The Germans stayed in Gessopalena from the end of October to November 30. We young men came home every now and again, and then fled back to the fields. Some Germans, under the command of a graduate, were billeted with my grandfather, Nicola; others were billeted with other families such as the Oltremontis and the Cassios. The German graduate saw a photo of me at my grandfather’s house and he asked where I was. My mother told him I was a student in Bologna. One evening I came home. The fire was lit. I found the Obermeister sitting in the kitchen. When mother saw me she went white. I said "Good evening". The German turned to mother and asked, ironically: "Is this the one who’s studying in Bologna?". Then he turned to me and said: "You shouldn’t be afraid of us. We are soldiers and we are making war, but I don’t like that". His family back in Germany were Social-Democrats. Then he added: "Beware of the people who come after us. Things are going to get really difficult". On November 30 they left the house and withdrew to Torricella. They blew up the road as they retreated.

On December 3 a German foot patrol came down from the Morgia, took the mule track towards Cesa and then went back up via San Rocco to Palazzo Persiani. They headed off towards Casoli, probably to check on the position of the British. Then they came back. The next morning, a lorry arrived and pulled up in front of the town hall. Grandfather was up as usual, standing at the front door. I was standing behind him and I saw everything. The soldiers got off the lorry and one of them started to talk to the fascist mayor, Benigno D’Orazio, who turned to grandfather and in shock told him: "They’re going to blow up the village! Where’s Ninì? Let me talk to him!". But grandfather shook his head. The German also knew some French and he told the mayor to have the village cleared within two hours: they had an order to blow up all the houses. The people were to leave for Sulmona on foot. The sick and the old would be taken on the lorries.

There were about 15 soldiers. They started looking for pans to fill with gunpowder. The news spread like lightning through the village. They set about mining the houses in the Old Village.

We tried to scrabble together a few useful things to take away from the house with us. I remember grandfather holding a cardboard box under his arms all that day and the next. We took refuge in a cabin in the fields: there were about 60 of us. Lots of people made nasty remarks about grandfather’s cardboard box. He had been a local tax collector. "What have you got in there? How much money?". "It’s very important" he answered. Later I found out what it was: the parish accounts. He sat under an oak tree all that day - December 4 - with his box under his arm, watching the houses in the Old Village being blown up. They told him to go into the cabin to shelter, but he wouldn’t. That evening the Germans withdrew to Torricella, but they came back the next day to finish the job off. The blew up grandfather’s house that morning: the roof was blown off and then the rest just fell down. He stayed and watched for a while as a cloud of dust spread around, and then he turned and went into the cabin to join the others. That same day a large contingent of Allied soldiers arrived from Casoli and they billeted in the stone house belonging to Donato Tiberini at Mandredisarre.

On the morning of December 6, the Germans came back from Torricella in a motorcycle, sidecar and a lorry: they wanted to finish the job off. The British came up from Mandredisarre. There was an engagement on the side of Monte Calvario: two Germans were killed and were buried nearby. The Germans never came back to the village after that, but they began to shell it from Torricella at all hours of the day and night. One morning I was sitting with Maria on a bench in the square. In those days all the benches were made of stone. The shelling started from Torricella and we sheltered behind the wall of one of the houses that had been blown up. When the shelling stopped we came out from where we had been hiding and saw that the bench we had been sitting on had been smashed by one of the shells.

The British set themselves up in the village and established a command post in the Cassios’ house. They almost immediately set up a Police force, selecting the members from the local men. Some of the locals had been to America and spoke a little English. They also set up a town council and appointed a mayor - Scipio Casari. They even set up a little medical centre in the Crisostomos’ house in via Garibaldi - one of the few that had not been blown up. The medical centre was run by the local doctor, Giuseppe Totoro and by don Pietrino Tilli, a doctor from Rome who was in Gessopalena because of the war. They were assisted by two medical students, myself and Nicolino Troilo, who a couple of years later became the local general practitioner. There was also a drugs cabinet which was administered by Maria. A month later, when the tragedy at Sant’Agata happened, the wounded received first aid at this medical centre.