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Interview with Aldo Galardini
L’intervistato è Aldo Galardini, nato a Castel di Casio (BO) il 25 giugno 1925, ferroviere in pensione. Interviene la nipote Annalia Galardini, è presente la moglie. L’intervista è effettuata da Claudio Rosati a Pistoia, presso l’abitazione…
Interview with Clara Dei
L’intervistata è Clara Dei, nata a Prato il 19 maggio 1927, insegnante elementare. Interviene l’amica Annalia Galardini. L’intervista è effettuata da Claudio Rosati a Pistoia, presso l’abitazione dell’informatrice, il 5 settembre 1983. La…
Interview with Giancarlo Savino
L’intervistato è Giancarlo Savino, nato a Trieste il 2 giugno 1933, docente universitario. L’intervista è condotta da Claudio Rosati presso la sua abitazione a Pistoia, il 25 agosto 1983. Il 24 ottobre 1943, a mezzogiorno, Giancarlo Savino…
Interview with Gerardo Bianchi
L’intervistato è Gerardo Bianchi, nato a Pistoia il 14 dicembre 1905, professore di economia e deputato della Democrazia Cristiana. L’intervista è condotta da Claudio Rosati presso la sua abitazione a Pistoia, il 19 agosto 1983. Quando c’è…
Interview with Raffaella Sorsini
L’intervistata è Raffaella Sorsini, nata a Vicchio (FI) il 25 maggio 1919, impiegata in pensione. Interviene Marianna Galardini, nata il 18 maggio 1897. L’intervista è effettuata da Claudio Rosati a Pistoia, presso la casa dell’informatrice,…
Interview with Paola Rinaldi
L’intervistata è Paola Rinaldi, nata a Pistoia il 2 giugno 1937, assistente sociale. L’intervista è effettuata da Claudio Rosati presso la sua abitazione a Pistoia, il 4 agosto 1983. Paola Rinaldi è più volte sfollata con il fratello e la…
Interview with Martin Arthur Catty
Martin Catty grew up in London and was evacuated, with his school, to Westward Ho! at the beginning of the war. He completed a short training course at Cambridge University in 1942 and joined the Royal Air Force. After training, he flew 40…
Interview with Laura Hickey
Laura Hickey was living in Tottenham at the outbreak of war and was evacuated to Suffolk. Her brother, Charles Henry Clarke joined the RAF and was shot down, becoming a prisoner of war and enduring the Long March. She tells of her times as an…
Interview with Roy Berrill
Roy was born in Northampton and was evacuated from Becontree in London to Weston-super-Mare. He gained his degree from Queen Mary College, London, which was evacuated to Cambridge. After the Air Training Corps, Roy was called up to be a…
Interview with Jan Albone
Jan was born on a farm in North Lincolnshire and went to school in Brigg. She loved the farm, particularly the horses. Their farm was close to RAF Kirton in Lindsey, which was used as a rest home for men from the Battle of Britain. They worked on the…
Interview with Geoff Brown
Geoff was born and lived in the same area of Grimsby all his life, at the date of his interview he was 93. The first part of the interview concentrated on his experience of finding a German butterfly bomb close to his home. Geoff described how, after…
Dan Nash memoir
Born in 1916, Dan spent his early childhood in Kent with his grandmother before moving back to his parents in Fulham. He left school aged 16 to undertake a job with the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, where he met Joyce, his future wife. At the outbreak of…
Interview with Gino Muratori
Gino Muratori (b. 1929) recollects three Rimini bombings that occurred in November 1944, one of which was aimed at the Ausa river bridge. He mentions his grandmother losing two relatives when their boarding house was destroyed, and recalls how, on 26…
Interview with Reginald John Herring
Reg Herring was living in London with his father and elder brother at the start of the war. His father built a shelter that collapsed after a heavy rainfall. Reg was evacuated to Sizewell and then to near Birmingham. After the war Reg returned to…
Letter from David Boldy to his father
Letter from sergeant David Boldy to his father about sailing to London from South Africa, visiting Gibraltar and swimming in the sea. He misses his girl friend Babe.
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother. He let them know that he has moved from Hastings to Torquay and includes some of his observations on his new posting, with references to girls evacuated from London.
Interview with Nancy Titman
Nancy Titman was born in 1918, and grew up in Deeping Saint James, Lincolnshire. At the age of 11 she won a scholarship to Stamford High School and did her teacher training in Peterborough. In 1938 she attended an interview in Cambridge, had a…
Interview with Frank Edwards
Frank was born in London. He recalls a V-1 coming over and taking shelter in the London underground. Frank talks of his evacuation to the countryside near Croxton Kerrial, when he was nearly five. He was accompanied by his two brothers and,…
Interview with Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe
Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe was born in London in 1938 and was evacuated, with her mother, at the start of the war to live with her mother’s family in South Wales
Interview with Gladys Hatt
Gladys Hatt was a teenager and working in Manchester when it was bombed. She recalls her life was a sequence of work, shelter, work and there was no teenage life for her. She worked as a machinist sewing uniforms, which was a big change from her…
Memoirs of Des Matthews
The author was shot down over Linz, Austria whilst bombing a Panzer works. The other six in his crew perished. He was taken to Dulag Luft at Frankfurt then Stalag Luft VII. In January his camp was evacuated and he joined the Long March to the west,…
Interview with a survivor of the Villanova Marchesana bombings
The interviewee recalls how he moved from Libya to Italy and lived for some years in various camps in Napoli, Marina di Massa, Trento, San Remo and Massa Lombarda. He describes a three-day bombing raid in Napoli where he managed to hide in a church…
Interview with Ferruccio Bergomi
Ferruccio Bergomi recalls his early life as a street urchin in the Precotto neighbourhood in Milan - describes monkey business, horseplay, fierce rivalries, melees, pilfering sundries and street games with friends. He gives an eyewitness account of…
Interview with Enrica Mariani
Enrica Mariani recollects her wartime experiences in Milan: her brother dying of bronchitis after spending too much time in the shelter and her father working in an armaments factory; the aggressive fascist militiamen and the long hours she spent in…
A few impressions of WW2
Describes life in the countryside during WW2: people being issued with ID cards, ration books and gas masks. Continues with descriptions of black out, bomb shelters, call up, an aircraft crash and taking in evacuees.