The armistice and arrival of Americans
The armistice and arrival of Americans
I remember I was with my father in the hall of a little hotel in Porto San Giorgio, a little village on the Adriatic sea.
My father had to meet a friend of his who was staying there. They were talking and I was very bored when suddenly out in the square people started shouting “War is over! War is over!”
I let my father’s hand go to rush out in the street because I wanted to see what was going on.
People were dancing and crying.
But they were wrong! It wasn’t the end of the war. It was just a short armistice signed secretly on 3rd September 1943. It stated that the Reign of Italy stopped the hostility against the British-US Forces in the second World War.
More than an armistice it was an act of surrender because Italy realized that it was weak and couldn’t go on.
This announcement was given by Eisenhower and Badoglio.
The 8th September was an important day for Italy because it was also the date of dissolution of Italian army.
It was the beginning of the Resistenza (Opposition) of many brave Italian patriots against Germans (in Rome, Cefalonia, Corfù, Corsica and Lero island).
Some people think that since that day the Fascist idea of country died and the Democratic sense of nation started.
After that date I remained to live with my grandfather in the Italian region of Marche, in another village near Porto San Giorgio. It was too dangerous to come back home in Rome where there were German soldiers. Now they had become our enemies.
In 1943 the Americans arrived in Sicily and slowly started to go up and rescue our country while Germans gradually ran away. Everywhere Americans were welcomed with joyful tears in the eyes of Italian people. There were the same celebrations and scenes in the different Italian cities.
I still remember the German soldiers leaving on foot my little village. On that night my grandfather told us to hide in a room underground. I couldn’t understand the reason. We were in the darkness in silence but we could hear noisy steps on the road. My brother and I decided to take the risk and to get to a window on the first floor to see what was going on. A huge crowd of German soldiers was leaving our village in silence with their trucks. They marched for hours then we heard an explosion: it was the bridge on the river Tenna blowing up.
After some months on the same road where we had seen the Germans escape, we saw the Americans. We were safe and we could come back to Rome.
It was 1945. War was over.
Liana Fratini
I remember I was with my father in the hall of a little hotel in Porto San Giorgio, a little village on the Adriatic sea.
My father had to meet a friend of his who was staying there. They were talking and I was very bored when suddenly out in the square people started shouting “War is over! War is over!”
I let my father’s hand go to rush out in the street because I wanted to see what was going on.
People were dancing and crying.
But they were wrong! It wasn’t the end of the war. It was just a short armistice signed secretly on 3rd September 1943. It stated that the Reign of Italy stopped the hostility against the British-US Forces in the second World War.
More than an armistice it was an act of surrender because Italy realized that it was weak and couldn’t go on.
This announcement was given by Eisenhower and Badoglio.
The 8th September was an important day for Italy because it was also the date of dissolution of Italian army.
It was the beginning of the Resistenza (Opposition) of many brave Italian patriots against Germans (in Rome, Cefalonia, Corfù, Corsica and Lero island).
Some people think that since that day the Fascist idea of country died and the Democratic sense of nation started.
After that date I remained to live with my grandfather in the Italian region of Marche, in another village near Porto San Giorgio. It was too dangerous to come back home in Rome where there were German soldiers. Now they had become our enemies.
In 1943 the Americans arrived in Sicily and slowly started to go up and rescue our country while Germans gradually ran away. Everywhere Americans were welcomed with joyful tears in the eyes of Italian people. There were the same celebrations and scenes in the different Italian cities.
I still remember the German soldiers leaving on foot my little village. On that night my grandfather told us to hide in a room underground. I couldn’t understand the reason. We were in the darkness in silence but we could hear noisy steps on the road. My brother and I decided to take the risk and to get to a window on the first floor to see what was going on. A huge crowd of German soldiers was leaving our village in silence with their trucks. They marched for hours then we heard an explosion: it was the bridge on the river Tenna blowing up.
After some months on the same road where we had seen the Germans escape, we saw the Americans. We were safe and we could come back to Rome.
It was 1945. War was over.
Liana Fratini
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