Beneath a Scarlet Sky

Eleven weeks have passed since Pino’s parents ordered him to enlist in the German army. Pino reports for duty to help guard the Modena train station. Pino’s platoon leader orders him to take another soldier with him and guard Platform Three. As Pino stands and talks with the other guard, Pritoni, air raid sirens begin to go off. Bombs begin detonating around Pino. One of the blasts ends up hurling him through the air and off the platform. When Pino gets his bearings about him, he sees that a chunk of shrapnel has taken off most of Pritoni’s head. Pino also sees that the middle and index fingers on Pino’s right hand are almost completely severed; he blacks out from the shock.

Pino is judged temporarily unfit for duty and told to go home for 10 days to recuperate. Back home, people who knew Pino sneer at his Nazi uniform. Pino feels disillusioned about God’s plan for him during the war. Pino decides to stop at Uncle Albert’s leather store before going home and sees a driver working on the engine of a Nazi staff car. Pino helps the driver with the engine of the car and eventually gets the car to start again. The German officer—Leyers—sees Pino fix the engine of the staff car and makes Pino his new driver. Once Leyers leaves the shop, Aunt Greta and Uncle Albert rush Pino inside and tell him that Leyers is the second most powerful German in Italy. They decide to make Pino a spy for the resistance as he drives Leyers.

Pino is amazed by his change in fate. He wakes up the morning of August 8, 1944 to get ready to drive Leyers. Uncle Albert and Aunt Greta decided earlier that no one else should know about Pino’s new role as the general’s driver. Pino goes to the motor pool to pick up Leyers’ car, a Daimler-Benz staff car, and drives to the address the Nazi general had given him. When Pino knocks on the door to the apartment, a woman with “slate-blue eyes” greets him (189). She introduces herself as the maid, but Pino recognizes her as Anna. At first, Anna doesn’t understand how Pino knows her name, but Pino tells her that he was the one who asked her to go to the movies outside the bakery last year. Anna then remembers Pino and feels some embarrassment about standing Pino up that night.

Dolly Stottlemeyer introduces herself to Pino: “She was leggy and pretty in a showgirl way with pendulous breasts, green eyes, and a riot of auburn hair that fell artfully about her shoulders and face” (191). Dolly is Leyers’ mistress. Flustered, Pino takes the general’s valise down to the car for him. He decides that he needs to be the perfect driver for Leyers so that he can continue to see Anna and not be dismissed. As he places the valise into the backseat, Pino wonders what might be inside of it. He tries to open it, but it’s locked. A few moments later, Leyers emerges from the apartment and gets in the car. Pino notices that Leyers wears a silver chain around his neck with a key on it that unlocks the valise.

Pino drives Leyers to Como. While he drives, he notices that Leyers works relentlessly in the back seat, poring over documents from the valise. Leyers directs Pino to drive him around the back of a football stadium. As Pino waits for Leyers to finish conducting his business at the stadium, more than a dozen German lorries arrive outside the stadium. German soldiers lead a group of 40 men in chains inside the stadium. Pino slips inside of the stadium and watches as Leyers sorts the men into three groups: the strongest men in the first group, men who were beaten up but still able in the second group, and men who had reached their limits in the third group. When Pino sees Leyers exit for the car, he sprints back and makes an excuse to Leyers that he had stepped away to relieve himself.

Next, Leyers orders Pino to drive to the outskirts of Varenna. Pino drives through a pasture to the far corner of a field. Leyers has Pino follow him this time to take notes. Pino follows Leyers onto a railroad track that curves into a tunnel. Pino sees a group of men in gray prisoner uniforms digging on both sides of the tunnel. Leyers has Pino take notes on the amount of ammunition and supplies being stored there. As Leyers is arguing with another German officer, Pino attempts to give the prisoners in gray suits some water. Pino speaks to one man named Antonio who says that he and the rest of the prisoners are slaves.

Antonio continues to tell Pino about who he is and where he’s from: “In every country the Nazis invade and conquer, they take all able-bodied men and send them into slavery. They call it ‘forced labor,’ or some such bullshit, but it’s slavery any way you look at it” (205). Antonio sees Leyers coming their way and goes quiet. Leyers tells Pino that he is his driver and that he doesn’t serve the laborers. He orders Pino to drive him to Lake Garda.

As Pino drives, he briefly considers killing Leyers, but knows deep in his gut that he isn’t an assassin. Leyers directs Pino through a series of tight streets to a gated estate guarded by Fascist Black Shirt commandos. When Leyers gets out of the car, he orders Pino to follow him and act as his translator. After turning a corner onto a terrace, Pino sees that he’s standing face to face with Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci. Leyers wants Mussolini to use his influence in Italy to end the worker strikes. Mussolini wants Leyers’ assurance that his workers will be paid in hard currency. Mussolini also demands that he speak directly with Hitler. Leyers attempts to appease Mussolini by telling him that he will do his best to have Hitler get in touch with him. When Leyers leaves Mussolini’s estate, he calls it an “insane asylum” (211).

