Walter Marx - Protecting mountain road for Allies
Transcript: Oh, the road that leads from Borgo San Dalmazzo through Demonte, through Vinadio, through Pianche, up to the French border which there was a mountain pass, was a road that the Germans wanted to take after the Allies landed on the French coast, on the French Mediterranean coast. And they tried on a number of occasions to get up that road, but it was blocked by the partisans. So one day we had been ordered to go closer to the French border from Demonte and we were encamped above the city -- above the village of Pianche, and I was on a mortar, you know, 81-inch mortar. And the -- first we saw two German motorcycles come. We her -- we heard them, you know, and we saw them on the road. And the commander said, hold your fire. Don't do anything. Then the truck came, and the truck was on a bridge when we got orders to fire the mortar, and we fired the mortar. And as we fired the mortar, we heard like a blowing horn, and it was a -- it kept on blowing as long as I can remember. And then more and more Germans came, and the commander says, okay, everybody leave. We've done our job.