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Leghorn, January 18th, 2002
What were your duties aboard ship?
I was called to arms in the early months of 1941 and I was assigned to the
naval base of Messina where I completed a relatively short period of
training. After two months in charge of a warehouse, I was ordered to
Palermo to take service aboard the cruiser “Giovanni dalle Bande Nere”. It
was, if I am not mistaken, around June 1941 and I was a stoker. It was not a
bad assignment, as one might otherwise think. Differently from my comrades,
I had the opportunity to rest quite often since in the proximity of each
boiler there was a small room where, during periods of calm, we could take
turns resting. Naturally, it was not allowed, but fortunately this rule was
never enforced too rigidly.
A stoker is inside the ship and does not know what is happening, right?
Well, rumors were rampant, but of course we could not know everything. We
had to simply follow orders, but more than once I went up to the upper deck
to see what was taking place.
How was the crew-officer relation?
Well, relation, there was no relation with them. They were a separate caste
by themselves, which refused to talk to a simple sailor unless to give
orders. Once, while I was smoking a cigarette on deck, an officer walked by
and I attempted to engage in a conversation but this person did not reply
and stood, in silence, close to me. When I finished my cigarette, I was
ready to throw it overboard but the wind tossed it back onto the deck and
this officer gave me a “note of demerit” for having soiled the deck!
In the Navy, was food good in those days?
I’m sorry to let you down, but food was really bad and it was one of the
main reasons for our complaining. When we were fed up eating that disgusting
stuff, two or three representatives would go to the captain to protest. Most
of the time, nothing would happen, but twice the protest was more energetic
and for two or three days they fed us pasta with tomato sauce or a good soup
to then go back to the usual meals. Sleeping was better. Everyone had his
own hammock which was attached to two posts with hooks at various heights,
specifically installed in various rooms where we could rest. The annoying
thing was that each time we got up we had to disassemble the hammock, fold
it, and place it in special lockers on the side of the room. The same had to
be done in case of alarm because during battle station all the compartments
had to be perfectly unobstructed.
Which kind of missions did you do?
The most common missions were mine laying. We would leave at night and the
mission would last two days. The scary thing was that we would see six or
seven ships of various types navigating next to each other and, every so
often, dropping a mine into the sea. Another kind of mission, which in
reality we did not complete too often, was the escort to a convoy. These
missions were very tiring and we were under constant aerial attack and our
anti-aircraft guns (the 100 mm guns) were always in use. The projectiles
were brought up from the storage area by hand, and after awhile the people
assigned to this task were exhausted, so we stokers had to help them. It was
not a pleasant job, especially after four hours in the boiler room. The
turns were 4 hours of work and 4 hours of rest, but in reality during the
rest periods there was always something to do. Anyway, our missions were
short and we spent more time in port than at sea. Fortunately, we never
completed transport missions as the “da Giussano” and “da Barbiano” did. If
I think about all the friends I lost… Also, we participated in the Second
Battle of Sirte.
What do you remember about it?
A bad experience because we lost a destroyer, “Scirocco”, (in reality two
were lost), due to the heavy sea; I had many friends aboard. Reckon that the
sea was so bad that at a certain point we could no longer fire our guns and
withdrew. At that point I was on deck and saw flares from the Littorio’s
guns and I realized that there was a battleship with us, but I could not see
it, I could only see the flares from the big guns. During the return trip,
we experienced many serious breakdowns, thus as soon as we reached Taranto
we were ordered to La Spezia for repairs. We were all happy because it would
have meant a shore leave. When the ship was in dry-dock, we were housed in
nearby buildings and would all go on leave. The only negative aspect of
dry-dock works was that all the little extra things on board, meaning what
we had set up to improve our lives on board, were taken away and each time
we had to readapt the ship to our needs. Unfortunately, we never made it to
La Spezia.
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Could you tell us about the torpedoing?
