大象传媒

Isernia was one of the larger towns we had been in for some time. It had been strongly defended by the Germans as it was an important rail junction. The railway ran laterally across country and was used by the Germans to supply troops on all fronts from the Adriatic coast to Rome and Cassino. When the Germans withdrew from Isernia, they made sure we would not be able to use the railway for some time. They blew up the lines at regular intervals and tore up the sleepers. They completely destroyed a huge railway bridge of about twenty spans. Perhaps before the war, you would be able to tell the old part of the town from the new, but when we entered it was all the same; destruction everywhere with huge piles of rubble. I doubt if more that a dozen buildings in the whole town had escaped the full force of constant bombing and shelling. Whole streets of houses were just heaps of rubble and huge craters full of rainwater were everywhere. Here and there a picture still hung on a wall open to wind and rain, or a bed and other furniture hung precariously from what was left of a bedroom. On 11th November 1943 we were all detailed to help clear the rubble from the streets. A bulldozer filled in many of the craters and pulled down some of the most dangerous buildings. Some of the civilian population had started to return and they crammed into any room or cellar they could find. AMGOT soon arrived and started to employ civilian men and boys to make a temporary road to the old part of the town. The original road was covered by tons and tons of rubble. These workers were given food rations for themselves and their families, with extra dried milk and other items for babies. The sick or injured were given medical aid. The Civil Police were screened and the non-fascists were given control of civil administration and prevention of looting. All civilians had to be indoors by curfew, but we really had no trouble from them. They began to patch up their living quarters and managed to salvage a few items of use from the rubble of their homes. We stayed in Isernia for fourteen days and I think it rained on every one of those days.

On the high mountain peaks around were light coverings of snow. A mobile cinema unit came up for a week. They rigged up a screen and the projector in the old Opera House which only leaked here and there. The only lighting was produced from a large generator in a van outside. It really was a good film, in fact it was more than that, it was a real tonic to us all. It cheered us up and helped us to forget all the rain. Most of us went to see it three of four times and by the end of the week we were all singing or whistling the title tune of 鈥淔or Me And My Girl鈥�. I shall not forget the first night I tried to find the Opera House; I had to give up after wandering about for over an hour. It was a very black night, very windy and pouring with rain. I enquired the way from some lads in the company, but they were not too sure. I decided to chance it, as I expected to meet some more of the lads on the way. I did too, but they didn鈥檛 know either, so we had a look around. We must have been quite close several times, as we even found the generator. It went over huge piles of rubble and craters and through several bombed houses. We climbed over some rubble and up a bank and met a few more lads. We decided to have one last scout around. It was still pouring with rain, so we got moving. We climbed over walls, down into craters and at one point we had just passed a ruined building when a gust of wind brought down a shower of tiles all around us. I was now getting rather wet so I decided to give it up and get back to the billet. On the way back I came to a huge crater in the road, it was so deep I had to slide down the muddy sides. The bottom was full of water, mud and the dead bodies of civilians killed in the bombing. It was very dark so I couldn鈥檛 see very much and thank God I couldn鈥檛 for as I moved slowly towards the other side of the crater I trod first on one body then another. It sent a creepy chill up my spine and I tried to hurry on . It was just like one of those terrible dreams where you are being chased by savages or wild animals, and try as you may to get away, your legs just would not move. Eventually I did reach the bank of the crater and climbed its muddy side. I scrambled up onto the road and found my way back to the billet, I was wet through and shaken. I found out later that the crater had once been a bridge over the road. The civilians had been killed while sheltering there during a bombing raid by the Americans

On Monday 22nd November 1943 we packed up and left Isernia and took up billets in Castel Romano. B company were in the village and the remainder of the battalion were split up into two adjoining villages. We were still only six miles from Isernia and could look down on it from our village. Billets in Castel Romano were not very plentiful so we had to make the best of what there was. Our detachment took over a small stone stable. It was quite dry, so after shifting a big load of straw and sweeping up, we got it quite comfortable. Ern rebuilt the old fireplace. It was rather smokey at first until we made the chimney higher with some old tins. We also cleaned out the loft above to use as a mess room.

