I was fourteen years of age. The Germans took me and forced me to work in the abattoir behind don ’Nrico’s house. Here they butchered the carcases of pigs and calves which they had stolen from the fields. The abattoir was well organised: there were two massive vats where they scalded the pigs before skinning them. They lifted them out with a mobile hook and then the animals were cut up and cooked. There was a machine for canning the meat. The cans were taken to the front to feed the troops. The Germans had also requisitioned San Giovanni, the former monastery, which became the garage for their jeeps and lorries. They also used it to unload their weapons and the blood-covered cartridge-belts which they brought back from the battlefields around Lanciano, Castelfrentano and the River Sangro. Before the war, San Giovanni was used to store grain and other products from the countryside. The Germans had set up their command in Palazzo dei Persiani.

One day they had herded more than 400 sheep, requisitioned in Roccascalegna, into the courtyard of don ’Nrico’s house. I was going back to my house in the Old Village, carrying firewood that I had collected in the fields. I was just by the little fountain near don Nicola Lalli’s oil press. A German pointed his rifle at me and took me to don ’Nrico’s courtyard. Antonio il Piccolino, zi’ Angelo di Tullio and Jacculino were there too. They told us to take the sheep to Taranta Peligna. They didn’t even let me go and get a jacket. We left about 9 in the morning and we got to Taranta about 4 in the afternoon. The Germans gave us something to eat. They had fenced off an area down by the river and that’s where they penned the sheep. There were lots of cows and calves as well. After we had eaten, I went out and met a woman who said: "Where are you from, son? At midnight everybody has to get out of Taranta. They’re taking us with them". I snatched another piece of meat and ran off up the track that leads to the main road. The others found their own means to escape.

Later they issued a second order to round up all the animals in the fields around Gessopalena. They slaughtered hundreds of calves and sheep from the area around Mandredisarre, even as far a Fonterossi. But there was a dog-fight between the Americans and the Germans. Everybody scarpered and the animals were left unattended. Little by little, the animals disappeared. People were going and taking them off into the fields. I was down in the valley and I came across a ram, with big curved horns. I caught it, led it down the hill and through the reeds. I told Pacchiano about it. He said: "Let’s eat the beast. We’ll kill it ourselves." But then the Germans who were living with the Lalli Persianis took it. When I worked for them, the Germans treated me well: they gave me meat and black bread, but they told me not to give anything to anyone else. There were people who had nothing to eat, here in the village, and they asked me for a bit of black bread. I told them that if the Germans caught me they’d shoot me, but then I always gave them something. Later the Germans put me in charge of the pigs. One night they left, taking everything with them. They left a letter with don Nicola to give to the other Germans who would arrive later. That’s what I heard, anyway. But it was the SS that came later and they didn’t give a damn about anyone: they even blew up Palazzo Persiani and the fascist mayor’s house. I saw them arrive one day from the Morgia: there was a patrol which stopped to talk to a man who was working in a vineyard at Atrieno. The following morning they arrived with their lorries and their dynamite.

A few days after they blew up the houses, I witnessed the battle of the Morgia. At first, the British attacked and used teargas and they even took a prisoner. But they couldn’t hold their ground. The Germans took the area again and started to shell the village. But then the British took the Morgia again: there was a terrific battle. The British were under cannon fire from a German emplacement at Civitella, but the gun was taken out by British fire from Mandredisarre, which was directed by a British soldier using binoculars based at Piedicastello.

When the Germans had gone, I started to work for the British. I put fuses in shells for the guns at Mandredisarre aimed at Torricella.