Interview with
Commander
Salvatore Romano

by Cristiano D'Adamo

Part II

 Part I
 

Probably during the first year of war you were still a student; what do you remember of the war bulletins or newsreels by LUCE. Was radio important?
 

I remained behind a school desk until May 31st, 1941 when with a stroke of pen the final exams were abolished and the school year closed with a regular assignment of term’s marks as if it were a regular class. My memories of the time?  Every day at 1:00 PM the war bulletin, called “Official Communiqué”, was radiobroadcast in all classrooms and we listened while standing. Honestly, I must say that listening to “…one of our submarines did not return to the base”, we youths were not conscious of the military tragedy, and most of all the human one which was concealed behind those words. What we knew of the war was what the official communiqué said, and a few comments, always positive, which would appear in the newspapers, and also what was shown in the movie theaters, just before the movie (newsreels by LUCE). These last one, were always referring to events of a few weeks earlier and always covered successes of our armed forces. The radio, in addition to the communiqués of 1:00 PM and the news also at 1:00 PM and at 8:00 PM, broadcast only music of various genres, a few variety shows, a few plays and some operetta.  All was rigorously broadcast live and usually from EIAR with offices on Via Asiago in Rome, or some other city (Turin, Milan, Naples, Palermo).

Now and then, taped music “…we broadcast reproduced music…” was also broadcast. At night there was a “short commentary of today’s events; Politicus speaking”. Right now I don’t remember which commentator was hiding behind this pseudonym, perhaps Mario Appelius,  but the comments were always positive.  There was absolutely no political debate. For the record, the identification signal exchanged by the various stations when they connected to the network was the chirping of a bird, different from station to station, and which inspired a famous song. But let’s return to the war bulletins, news in the papers, in a word diffusion of news about the progress of the war. I will not dwell on comments. Let me show you a clipping from the newspaper “La Stampa” of Turin dated April 1st, 1942, that is to say three days after the tragic night of Cape Matapan. In this clipping is reported bulletin number 297. Also, let me show you the radio program for April 2nd published by the “Corriere della Sera”.

Select the newspaper to view the text (in Italian).

Any reflection is up to you. Keep in mind that the first pages of the newspapers of the time were headlined in large print with the visit to Italy of the Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Matsuoka. Nothing can be found about Matapan in addition to what I have already shown you. I would also like to remind you that in those days a radio was something that very few owned. The use of an external antenna was indispensable. In some lucky locations one could use, as an alternative, the box spring of a bed. Reception was not always good. Those owning a radio were easily identifiable.

Why am I saying this?

Because, for instance, Jews were not allowed to possess radios. They had them, but could not use them due to the noticeable outside antenna. Anyway, the most fortunate amongst the Italians had “powerful” radios (6 or 7 tubes) and could, even with the box spring, dial in secret into Radio London (the one with an identifying tune very similar to the beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony) and receive some news from the other side. This news, naturally, was exaggerated to the opposite.
 

Part III