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Written by Pacifico Cofrancesco
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Thursday, 18 September 2008 |
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Page 4 of 11
The "Libbretta" of “Corporal Cofrancesco Umberto"
Umberto was called to arms on 26 May 1940. A few weeks later, on 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and France, allying with Germany. Umberto was discharged on 12 July 1948. His State of Service devotes only a few lines and a remark to describe the seven years of his participation in the Second World War, first as a soldier and then as prisoner. But the "Libbretta" (a little notebook) of "Corporal Umberto Cofrancesco" and other documents, which has been kept with great love by his daughter Giuseppina Lorenzina tell us a different story, intense and painful, about those seven long years, since his departure for Libya in 1940 until his return in Italy in early 1947.
The first page of Umberto’s "Libbretta"
While the annotations in Umberto’s notebook are not verbose, the dates are precise and correspond exactly with the known events of the battle that occurred in Cyrenaica, on the border with Egypt, between the second half of 1940 and the beginning of 1941, until the fall of Bardia, between 3 and 5 January 1941. Perhaps those notes were written later, during his imprisonment. Even so his memories are clear, and the writing without hesitations.
Umberto does not write with a pencil and probably not even with a fountain pen. He seems to write with an old-fashioned pen and ink. The ink, sometimes blue, sometimes black, sometimes red, was found who knows how in that war scenario, when the equipment of a soldier and a prisoner was reduced to the basics.
Each team-leader Corporal had a little notebook like Umberto’s, where he wrote the names of all the members of the "Team" (in the Italian Army the “Team” – “Squadra” – is the basic unit of a Platoon, and consists of about fifteen soldiers), their identification numbers, and those of the weapons assigned to each of them. The first team that Umberto recorded is the eighth, formed by 13 soldiers and two Corporals. On the following pages other teams, of which Umberto was a part and had responsibility, are also recorded.
Umberto also recorded in his notebook the military addresses of people known to him as Aquilino and Lorenzo Nuzzolillo, Emilio Izzo, and Giovanni Simone, who, from their surnames, seem to be his “paesani” (i.e., persons coming from the same town or area in Italy) from S. Lorenzello, as well as other people very dear to him such as his brother Silvio:
Geniere Cofrancesco Silvio
21o Battaglione Collegiato
Genio di Corpo d’Armata
8a Comp. Telegrafisti
That information was enough for Umberto to be able to address mail to his brother, who was also a soldier and a telegrapher. A new address for his brother Silvio appears on another page:
Geniere Silvio Cofrancesco
Ospedale da campo N.583
1° Reparto Chirurgia
Derna
It is not known when Umberto wrote this new address. But almost certainly his brother Silvio was wounded, perhaps in North Africa, during the first phase of the Second World War.
Finding a “paesano” at the war front was certainly an event welcomed with particular joy. Keeping in touch and having the possibility of exchanging letters was a way to feel closer to home, and again savor that “familiar” home air, which the Libyan desert with its ghibli wind and the harshness of the war tried to cancel. But even more important was the possibility of "following" the family with the mind and heart, to be informed of what happened to them, where they were, whether they were at war, if the vineyard gave fruit, if someone died, etc. From Umberto’s letters we learned that he was always in touch with his family, even if sometimes six months went by between one letter and the following one.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 18 September 2008 )
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