapà.
PV: Ecco là, sono andati sotto in un buco, han bombardato, son morti tutti.
FA: Sapevo che ce n’era uno vicino alla Cascina Trinchera.
PV: La Cascina Trinchera non c’era eh qui. No, non c’eran cose.
FA: C’era un.
PV: Ma lì c’era una buca.
FA: Sì. In quella zona lì.
PV: Sì, eh.
FA: E voi andavate in quelle.
PV: Sì, no, no. Tutta la popolazione andava lì.
FA: Tutto il borgo insomma.
AM: Cioè quelli di qua insomma del Borgo basso, gli altri andavano un po’ più in su .
FA: Quelli di qua, della zona.
PV: Sì, eh.
AM: Quelli che non riuscivano a scappare andavano lì [unclear].
PV: Sì, eh.
AM: Perché, perché dopo il primo bombardamento tanti sono sfollati, sono andati via no, quando hanno continuato a bombardare perché poi avevano paura. Prima e non rendendosi conto, allora erano qua e con i bombardamenti sono scappati lì, no.
PV: A, a volte c’era, adesso non so se sparavano agli aerei o sparavano perché dovevano sparare. Si vedeva [makes a rhythmic sound] e si vedevano dei palloni neri dove sparavano.
FA: Questa la contraerea?
PV: Sì.
AM: Però quà non gli han mai presi, no?
PV: No [laughs].
AM: Mai ciapà niente [laughs].
PV: Adesso il racconto mi viene. Alla Vignazza.
M: Dove c’è il Gravellone?
FA: Sì.
PV: Dove c’è il Gravellone, la Vignazza, lì c’erano la difesa contraerea. Erano degli uomini anziani qui da noi che erano dalla parte dei fascisti eh, erano lì a fare la contraerea se venisse [laughs]. Noi da ragazzi tornavamo dalla scuola, io ero in seconda o terza elementare, tornavamo non per la strada del borgo, tutto attraverso i campi e via sempre, per giocare. E loro, i militari quelli lì, quelli della contraerea, era tutta l’osteria, lì c’era l’osteria.
AM: Lasciavano là le mitragliatrici e i cannoncini e andavano in osteria a mangiare.
PV: Noi siamo. C’erano le buche con dentro le mitraglie, due, mi ricordo a due canne o una canna sola. E c’eran tutti sacchetti in giro. Noi siamo andati lì e c’eravamo le maniglie.
AM: Giocavano, no.
PV: Bambini.
FA: Sì sì.
PV: È venuto fuori alla maestra a scuola dopo un paio di giorni, sono venuti là con i fascisti quelli tutti vestiti di nero. Chi è? [laughs] Eravamo bambini e allora.
FA: Han chiuso un occhio.
PV: Han chiuso un occhio.
AM: Però per dirti come funzionava la contraerea. Andavano all’osteria a mangiare.
PV: Sì andavano all’osteria. Era una guerra.
FA: Un po’ alla carlona, eh.
PV: Sì, un po’ alla carlona. Noi in genere c’era troppo, orca miseria. A scuola, adesso parlando della guerra, no, a scuola. Quando c’era una festa del fascismo, così, i ragazzi, dovevano venire i balilla, no, con la bandoliera bianca.
AM: Il fez.
PV: Con l’emme qui, non so cosa c’era, non mi ricordo proprio. Mio padre era contrario ‘sono bambini, cosa fanno fare la guerra ai bambini’ e non m’ha mai comperato la divisa.
FA: La divisa.
PV: Mai, e la maestra mi fava la nota:’il bambino deve venire a scuola adeguato’. Poi è finito tutto. Non le han dato l’olio [laughs] per un po’ perché le davano l’olio eh a quelli ecco, che erano contrari. Mi ricordo quei fatti lì ecco.
AM: Ecco però vialtar si no sfulare da chi , non siete sfollati voi.
PV: No, no.
FA: È sempre stato.
PV: Qui eravamo un po’ distanti eh, eravamo distanti dagli obiettivi che potevano essere.
FA: Però vedevate tutto insomma, quando venivano si vedeva bene.
PV: Sì, sì. Eh erano alti però eh i bombardamenti. Erano non so a che altezza potevano essere, oltre, ma forse oltre i mille metri.
AM: Pusè sì sì.
PV: Erano alti, eh gli aerei. Erano tutti gruppetti.
FA: Quindi si sentivano solo le bombe che venivan giù.
PV: No, le bombe si vedevano appena si staccavano dall’aereo, nere, così erano. Venivano giù, poi dopo non si vedevano più eh, perché si vede che si raddrizzavano, aumentavano velocità.
FA: Un dito.
PV: Sì, erano nere ecco, a gruppetti. Loro, gli aerei si staccavano dal gruppo, due o tre, favano, ma favano due o tre giri eh. Beh bombardamenti ne han fatto sei.
AM: Sei.
PV: Sei bombardamenti.
FA: E non avete.
PV: E sempre, una volta la settimana venivano, sempre, mi sembra sempre il solito giorno. Una volta la settimana.
AM: Agli inizi no ien gnid al dü. Le prime volte
PV: In settembre hanno cominciato.
AM: In settembre [unclear]. Sono venuti tre volte a distanza di un giorno, a distanza di un paio di giorni uno dall’altro le prime tre volte. Poi gli altri, perché non c’entravano il ponte invece gli han fatti.
PV: Sì, sì.
AM: L’ultimo l’han fatto il 22 di settembre. I primi gli han fatti all’inizio di settembre, i primi tre. Poi gli altri tre gli han fatti frazionati fin quando non hanno buttato giù il ponte.
PV: Per fortuna che non andavamo a scuola se no c’entravamo, han centrato le scuole eh.
FA: Ah, erano vicine la ponte?
PV: Eh già.
AM: No, perché hanno sbagliato una volta, han beccato tutte le case fino alle scuole. Però le scuole allora incominciavamo il primo di ottobre e i bombardamenti li hanno fatti a settembre no.
FA: Quindi era in Via Dei Mille la scuola? Più o meno?
AM: Dove c’era, quella prima lì dove c’è la chiesa adesso.
PV: Sì.
AM: Una parte della chiesa era rimasta danneggiata.
PV: Ma no, eran lì dove sono adesso le scuole.
AM: Sì in Via, lì in via dei deposit di strass ad Gavazzi cla gà brusa tut.
PV: Ma mi me par che
AM: E le scol ieran de dri. Dove iera i carabinieri. Comunque ieran lì, la zona era quella.
PV: Sì, ben, l’è lì, ecco, la zona l’è quella lì. Iera i scol.
FA: E invece i fascisti davano fastidio insomma?
PV: Ma i fascisti a volte, ma quando andavamo in città, noi andavamo a Porta Nuova, lì con i ragazzi di Porta Nuova dall’altra parte del Ticino e lì si vedevano, ma in borgo io non ne ho mai visti dalle nostre parti, fascisti.
FA: Erano in città.
PV: Erano sempre in città.
AM: Se venivano in borgo venivano per fare qualche retata.
PV: Eh sì ma in borgo.
AM: Come quando sono venuti a prendere Angelino per portarlo a suldà.
PV: Perché i giovanotti che erano assenti alla leva erano nascosti nelle cascine e.
AM: Venivano se c’era una soffiata, no.
PV: Ah sì.
AM: Perché Angelino che ndat in tel prat cl’era dre stend i pan , perché i gh’avivan dit che lu l’er la, che l’han fatto, che l’hanno.
PV: Mi ricordo bene che andavamo a scuola in borgo, io la quarta elementare sono andato in città perché in borgo non c’erano più le scuole. C’hanno fatto la passerella perché i più ponti, passerella sui barconi, si attraversava a piedi si andava. Qui c’erano gli indiani col.
AM: Turbante.
PV: Col turbante [emphasis]. Han vuotato. C’erano i.
AM: Questo è interessante.
PV: Quando c’era il fascismo facevano, prima del, non il Balilla, i più avanti erano i.
M: Gli Avanguardisti.
PV: No, ma.
FA: I Figli della Lupa.
PV: Il premilitare facevano, no. Andavano a fare le prove con, gli davano il fucile, giovanotti, quattordici, quindici anni eh, andavano. E gli indiani dovevano andare a dormire dove c’era il deposito, c’erano le bombe a mano per, eh per segnalazioni, c’erano gli esplosivi ma tutto per fare le prove loro, no, quei ragazzi lì. Han vuotato per andare. Son venuti qui in borgo con gli autocarri.
AM: Li han buttati tutti li.
PV: E han rovesciato un po’ in Ticino un po’.
AM: Sulle rive.
PV: Fuori, nelle sponde del Ticino. Oh, i ragazzi più grandi, io ero piccolo, andavo anche [unclear], tutti là a prendere bombe a mano, e ci son rovinati quattro, cinque giovanotti eh qui.
AM: Perché poi erano al fosforo, no, c’erano le saponette al fosforo.
PV: Oh, c’era un nostro amico, ohè la faccia.
AM: S’era bruciato tutto, no.
PV: Non erano, non uccidevano perché eran cose d’esercitazione, però.
FA: Però eran pericolose.
PV: Si son fatti male. Ah loro non guardavano, gli indiani.
AM: Quello è successo appena mandati via i tedeschi no perché nel ’44 due mesi dopo l’8 di settembre, [unclear] andati via, questo, quando sono arrivati gli americani durante il ’45 no, dopo il 25 aprile allora han buttato e c’erano un sacco d’armi qua, perché buttavan tutto così, no. Non stavano.
PV: Ormai la guerra era finita, eh.
[background noise]
PV: Perché non c’era niente, c’era la tessera con i bollini, tagliavano i bollini. E lì, e lì i negozianti han fatto i soldi eh. Tutti eh quelli che avevano un piccolo negozio. Tutti.
FA: Con la borsa nera.
PV: Borsa nera, bravo. Eh sì, altro che i bollini e no bollini. Eh, quelli che avevano i soldi mangiavano, gli altri, il pane, mi ricordo, era scuro, nero e a volte si trovavano [laughs] dentro i pezzi di legno o non so che cosa era dentro il pane, il mio ricordo.
FA: Perché c’era poca roba da mettere sotto i denti.
PV: Sì, c’erano i bollini. Mio padre fumava, mio nonno, avevano i, anche la tessera sul fumo. Mi ricordo. Qualcuno che non fumava vendeva la tessera ai fumatori. Ah, la guerra è stata una cosa. Io l’ho provata, ero piccolo e loro. Adesso mi, a volte mi ricordo ancora. Ma porca miseria dico, ma perché? E invece era così.
FA: Insomma la viveva un po’ da ragazzo.
PV: Da ragazzo, [unclear] avevo dieci anni. Otto, dieci anni. Eravamo, non è come adesso, i ragazzi non li vedi, prima erano tutti [laughs] a gruppi eh, i ragazzi eran tutti in strada eh.
FA: Era più quasi la curiosità che la paura.
PV: Sì, oh, tornavamo mai dalla strada, sempre, anzi qui abbiam, hanno ucciso tre bambini eh, hanno fatto una buca per la ghiaia. Quel periodo lì eh, in tempo di guerra era quasi finito, e noi abbiamo fatto, come una grotta e andavamo sotto a giocare, via, è ceduto, eran sotto al Pep l’è stat l’unic che l’è stat [unclear].
AM: Cioè eran sotto in cinque, due si son salvati, il Pep e un altro che era già, e tre invece, han scavato subito ma eh son soffocati sotto.
PV: Son morti sotterrati, eh c’è poco da fare. La guerra è stato, il mio ricordo ogni tanto, adesso pensando ho detto ma porca, ma perché si faceva così? Un odio tra popolazione, qui c’era uno che era fascista eh, e allora, ohé c’era da stare attenti perché poi.
AM: E se parlava lui, a lui davano ascolto e loro invece erano le vittime, no.
PV: La guerra.
AM: Che anche in borgo da basso che erano due o tre famiglie ad fasisti no.
PV: Sì, eh.
AM: Il papà ad Renata, quas chi. Sì, erano tre o quattro, cioè quelli che erano. Però sai quelli lì erano quelli che, a cui davano retta no, avevano il potere. Se dicevano loro qualche cosa, gli altri andavano nei pasticci.
FA: Certo.
PV: Noi eravamo piccoli, non guardavano, potevamo fare, ohè, potevamo fare quello che volevamo. Però quelli che sono andati a fare certi, certi cosi non guardavano eh. Ohè, sono andati a rubare in castello e li hanno uccisi eh.
AM: Gli han tirato le bombe e.
PV: Si è salvato il Galle , povero ragazzo si è salvato. Uno ha perso le gambe.
AM: e sono andati a rubare al castello perchè.
PV: Non guardavano se erano bambini eh.
AM: Andavano a rubare per sopravvivenza, non è che andavano a rubare perché. E poi adesso, il particolare delle barche che avevano sequestrato qua in Gravellona.
PV: Eh sì, eh sì, hanno portato via tutte le barche.
FA: Ah.
AM: I tedeschi sì.
PV: I tedeschi eh.