It was a tragic experience. It was April 1st and I was on duty in my boiler
area when, around 9 AM, we were shocked by a large explosion and the boiler
room filled with smoke (note: evidently, he was in the aft boiler room as
the forward one was ripped apart by the torpedo). Thus, I told a friend of
mine that we had to leave right away and rushed to a ladder to go up on
deck. The ladder usually was straight up but I immediately realized that it
wasn’t, so I rushed even more, and in the confusion this friend of mine
below me took my shoes off! Fortunately, our ship did not have modern
watertight bulkheads typical of modern ships, so we could make it to the
upper deck (this explains why 5 out of 6 ships of this kind were lost due to
torpedoing). I immediately realized that the situation was dramatic and I
started looking for a life vest, but then I decided to jump without wearing
one because I was afraid of not wearing it properly and making things even
worse. While I was jumping, I heard the captain scream, “ viva il duce, viva
il re, viva l'Italia “ Long live Mussolini, the King and Italy” and I almost
started laughing. Once in the water, I began swimming to get away from the
ship which by then, with the stern out of the water, had started sinking: it
was a terrible moment. It had been my home for nine months and by then I was
attached to it.
I was in the water for a long time until the destroyers in escort, after
having thrown some depth charges against the submarine which had torpedoed
us, came to pick us up. The Aviere picked me up and immediately, due to the
intense cold, I went down to the boiler room and hugged a steam pipe.
Someone tried to get me off there, but I resisted and that was probably what
saved me. Thereafter, I was taken to the infirmary where they tried to their
best to clean off the fuel oil I had all over me and especially in my eyes
where it hurt very much.
We were disembarked in Messina, while the other survivors were taken to
Palermo. Up to this day, I don’t know who survived, excluding the few with
me on the Aviere. After the sinking, I was sent to La Spezia where I served
at an artillery station near the Varignano jetty. I tried several times to
get back aboard a ship because, after all, life was better than on shore,
but it did not work out. The strange thing is that our pay was higher on
shore: 180 lira on the “Bande Nere” and 200 lira in La Spezia.
What do you remember of this period?
I remember an event. One day, while I was on watch an enemy airplane dropped
many boxes containing flyers. One of these boxes did not open and fell off
the jetty, thus the officer in command gave me the assignment, along with
another sailor, to go get the box. We got closer using a dingy, but were
very fearful it might be a bomb, but the incitement from shore gave us
courage and I picked up the box and brought it back to the battery
commander. On the flyers it was written, “Tomorrow we are going to bomb the
jetty and the port, go away”. The other sailor and I had already read the
flyer, despite orders received, thus very soon the news spread across the
port. The port commander told us that it was just propaganda. The day after,
more than 200 airplanes began bombing La Spezia. It was an unforgettable
experience. At our post we were just waiting for our time to come;
fortunately, not a single bomb hit our battery, but the shipyard was
destroyed, along with the nearby houses, and the (battleship) Littorio was
seriously hit by a bomb (it is almost surely the bombing of April 19th).
After September 8th, 1943 what did you do?
I was still in La Spezia and at the news of the armistice our joy lasted
very briefly because we all knew that the Germans would now be our enemies.
The morning of the 9th, after the fleet had left, we got aboard a mail ship
to Leghorn. On this ship there were a few German soldiers who took control
of the boat and almost had it run aground on a reef, just before getting
there. At night, along with other folks from my town, we attempted to get
back to the Island of Elba. Thus, on a dingy eight of us made it toward the
island and arrived in the morning, landing despite threats from a few
Italian soldiers who did not want any more trouble. A few days later, while
we were at the Navy headquarters to find out what to do, there was a German
bombing raid which hit several towns and killed many innocent people,
especially because around there of “blameworthy” ones there were very few.
Then, the Germans arrived and, along with the others, I was forced to hide
in the hillside. It was not an easy time. Then the war ended and I began
living again, even though hunger went away much later…
Thanks
I greatly thank this gentleman who, in honor of those who have fallen aboard
the “Bande Nere”, has requested not to be named. I also would like to thank
my friend Ameris who has made this interview possible.
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