Description
Object description
Italian partisan served with Garibaldi Brigade in Val Varaita area, Italy, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Turin, Italy, 1925-1941: family; education; attempt to join Alpini, Italian Army, 10/1941. Aspects of period as seaman with Italian Navy in Italy, 1942-1943: acceptance by Italian Navy; return to Italian Navy after period of illness; move to gunnery school at Pola; attack by Communist partisans on Istria Peninsula. Aspects of escape from German captivity in Italy, 1943: jumping from train taking him to Germany, 9/1943; trek to Padua; how sickness obliged him to head for home. Recollections of operations as partisan with Garibaldi Brigade in Val Variata area, Italy, 1943-1945: desire to join Italian Partisans; method of making contact with partisans; equipment of group; discovery of arms cache; living conditions; action against Germans, 25/3/1944; type of operations conducted by partisans; dispersal of unit; support received from local population; partisan casualties; agreement for prisoner exchange; incidents when he was wounded; role of Fascist forces.
REEL 2 Continues: injuries caused by grenade. Aspects of post-war experiences in Italy and GB, 1945-1949: attitude towards Italian Partisans after 1945; move to GB, 1949; problems of settling down in GB. Aspects of period as partisan in Italy, 1943-1945: question of lack of freedom under Fascism; attitude towards Germans and Benito Mussolini's foreign policy; attitude towards commissar system in Garibaldi Brigade; reasons for joining Communist Party of Italy, 1944 and leaving, 1948; composition of unit including Soviet, British and South African ex-prisoners of war; how Soviet personnel fought in his unit; sings Soviet songs.
REEL 3 Continues: sings Italian Partisan song; geographical area of operations; role of unit's 'flying squad'; civilian support-system; release of political prisoners held by Germans; urban support for fascist regime; use of priest to make contact with Germans; attitude to service with Italian Partisans; reaction to Field Marshal Harold Alexander's order for Italian Partisan's dispersal, 1945; attitude to participating in interview with Imperial War Museum; question of mistakes in book written about Italian Partisans by Marco Ruzzi.