AM: Han sequestrato tutte le barche perché qua c’erano i barcaioli che avevano le barche da lavoro facevano gli scavatori di ghiaie, legname, portavano la biancheria di là, a un certo punto è venuto, hanno requisito tutte le barche perché avevan paura che portassero i partigiani e robe del genere . Le hanno requisite e dove le hanno portate? Nde ca ian purtà i barcè?
PV: In Gravellone, lì, dove il Gravellona va in Ticino .
AM: Ma che cosa han fatto vicino alle barche?
PV: C’era il cartello eh, ‘attenti minen’ neh,
AM: Hanno minato, hanno minato tutto.
PV: mi ricordo, noi andavamo a giocare là, stavamo sempre sulla strada, c’eran tutte le barche nel Gravellone.
AM: A turno hanno minato.
PV: E c’erano un paio di cartelli uno qui uno di là. [unclear] Il padre del, Un nostro amico è andato, è morto eh, scoppiata la mina.
FA: Eh sì.
AM: Ha cercato di prendere la barca perché ne aveva bisogno esasperato no e ha messo il piede sulle mine e c’è rimasto.
PV: Qui la gente quando vedeva, vedevano che noi ragazzi andavamo giù:’ohè, non andate là, eh’ [screams] Ecco.
AM: Quindi quello lì era quando c’era anche un po’ di repressione ecco.
PV: Qui è successo tutto.
AM: Poi quando i tedeschi hanno incominciato a ritirarsi, Piero, quà son diventati tutti partigiani.
PV: Sì, sì, anche i fascisti. Han tolto il nero e messo il foulard, il foulard rosso, eh mi ricordo, eh quello lì mi ricordo.
AM: E quando passavano si vurivan fa’? . Quand i pasavan intl’argin si vurivan fa’?
PV: Portavano via.
AM: Le armi e gli sparavano.
PV: Eh, rubavano.
AM: Tant’è vero uno, cosa è successo, al papà del Luisone, Luison, al mut, suo papà che successo
PV: Adesso mi ricordi plù.
AM: In tl’argin, gh’han no sparà? Che è mort?
PV: Li eran contro i tedeschi.
AM: Eh sì. Quando.
PV: [unclear].
AM: Quando i tedeschi si stavano ritirando.
PV: Siccome lì c’erano i tedeschi che stavano andando via qui hanno fatto una sommossa no.
AM: Con le armi che [unclear]
PV: I tedeschi però sparavano con la mitragliatrice, eh, sull’argine, chi attraversava l’argine, lui attraversa, ma era, era ubriaco eh.
AM: Però era là col fucile, sparava.
PV: To ziu al la saviva parchè l’era la eh.
AM: E l’hanno fatto fuori. Questi qua non guardavano.
FA: Infatti, sì.
AM: Se cercavano di scappare, i tedeschi mitragliavano, l’han beccato. Però non sapevano dove portare il cadavere, l’hanno portato in chiesa, no. L’han chiuso in chiesa.
PV: Sì, mi ricordo. Era un giorno, piovigginava. Noi volevamo andare a vedere no. Da ragazzi, quattro [unclear], io, Carboni e via. E al padre dal Galli [unclear] Ma se ciamava? Gili.
AM: Gili.
PV: Era un uomo rude con noi ragazzi perché andavamo dove stendevano i panni e rompevamo i pali. ‘Nde ca’ndiv vialtar? via a ca’ eh! Mi ricordo quell’uomo.
AM: Perché c’erano i tedeschi che passavano e loro erano ragazzotti eran curiosie allora li [unclear].
PV: Volevamo andare a vedere, si sentiva sparare [mimics machine gun noise] ogni tanto. Dicevo, piovigginava quel giorno, mi ricordo ancora.
AM: Quello lì era già nel ’45 dopo i bombardamenti, quando i tedeschi stavano scappando, ecco.
FA: E non siete mai andati a vedere le rovine del borgo, del ponte?
PV: Sì.
FA: Non siete andati a vederle, da ragazzi?
PV: Oh, sì, io, tutti i giorni andavamo, perché oramai si sapeva che i bombardamenti arrivavano [laughs] una volta la settimana sempre il solito giorno.
FA: E allora gli altri giorni?
PV: Gli altri giorni no. Mi ricordo che c’era, le saracinesche, dunque bombardavano e facevano tutta la pancia in fuori [emphasis], verso la strada, tutta la saracinesca così. E quelli esperti che lo sapevano dicevano:’è lo spostamento d’aria, prima va in dentro poi [makes a booming noise],
FA: Viene fuori.
PV: ‘Ecco viene fuori’. Tutte così, saracinesche con la pancia in fuori, verso la strada.
FA: Tutti i vetri delle finestre.
PV: Oh, bombardamenti, c’erano i muri maestri in piedi ma gli altri erano giù tutti. Oh ci sono stati morti, un mucchio di morti eh.
AM: Però anche le finestre delle case non bombardate, quelli lì i vedar ag n’era pü mia .
PV: Ma no giù, qui, la cooperativa del borgo.
AM: Allora in borgo c’erano due cooperative. Una, quella che c’è ancora adesso e l’altra che è di là dell’argine che era dove, quella che c’era di qua dell’argine è stata distrutta e c’era anche il teatro lì. Il teatro al, come se ciamava.
PV: Sì c’era il teatro del borgo. Eh ma non mi ricordi più. Il bombardamento gli aerei l’han fatto, han centrato il ponte della ferrovia e lì s’è sollevato il polverone, eravamo noi. Gli aerei son venuti via dritti, diritti, perché forse non vedevano, chi lo sà. Infatti han centrato l’arca verso il borgo del Ponte della Libertà, quello là, centrato. Ponte Coperto non l’han toccato, han centrato il borgo lì. Dopo il prossimo bombardamento, il Ponte Coperto era ancora, si passava, era ancora.
AM: Bordoni il teater.
PV: Il teatro Bordoni ?
AM: Era il teatro Bordoni , lì dove faceva le rappresentazioni Famiola, che era, Famiola l’era il nom, era il burattino di Pavia. Dove faceva le rappresentazioni Famiola.
PV: No, ma dopo han fatto il film, facevano il film.
AM: Dopo stavano anche i film.
PV: han fatto anche il cinema. Non so come si chiamava. Però.
AM: L’han distrutto però.
PV: E per il bombardamento han fatto così. Son venuti via diritti. Così spiegavano e lì da vedere. Il Ticino fa la curva, ecco.
AM: Così han preso tutte le case invece [unclear].
PV: Sì perché lì duevav ved al polverone ch’era neh. Io ero a metà borgo, era lì perché forse s’era fermà cun tu nona, me nona, che dia: ‘Regina, ma’, eh suona l’alarme sì ma, fa, suona sempar, des i van via, perché era ialtar dÌ aeroplani poi andà via senza bombardare. Boh. Primo, quello lì è il primo bombardamento. Poi tutte le settimane oramai si sapeva “Ah i vegnan eh!” [enphasis] ecco basta [laughs], ormai si sapeva che venivano.
AM: Però erano preparati, capivano che bombardavano quindi scappavano, mentre le prime volte non si rendevano conto di quello che stava succedendo.
PV: Ma come facevano a sapere che il ponte era ancora intatto? Forse i ricognitori.
AM: Guarda dintar il libar, c’è tute fotografie, che loro foto, quando passavano gli aerei, in coda c’era quello che faceva le fotografie, no.
PV: Oh, io non ho mai visto la contraerea sparare eh. E c’era eh.
FA: Quella lì, ponte zona Ticinello?
PV: Poi, ma c’era là dove c’è la fabbrica Casati là a ponte ad pedra, là. Ah, c’erano i cannoni con i tedeschi eh, ma grossi cannoni oh.
FA: Però niente.
PV: Mah. Niente, no.
AM: Non ha mai preso.
PV: Era mei sparà no eh, se no uhei [unclear]. Sparare, sparare noi non avevamo niente, loro avevano tutto eh.
FA: I tedeschi.
PV: E gli inglesi e americani.
FA: Gli inglesei, ah, è vero.
AM: Ma anche i tedeschi che avevano la contraerea lì, c’era lì e vicino al cimitero. Però effettivamente dicono che erano alti così. E loro non, sì qualche nuvoletta ogni tanto però non han mai visto, cioè, un, bombardare, prendere qualche aereo roba del genere, che non. Probabilmente non arrivavano neanche all’altezza degli aerei [unclear].
FA: Certo.
PV: Eh la guerra, ero troppo piccolo per ricordare.
AM: Però l’è na brutta robe, è na brutta robe.
PV: La fifa la, vedevo, mio nonno, mio nonno tremava sempre [laughs], appena sentiva l’allarme. Noi ragazzi no [unclear]. Ma i vecchi avevano paura, tutti i vecchi avevano paura tremenda. Perché? Perché .
FA: Si rendevano più conto.
PV: Sì, Han fatto delle cose lì, i liberatori, sì, dei bombardamenti, che non dovevano anche farli, dai. Si sa, eh. El libar gl’ho dsura mi, libar de, che scrit coso, l’è andat fin in America a to’ i dati.
FA: Va bene.
PV: Quello che. Perché, perché non mi ricordo tutto, ogni tanto mi ricordo qualcosa, eh. Che se ricordi robe, uhè go ottantadue anne, non passan mai, sesanta-setanta ani [laughs].
AM: Va bene.
FA: Va bene. Allora la ringraziamo.
PV: Oh, diamine.
FA: Per l’intervista.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Pietro Varesi
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
Pietro Varesi describes wartime life in Pavia, focussing on the Borgo neighbourhood. He mentions the Ticino bridges as primary targets for bombers; recalls bent shop shutters and debris on the streets; stresses the limited accuracy of bombing and the damage to civilian buildings. Describes how ineffectual anti-aircraft fire was and remembers playing on anti-aircraft guns when the gunners were eating and drinking at a nearby country inn. Contrasts the reaction of adults being frightened and alarmed, with the care-free attitudes of youngsters. Mentions street urchins involved in dangerous games often with disastrous consequences. Criticises makeshift shelters, deemed tantamount to death traps. Recalls various wartime episodes: being a member of fascist organisations while his father was an opponent of the fascist regime, deserters, repression of partisan activities, corpses hidden in a church, 'Pippo' flying at night, disrupted communications, improvised footbridges, rationing, the black market, and food pilfering. Describes men quickly exchanging fascist uniforms with red handkerchiefs at the end of the war. Reflects on the bombing war and stresses the duality of liberators / tormentors.
Creator
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Filippo Andi
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-08
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Format
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00:29:50 audio recording
Language
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ita
Identifier
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AVaresiP170308
Spatial Coverage
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Italy
Italy--Pavia
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Coverage
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Civilian
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-09-08
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
fear
home front
perception of bombing war
Pippo
Resistance
shelter
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/71/718/AMagnaniT170303.2.mp3
79ada1c6e318efb07ff780ad71942b47
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Magnani, Tullio
Tullio Magnani
T Magnani
Description
An account of the resource
This collection consists of one oral history interview with Tullio Magnani who reminisces his wartime experiences in the Pavia area.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-03
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Magnani, T
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Sono Filippo Andi e sto per intervistare il Signor Tullio Magnani. Siamo a Pavia, è il 3 marzo 2017. Ringraziamo il Signor Magnani per aver permesso questa intervista. La sua intervista registrata diventerà parte dell’archivio digitale dell’International Bomber Command Centre, gestito dall’Università di Lincoln e finanziato dall’Heritage Lottery Fund. L’università s’impegna a preservarla e tutelarla secondo i termini stabiliti nel partnership agreement con l’International Bomber Command Centre. Signor Magnani, vuole ricordarci i suoi anni durante?
TM: Dunque, sì, gli anni trascorsi dalla guerra in avanti.
FA: Esatto.
