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Leonardo. We spoke to Antonio of these evident forerunners of trouble, but he seemed to think he had seen them before. Later in the day he asked me to look out of the window to see if the men now walking along the street were the same met earlier in the day. I looked out and there indeed were the evil three walking slowly along and casting every now and then anxious glances up at the electric wires. Antonio explained that these men were poor refugees from Cassino who had been sent up by the 'Municipio' to guard the electric wires recently installed.
June I8th It is raining hard. A storm last night with much thunder and lightning, thunder and lightning seeming quite tame when compared to the pandemonium let loose by human beings. We heard over the radio of the 'dynamic meteors' that the Germans are now using as retaliation. People have been saying that this much heralded invention would prove a mere bluff. But how can one explain the German 'décrochage' methods on all fronts if it is not that some plan is on foot to make use of these new weapons on restricted fronts.
Looking out of my window this morning I saw in the garden a giant German soldier scraping his [[strikethrough]] la [[/strikethrough]] huge shoes on the wire mat before entering the villa. He was an electrician sent to take down the newly installed telephone wires running along Via. S. Leonardo. He told Antonio that they were about to leave Florence, to take up positions further north.