Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward - Tecnam.com

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Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward The team was made of 6 persons including Gino and me. I remember exactly the last names of my team. There were Del Prete, Stefanelli, Fallarino and Sessa. The last one, the only who still is with us after many years. Finally on the 30th of August we left for Asiago in train with all our models well packed. We arrived in Vicenza late at night. The train for Asiago was leaving the next morning and so we were obliged to stop at the station the whole night. Hundreds of aircraft model construction enthusiast arrived shortly all heading to Asiago. In a few hours the whole station was crowded with aircraft model construction enthusiast waiting for the departure of rack railways trains to Asiago. Finally, the train was ready and occupied by all of us full of luggage, packages, back packs, boxes, in other words a train made of flying models that strove at full speed. We reached Asiago in a few hours where on a superb green lawn was ready the RUNA field, paradise for the fan like us. Asiago is a big plain with many nice little hills here and there and far off other higher peaks that surround them. The next day, at our launch’s turn, we were very unlucky: the model after a considerable climb, took decidedly the direction of the village fully pointing the bell tower and destroying itself completely. We stayed in Asiago from the 2nd until the 8th of September. Together with many models were flying also many gliders and with nostalgia we thought at our glider, at the times when sit in the cockpit we thought we could fly. The dream was only appeased …! We were now at the beginning of 1943. The war was approaching and the ever increasing tragic news did not leave any hope. My father during the advanced of English soldiers in North Africa, was taken prisoner. We did not have any news from him for a long time until the Red Cross told us that he was held in a Prisoner camp in India. Our aircraft modeling construction activity slowed down a little bit for lacking of materials and because the situation became everyday more serious. We succeeded in organizing a competition on the slope of the Gran Potenza between aircraft model enthusiasts from Benevento that held a good technical success. We left, as every year for Faicchio, not imagining that everything we owned in our old house of Benevento would have been destroyed. After almost a month in fact, Benevento was bombed, the city had been hit several times and reduced in ruins. As soon as we had the news, and not having other means of transport, we got on our bicycles and we left for Benevento. We covered at full speed 40 km longing to still find something. Unfortunately nothing, absolutely nothing was left. We left from Benevento around 4.00 in the afternoon, arriving to Faicchio at night. At home everyone was worried. I was tired and discouraged; I throw myself on the couch of the dining room and started to cry. In a few days, the situation worsened. The front was always closer and German and American planes continuously streaked the sky. A day, at the very beginning of September, Gino and I were in front of the house when the irregular roar of a plane that flew very low over the country, attracted us. Almost at our vertical we clearly distinguished the slim shape of a Messerschmdt 109 certainly in difficulties. In fact, few seconds later the roar stopped completely and we noticed the plane gliding heading towards the Marafi plain. Without hesitation we got on our bicycles and we went in the direction of Marafi, that wasn’t as close as we thought. After an hour of walk we climbed on a little hill and from the top we saw in the middle of the grass, intact, the Messerschmdt that was landed without the undercarriage. On the run we reached it, we walked round it, we climbed on the wing, we opened the transparent soft top and we went down on the cabin. Gino sat in the cockpit. The instrument panel was undamaged and the controls worked perfectly. Only the blades of the propeller were bending. We were enthusiasts when the shouting of the farmer, landowner, brought us backs to reality. As soon as he reached us and recognized us he calmed down immediately. The poor man was rightly worried about the retaliations that Germans could have made to anyone who had damaged the plane. Then we reached in agreement: if in two days no one would have claimed the plane we would be free to have it. No one came and once we got the tools we started to dismantle the plane. Everything on board was for us of big interest: we started from the instrument panel, then the controls, the bearings and at last we unnailed also the sheets. This work lasted various days, at the end for the difficulties in disassembling pieces of the engine due to the lack of special spanners, following the advice of our friend Arnaldo, expert in arms and explosives, we decided to blow up with the dynamite the engine carter. It had been a crazy decision that almost turned into a catastrophe. We put into the propeller shaft that in the Messerschmdt was also a light cannon, two pieces of dynamites closing up with soil and stones and we sparked off. The shaft didn’t cave in, instead a stone’s cannon shot and soil went off, and with enormous uproar reached some farmers that were working not far. Fortunately no one was hit, but we had to quickly abandon the area to avoid the reaction of the fierce farmers. All the material recovered was transported home with the help of some friends, I remember that one night when we were going back home with the material, we met along the road a farmer on horseback who told us with - 4 -
Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward apprehension that a little bit up in the bush the Germans were encamped. This news worried us and we decided to hide the material in a near grove. We didn’t meet anyone, but it was necessary to be careful in such a terrible period. All that we disassembled was safe at home. That material was important for us, not having given up our old project but just postponed it. As the days went by, the activity of the US aviation was more and more intense. A whole fighting formation of Fortezze Volanti (Flying Fortresses) above us met in battle with Germans plane. We witnessed astonished to this horrible scene that briefly ended with the fall of a four-engine aircraft Liberator. I remember the aircraft that bended over and then fell on the ground with an enormous blaze. Various parachutes came down slowly. Naturally, also this time we left immediately towards the scene of the impact, leaded by that sinister plume of smoke, which seamed close but in reality, was very far. After some kilometers we left our bicycles to follow a narrow path almost impracticable. Luckily we met a farmer that proposed to accompany us and together we set out again. After almost an hour we arrived to the river Calore, large in that point 30 meters. After some hesitations we jumped into the water and reached the shore. On a little hill in front we could still see the smoke of the plane that was burning. We reached it and we witnessed a scene that I will never forget. There were bullets unexploded almost everywhere, one of the engine that detached from the wing fell on a house destroying it completely. In the middle of the smoking remains of the plane, there were on the floor two bodies that were still burning, giving out a terrible smell that made the air stink. Amongst the members of the crew, six saved them with the parachute and were taken by the Italian’s paramilitary police. A huge bomb unexploded laid on the ground in the middle of twisted sheets scattered all over. We didn’t stay long; we were so shocked and astonished by that horrible sight of violence and death. We just took with us an aluminum alloy sheet on which was printed the name ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America), famous American company that produced light sheets for aviation, that years later would have also been our supplier. Redoing backwards our way we crossed the river Calore almost at dusk, arriving home very late. They were all worried about us, waiting to have a dinner that we didn’t eat. Exhausted we went to bed with thousands of thoughts. The storm was at the door, the roar of the cannon was always closer, and the Germans retreating occupied our house that became seat of the headquarters and front-line hospital. One night after the hundredth bombing we all fled to the mountains under a gunfire that lasted several days non-stop. We found together with many other farmers shelter inside some caves in the mountains. One night, while the gunfire continued, a breathless young shepherd arrived and with a troubled look told us that not far from us an American weapon pit of mortars had been fully hit by Germans batteries. Passing by he heard some moans, someone was still alive even if seriously wounded. We decided immediately to go and check and taking advantage of a pause of the fire Gino, two other young, and me together with the shepherd, rushed down the slope. Besides the imminent darkness we finally arrived on a little clearing. The terrible scene that we saw that night remained engraved in my mind. The weapon pit had been fully hit, around the mortar where were the lifeless bodies of the soldiers. We shaked one by one the bodies hoping to still find someone alive and in fact we heard a moan. It was impossible to carry him without a stretcher and so we came back to the grotto where we found amongst the refugee a rung ladder that we used as a stretcher. We came back in a hurry on the spot and with a big effort we carried the wounded to our refuge. Some days after the marching through the front, the American Red Cross came to pick him up and he was safe. Finally the Americans occupied the weapon pit. We climbed down the mountains while fallen men here and there covered the land. A never-ending sadness took me; everything seemed to me so inconceivable. A death soldier, sat, leaned against a small stonewall. It seemed as he was sleeping with his helmet still on his head. We finally arrived at home; various cannon shots had hit the first floor destroying everything. In front of the house an airplane’s bomb had dug an enormous hole many meters deep. A few days later our house had been occupied by the US command and the majority of the rooms were requisitioned. Anyhow we could finally eat something after months of suffering. We spent all the winter in town, staying all around the fire trying to heat ourselves as we could. One day with Gino while we were in front of the house, we noticed two people that with difficulty were dragging along a German BMW motorcycle. The nice two cylinders motorcycle had en engine failure. The two guys wanted to sell it but unfortunately we did not have money. We managed to equally exchange it for a Star gun of my father, with which some time we used to target practice. We finally had something to do … We disassembled it completely, discovered the failure and we repaired it. We also varnished it. We got our first motorbike. In a few days we learned how to drive it, driving around all the nearby villages. The Americans offered us plenty of gasoline and oil so we did not have any problem of fuel consumption. - 5 -
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Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward - Tecnam.com

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