TM: Allora, prima di tutto, vengo da una famiglia di lavoratori. Naturalmente ho annusato il sapore dell’antiregime di cui si viveva allora. I miei genitori erano nettamente contrari al fascismo ma naturalmente non ho avuto neanche problemi a scuola. Sapevano chi era il papà, che è stato considerato un sovversivo comunista, ma per la verità nel periodo scolastico fatto durante il fascismo non ho avuto noie. Nel 1944, il 4 di settembre le superfortezze volanti americane e inglesi, alleate insomma, hanno prodotto un grosso bombardamento a Pavia e noi che abitavamo in Via Milazzi [Milazzo], della parte destra del fiume Ticino, siamo rimasti senza casa. Ci siamo salvati perché eravamo scappati nei boschi vicini. Naturalmente io e la mia famiglia ci siamo ritrovati nel territorio di Travacò a pochi chilometri da Pavia e da lì è cominciata la mia permanenza, gli ultimi mesi di guerra fino al 1945 a Mezzano Siccomario una casa che ci ha ospitato perché eravamo senza niente, eravamo ridotti proprio, io addirittura ero a piedi nudi quel giorno là. Però nel frattempo i miei genitori mi avevano mandati a casa di una famiglia, Lorenzo Alberti, che era un noto esponente dell’antifascismo pavese e che verrà arrestato nel 1944 con tutto il comitato del CLN provinciale e spedito in Germania. Ritornerà vivo e vegeto nel 1900, nel lontano 1945 dalla Germania. E naturalmente ero andato lì come garzone di bottega perché lui vendeva le macchine per scrivere e naturalmente faceva la, curava tutto l’andamento delle macchine che aveva nei vari uffici durante il regime fascista e la presenza del comando tedesco. E accompagnando l’operaio che doveva fare manodopera alle macchine da scrivere, io portavo una borsa vuota, leggerissima all’ingresso, pesante quando uscivo. Naturalmente controllato era l’operaio, io che avevo quattordici anni sia i fascisti che i tedeschi non mi perseguivano, non mi, non facevano i controlli. Poi abbiamo saputo che in quella borsa lì uscivano i bollini per l’approvigionamento degli alimenti. Perché in quel periodo dovete sapere che c’era contingentato i generi alimentari. Naturalmente questi bollini per il tesseramento andavano alla resistenza ecco. Quello era la cosa che io ho scoperto dopo la liberazione. Naturalmente di questo, di questi ricordi che ho avuto lì e anche nel comune di Travacò li ho messi giù, insomma i ricordi c’ho un fascicolo che consegno anche all’intervistatore. Ci sono alcuni particolari. Particolare è che un bel giorno, una mattina, l’operaio di questa ditta, Alberti, mi dice di andare presso l’istituto di anatomia umana dell’Università di Pavia a ritirare qualcosa. Io arrivo all’istituto di anatomia umana e a questo custode chiedo il nome e questo uomo già un po’ avanti con l’età, mi consegna una busta gialla con scritto ’Regia Università di Pavia’. Questa busta la riporto in negozio al mattino. Nel pomeriggio sempre l’operaio mi dice che doveva farmi fare una commissione fuori Pavia, e ha preso quella busta che avevo consegnato al mattino, l’ha messo dentro a una cartella, tipo quella di scuola, di cartone e m’ha detto: ‘Vai a Travacò a portare questa busta, devi andare all’inizio di Travacò alla frazione Frua e cercare la signora Brusca’ che poi ho capito si chiamava Bruschi, la chiamavano Brusca, io dico: ’sì sì sono pratico di quei posti lì perché ero, sono sfollato lì, in quei posti lì’, infatti non ho fatto fatica a trovarla una donna anziana con un cappellaccio di paglia in testa. E io dico: ’io devo consegnare questa a un signore che c’è qui’. E lui m’ha, lei m’ha detto: ‘È quel signore seduto su una cariola.’ Era un omino un po’, non troppo alto con un grosso paletò, che poi ho riconosciuto come segretario del Partito Comunista provinciale in, clandestino, l’ho ritrovato nell’immediato dopoguerra. Era Carlo Zucchella.
FA: Ah.
TM: E quella busta, ‘io devo consegnare questa roba a questo signore, sì, sì, io l’aspetto. Gliel’ho data. Era un’altra missione che mi han fatto fare. E questo mi è, mi è ancora caro ricordare quel territorio lì del Travacò adesso. L’intervistatore venne mandato dall’ex sindaco Boiocchi che abbiamo una forte amicizia e ricordo sempre quel territorio anche perché sono legato a tutta la gente che ho trovato lì, che purtroppo non ci sono più tanti. Poi ci sono anche altri episodi sempre fatti attraverso la bottega di Lorenzo Alberti. Mi dicono di andare in piazzetta, vicino alle scuole Mazzini a Pavia e io gli ho detto: ’Sì, sì’. Erano le mie scuole elementari, le conosco. Bene, proprio di fronte alla scuola vai su all’ultimo piano e devi portare questo era anche lì, una busta, una busta più pesante di quelle che ho portato prima. E in quella casa c’era un tavolo da disegno, che usano i disegnatori. E c’era un uomo che era là che m’aspettava. E c’era, a disegnare c’era uno che poi m’han detto che era un sordomuto. Era il disegnatore. Anche qui vengo a sapere, dopo la guerra, che questo signore era Cino del Duca, un grande editore di giornali e di riviste. Era anche lui membro della resistenza. E i ricordi sono tanti, gli episodi sono tanti. Sono ancora vivo anche per miracolo anche perché durante queste azioni, che io nulla sapevo l’importanza di quello che facevo, se venivo beccato non ero qui a raccontarlo.
FA: Certo.
TM: E è arrivata la liberazione e io con i miei quindici anni mi sono divertito come gli altri. Sono arrivati le truppe inglesi, la prima camionetta americana giù nel Ponte Vecchio di Pavia e ho ripreso a vivere come dovevamo vivere, a noi ragazzi alla nostra età ci è mancato cinque anni di vita.
[telophone rings]
FA: Allora, prima della pausa stavamo dicendo della liberazione.
TM: La liberazione...
FA: È tornato a vivere in borgo?
TM: No, non eravamo più in borgo perché la casa non ce l’avevamo più. Mio nonno era un pescatore, aveva le barche, tutto, è andato tutto in fumo, tutto, distrutto tutto, non avevamo più niente. Mia mamma e mio papà han trovato un appartamento vicino Piazzale Ponte Ticino ma in città. E lì è arrivata la prima camionetta americana, mi ricordo sempre, questo giovane americano, noi naturalmente ragazzi ci siamo andati tutto intorno avevamo fame e loro distribuivano cioccolato e questo qua si chiamava Dino perché era figlio di italiani, no, e aveva un sacco enorme. M’ha detto se trovavo una donna che gli avesse lavato la biancheria. Io subito gli ho detto: ‘c’è mia mamma’. E lì vicino abitavamo e ho detto, ho chiamato mia mamma, c’è questo soldato americano e ha detto che se gli lavava la biancheria c’era una cassa di sapone. Quando lui ha fatto vedere la cassa di sapone, mia mamma è saltata dalla gioia. Per dire i momenti e, ricordo ancora e ricordo anche questo fatto di questo americano che si chiamava, poi c’ha dato tanta roba da mangiare. E naturalmente lui poi è andato via. E’ stato lì due o tre giorni, ha ritirato la biancheria pulita e stirata e con grande dispiacere di mia mamma non l’abbiamo visto più. Io voglio raccontare, questo racconto dovrebbero sentirlo anche milioni di giovani perché la guerra c’ha tolto cinque anni di vita a noi ragazzi. È scoppiata che avevo dieci anni, è finita che ne avevo quindici. La fame totale, lo studio non c’ho più pensato, era talmente la gioia della liberazione che molti ragazzi miei amici non andavano più a scuola. Poi pian piano abbiamo ripreso ma poi m’ha preso un’altra cosa, la politica. E questa politica mi ha preso talmente che non ho proseguito gli studi e medie, liceo e avanti, questo. Però ho sempre chiesto e ottenuto di sapere, di volere, di sapere le cose, ho fatto uno sforzo io coi libri e anche. Il partito voleva dire tante rinunce, tante sacrifici ma il partito mi ha dato molto nel senso che nell’istruzione poi sono andato a fare dei corsi prima brevi poi brevi, poi abbastanza lunghi per cui ho fatto il mio percorso di apprendimento scolastico. Mi sono sposato, tre figli, quattro nipoti, avevamo un, abbiamo rilevato un negozio che era di mio papà ma non andavamo bene, sono entrato [clears throat], sono stato assunto dopo tante peripezie in Comune, perché voglio dire anche questo: ho partecipato a un concorso per agenti daziari e quando sono arrivato agli esami orali per essere ammesso, dopo aver presentato lo scritto, mi è stato detto che non avrei, non sarei mai stato assunto perché, essendo un corpo armato, non potevo accedere a quel posto lì per via di una vecchia legge fascista che impediva di entrare in questo corpo armato agli iscritti al partito comunista, o anche ai figli dei comunisti. Per cui però ho fatto un po’ di lavoro saltuario nelle scuole a sostituire alcuni bidelli ammalati e così via, insomma il comune mi ha sempre tenuto da conto finché poi è venuto il momento, sono entrato nel corpo vigili urbani come tesoriere e ho fatto per ventidue anni il cassiere al comando vigili di Pavia. Ma prima sono stato anche un dirigente della Gioventù Comunista e ho sempre mantenuto queste idee. Purtroppo adesso non c’è più niente, ma ho cercato di educare la mia famiglia a questi ideali e sono stato anche premiato perché sono contento dei miei figli, dei miei nipoti.
FA: Va bene.
TM: E adesso ho davanti un giovane che mi intervista e sono felice di poter rispondere a questo giovane che tra l’altro si è laureato con un personaggio che a me molto caro che è il professor Lombardi e il professor Guderzo.
FA: Tornando un attimo indietro nel, diciamo nel tempo del suo racconto, potrebbe provare a ricordare, a raccontarci quella giornata del 4 settembre?
TM: La giornata del 4 settembre ha dei precedenti. Intanto la guerra è scoppiata nel ‘40 e non so adesso con precisione ma noi da Pavia vedevamo i lampi dei bombardamenti di Milano di notte, Milano è a un tiro di schioppo da qui in linea d’aria, si vedevano i lampi, bombardavano Milano e poi venivamo a sapere che verso il ’42-’43 bombardavano anche i ponti del Po che collegavano Pavia. E noi stavamo su anche, poi per noi era un, cioè era anche bello di notte, stavamo su tra noi gli uomini pochi perché erano tutti alle armi, e allora venivamo a sapere i problemi delle famiglie questa qui, quella là, quello lì, quello là, insomma vedevamo... poi arrivano i cacciabombardieri americani, bombardano la parte nord di Pavia, ma così dei raid, di, due, tre aerei che hanno sganciato alcune bombe e han fatto qualche morto nella zona di Porta Stoppa di Pavia, la parte nord di Pavia. Quindi prima del 4 di settembre Pavia era stata
FA: Già.
TM: Aggredita dai, ma poi noi vedevamo che sull’argine del Ticino la milizia fascista aveva fatto delle postazioni con delle mitragliatrici antiaeree, che poi si sono rivelate in niente, insufficiente, erano giocattoli rispetto al momento, insomma c’erano già delle armi migliori, cioè le avevano i tedeschi, ma queste qui, e noi le vedevamo, noi capivamo che erano mitragliatrici per contrastare gli aerei. E il 4 di settembre c’è un precedente nel senso che due giorni prima a ondate successive queste superfortezze volanti cariche di bombe passavano su Pavia verso il nord, cioè andavano verso Milano, dicevano che andavano in Germania perché Milano non la bombardavano in quel periodo lì.
Interviewee’s wife: Buongiorno.
TM: La mattina di, del 4, mia moglie, ah questo ragazzo pensa Antonia.
AM: Piacere, Antonia.
FA: Filippo, piacere.
TM: C’è acceso. La mattina del 4 di settembre del ’44 mio papà si trovava al di là del fiume perché lavorava in fabbrica. Mia mamma stava cucinando qualcosa. Noi ragazzi quando passavano quegli aerei lì andavamo nel bosco adiacente lungo l’argine del Borgo Ticino per cui dopo che sono passate a ondate successive queste superfortezze volanti è arrivato il bombardamento. È stato un disastro, sembrava la fine del mondo non ci, l’atmosfera era rossa dai mattoni, picchiavamo contro le piante per scappare, insomma. Poi dopo è venuto anche il mitragliamento che è stato micidiale perché ha mitragliato verso la parte est di Pavia. Io come un automa come altri nostri amici ci siamo dispersi e siamo fuggiti verso Travacò, lungo l’argine verso Travacò e io sanguinavo, non me ne accorgevo. Nel pomeriggio ho ritrovato i miei genitori che io non pensavo più. Mio papà si era salvato perché era al di là del fiume. Mia mamma è stata salvata dal crollo, la casa non era completamente crollata, e per cui ci siamo ritrovati alla frazione Battella di Travacò Siccomario io, i miei genitori e tanti altri. Poi naturalmente i nostri genitori, tutti quelli, i borghigiani, cittadini che hanno perso la casa, molti sono arrivati nel comune di Travacò e hanno organizzato qualcosa per, insomma. [background noise] Abbiamo fatto due notti in un fienile, poi dopo siamo arrivati a Travacò e a Mezzano. Il podestà di allora, un certo Bruschi che, pur essendo fascista ci ha molto aiutati, siamo andati nelle scuole di Mezzano e i nostri genitori e tutti gli altri adulti hanno organizzato una mensa, son arrivati i generi alimentari, c’è stato un enorme, una cucina per cuocere i cibi. Dopo una settimana che eravamo lì, un giorno pioveva a dirotto, sono arrivati la Feldgendarmeria tedesca, che sarebbe la polizia militare tedesca, con un sidecar, questi due uomini mettevano paura, grandi, grossi, con questo soprabito di cuoio nero, ci hanno imposto di lasciare immediatamente le scuole e ci siam trovati in mezzo alla strada che pioveva. Eravamo un centinaio, figli, genitori, ma subito è arrivata la solidarietà del paese e ci hanno ricoverato un po’ di qui un po’ di là. Insomma la cosa è andata bene insomma, non c’è stato altro e devo dire che io da ragazzo mi ricordo ho vissuto lì fino, da settembre a due mesi prima della guerra, un paese dove, tenuto conto che mio papà era un segnalato come sovversivo, problemi non ne abbiamo mai avuti, quindi la cosa. Poi la liberazione è giunta che abitavamo già a Pavia.
FA: Ha parlato di generi alimentari.
TM: Sì.
FA: Si ricorda da dove, chi era, non so c’era un ente?
