The escape beyond the Sangro
The other farmhouses, Grilli and Le Donne, were not touched, basically for two reasons: the Germans had reached their goal, all these deaths certainly convinced the People of Pietransieri ("Pietransieresi") to flee their hiding places and leave the area empty. Moreover, the other farmhouses were under the jurisdiction of another regiment of paratroopers, the 3rd.
Nothing happened to the refugees of those farms.
In the afternoon of November 21, the sun gives way to a thick layer of clouds that begins to cover the strip of land marked by the deaths. A thick and thin rain begins to fall, the cold becomes more intense.
From the woods of the Valley of Life, fathers, husbands, brothers arrive, confronted with the tragedy that took place a short time before. The news and the desperation spread from farm to farm and, in the evening, they inevitably decided to flee and cross the river Sangro.
During the descent a vision: the horses abandoned in the woods by the People of Pietransieri ("Pietransieresi") are on the banks of the river, to drink. They will shuttle all night long to bring to safety, on the other side of the river, all the fugitives, about 500 people, away from the Germans who no longer have the courage to come down the slopes for fear of the now imposing British army.
The following night, between November 22 and 23, snow falls, a snow that will cover all the corpses and all the pain until the following spring.