One of the leaders of the Abruzzese resistance was Domenico Troilo from Gessopalena. He was the commander of the garrison of the Patriots in Fallascoso and he reported to the British commander in Torricella Peligna. The following are excerpts from a interview with Domenico Troilo, written by Gino Melchiorre and translated by Bill Brierley.

Domenico Troilo

You were the second-in-command of the partisan Majella Brigade, with responsibility for military affairs. The history of the Brigade has already been covered in detail by various historians. As a youngster, along with other men of the same age, you took up arms to oppose the German Army. None of you, I think, mainly because you were too young, had well-developed anti-fascist feelings.

"You have to go back in your mind to July 25th, the day Mussolini was overthrown and what it meant for Italy and for this region, which had become a no-mans land. Nobody was obeying orders anymore, there was nobody in authority to give orders. I realize that it must be difficult for people today to understand this, but the situation was very serious, completely unheard of - there was no government any more."

Was it now that you decided to fight?

"I was already thinking before then that something had to be done to make things better. I used to talk about it a lot with Vincenzo Tilli, who was a few years older than me. When the British arrived in Gessopalena, I went to them with Vincenzo Tilli, and told them we wanted to collaborate. My first gun was given to me by a British officer. We made patrols as far as Torricella Peligna which was occupied by the Germans."

What happened in Torricella?

"After the British arrived, my group was supposed to go to Colledimacine, and Salvati's to Fallascoso. Salvati suggested we should swap -  they came from Colledimacine, so the request was understandable. When they got to Colledimacine, the Germans had fled, so they mounted the bell tower and rang the bell. This was a very risky thing to do. In fact , some Germans were in Cesapiana, and they fired on Colledimacine and the bell tower. Everybody fled. Five or six of them came to join me and my group in Fallascoso, the rest disappeared. I've never heard from Salvati since."

Fallascoso was on the front line for quite a while.

"When we arrived in Fallascoso, we found a few youngsters wandering about in the houses,  the rest of the citizens had fled. From that day we arranged the occupation of Fallascoso, us from Gessopalena together with the youngsters from Fallascoso that we had found there. We suffered a number of attacks from the Germans but we held out. Our headquarters was in the Ducal Palace, at the top of Fallascoso, but we also dug trenches on the hills opposite of Fallascoso to prevent the Germans from getting close."

Did you work under your own initiative?

"We were always in communications with the British. Once they told us to retreat to Torricella Peligna, because Torricella was more easily defended, but I refused. When the Germans advanced, we were always the first to shoot."

After the engagement at Pizzoferrato, the Majella partisans had to hand over their weapons to the British.

"But we didn't. My group kept their weapons, and the British left us in charge of Fallascoso until April 1944.  However, it was after Pizzoferrato, that we joined the Majella, and an officer appointed me second-in-command with the responsibility for military affairs. From the time we spent in Fallascoso, I remember the nights we spent in the Ducal Palace. I slept on three chairs, but I was always ready to get up and go check on the others - they weren't much more than boys*, with little experience, and they fell asleep easily."

*Note from the webmaster:  If anyone might know the identity of those young boys of Fallascoso, please contact us at:  Info@Fallascoso.com.

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