TM: I generi alimentari ce li portava il comune di Pavia.
FA: Ah, il comune di Pavia.
TM: Sì. Però dicevano, io ho saputo, che dovevamo procurarci un mezzo per arrivare da Travacò a Pavia a prender la roba, farina, riso, pasta, no. E questo podestà fascista Bruschi Pierino ha messo a disposizione un carro col cavallo e uno di noi mi ricordo ancora chi era andava a Pavia a prelevare la roba. E sono arrivate anche le brande. Il comune di Pavia ha messo a disposizione le brande e i generi alimentari. Devo dirlo con schiettezza. Cioè, pur nel disastro, il comune di Pavia è stato attento a queste cose.
FA: A queste esigenze. Prima ha detto che lungo gli argini vi erano delle, diciamo delle postazioni antiaeree, delle mitragliatrici.
TM: Sì, sì.
FA: Erano, vi erano soldati italiani o tedeschi?TM: Italiani. Erano quelli della milizia fascista.
FA: Ah, le milizie.
TM: Io, noi li conoscevamo anche perché alcuni abitavano lì vicino. La milizia fascista eran della gente che, la miseria era tanta, l’occupazione era, andavano nella milizia, alcuni andavano per sopravvivere.
FA: Per sopravvivere.
TM: Perché poi portavano a casa il rancio che gli davano in caserma. Io avevo due amici di figli, erano figli di due fascisti che erano nella milizia. E han fatto delle piazzole che adesso nell’argine non si vedono più e hanno piazzato queste mitragliatrici. Noi andavamo là a vederle eh. Erano rivolte verso là.
FA: Verso là.
TM: Però ci hanno detto gli esperti che erano stati a fare il militare che queste mitragliatrici agli aerei americani non gli facevano nulla. Soltanto però qui in questo, più più a nord di questo rione c’era una postazione di antiaerea tedesca, quella lì sì era..
FA: Vicina al cimitero forse.
TM: No, dopo.
FA: Ah, più in là?
TM: Più in alto. Addirittura c’è, lì c’è stato un, c’è uno stele che ricorda un antifascista che è andato a parlamentare con i tedeschi il giorno della liberazione per evitare che, perché loro minacciavano di bombardare tutto, è andato lì a parlamentare con i tedeschi, l’hanno ucciso. C’è ancora lo stele lì, in Piazza, Piazza Fratelli Cervi.
FA: Ah.
TM: Sì. Beh volevo dire che sì, quello che m’ha chiesto lei sulle piazzole erano nell’argine che dal Borgo va al Canarazzo, che va a Carbonara al Ticino, c’erano le piazzole della [laughs]
FA: Ah.
TM: E poi dopo il bombardamento del Ponte della Libertà che chiamavano dell’Impero una arcata è stata centrata dagli aerei americani e han fatto, i tedeschi han fatto il traghetto, traghetto con dei barconi, traghettavano e traghettavano dopo il ponte della ferrovia che era crollato anche lui. E noi andavamo a vedere tutte queste robe qui. Eravamo ragazzi. Il giorno della liberazione eravamo lì. Vedevamo i vigili urbani con la fascia tricolore il 25 di aprile in bicicletta. La città oramai era praticamente in mano agli insorti. I tedeschi si riunivano nel Castello Visconteo d’accordo con le forze partigiane. I fascisti erano scappati, c’era ancora qualcuno che per esempio dalla centrale dell’università un fascista ha sparato, poi è stato preso. E noi abbiam vissuto anche quello, da ragazzi eravamo lì rischiando anche perché c’erano dei proiettili vaganti. Fino al 26 aprile quando sono arrivate le, proprio le formazioni partigiane dell’Oltrepò Pavese dirette. Che poi il professor Lombardi ha fatto un bel libro dove parlavano di queste cose, della missione che i partigiani dell’Oltrepò Pavese hanno fatto, a Dongo hanno, quando hanno catturato Benito Mussolini.
FA: Va bene.
TM: Io le ho vissute con l’entusiasmo dei quindic’anni e non ho mollato più.
FA: Eh sì, quindi eh, poi lei dopo quel il primo bombardamento diciamo che ha subito vi siete spostati a Travacò. Avete continuato ad avere notizie, a vedere i seguenti bombardamenti sul borgo?
TM: No, noi, mia mamma e mio papà venivano, io rimanevo a Travacò venivo naturalmente a vedere di recuperare le cose che c’erano sotto i bombardamenti. Devo tenere conto che mio nonno aveva una bella attività di lavoro. Intanto erano lavandai, lavava la, erano lavandai il nonno e la nonna, avevano i clienti che portavano la biancheria da lavare. E mio nonno aveva un torchio, lo chiamavamo un torchio, era una centrifuga per strizzare i, che poi è venuta la lavatrice, ma era questo enorme cilindro che girava per strizzare i panni delle lavandaie. Anche lì l’abbiamo perso, abbiamo perso cinque barche, abbiamo perso molte reti da pescatori, insomma siamo stati molto danneggiati, siamo rimasti. Poi mio papà si è dato da fare per, come tutti, ricostruirsi una vita, cominciato a fare il commerciante di frutta e verdura e così.
FA: Ha detto che suo papà lavorava dall’altra parte del Ticino.
TM: Lavorava dall’altra parte del Ticino che era la ditta Cercil. Era una ditta specializzata che i tedeschi non la trasferivano in Germania. L’hanno fatto lavorare in Italia. Mio papà era preoccupato perché molti operai specializzati venivano trasferiti in Germania a lavorare per l’industria bellica tedesca. Per fortuna quella fabbrica lì non è stata smontata e ha continuato a lavorare fino agli ultimi giorni di guerra lì. E per io papà era un bel rifugio oltre che posto di lavoro per vivere era, cioè tenuto conto che lui era considerato un sovversivo, come li chiamavano stato mandato al confino sei mesi perché cantavano il primo maggio all’osteria e per lui era una salvezza eh avere un posto di lavoro così. Aveva una tessera per poter fare i turni di notte perché c’era il coprifuoco. Dopo le nove e mezza di sera non si poteva più girare. Se ti prendevano senza documenti venivi fucilato. Io ho vissuto tutte queste robe qui. Andavamo al cinema alle sette di sera perché era l’ultimo spettacolo. Andavamo tutti al cinema per scaldarci perché non avevamo più niente da bruciare in casa. Mancava la legna, mancava tutto.
FA: E la fabbrica di suo papà non è mai stata toccata da nessun bombardamento, nessun danno?
TM: La fabbrica, no, la fabbrica di mio papà si trova vicinissimo il viale lungo il Ticino e si trovava in Via Della Rocchetta. Che adesso han fatto, in quel cortile lì, han fatto abitazioni civili ma era la fabbrica Cerliani che l’altra è più avanti è stata fatta qui al Chiozzo c’è una fabbrica Cerliani.
FA: E producevano?
TM: E producevano filiere, meccanica, meccanica fine, roba non so. Io non sono pratico, non sono mai entrato in una fabbrica. Era proprio. Parlava, papà parlava di ‘ho l’esonero’ cioè non sono esonerato a non andare in Germania con gli operai
FA: Certo.
TM: E perché smantellavano le fabbriche i tedeschi e trascinavano gente in Germania a lavorare. Molti non rientravano più. Beh, da quel punto di vista lì ci è andata bene.
FA: Voglio farle un’altra domanda. Nella zona intorno a casa sua e del borgo, c’erano dei rifugi antiaerei, c’erano?
TM: No, in borgo non c’erano rifugi antiaerei. Noi scappavamo, i boschi dietro a via Milazzo, ancora adesso, c’erano i boschi. C’è il bosco fino a verso Travacò e noi ci [unclear], intanto sì rispetto ai bombardamenti l’abbiam fatta franca però se mitragliavano il bosco non era tanto, ti prendevano. No, a Pavia c’erano delle case, dei palazzi con, io ci sono stato perché andavamo a scuola, con i rifugi antiaerei che con le bombe americane erano, pff! E perché hanno centrato il borgo? Il borgo l’hanno centrato per via del Ponte Vecchio. Perché, se guardiamo bene la mappa di Pavia, i primi due ponti a saltare per aria nettamente sono stati quello delle ferrovie e quello cosiddetto dell’Impero che è Viale della, che è quello della Libertà
FA: Libertà.
TM: Mentre invece il Ponte Vecchio proprio per essere coperto, dalle fotografie inglesi che hanno fatto non veniva fuori netto il ponte, per cui ecco perché la parte di Borgo Ticino ha avuto dei danni con le bombe. Che loro volevano centrare il Ponte Vecchio, l’hanno centrato ma non l’hanno fatto saltare in aria. Ponte Vecchio, quello preromano, quello romano pre spagnolo, non è mai andato giù nettamente come non gli altri ponti. Per cui, no, non c’erano rifugi antiaerei come li ho visti io, in città, nei palazzi, dove si andava in cantina e queste cantine erano sostenute da pali, da travi, sacchetti di sabbia, no, in borgo non c’era niente.
FA: Insomma, ci si doveva arrangiare.
TM: E’ stata una carneficina perché i morti sono stati tanti. Poi è saltata per aria, il bombardamento successivo, la parte della città dove, viale lungo il Ticino, cioè la Via Rezia, che è stata colpita a metà. Lì avevo la nonna e la zia che abitavano lì hanno perso la casa anche loro. Però essendo sui posti di lavoro in un’altra parte si son salvate.
FA: Ho capito. Ehm, lei ha parlato prima del suo rapporto, del rapporto della sua famiglia con quel soldato americano ecco. Nonostante, diciamo il fatto che foste stati bombardati, questo vi ha?
TM: Ah per noi, gli abbiamo accolti con perché poi c’era questa atmosfera, caro giovane. Un po’ i fascisti ironicamente li chiamavano liberatori, tra virgolette, no, ma erano per noi, pur nella disgrazia. La guerra intanto non l’abbiamo, non c’entran niente gli americani, la guerra l’ha voluto il fascismo, per cui, vabbè, la mia famiglia, ma come in tutte le famiglie di gente povera, eravamo ridotti talmente male che aspettavamo gli americani. E devo aggiungere per inciso che noi, in Via Strada Nuova c’è ancora una farmacia che si chiama Farmacia Tonello. Un bel giorno sono arrivati i poliziotti in borghese, sono andati dentro da questo farmacista anziano, adesso vanno avanti i nipoti, e l’hanno arrestato, lo abbiamo saputo dopo, perché ascoltava Radio Londra. Radio Londra, io l’ho sentita, perché mio papà si sintonizzava alla sera c’era questo colonello Stevens che diceva [hums the beginning of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony] ‘Qui è Londra che parla’. Parlava in perfetto italiano e ci, ci aggiornavano. Parlavano anche dell’Armata Rossa che stava avvicinandosi alla Germania e parlavano anche che loro ormai erano arrivati anche in Italia, erano sbarcato giù, sapevamo tutto. E hanno arrestato il farmacista Tonello perché l’hanno colto in flagrante mentre ascoltava Radio Londra.
FA: Radio Londra.
TM: Naturalmente dopo due o tre giorni l’hanno rilasciato, era un uomo vecchio. Anche questo episodio ho sentito. E sì, Radio Londra trasmette. E noi, quel giorno che è arrivato, come detto, questa jeep americana, si è fermata nel piazzale pieno di macerie, eh noi ragazzi eravamo tutti attorno, per noi gli americani, intanto per la prima volta vedevamo gli americani, vedevamo gli inglesi, no. Gli Inglesi avevano nel loro esercito, avevano anche gli indiani col turbante e gli americani, questo americano si chiamava Dino, mi ricordo, non mi va via più dalla mente e per noi, lui, io avevo quindic’anni, questo soldato americano avrà avuto ventidue, ventitre anni, era un ragazzo come noi quasi insomma. Ci ha riempiti di cioccolato. Non potete, voi adesso non potete immaginare la contentezza che aveva il popolo italiano pur nelle macerie, pur, molti morivano di fame eh, perché ho saputo dopo, gli ospedali si sono riempiti perché la gente non mangiava. Io ero considerato uno scheletro. Io mi sono sposato con la mia compagna qui che ero sotto peso. Era il 1957. Ne portavo ancora le conseguenze, del mangiare che non abbiamo fatto. Per cui, loro ci hanno buttato giù la casa ma per noi ci hanno liberato.
FA: OK. Dopo.
TM: Viva gli alleati!
FA: Dopo il bombardamento del 4, è, ehm è tornato su in borgo o?
TM: Certo [emphasises], ci vado quasi tutti i giorni. Ho ancora qualche amico ma il più è il posto e naturalmente il territorio di Travacò. [pause] Ogni martedì, con i due o tre amici che ho ancora, andiamo in un’osteria di Travacò, non tanto per mangiare, possiamo mangiare anche a casa no, ma tanto per trovarci.
FA: Ho capito. Ehm, può descriverci le devastazioni diciamo che ha subìto, le devastazioni che ha subìto il borgo?
