大象传媒

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTER

We were ordered to move forward again another 500 yards; 鈥榙ig-in' and await an enemy counter attack. Getting down in the relative comfort of the earth, my mate, Bill and I, set to work with a will, away from the expected enemy shell fire, which was sure to come soon. We were digging fast and furiously, as our officer, Captain Debenham, came and commanded us to follow him with my machine gun.

The three of us walked forward, towards the retreating enemy lines. We came to the remains of an old farm and the Captain told us to wait in the barn, until he returned from a quick recce to find out exactly where the enemy were. Bill and I sat inside the ruined barn having a quick smoke, when, a few minutes later, a German passed by the open doorway! I nearly choked on my cigarette in surprise and exclaimed, 鈥淎 German soldier has just gone by the door!鈥� Another followed him and yet another! Six, or seven men passed the entrance and the last man had his hands raised. This last German was being followed by one of our troops with a fixed bayonet, nudging him in the back. What a relief that was!

Our officer, Captain Debenham, returned after about ten minutes and ordered us to follow him again. We went forward, until we came to a few houses on a hillside. He selected one with a veranda built on the outside, facing out over a valley. On climbing through the house and up on to it, we had a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. The Captain pointed out several, isolated farm buildings on the other side of the valley. The enemy occupied these farms, and 'A' or, 'C' Companies would make their way through the valley and approach the buildings from the right... He told me to fire on any persons that left the building from the left-hand side. So saying, he departed.

I ranged the machine gun with the setting of about 1000 yards and mounted it on the railing of the veranda. We talked and smoked for a short while, until we saw the first of our men making their way through the valley. They approached the first building as arranged and I could hear faintly their call to anyone occupying the building to come out. Suddenly, six of the seven enemy soldiers broke out on the left-hand side and started to run like hell towards the other farm buildings, some 300 yards away. I opened fire at the fleeing troops until the magazine was empty. I could not see the results from my firing, but Bill, who had the officer鈥檚 field glasses, told me that at least one man was lying on the ground in a clump of bushes. He handed me the glasses and I could see the man; I could not tell whether he had been hit or not.

It was then Bill told me that my old mate from Blighty, Bernard Jenniss had been killed. Albert as I had known him, had been hardly nineteen, with tousled hair and an infectious laugh, which I can still hear today, if I care to. I felt an intense anger at the thought of his death. I do not know who gave Bill the information. I loaded another magazine into the machine gun and taking careful aim, I pumped the whole magazine, towards the prone enemy soldier. Through the field glasses, Bill told me he was no longer moving.

I reloaded my machine gun and followed the movement of our troops along the valley, towards the building to where the enemy troops had run. Again, I could hear the faint shouts of our troop calling on the enemy to surrender. Once again, the enemy broke out from the left-hand side of the building and ran like hell towards the apparent shelter of a copse of trees - about two hundred yards, or so away. There seemed to me to have been more than a dozen of them and I quickly took aim and fired. The tracer sped towards them as they ran and several fell. The remainder reached the copse and remained hidden from my view.

'A鈥� Company made their way towards the area and dealt with the survivors. Bill told me that I had downed at least three of the enemy soldiers. This of course, I shall never know. But later on, after the 75th Division had passed through us, on the 15th May, I cut five marks into the butt of my Bren gun. From that day, I separated from my gun only on rare occasions. Bill and I went back to our previous position and with the few remaining members of 鈥楤鈥機ompany, we started to 鈥榙ig鈥� in with a will.

We expected the enemy to counter-attack at any moment. We had just finished 鈥榙igging in,' when Captain Debenham told, us we were moving out of the line, as there were too few in number. The 78th Division was taking over, now a possible break through had been made. The few of us, who survived, assembled and marched back towards the Bailey bridge that crossed at the village of Sant Angelo.

I was relieved to get across the bridge in safety. The shelling had almost stopped. On crossing the bridge, we went about a mile, or so, almost to our original start line and told that we would be staying for the night. Thank God for this I thought, we could have a good nights sleep at last. We were given a meal and made up our beds under the stars for the night.

It was about 10 o'clock in the evening that it happened. The drone of the aircraft filled the air. Flares from low-flying enemy aircraft lit up the whole area. Everyone dived for the nearest cover. For me, there was a slit trench into which I dived. I found that it contained tins and bottles amongst a host of other, evil smelling things. Nevertheless, I stayed there as the enemy bombers sent their bombs crashing down in an attempt to demolish the bridge. The bombing was fortunately of short duration and the bridge, as far as I know, was undamaged. We slept for the remainder of the night.

The next three or four days were spent in resting, cleaning our equipment and listening to the news about troop movements up the Italian peninsula. As was usual for them, the Germans were carrying out a very orderly retreat.

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