Browse Items (220 total)

  • Tags: fear

ANocchieriF170202.mp3
Franco Nocchieri recalls his early years as an orphan in several different towns in the Province of Pavia. He describes the bombing of the Voghera railway station, which started while he was heading to school. He goes on to explain how he and his…

PFlowersJ1501.jpg
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…

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Jim Auton grew up on Royal Air Force stations and joined the Royal Air Force at seventeen. He trained as a pilot navigator and bomber at RAF Ansty near Coventry, then in South Africa under the Empire Air Training Scheme. He trained on B-24s at Lidder…

Memoro#180.mp3
Irma Ferranti recalls a day when there were four bombings on Turin. She gives a complete account of the last one: how she ran through the street in search of shelter, before trying to take cover under a bridge. She goes on to remember the sound of…

Memoro#630.mp3
Maria Caterina Siccardi (b. 1924) remembers attending the funeral of a young soldier and her fear of being bombed. She also describes the makeshift shelter her grandfather built and how she rushed to take shelter in it every time an aircraft…

Memoro#4420.mp3
Carlo Gasparini (b. 1930) talks about his memories of the bombing raids on Milan. He provides an account of a night bombing with many flares that illuminated the sky as if it were day. He also describes the rush to safety during another bombing, and…

Memoro#6229.mp3
Mirco Marelli describes a bombing raid on the factory where he used to work in 1941: when the alarm sounded, bombs started falling but he was too far from any of the shelters so he took cover under a staircase with a friend. He highlights how…

Memoro#12791.mp3
Gino Lanni (b. 1935) describes how he ran through the alleyways of Segni in the aftermath of a bombing. He also recalls his experience of seeing a severed hand being trampled by panic-stricken people and also the sight of dying civilians.

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Alessandra Rivalta recalls her early life, first as member of Opera Nazionale Balilla then as an undergraduate student at the faculty of humanities. Describes the start of the war, early anti-aircraft precautions and wartime life: food shortage,…

ABottaniP1601.jpg
Paolo Bottani recalls wartime memories of a working-class family in Milan. Describes the widespread enthusiasm for the declaration of war, followed by a relatively calm period. Mentions alarms as greeted initially with joy because classes stopped and…

PMaggioniF1601.jpg
Fausta Maggioni recalls memories of her wartime life in Milan. She describes a sizeable shelter reinforced with wooden props, a little bag with the few valuables she had always to bring along, as well as the many duties of her father as warden, who…

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Teresa Messali gives a brief account of her pre-war life with her large family in a farmhouse near Bergamo. She mentions Pippo; describes the pressing need to find shelter during the bombings and stresses how she frequently resorted to ditches.…

Memoro#9181.mp3
Ada Dellaferrera (b. 1928) recalls aircraft strafing the railway station and how she tried to hide next to a wall. Remembers when her mother sent her out in the blackout and the fear of the dark she has had ever since.

Memoro#555.mp3
Erika Gautsch (b. 1928) describes her wartime experience of being inside a shelter and the people she met there: an old sick man with his wife, who was incessantly reciting the rosary, and children clinging to their mothers. Emphasises tension and…

PRighiF1601.jpg
Ferdinando Righi recalls his early life in Monfalcone, brought up by his mother while his father served as a submariner. Describes daily life in wartime: how he used to sleep fully clothed, waiting for the air raid siren. His mother would put some…

Memoro#542.mp3
Maria Malagni (b. 1921) recalls her difficult childhood and chequered schooling history. Mentions wartime anecdotes: the death of her fiancé, an airman shot down over Brindisi; fascists seizing supplies; the capture of two partisans that her father…

Memoro#8409.mp3
Patrizia Riviera (b. 1930) gives a brief account of wartime life in Bergamo. Mentions food shortages, fear of bombings, basements used as shelters. Mentions disrupted schooling after the fall from power of the Fascist regime.

Memoro#2312.mp3
Elena Fornari (b. 1936) mentions the private shelter in her house in Rome and describes daily life under bombing. Recollects the frightening encounter with two German soldiers asking for information about her father.

Memoro#9850.mp3
Rosanna Capretta (b. 1935) reminisces about the frightening sound of the sirens and describes how she and her family tried to cope by hugging each other in a corridor. Recalls food shortages, rationing cards, and black market. Describes disrupted…

Memoro#15299.mp3
Irmgard Schulz (b. 1935) describes how the harbour of Hamburg was a recurring target during the war. Mentions the use of target indicators and radar countermeasures. Explains how she was been told not to pick up anything, for fear it could be…

APonteL160901.mp3
Livio Ponte remembers his wartime life in Monfalcone. He describes the frightening moments when the alarm sounded, usually at night and people rushed to the shelters for safety. He mentions different attitudes: his parents going to a shelter whereas…

Memoro#3847.mp3
Umberto Veroli (b. 1933) recollects wartime memories when his father was an electrical engineer: living close to power substations; a kitten killed by an electric arc; Germans forcing workers to remove transformers and smash meters. He describes how…

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Efrem Colombi recalls his care-free childhood, initially in the Bergamo countryside and then in Milan. Emphasises his life-long radical anti-Clericalism and recounts how he ran away several times from Catholic boarding schools because of his…

ARapozziF-MG161019.mp3
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…

AColomboS161203.mp3
Santina Colombo describes her early life in a family of farmers, her father a fervent socialist. She mentions the start of the war announced on the radio and gives a detailed account of civilian life in wartime Milan: scarce food, growing vegetables…
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