TM: Dunque, prima di tutto io ho saputo, dopo, dopo quella mattina del quattro di settembre del ’44, siamo fuggiti, siamo fuggiti, siamo scappati, un po’ di qui, un po’ di là, come ho ricordato prima, a Travacò, ma i bombardamenti si sono susseguiti. C’è stato una carneficina perché poi la gente si spostava verso San Martino. Presente Via Dei Mille? E sono andati in un tunnel che attraversava la strada e questo tunnel è dalle parti di, via sempre di Via Dei Mille, all’altezza di Strada Persa. C’era questo tunnel e la gente, per loro era diventato un tunnel antiaereo. Molta gente è andato dentro in questo tunnel. Alcune bombe sono arrivate anche lì, ma non perché hanno saltato, hanno bucato la strada, una bomba è esplosa ai lati del tunnel, c’è stata una carneficina nel Borgo.
FA: Lo spostamento d’aria.
TM: Sì, il piazzale attuale del borgo è stato tutto distrutto, chi lo vede adesso vede le case recentissime, solo la parte sinistra andando in là dove c’era la farmacia erano rimaste le vecchie case, per il resto son tutte nuove. Abbiamo perso degli amici lì, molti amici, ci giocavamo assieme. Nel mio cortile ci son stati dodici morti di anziani e gente appena arrivata. Ma la parte centrale [emphasises] del Borgo Ticino, cioè all’imboccatura del ponte vecchio, che c’è il piazzale che si chiama Ferruccio Ghinaglia, lì ho perso quattro o cinque ragazzi della mia età, non ci sono più, son rimasti lì. Per cui il borgo è, c’è un monumento lungo il Ticino voluto da un mio carissimo amico che adesso non c’è più, Calvi Agostino, che continuiamo a raccontare un po’ di cose sul calendario della AVIS tutti gli anni raccontiamo qualcosa del borgo, tutto lì. Naturalmente la Via Milazzo è stata salvata, salvo [emphasis] il mio cortile. Il mio cortile è stato l’ultimo a essere colpito da quella parte lì. Tutta la parte che va giù verso il Ticino si è salvata. Purtroppo noi siamo scappati, io non ho fatto più ritorno fin quando i miei genitori han trovato casa in città e anche lì un po’ ho stretto amicizia con i giovani del paese e mi ricordo, mia mamma aspettava mia sorella, che è molto più giovane di me e andavamo naturalmente siccome vivevamo in una stanza unica, meno male, era una stanza sia per dormire che per mangiare per cui, mentre mio papà era al lavoro, io e mia mamma andavamo in un’osteria a prenderci il cibo già pronto che ci cucinava per noi. Era bello insomma, vivevamo tranquilli in quel paese lì, trovavamo più da mangiare che non prima perché la campagna, insomma se ti dai da fare insomma, se hai i mezzi eh, perché se non hai i mezzi non c’è niente.
FA: Lei l’ha visto Pippo?
TM: Pippo, Pippo bombardava di notte. Bastava accendere un fiammifero che magari ti colpiva. Proprio davanti al mio cortile, se posso darti del tu no? Il mio intervistatore, come ti chiami di nome?
FA: Filippo.
TM: Filippo, ecco, caro Filippo, vai a fare un giro dopo. All’inizio di Via Milazzo, c’è il numero 9, è il mio cortile.
FA: Ah.
TM: Che ancora qualche fuori [muro] perimetrale, ancora la vecchia casa ristrutturate, dentro è tutto nuovo, perché è saltato per aria. Lì era il posto dove con le barche partivano di notte per andare a pescare. Caricavano le reti, erano sempre sei barche eh. Perché non era come il mare. Gettavano le reti nel fiume ma tiravano stando a terra gli,
FA: Ah.
TM: Per cui avevano bisogno di tanta manodopera, no. E avevano una lanterna, una lanterna a petrolio. È arrivato Pippo, ha lanciato uno spezzone, ha ucciso un uomo che, con un papà di un mio amico. Pippo ha colpito anche l’imbarcadero che adesso c’è dove c’è il ristorante Bardelli?
Fa: Sì.
TM: Lì c’era l’imbarcadero Negri. Pippo ha colpito anche lì. E devo dire che in una giornata bellissima come quella di ieri, a Travacò ero, ritornavamo da Pavia, io, mia mamma e mio papà che eravamo stati in prefettura a prendere qualcosa, ci davano un po’ di sostentamento, tutto a piedi eh. C’era un ricognitore inglese, un bimotore, che era talmente basso che si vedevano le figure degli uomini che c’erano dentro nella carlinga. E a volo radente eh. Noi ci siamo, ah beh la paura era tanta perché mitragliavano. A Cava Manara hanno mitragliato un corteo funebre, hanno mitragliato proprio il carro funebre. E non so, erano convinti che era una manifestazione di fascisti [laughs] o di tedeschi, vabbè e noi, si aveva paura anche di questi aerei che poi risultava un ricognitore. Sono quelli che facevano le fotografie, sempre inglesi erano. E quel ricognitore me lo ricordo sempre, una bestia sopra di noi, abbiam visto le figure degli uomini perché il bimotore aveva la carlinga senza motore, i due motori erano, sì, mi ricordo anche questo.
FA: Li avete visti quindi distintamente.
TM: Sì, li abbiamo visti benissimo e ci siamo scansati, ci siamo buttati giù a lato, io, mia mamma e mio papà. Eh sì, poi io ho sempre avuto paura di, sono rimasto scioccato. Andavo a nascondermi nei fossi asciutti del Travacò, uscivo sempre, io avevo il terrore di stare in casa fino a quando poi mi è passato ed è finita la guerra [laughs].
FA: Ho capito. Senta le faccio una domanda che...
TM: Sono qua.
FA: C’entra diciamo relativamente meno con il discorso che stavamo facendo. Lei nel ’48 era già all’interno del Partito Comunista?
TM: Ero già all’interno, devo dire che nel Partito Comunista il giorno della liberazione erano il 40, 25-26, i partigiani sono arrivati il 26-27, naturalmente si ballava si, c’era una grande confusione anche, il, ho visto, han portato un carico di fascisti che hanno fucilato in Piazza d’Italia, era la mattina del primo maggio o due maggio. E io, come ragazzo, ho aiutato, ho detto: ’ cià, vedete in Corso Mazzini, venite, venite aiutarci’, c’era un carretto dallo studio dell’avvocato Sinforiani che poi è stato eletto senatore della Repubblica trasferito un sacco di roba, cartacea no, dentro nelle casse con questo carretto del fruttivendolo li abbiam portati in Broletto. Il Broletto, bel palazzo eh, è stato occupato sia dai comunisti che dai socialisti, primo piano i comunisti, secondo piano i socialisti. Io naturalmente sono andato lì e ho partecipato a questo trasloco di documenti da Corso Mazzini e da allora sono entrato al Broletto aiutando questi partigiani che portavano la roba lì, si è instaurata la federazione comunista. Da allora ho frequentato, perché mio papà è diventato ambulante con un banco fisso di frutta e verdura in piazza, proprio di fronte al Broletto per cui vivevo lì e non ho mollato più. E allora non era ancora rinata la Federazione Giovanile Comunista perché è rinata nel ’49, io ho partecipato alla costituzione perché ero lì. Nel partito comunista se non avevi sedici anni non ti prendevano
FA: Ah!
ed eri considerato membro candidato, io ho ancora i documenti, e dovevi essere presentato da tre persone adulte perché allora la maggiore età si aveva a ventuno anni. Ma nel partito ti prendevano a sedici anni come membro candidato e ti davano la tessera ma eri oggetto di indagini, da dove venivi, chi eri e. Questo è importante. E sì, l’ho avuta, ma nel ’46, nel ’45 no, ero lì senza tessera. Ma avevamo il Fronte della Gioventù, che era un’organizzazione nata nella resistenza fatta di giovani liberali cattolici, comunisti, socialisti, era il Fronte della Gioventù. E abbiamo occupato i locali della ex-GIL, che adesso c’è il comando vigili di Pavia,
FA: Ah, sì.
TM: Là dalla curva. Sì siamo andati lì, abbiamo organizzato anche la balera, facevamo ballare, dappertutto si faceva ballare allora. Poi naturalmente noi eravamo comunisti. E nel ’48 ho partecipato al, alla battaglia elettorale che, la battaglia elettorale era una roba, bisognerebbe parlarne bene di queste robe, era una battaglia con i manifesti che la Democrazia Cristiana ci batteva tutti. Andavano ad attaccare i manifesti anche sotto le grondaie per via che loro avevano le scale delle chiese, è importante!
FA: Quindi belle lunghe.
TM: Lunghissime, che noi non avevamo. Noi potevamo al limite arrivare a tre metri. E poi loro avevano più mezzi.
FA: Bene.
TM: Ho partecipato a questa battaglia. Mi ricordo che il primo, abbiamo fatto una roba che, una roba da giovani. Il partito comunista ha fatto un bellissimo manifesto ‘Quo Vadis, dove vai, o Signore?’ e l’abbiamo messo sotto il portone del vescovado nottetempo. Però siamo stati individuati ma non siamo stati presi in flagrante e poi dopo ce l’han fatta pagare per il lancio dei volantini nei cinema. Si andava in guardina una notte, a lanciare i volantini nei cinema non autorizzati [emphasises] ti beccavano, andavi in guardina fin domani mattina.
[Doorbell rings]
TM: Tonia, guarda un po’. E, bisogna ricordarle queste cose, ai manifesti,
Unknown speaker: Chi è?
TM: il partito mi mandava in questura a portare i manifesti, bisognava metter la marca da bollo e venivano listati.
TM: Chi è?Ormai ci pensa lei, eh.
Unknown speaker: La signora Casella
TM: Venivano listati, bisognava andare in questura, allora c’erano le marche da bollo. Poi il partito mi mandava senza essere funzionario andavo con la corriera che si chiamava la Lombarda a .Milano con i soldi nella borsa a prendere le tessere. Era dove c’è la Mediobanca a Milano c’era l’Alto Commissariato Altitalia che per tutta l’Italia settentrionale c’erano le tessere e i bollini del partito e bisognava andare là con i contanti e prendere, a fare i prelevamenti, mandavano me che avevo diciotto anni, diciannove anni. Poi sono diventato funzionario del partito. Poi ho smesso quando non ne potevo più. Non si mangiava perché il partito, sì esisteva la cifra dello stipendio ma che non vedevamo mai e fin quando ero solo tiravo ma poi dovevo sposarmi e ho dovuto, non uscire dal partito ma non fare più il funzionario, lavorare con mio papà a vendere la frutta e la verdura per poi andare in Comune a lavorare.
FA: Va bene.
TM: Altro, io sono sempre a disposizione.
FA: Va bene allora la ringraziamo per questa intervista.
TM: Che cognome hai?
FA: Andi.
TM: Anni?
FA: Andi.
TM: Andi. E Filippo.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Tullio Magnani
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
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 coupons, while working as a shop boy for a well-known antifascist. Remembers being an eye-witness to the bombing of Milan from Pavia. Retells of a machine gun being set up by fascists on the Ticino river bank, which proved ineffective against allied aircraft. Mentions the strafing of a funeral procession at the Cava Manara municipality carried out by what was thought to be a spotter aircraft. Remembers 'Pippo' bombing at night and targeting the fishermens wharf. Stressing how, during the intense bombing and strafing of Pavia on 4 September when they lost everything, the local fascist authority of Travacò municipality was very helpful in providing them with cots, food and lodgings in a school. Mentions wartime episodes: people seeking refuge in a tunnel used as a makeshift shelter and the carnage that ensued from the bombing, a chemist being arrested for being caught red-handed listening to Radio London, how some driven by poverty and hunger, joined the fascist guards and resorted to going to the cinema before the curfew to find a warm place to stay. Explains how Pavia’s old bridge, unlike the other two which were hit, was not hit by the bombers because it was not clearly visible in the reconnaissance photographs taken from aircraft. Describes the celebrations at the end of the war and reflects on the duality of bombers / liberators. Remembers seeing for the first time an American soldier called Dino, who gave them a soap crate as a gift for washing his laundry. Mentions post war acts of revenge, his role in the local branch of the communist party, the 1948 general election, and how he did not get a job as a tax collector because of his political persuasion.
Creator
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Filippo Andi
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-03
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Format
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00:52:11 audio recording
Language
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ita
Identifier
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AMagnaniT170303
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Italy--Po River Valley
Italy--Milan
Italy--Pavia
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-09-04
1948
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
home front
Pippo
Resistance
shelter
strafing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/74/736/ABisioG-MascherpaT170308.1.mp3
337d6cd7833eb21a9f2125039c266f3c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bisio, Gabriella and Mascherpa, Teresa
Gabriella Bisio and Teresa Mascherpa
G Bisio and T Mascherpa
Description
An account of the resource
The collection consists of a dual oral history interview with Gabriella Bisio and and Teresa Mascherpa who recollect their wartime experiences in Pavia.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-08
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Mascherpa, T; Bisio, G
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Sono Filippo Andi e sto per intervistare la signora Gabriella Bisio e la signora Teresa Mascherpa. Siamo a Pavia, è l’8 marzo 2017. Ringraziamo le signore per aver permesso quest’intervista. È inoltre presente all’intervista il signor Maggi. La sua intervista registrata diventerà parte dell’archivio digitale dell’International Bomber Command Centre, gestito dall’Università di Lincoln e finanziato dall’Heritage Lottery Fund. L’università s’impegna a preservarla, [background noise] l’Università s’impegna a preservarla e tutelarla secondo i termini stabiliti nel partnership agreement con l’International Bomber Command Centre. Signora Gabriella, vuole raccontarci la sua esperienza del periodo di guerra, insomma?
