Long pause at Ca’ Bonucci before passing the Front

On 22 September, Armando’s partisans settled at Ca’ Bonucci, near Serrazzone (Fanano). An American historian describes the move as “another retreat into the inhospitable mountains around Lake Pratignano, where the partisans survived for a week on boiled chestnuts and mule meat and faced the first signs of the onset of winter protected only by their summer clothing and broken shoes.” One partisan was killed in an accident and another died during a skirmish with Germans who came to Lake Pratignano after a weapons and ammunition drop. On 29 September 1944, after passing through Madonna dell’Acero and Pianaccio, Armando’s partisans came to Castelluccio, Porretta, already occupied by the partisans of the Matteotti formation, who were fighting off a German attack. The arrival of Armando’s partisans at Castelluccio marked the beginning of the Belvedere Liberated Zone.