While Leyers works at the telephone exchange, Pino uses the time to make his way to Beltramini’s Fresh Fruits and Vegetables to see Carletto. As Pino and Carletto are speaking, a bicyclist carrying a messenger bag nearly hits Carletto. Pino can see a patch of red sticking up from beneath his shirt. The bicyclist comes up right behind one of the German lorries and lobs the bag through the canvas cover. Seconds later, the vehicle explodes, knocking Pino and Carletto to the ground. Mr. Beltramini’s body is scorched and lying on the sidewalk. Carletto and Pino attempt to comfort him as he dies. Pino asks Mr. Beltramini if he remembers the night he and Michele played “Nessun Dorma” on the hillside. Then, Carletto and Mr. Beltramini see the Nazi armband Pino is wearing. Mr. Beltramini calls Pino a traitor with his last words, and Carletto tells Pino that he never wants to see him again because Pino’s a Nazi.

When Pino arrives at Dolly’s apartment with Leyers, he tells him that the bomber had worn a red scarf tucked beneath his shirt. Pino tells Uncle Albert and Aunt Greta everything he had seen and heard that day. After arriving back home, Pino has difficulty sleeping. It’s only when his thoughts turn to Anna that he can finally sleep.

Pino picks up Leyers from Dolly’s apartment in the morning. As he is leaving, Anna smiles at him as she hands Pino the general’s lunch to carry. While Pino is waiting for Leyers to finish some business at the telephone exchange, he hears an SS vehicle quipped with speakers issuing a message: “‘A warning to all citizens of Milan,’ a man brayed in Italian. ‘The cowardly bombing of German soldiers yesterday will not stand. Turn the bomber in today, or face punishment tomorrow’” (224). When Leyers emerges from the telephone exchange, he’s very upset. He tells Pino to take him to the chancellery.

Leyers has Pino follow him inside the chancellery to meet with Cardinal Schuster. Leyers tells Cardinal Schuster that the Nazis plan “an appropriate act of violence on local males” the next day to counter the partisan attack on German soldiers (227), and that the cardinal should ask the bomber to turn himself in before the punishment is imposed. Cardinal Schuster recognizes Pino, who asks the cardinal not to tell Leyers that the cardinal knows Pino, saying, “I’m not what you think I am. I beg you, have mercy on my soul” (227).

After Pino drops off the general at Dolly’s, he is forced to wait in the car outside in case the general decides to leave in the night. Anna comes out with food to share with Pino. As they eat in the back of the car, she tells Pino a little bit about herself and how she came by the job working as Dolly’s maid. She also tells Pino that there are things about her that she can’t talk about with him. In the morning, Leyers has Pino drive to San Vittore Prison where Rauff is overseeing its operations. Rauff has the prisoners come outside and count off by 10; Barbareschi and Tullio are among the prisoners. Tullio is one of the prisoners who are loaded into a German lorry. Pino follows the lorry to the piazza in front of the Duomo. The prisoners are lined up and executed by Black Shirt Fascists. Before he is shot, Tullio yells that the gunmen are all cowards. 

Pino screams into the crook of his arm as he watches the gunmen shoot the prisoners. Leyers hears Pino screaming and asks if Pino knew one of the prisoners; Pino lies and explains that he was screaming because he had never seen an execution before. Rauff wants the bodies of the dead prisoners to stay where they are until dark, as a warning to the rest of Milan.

That night, Anna and Pino have dinner together at Dolly’s apartment, and Pino excuses himself to the bathroom. Pino sneaks into the bedroom Dolly shares with Leyers and searches for the key to the valise; he finds it in Dolly’s jewelry box. Anna catches Pino in Dolly’s room and believes that Pino is a thief. Pino eventually explains that he’s a spy for the Allies and tells Anna, “I don’t care if you believe me or not […] But I’ve put my life in your hands. If Leyers finds out, I’ll die” (247). Anna makes up her mind to believe Pino and watches as he makes a mold of the key from candle wax. After Pino makes a mold of the key and returns the original to Dolly’s room, Anna kisses Pino. Anna is reluctant to share anything about her past with Pino, but tells him this should be a fantasy for them, a diversion from the war.