GB: Le racconto che all’età di sette, otto anni, nove, quelle che l’è, partivo da sola dalla casa perché ero terrorizzata dai bombardamenti e andavo in una cascina nei dintorni all’Acquanegra.
AM: Sì, infatti.
GB: la cascina dei grandi, partivo il mattino, tornavo la sera. Nessun sbuieva no in ca’ mia perché non si andava da nessuna parte. Niente, la fame perché ho mangiato anche il latte con le patate perché non c’era il pane, la fila per poter avere magari il pacchettino di sale perché e poi tutto quello che si vedeva perché ad esempio mio papà lavorava in una cartiera Burgo, non ha mai voluto prendere la tessera.
AM: Del fascio.
GB: dei fascisti così e combinazione vuole, doveva essere portato via, dove li portavano a. Il giorno che doveva essere portato via è stato il giorno che è finito tutto il trambusto della guerra. Spariti anche di lì. Poi mi ricordo che c’erano i tedeschi nel piazzale del borgo, Piazzale Ghinaglia e si stavano arrendendo perché oramai erano e uno della compagnia tedesca si è portato avanti con le mani alzate, è stato ucciso dai compagni dietro. Tutti ricordi non belli. Poi, non lo so, la vita [unclear] ah, non è finita lì. Ehm, cos’erano i fascisti, tedeschi, chi l’è cl’è can mis tut al rob li dentar?
TM: Quello lì era un momento.
GB: Delle guerre.
TM: Alla fine guerre quando si ritiravano i tedeschi. La mitragliatrice [unclear].
GB: Giù c’è una paninoteca, qui, qui, sempre stato e han portato tutti.
TM: Mitragliatrici qui davanti all’entrata perché passavano da là per la statale.
GB: Sì, e han messo tutti armi e bagaj per sparare se arrivavano i.
TM: Davanti a una casa.
GB: il mio suocero insomma si è fatto risenti ma niente fare, spaventi anche li. Voi dov’è che andavate a prendere il pane?
TM: A Robecco.
GB: Robecco.
TM: C’era il pane, c’era.
GB: Perché loro.
TM: In bicicletta.
GB: Erano in una situazione diversa un po’ dalla mia. [unclear] Tra le disgrazie, ma varda quas chi, ciapa da li, scapa da là. Ciumbia abbiam fatto la fame.
AM: Invece Zina cioè andava.
TM: No num ndavam [unclear].
AM: No andava da Robecco in bicicletta.
TM: In bicicletta. Per prendere il pane per una settimana. I micconi. Il pane non c’era.
GB: Poi ha nascosto anche gente, gh’era chi nascost Muzzo, tla cunüsat, tlè conosü.
AM: Nascondevano anche gente come, come quelli che la dicevano che andavano nella cascina e là loro si nascondevano.
I: [unclear]
AM: Perché allora non c’erano tutte queste case.
TM: No, no.
AM: Allora c’erano, erano in fondo al borgo c’erano.
GB: Al tempo dei partigiani.
AM: Ma quand i bumbardavan vialtar scapavat o no?
GB: [unclear] Antonio, io no. Io ero sempre in quella cascina lì. Ah no, ti dirò un’altra cosa. Che poi avevamo preso l’abitudine, quando suonava l’allarme, si andava in quel rifugio che c’è, prendeva giù dall’Acquanegra. Quel rifugio lì. Quel giorno là c’era l’esumazione di qualche parente nostro. E allora con mia mamma, Gigi e Giovanni siamo andati al cimitero. Han bombardato, proprio preso quel punto.
AM: Quella volta, che ti diceva Piero quando hanno preso la tomba che ha fatto 90 morti.
TM: Tomba [unclear]
GB: Han proprio preso quel punto lì.
TM: I bombardamenti più brutti sono stati per il ponte vecchio perché.
GB: Che sbagliavano.
TM: Il ponte della ferrovia [unclear] Due volte sono andati giù. Ma questi qui tutte le volte
AM: Sì, in più quello che diceva.
TM: E han bombardato [unclear].
GB: Sbagliavano le posizioni. E anche quella volta lì, allora c’era già la passerella. Gh’era giamò un quaicos ca’ quadreva no. Fatto sta che ricordo ancora la scena. Perché naturalmente mio papà era al lavoro. Sentendo tutto e sapendo, memore che magari si andava lì, guarda. Noi tornavamo.
TM: Quel bombardamento lì l’ha centrà e l’è ndai giù anca mes Burg.
GB: Noi tornavamo dal cimitero, ci siamo visti sul ponte, lui tornava dal borgo. Non so dirti la scena quando ci ha visti perché il pensiero da ved pü una famiglia, vedasla davanti Tu ti ricordi che.
FA: Quindi si ricorda quando hanno bombardato?
GB: Eh questo no. Quand’è che l’è stat fiöi?
TM: Hanno bombardato.
AM: No le date, cioè un mese.
GB: Sì, sì, sì. No, no, no, no. Eh, noi eravamo dalla parte opposta del cimitero.
AM: Eran dall’altra parte del Ticino.
GB: Lì è stato un disastro, che roba. Vedere portavano via i morti, i feriti, la maniera ch’ieran, con la barelle di legno. Bisognava. Scene strazianti addirittura. No, no, è stato.
AM: E vialtar quand i bumbardevan, vialtar, erano qua a duecento metri da [unclear].
GB: Sì, sì, sì.
TM: [unclear ]A guardà in alt par ved, perché per, qui c’erano i, si fermavano i pullman che con l’allarme si sono fermati qui. I bombardamenti sono andati tutti nel rifugio lì. E sono rimasti sotto.
GB: E sono rimasti sotto tutti.
AM: Comunque tu pensa che a distanza di tempo, adesso te lo dico, c’era lì della Carminuti no, che han trovato un cadavere che praticamente era stato sbalzato in aria, era caduto sopra il tetto, aveva sfondato il tetto e non se n’era accorto nessuno, dalla puzza han rinvenuto il cadavere.
GB: Un po’ dappertutto anche quei che era stai bumbardà ] non c’erano più integri, erano tutti
AM: A pezzi.
GB: Immagini. Che robe ch’è stat li.
FA: Quindi hanno bombardato un rifugio vicino al ponte?
AM: No, qua, qua avanti.
GB: A metà abbondante.
AM: Quattro, trecento metri indietro da qua, che era distante dal ponte perché avevano sbagliato.
FA: Perché avevano sbagliato, sì.
GB: A metà borgata.
TB: Siccome forse era, c’era una curva li, fasivan fatiga.
AM: Non tenevano conto del Ticino.
TM: Facevano fatica a centrarlo il ponte vecchio e l’hanno bombardato due o tre volte.
GB: E poi c’era Pippo. C’era Pippo che rompeva le scatole tutte le notti. Non so no un mo’ ades, qual’era la sua funzione, so no un mo’ ades. Tutte le notti girava.
TM: Però un paio di volte ha bombardato la cascina Lignazza li, perché ieran andai int i camp , le bombe.
AM: Lui se vedeva magari qualche movimento, qualche cosa così, lasciava una bomba.
GB: L’unica cosa è che quando si andava fuori per non essere proprio sotto le case, andavamo quei prati li sempre giù dl’Aquanegra e mia mamma, e mia mamma si portava dietro il paiolo per fare la polenta. Oh Madonna, da mettere in testa, così se magari succedeva che bombardavano, mitragliavano, almeno la testa era salva. Di quelle cose che adesso ci ride magari a raccontarle ma allora no.
FA: Quindi c’era grande, c’era forte paura insomma.
TM: Altrochè.
GB: Forte paura, altroché. Forte paura e poi c’era il terrore di tutto. Perché anche per i giovani. Perché poi io avevo due zii, fratelli di mio papà, che erano fascisti fascistoni [emphasis] proprio. Gente che facevano del bene eh. Infatti quando è finita la guerra, nessuno li ha insultati, nessuno, Perché allora loro vivevano dentro la caserma, sul viale, e davano da mangiare a tutti quelli che andavano a cercarlo. Poi avevo uno zio, fratello di mia mamma, contro completamente, Angelo. E quindi avevamo anche un po’ di.
AM: Ma Tunon l’era, Tunon.
GB: Eh.
AM: L’era parente de tu ziu.
GB: Tunon chi l’è? [unclear].
AM: Al papà ad.
GB: Manuela?
AM: No. Bosi.
GB: Quel Bosi l’era me ziu.
AM: Quel che lui l’è partì, lui è partito, era appena sposato.
GB: Sì.
AM: E sua moglie era incinta, l’han fatto prigioniero in Albania, no. Poi è andato a finire in Egitto, prigioniero in Egitto, è tornato nel ’46, che suo figlio quanti anni che aveva? Aveva sei o sette anni. Non aveva mai visto suo papà no?.
GB: No, ah, l’è, ti te dre parlà del Mino?
AM: Del Mino, sì.
GB: Ah, Tunon disevi Angelo [unclear]?
AM: No, perché al ciamevan Tunon so papà.
Gb: No è il papà del Mino.
AM: Sì, il papà del Mino se ciama.
GB: È suo sio Piero.
AM: Suo sio Piero.
GB: Tornato che era più lui, perché sentire quello che racconntava, lo mettevano su una scala ripide e po’ ag devan un punton e al la fevan borlà giù , lo faseva andar giù. Delle cose.
AM: Gli inglesi l’avevan catturato perché lui era partito addirittura prima della guerra.
GB: Sì, sì.
AM: Per la guerra d’Albania, no.
Gb: Sì, sì, è stato in Albania.
AM: E l’han fatto prigioniero in Albania. L’han fatto prigioniero in Albania, lui non è più, era il ’46, cioè non il, era il ’38, ’39, robe del genere. Lui non è più tornato, s’era perso, quando è partito era, s’era sposato da poco, no.
GB: Sì. Era partito che non era più lui. Lü giamò al la ciamevan Tunon.
AM: [unclear], perché sì.
GB. Povero.
GB: Ritorno, e poi mi ricordo un’altra scena che non so se può essere importante o no. Che un giorno hanno schierato Angelo, non ricordo il nome degli altri tre, davanti alla caserma dei carabinieri. E i fascisti dall’altra parte pronti ad ucciderli. E varda s’eri una fiületina propi giuina ca vadivi tut chi rob li. Poi non so come mai le cose son cambiate e insomma si son salvati.
FA: D’accordo.
AM: Che poi qua, diseva Piero, che chi g’era un pustament ad contraerea giù all’Acquanegra.
GB: Si altroché.
TM: Sì.
GB: Ma n’era dappertutto, Antonio. Dappertutto n’era.
AM: E sparavano ogni tant quai li?
GB: Si sentiva il botto dappertutto. Quand han trai giù, che han bombardà il ponte.
TM: Si qual li l’è stat, bombardamenti più... spaventoso.
AM: Però non sono mai sfollati perché abitavano già in fondo il borgo. Cioè scappavano nelle campagne e nelle cascine basta [unclear].
GB: Fuori che almeno le case non cadevano in testa, ecco.
FA: Eravate un po’ più lontani insomma.
GB: Ma si pensava a un fatto del genere invece. Eh lì c’è gente che han perso figli e non figli, in particolare in quel rifugio lì. Era l’unic ca’ gh’era chi in Burg in borgo.
AM: Grosso.
TM: Chi I pensavan ac l’era al püsè sicur.
Fa: E lei invece era da questa parte di qua del borgo, quando?
TM: Anche quello lì da questa parte ma è più in là, più vicino al ponte diciamo.
AM: Sì, no, le Gina quand i bumbardevan l’era da chi.
GB: Non si è mai mossa [laughs].
TM: No, ma anca li me cas fa ndevi in tla stra da la giu li nei campi.
FA: E l’ha visto? Che cosa si ricorda di quelle giornate, di quella giornata lì insomma?
GB: Eh, un trambusto che non finiva più.
TM: Mah, forse niente. Una visione che non si può descrivere.
GB: No, non si può descrivere.
TM: Perché non riesci ad abbassare la testa, guardat sempar in su , con la testa in giù guardi anca li [unclear].
GB: Vabbè che c’è gente che ha perso proprio tutta la famiglia, eh.
AM: Sì, ma le la diseva, vialtar guardevav I bomb ca’ nieva giù? .
GB: [unclear] Si s’eram propi chi, at ia vedevat a grapul chi nievan giù, proprio che scendevano [mimics sound].
TM: Mia mamma la scappava magari in casa. La gneva no föra la steva in ca’ e mi s’eri li a guardà, ne mur ne nient e specie quas chi il Ponte dell’Impero è andato giù.
AM: Ma quel che ha bombardà la tombina, vialtar iv vust la nivula, av ricurdè subit o no?
GB: Io non le ho viste perché non ero in borgo.
TM: No guardevi propi püsè in la dal pont proprio che sei in là adesso.
AM: Quindi anche loro non se ne sono resi conto subito.
[background noise]
GB: Aveva dei lati comici magari anche.
FA: Quindi insomma una grande confusione. Non si riesce a descrivere.
TM: A descrivere non riesco.
GB: No. Io l’unica cosa che mi ricordo è che tornando dal cimitero tutte sti barelle, sul coso che li portavano non si sa dove, morti, non morti.
FA: Quindi è arrivata insomma dopo che era successo, ecco.
AM: E anche lei che era qua non si è resa conto subito, vedeva venire giù le bombe.
TM: Polvere, fumo, perché po anca frequenti le bombe, una da dre a l’altra.
Gb: Un grappolo, un altro grappolo, venivan giù, me delle.
TM: Più brutto è stato questo qui, il ponte vecchio. L’altro.
GB: Ma hanno sbagliato un paio di volte a prenderlo.
TM: Oh, quas chi si.
GB: Eh! Il ponte dell’impero era più vivo, era più.
TM: Ponte delle ferrovie, il primo bombardamento.
AM: È andato giù.
TM: Quello dell’impero, due volte son venuti per.
GB: Ma chi più sè?
TM: E chi ien gni tre o quattre volte. L’ultima volta, un disastro.
GB: Disastro generale.
TM: Perché forse gh’evam un età che capivam un po’.
AM: Si capiva propi no un mo’ ben.
TM: In che manera l’era.
Gb: Ti dico che mi a vundes ann l’era finì la guerra. Unidici anni.
GB: Anche se po’ ghe gent che as ie fai i danè.
AM: [unclear]
GB: Eh?
AM: Lo diseva anche Piero [laughs].
GB: Poi c’è gente che.
TM: Quando è finita la guerra han fat i Carneval.
GB: Sì.
TM: Andà in gir con una gabbia con dentar i.
GB: La storia [clears throat] a quan ievan impost da met, i due palloni in alto.
TM: Qual li l’è prima l’è il Duce, quando l’è passà il Duce, ha fatto l’inaugurazione dela Lupa .
GB: Ah d’la casa dla Lupa . E hanno imposto a mio suocero di abbellire un po’ la casa perché passava di qua. E l’abbellimento l’è stato. Ma.
TM: C’era, era metà che sembrava un gabinetto, un servizio. Allora l’hanno dovuto allungarlo, fare una specie di terrazzo con i palloncini di sopra perché passava il Duce . Ma è prima della guerra. [pause]
GB: Avete voi qualche domanda da fare? Dai, iutes.
FA: Vabbe’ quindi allora quello è stato il primo bombardamento. Invece dei bombardamenti che sono venuti dopo? Ne avete visto qualcuno?
AM: No. Noi.
GB: Quello lì.
AM: Ma loro hanno visto quelli del ponte, scappavano poi dopo.
TM: Sì, sì, del ponte là e basta. Am ricordi nanca se ien gnu a bumbardà.
AM: No, ma quelli ien quei del ponte, po g’era Pippo, gli altri.
TM: Gh’era Pippo cl’era sempar in gir.
GB: All’inisi dal Burg a bas l’è ndai giù anca lü.
AM: Sì, sì, sì, là del teatro Bordoni, la cooperativa.
GB: Andà giù tut.
AM: Eh ma il burg, fino a quasi alla chiesa l’èra andà giù tutti, Indè ca gh’era Gavassi al gh’eva al deposit di strass che è bruciato, è andato a bruciare avanti non so per quanti giorni perché lì c’era il deposito degli stracci, c’era uno che faceva proprio la raccolta degli stracci.
GB: Inde ca gl’aviva?
AM: Li atacà ai scol
TM: Ma li l’è indè ca stava , ma lu l’era chi da Sfross.
GB: Dopu atacà.
TM: chi nde gh’era l’edicula.
Gb: Ma lè ndai subit li?
AM: No li gh’è ndai dopu, Sì perché lu andava lì dove se i scole.
TM: Ah li ghe ndai dopu la guera?
AM: I la che stava lu con la ca’ Che lì l’è andai avanti a brusa non so per quanto tempo perché alcune bombe, cioè, non è che le bombe han colpito la chiesa, sono arrivate vicino alla chiesa, perché era caduto anche un pezzo di navata della chiesa.
TM: E sempre nel bombardamento per il ponte.
AM: Sempre per il ponte. C’era, sempre una di quelle volte che hanno sbagliato a bombardare perché non hanno sbagliato, cioè hanno sbagliato diverse volte. Cioè, il massimo è stato quando hanno sbagliato che hanno preso la Tombina che proprio erano fuori però altre volte, sempre per il discorso della curva, loro sbagliavano e beccavano il borgo, le case del borgo. Una volta hanno beccato anche le case appena fuori dal ponte città vecchia. Han beccato anche lì, dove adesso c’è la cremeria e così, no. Una volta hanno sbagliato perché probabilmente sono stati più di là e hanno buttato giù le case anche di là, dove adesso hanno costruito tutte quelle case nuove.
GB: si perché il ponte lo han rifatto.
GB: Ma non come prima [unclear], Prima era più curvo e adesso.
AM: Sì, l’hanno fatto un po’ più in giù.
TM: L’han spustà, l’han spustà.
GB: Perché lì nel piazzale c’erano gli alberghi, di Ferrari, gh’era tut.
TM: Al ciclista atacà al pont.
GB: Andàt giu tut.
TM: Antonio, l’ha vüst no nanca lü [unclear].
AM: No abbiamo visto in fotografie e senti quei c’am cuntan ialtar.
GB: Antonio l’è giuin eh dai.
AM: Che me contava mio ziu, me contava mio papà.
GB: Antonio da chi a dü dì al cumpisa no ottantaquattr’anni. [laughs]
AM: [laughs]
GB: [laughs] Te capì?
AM: Sì, sì, sì.
FA: Va bene.
GB: Basta così?
FA: Va bene.
GB: Mi dispiace che forse anche un po’ l’età che non siamo più.
FA: Ci mancherebbe.
TM: Non ci ricordiamo più.
FA: Ci mancherebbe. Va bene, vi ringraziamo allora per questa intervista.
GB: Facciamo il caffé?
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
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 emphasises how her father refused to join the fascist party and how the war ended the day he was about to be deported. They recount various wartime episodes: a German soldier in the act of surrendering being shot in the back by his comrades, harrowing scenes of bodies carried away on wooden stretchers, and acts of kindness by fascist relatives, 'Pippo' bombing at night, anti-aircraft batteries positioned in the city and the accidental bombing of a church and houses near the old bridge which was the actual target.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Filippo Andi
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-08
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Format
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00:18:48 audio recording
Language
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ita
Identifier
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ABisioG-MascherpaT170308
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy
Italy--Po River Valley
Italy--Pavia
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Gabriella Bisio and Teresa Mascherpa
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
childhood in wartime
home front
Pippo
shelter
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/86/785/MBeltonSLS190305-151120-06.1.pdf
e7c71deb7538b8617ef5f2c4eef1a394
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Belton, Spencer Lewis
Spencer Lewis Belton
Spencer Lewis Smith Belton
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Belton, SLS
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. Photographs, correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning Sergeant Spencer Lewis Belton (1919 - 1940, 581261 Royal Air Force). Spencer Lewis Belton flew as an observer/ bomb aimer with 144 Squadron from RAF Hemswell. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after an operation to Wilhelmshaven in July 1940 and was interviewed about it by the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was killed 10/11 August 1940 when his Hampden P4368 crashed in the Netherlands, during an operation to Homberg. <br /><br />Additional information on Spencer Lewis Belton is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/101634/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Denise Carr and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-20
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] AIR LOG [/underlined]
[underlined] The Wing Commander introducing a Sergeant Observer[/underlined]
Forces Programme, Tuesday, 30th. July, 1940, 6.30-6.40 p.m.
W/Cdr Good evening Forces.
Now that the war in the air seems to be on in earnest it’s amazing – and pretty cheering – to see the amount of punishment our planes can take – and get away with. Time after time our aircraft have been getting home safely after being badly shot up over Germany. It speaks well for British workmanship and British material – and for America’s too for that matter.
Tonight you are to hear a story of a bomber which by all ordinary rules of the game should now be scattered in small pieces somewhere over Germany. This aircraft was nearly shot to bits long before it even reached its target; it was only the skill and determination of the pilot and the crew that made it possible for the job to be carried out successfully. When the bomber arrived home it was riddled with bullet holes and looked like a Gruyere cheese – tattered and torn almost beyond recognition
It’s the navigator of this aircraft – a Sergeant Observer from Essex – who is going to [inserted] tell [/inserted] you the story.
Here he is …
Serg. [sic] Ob: Yes, we left our base in an aircraft that was in perfect condition. When we returned the ground staff almost
[page break]
2.
Gasped when they saw the mess were [sic] were in.
Our target that night was Wilhelmshaven, which is the main North Sea base of the German fleet. You can easily imagine how well defended it is. We started our journey serenely enough. There was a moon and plenty of broken cloud which at times seemed to make patterns on the sea. We didn’t see anything out at sea – no. I’m wrong. We did. We saw a large British convoy. The night before I had read an enemy report which claimed they had successfully blockaded the East Coast. Seeing is believing. That convoy certainly gave the lie to the enemy propaganda.
Well, we passed over the convoy, across the enemy’s coast- line and for quite a while met no opposition at all, but when we were about half way between the coastline and Wilhelmshaven we got a slight foretaste of what was in store for us. A few shells began to come our way. They didn’t worry us unduly as we know how to avoid that sort of stuff.
We flew on quite serenely till we got to Emden – with 30 miles still to go. It was at Emden that the fun started. Shells came whizzing up at us from all directions. They began to get very close and made the aeroplane rock about all over the place. One shell went right through the starboard wing. It knocked us about a bit, the aircraft stood it well and we carried on to Wilhelmshaven.
[page break]
3.
I think perhaps, at this stage, I ought to explain that [underlined] I [/underlined] sit right in the nose of the aircraft and have quite the best view of any member of the crew. In front of me is what looks like a glass window, but is in reality something very much safer. A shell splinter is of course liable to break it, especially if the shell bursts almost on top of it. We call this navigator’s window the Perspex and the Perspex of this aircraft stood the strain exceptionally well.
As we neared Wilhelmshaven I could see the searchlights – there seemed to be hundreds of them – splitting the sky, trying to pick us out. I could see the barrage – one of the biggest I have ever met – through which we had to fly. We were ready for our first run over the target, which was to be a practice one, when the big barrage seemed to get heavier. My pilot called me on the inter-communication system and asked me if I was all set.
“Yes”, I replied. “All set, captain!”
Down we went – engines all out – with shells bursting all round us. They made a kind of dullish thud. It was all over in a matter of seconds. We had flown through the barrage and confirmed the exact position of our target. A shell had burst near the starboard engine and slightly damaged the starboard propeller; another had peppered the fuselage, while yet one more had burst very near the Perspex. Several bits of shrapnel found there way into my window and two of them hit me. One tiny bit came to rest
[page break]
[deleted] 3. [/deleted] [inserted] 4 [/inserted]
in my elbow, but I soon pulled it out. The other went into my life saving jacket, (which we call “Mae West), and hit the gas bottle which pumps the jacket up if necessary. The gas bottle burst, but the only damage it did was to bruise my rib.
While I was feeling thankful that my window was still all right, we were circling round getting ready to make our business attack. Once more we went down – again the same barrage, but this time we got through all right after dropping our bombs.
While we were making our attack, the two rear gunners had been spending a lot of ammunition putting out searchlights and worrying machine-gun crews. As our height was less than 100 feet when we came out of our dive they had plenty of opportunity to see what they were aiming at.
The pilot, who is a Canadian, had to control the bomber which by now was a good deal shot about. We all got back safely because he kept his head and knew what to do in an emergency.
W/Cdr. [sic] Well, tell us what did happen on the way home.
Serg. [sic] Ob: We left Wilhelmshaven behind us looking a bit worse for wear – climbed up again to about 6,000 feet and made for home. Over Emdem we were again shaken up by anti-aircraft fire which was just as heavy as before, but this time all of it missed us.
W/Cdr. [sic] And then the pilot had to nurse you back over the North Sea?
Serg.Ob: [sic] Yes he did – and it is the devil of a job controlling
[page break]
[deleted] 4. [/deleted] [inserted] 5 [/inserted]
a badly damaged machine, as you know Sir. I remember the pilot telling us we might have to bale out when we did get home as he didn’t know what had happened to the undercarriage.
W/Cdr. How did you get down in the end?
Serg.Ob: Well, the hydraulic system for lowering the undercarriage had been shot away, but fortunately our emergency device worked all right and we made a good landing after all.
W/Cdr. You seem to have put up a pretty good show all round.
Serg.Ob: I don’t know about that, but I do know this. One of the reasons why we returned on time is British workmanship. If the men in the aircraft factories could see that aeroplane as it was when we returned, with two big shell holes in both wings, hundreds of holes in the fuselage, its peppered propeller and its damaged nose, they would realise why we have such faith in our aircraft. But as they make them, I expect they know that already.