On the way home from Dolly’s apartment, Pino feels a mixture of emotions: joy from having kissed Anna, and sadness from having watched Tullio executed. When Pino arrives home, he sees Mimo’s suitcases on the floor. Mimo plans on joining the partisans to fight for Italy, but Pino believes that Mimo is too young. Mimo notices the uniform that Pino is wearing, and Pino tries to explain that he is only driving for the Germans and not fighting for the Nazis. Mimo calls Pino a coward for sitting out the war while other people step up to fight for Italy. Pino punches Mimo in the face and breaks his nose.

Fifteen days later, Pino and Leyers visit a ridge and oversee 15,000 slaves mixing, transporting, and pouring cement for machine gun nests and artillery platforms. At Leyers’ direction, Pino takes notes on the tactical strengths and weaknesses of the position. Pino watches as the SS slave masters push the prisoners to work harder and faster. Pino swears he’s looking at Antonio at one point.

At Uncle Albert’s, Pino unfolds a map with pencil marks indicating the rough placements of the artillery, machine gun nests, armories, and ammo dumps he had seen earlier in the day. Pino feels like he might be making a difference in the war. Uncle Albert tells Pino that the Allies only know that Pino exists as a spy by his code name, “Observer.”

On September 1, 1944, British forces puncture weaker sections of the Gothic Line. Nine days later, US forces drive the Nazis off the highlands at the Giogo Pass. The Allies try to catch the German forces in a pincer move before they can retreat and regroup. Pino and Leyers travel to high ground near Torraccia to watch the town of Coriano come under siege. After two days of combat, Coriano falls.

Leyers travels to a Fiat factory before the workers go on strike. Leyers calls Hitler directly to assure the Fiat manager that his workers will be paid. On the way back to Dolly’s apartment, a British pilot in a Spitfire ambushes Pino and Leyers while driving. Pino manages to maneuver the car to escape being killed, but the car itself takes heavy fire from the Spitfire.

Pino manages to start the car and nurses it back to Milan with Leyers. Leyers is impressed with Pino’s ability to get him out of danger with his driving. He opens a bottle of scotch in the backseat, offers a drink to Pino, and proceeds to get drunk on the way back to Milan. Along the way, Leyers becomes more open and talkative with Pino, telling Pino that he reminds him of his own son.

When they finally reach Dolly’s apartment, Leyers, Pino, Dolly, and Anna celebrate their escape from the British pilot and continue drinking into the night. After Leyers drunkenly falls asleep, Pino and Anna kiss and talk. Anna tells Pino about how her father drowned during a storm at sea. Fishermen rescued Anna, who was on the boat as a young child with her father.

Pino reports to Uncle Albert. They determine that Leyers is far more powerful than they originally thought, because he reports directly to Hitler. Uncle Albert also warns Pino that things are going to get much worse before they get better because the Nazis’ economy is starting to break down, and they will seize more from Italian citizens. By October of 1944, Uncle Albert is proved right as Leyers oversees Nazis seizing resources from the Italian countryside.

Leyers and Pino are at the train station overseeing the transportation of produce seized from Italian farms. As Leyers is dictating to Pino, he finds his way blocked by SS soldiers. Pino sees a sign indicating that they’re at Platform 21, the same place Mrs. Napolitano had told Pino that the Jews disappeared on trains headed north. From inside a cattle car, Pino can hear the desperate cries of men, women, and children. A woman asks Pino where they are headed. When Pino translates for Leyers, Leyers tells Pino to tell the woman that she’s going to a work camp in Poland. The woman tells Pino to pray for them as the train departs the station. Pino can see three little fingers sticking out of a crack on the rear wall of the last cattle car—an image that haunts Pino’s dreams later that night.

Pino and Leyers visit Mussolini at his villa. Il Duce looks disheveled and is on the phone with Claretta; they are arguing about his wife. Mussolini asks Leyers if the rumors are true, if Hitler is building an underground bunker where he will retreat with his most loyal followers. Mussolini wants a place in the underground bunker reserved for him.

Shortly after sunset on October 31, 1944, Pino and Leyers drive to the train station in Monza. Leyers tells Pino to wait with the car, but Pino decides to follow Leyers and finds that he’s ordering four prisoners to transfer heavy boxes of gold from one boxcar to another. When the gold transfer is complete, Pino rushes back to the car and hears four gunshots. Leyers tells Pino that the four laborers had tried to run when his back was turned; Leyers shot at them and missed. Pino is skeptical about Leyers’ story. Pino has the next day off, and Leyers gives him permission to use the car to take Anna wherever he likes.

The next day, Pino drives Anna to his favorite spot on Lake Como. Anna reveals how her mother blamed Anna for Anna’s father’s death. Pino and Anna then visit the hill where his father and Mr. Beltramini had performed “Nessun Dorma” during the bombing of Milan.