W/Cdr. Well I only hope that some of you who are listening to this story are aircraft workers, and that you are as proud of your work as we are.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bringing a damaged bomber back from Wilhelmshaven
Air log
Forces programme
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Sergeant Spencer Lewis Belton is interviewed by a wing commander about his aircraft flying over North Sea to bomb Wilhelmshaven. Mentions a British convoy and intense anti-aircraft fire over Emden. Describes the Wilhelmshaven bombing mentioning many searchlights and intense anti-aircraft fire: first run over target was practice and aircraft took some damage, on second run dropped bombs without further damage. Hydraulic system had been damaged but emergency system had allowed landing gear to be lowered.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Spencer Lewis Belton
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five page typewritten transcript
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBeltonSLS190305-151120-11, MBeltonSLS190305-151120-060001, MBeltonSLS190305-151120-060002,MBeltonSLS190305-151120-060003, MBeltonSLS190305-151120-060004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany
Germany--Emden (Lower Saxony)
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Great Britain
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-07-30
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
propaganda
searchlight
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/86/803/MBeltonSLS190305-151120-08.2.jpg
e9581ec70d321657394727ef0a169c1e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Belton, Spencer Lewis
Spencer Lewis Belton
Spencer Lewis Smith Belton
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Belton, SLS
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. Photographs, correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning Sergeant Spencer Lewis Belton (1919 - 1940, 581261 Royal Air Force). Spencer Lewis Belton flew as an observer/ bomb aimer with 144 Squadron from RAF Hemswell. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after an operation to Wilhelmshaven in July 1940 and was interviewed about it by the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was killed 10/11 August 1940 when his Hampden P4368 crashed in the Netherlands, during an operation to Homberg. <br /><br />Additional information on Spencer Lewis Belton is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/101634/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Denise Carr and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-20
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Public Record Office ref Aid 30/157/98
Petition to the King for the the [sic] awards of
DFC to William Frank Tudhope
DFM to Lewis Smith Belton
On the night of 20 July 1940 Pilot Officer Tudhope was captain of an aircraft which delivered an attack on enemy warships in Wilhemlshaven [sic] from an altitude of only 50 feet. The aircraft was subject to terrific anti-aircraft fire and was badly hit by a high explosive shell
In spite of this a second attack was attempted, but owing to the extreme density of the gunfire, one engine was badly damaged and the navigator’s cabin was riddled with holes. In spite of this ordeal Sergeant Belton the navigator and bomb aimer with great coolness and courage continued his duties and enabled Pilot Officer Tudhope to bring [deleted] home [/deleted] the damaged aircraft safely home. This officer and non comissioned [sic] officer have shown conspicuous gallentry [sic] and devotion to duty on many previous occasions
Petition made 1st August 1940
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Petition for award
Description
An account of the resource
Petition for the award of Distinguished Flying Cross to Pilot Officer William Frank Tudhope and Distinguished Flying Medal to Sergeant Lewis Smith Belton. Provides details about the operation on Wilhelmshaven, damage by anti-aircraft fire, then the bomb run in their damaged aircraft.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-08-01
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBeltonSLS190305-151120-08
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-07-20
1940-07-21
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
144 Squadron
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/86/808/NBeltonSLS151120-03.1.jpg
897c962113a5ac82bb6f58aebc215f33
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Belton, Spencer Lewis
Spencer Lewis Belton
Spencer Lewis Smith Belton
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Belton, SLS
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. Photographs, correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning Sergeant Spencer Lewis Belton (1919 - 1940, 581261 Royal Air Force). Spencer Lewis Belton flew as an observer/ bomb aimer with 144 Squadron from RAF Hemswell. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after an operation to Wilhelmshaven in July 1940 and was interviewed about it by the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was killed 10/11 August 1940 when his Hampden P4368 crashed in the Netherlands, during an operation to Homberg. <br /><br />Additional information on Spencer Lewis Belton is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/101634/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Denise Carr and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-20
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
R.A.F. HEROES
BOMBED TARGET WITH CRIPPLED ‘PLANE
One more story of R.A.F. heroism under the most trying of flying conditions was told last night.
The crew of a night bomber which had been severely crippled by anti-aircraft fire over Germany completed the task they set out on and brought their craft safely back to its base.
The bomber’s objective was an important naval target in Germany, but on reaching Emden it met heavy fire by ground batteries.
“We glided down to 1,000ft. over the Ems river,” stated the captain in his report, “and once clear of Emden met only light anti-aircraft fire until we came to the oil depots at Dande, where we ran into anti-aircraft fire that can only be described as ‘terrific.’”
They reached the Jade river with a large hole in the port wing – a shell had gone through it – and, turning south, came down to 50ft. over the Jade basin to make certain of locating their target.
TARGET FOR ALL
“Within a few minutes we seemed to be the target for every anti-aircraft battery in North-West
Germany,” the report continued.
“One shell went clean through our starboard wing, and another, which caught us close to the starboard engine, dented the starboard airscrew and peppered the fuselage with splinters.
“The tail wheel and both our rudders were hit, and the navigator was twice struck with shell splinters, though, fortunately, they lodged in his clothing.”
The captain climbed with difficulty to just over 1,000 feet, and called up his rear gunner. Getting no reply, he sent his wireless operator aft to investigate.
The operator came back to report that he had tapped the rear-gunner on the back and received the brief reply, “No ammunition left.” Between them the two rear-gunners had peppered military ground targets with thousands of rounds of machine-gun fire.
With his mission still to fulfil, the pilot again descended, this time to 200 feet. After unloading his bombs on the target he nursed the crippled machine back over the North Sea.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
R.A.F. Heroes. Bombed target with crippled 'plane
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Pilot describes the events of the operation, damage to wing, propeller, tail wheel and rudders. Proceeded to target and dropped bomb load.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NBeltonSLS151120-03
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/86/814/NBeltonSLS151120-09.2.jpg
b15c9fb9dd3bb2a3331d50555a2fa570
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Belton, Spencer Lewis
Spencer Lewis Belton
Spencer Lewis Smith Belton
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Belton, SLS
Description
An account of the resource
34 items. Photographs, correspondence and newspaper clippings concerning Sergeant Spencer Lewis Belton (1919 - 1940, 581261 Royal Air Force). Spencer Lewis Belton flew as an observer/ bomb aimer with 144 Squadron from RAF Hemswell. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after an operation to Wilhelmshaven in July 1940 and was interviewed about it by the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was killed 10/11 August 1940 when his Hampden P4368 crashed in the Netherlands, during an operation to Homberg. <br /><br />Additional information on Spencer Lewis Belton is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/101634/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Denise Carr and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-11-20
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[...] OIL FIRES
[...] R.A.F. PLANES
“We blew those tanks to blazes”
Flames rose to 300ft. and great clouds of yellow smoke rose to 1,000ft. from oil tanks at Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam, after a raid on Saturday night by Blenheim Bombers of Coastal Command.
“We could see the oil tanks very clearly in the moonlight – and we just blew them to blazes”, said one of the British pilots last night.
“The Germans opened up from a ring of guns all round as we came in, but our leader beat them to it. He got in several direct hits.
There were huge explosions, and a mountain of smoke which came up provided cover for the rest of us. The heat was so great that some of us, following on, were thrown violently upwards as we came over the targets”.
Seen 100 miles away
The fires lit up the countryside toward Rotterdam, and were so vivid that one pilot could see every detail of the railway lines and sheds.
The sky was still red with the reflection of the fires when the Blenheims were one hundred miles away on the return journey, according to the squadron leader, and the pilot of another aircraft saw the oil tanks still blazing furiously four hours later.
But these tanks were only one of many targets on Saturday night.
Germany’s naval base at Wilhemshaven was bombed again, despite fighter attacks and violent anti-aircraft fire.
One bomber got home safely though its wings were torn and a rudder and both airscrews damaged by shell splinters.
None of the crew was injured, but the navigator found shrapnel in his flying suit.
Another aircraft over Wilhelmshaven came down so low to attack two warships lying at anchor by a wharf that it nearly collided with a church steeple. Searchlights and A.A. batteries surrounding the docks were attacked too.
Two supply ships were bombed at sea, and one of them is believed to have been badly damaged.
Five of our bombers were lost in these operations.
Yesterday’s daylight raids by the R.A.F. included attacks on the radio station on Utsire Island, near Stavanger, and airfields at Flushing. Two of our reconnaissance aircraft failed to return.
Berlin still claiming
Berlin claimed last night to have scored direct hits on a cruiser and two destroyers during Saturday’s attacks on convoys in the Channel.
A communique issued by Nazi High Command said that German fighters shot down eight British planes in these operations.
This was refuted by an official statement in London that four British fighters were lost. One of our pilots escaped.
Authoritative comment backed up this official version, saying:-
“Today, as yesterday, the German authorities have distorted in their own favour the results of the day’s air operations over the English Channel and British coast.
“Actually the result of yesterday’s operations in this area was twelve German machines definitely destroyed.”
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oil fires R.A.F planes
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Details of operations on oil tanks at Rotterdam and on Wilhelmshaven.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
NBeltonSLS151120-09
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Daily Express
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Peter Adams
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-07-22
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Germany
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-07
anti-aircraft fire
Blenheim
bombing
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/94/889/MBartlettA[Ser -DoB]-150520-040001.jpg
4f8832ffb6710dc182c8b89bc93aef09
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/94/889/MBartlettA[Ser -DoB]-150520-040002.jpg
4b0fe4244522fb292d0dcab4be90aea5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bartlett, Anthony Bertrand
Anthony Bartlett
A B J Bartlett
A B Bartlett
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Bartlett, A
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. The collection consist of documents concerning Flight Lieutenant Anthony Bertrand Joseph Bartlett’s service. It includes a poem and two memoirs, one a recollection of a mine laying operation and one about an officers’ mess function.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Antony Bartlett and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-19
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
AN ANXIOUS MOMENT
One moonlit dawn on 28th March 1943 from base in East Anglia we headed south over Selsey Bill. France and the Gironde River near Bordeaux was our objective – to lay mines.
My task in the second pilot’s seat was to help with controls when flying to the target, to go down into the bomb bay and, when there, release the bombs or mines in a stick formation to cause maximum damage to enemy shipping.
Seven boys aged around 20, clad in leathers, harnesses, helmets with intercom mike and earphones, plugged in for oxygen, flying at 15,000 feet. Our four-engine Stirling Q-Queenie was slow compared with the Lancaster.
Nothing challenged us across France and we were hoping the trip would be easy. This turned out to be far from the case. Over the target all appeared quiet and sleepy. The ships moored in the river were not showing lights. What a peaceful scene! I asked for “Bomb doors open”. “Bombs gone!” Just then all hell broke loose. One of the seemingly docile ships turned out to be an anti-aircraft vessel. We were right overhead and he couldn’t miss. Our tailplane [sic] was shot off and fuel was leaking from the tank. The engineer turned on the reserve fuel tank, but he then cried out as a shell left its mark. Ready hands tried to stem his wound whilst Ken and I struggled to pull back on the controls with engine revs at full strength.
Miraculously, as the giant engines clawed the air and we hovered for what seemed ages – but in reality were seconds – we seemed to be doomed to fall back into the river. Somehow we edged forward on full throttles and regained some height – sufficient to be able to pull away from a possible drowning end. We later found out tailplane [sic] had been completely shot off. In addition, we were down to three engines, so regaining height was another problem. Meanwhile, first-aid – albeit rather crude – had been enough to stem the engineer’s flow of blood and we covered him with a blanket to keep him warm.
The route home over France was quickly passed from navigator to pilot and, dreading a possible attack to further destroy our ailing craft, we limped towards the coast at 2,000 feet, dropping height all the way. At last I spied through cloud, the English coast as we limped over the Channel. A hundred feet over the cliff we called up Boscombe Down for permission to crash-land, giving details of our state as far as we knew. Directions were given and we staggered over the lights switched on a moment before we scraped down. A truck appeared with helpers as we almost fell down our steps from the hatch. An ambulance crew took
[page break]
charge of our wounded crew member as we made our way to the control tower. Our Irving jackets unzipped, our faces blackened with oil and grease, we looked a sorry sight. But we were home.
A briefing officer asked questions about our trip whilst we drank tea, also puffing on a cigarette. Some memories remained vivid, others dimmed in a need for rest and sleep. Charts were produced by the navigator as we endeavoured to recall every little thing of significance; the strength of the flak around the target – the attack by enemy planes – plus the behaviour of our aircraft engines, controls, armaments and so on. We traced our route to and from Gironde as best we could.
At last we could walk across to the Mess for something warm, stumbling thence to our billets and bunks. Often we were unable to undress, but flopped on to our beds to try and sleep.
The next night was another story!
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
An anxious moment
Description
An account of the resource
Describes events during a mine laying operation in a Stirling to the Gironde River near Bordeaux. Relates how the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire which damaged the tail and an engine as well as wounding the flight engineer. Describes the struggle to regain control, treat wounded and the return flight to England culminating in a crash landing at RAF Boscombe Down. Mentions after flight activity including some details of the debriefing.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Antony Bartlett
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One typewritten sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBartlettA[Ser#-DoB]-150520-03
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
France
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Wiltshire
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-03-28
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Cathie Hewitt
3 Group
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
briefing
debriefing
military service conditions
mine laying
RAF Boscombe Down
Stirling