Between the farm buildings and the road was a narrow grass field, and in this field quite close to the road was the fuselage of an American fighter plane, its engine buried deep in the ground. The cockpit canopy was shattered and there were no wings. Most likely the Germans had removed them and taken them away. Close to the remains of the plane was a very neat little grave with a white cross on which was written in German 鈥滺eir Legen Das Unbecknamen Americanisher Fleiger鈥�.

The next morning, 23rd November 1943 I was detailed to go with a small party led by Lt. Taylor and Sgt. Lewis of the Carrier Platoon, to recci or even try to erect a temporary rope bridge over a stretch of the river Volturno. This was to be used for patrols to cross at night until the RE鈥檚 could put a Bailey bridge across. The Germans had blown up all the real bridges. I must say, we could not have had a worse day for the job and the tools we carried were quite inadequate. It was about 7am when we set out for battalion HQ where we had our breakfast and drew haversack rations for mid-day lunch. All morning we climbed up hills covered in juniper bushes, on through woods, and down into valleys on the other side, then up again to even higher hills. A steady rain fell all the time and by about 11am, we were all getting quite wet. We still saw no sign of the river Volturno. It was just after midday and we were high up in the hills when we got the first glimpse of a bend in the river far below. Even from here we could see it was very wide with a very dangerous swollen torrent. When we got down to it we walked along the banks until we came to the remains of the bridge which had been destroyed by the Germans. We had a rest here and ate our haversack rations. While we were having a smoke, we discussed the situation and found it was very grim. If we felled trees, we had nothing to lash them together with. Most of the masonry of the bridge was either submerged under the swollen river or had been washed away. A very strong rope would be needed to secure any felled trees from one bank to the other or they would be washed away like so much matchwood. We even made one or two attempts to cross the river over the submerged rubble of the old bridge, but we could only get a few feet in safety. Lt. Taylor was nearly washed away, he managed to catch hold of a rifle held out by Sgt. Lewis, and he was pulled in; so that put a stop to that. After a bit of a conflab, it was decided that no further attempts could be made with the inadequate tools at our disposal, so we set off back to the battalion HQ. On the return journey it started to hail as well as rain, but we were already wet through so we just plodded on as fast as we could.

We got back to battalion HQ at about 4.30 p.m. They gave us a really good hot meal with plenty of buckshees and then we went back to our billets. We stripped off all our wet clothes and put on dry ones. I never realised that an old stable could be so warm and welcome as it was that night. Ern had a nice fire burning, it was warm and dry and best of all, I had a nice letter from Mum and a bundle of English papers and magazines from Mollie. I made my bed down, got into it, read all the news from home, had a smoke and then fell asleep. For the next twelve days we just settled down, made ourselves comfortable and cleaned all our equipment and clothes. We were paid and had inoculations. We also had a mobile cinema show in a bombed church. The film 鈥淵ou鈥檙e Forever In My Heart鈥�. On Monday 6th December 1943 we were on the move again. We left our village at 4.30 p.m. and arrived at Montinero at 7.30 p.m. where we stayed for the night. We had some supper, and then after being detailed and given our times for guard, most of us got our heads down. The Germans had burnt a large part of the village of Montinero and according to reports, had taken many civilians away for forced labour. They had taken all the cattle and livestock to be slaughtered for their troops. Throughout the night I heard occasional shelling and Spandau fire, but it was not very close.

On 7th December 1943 we took over from the Sea Forths and our gun positions were high up in the hills. The guns, ammunition and other heavy stores were loaded onto mules in the charge of Cypriot Muleteers. Our stores included great coats, blankets, tents, food and charcoal. Our battalion front was as follows: On one hill were four of our three-inch mortars, Battalion OP on a wooded hill to the left and slightly higher than us, and C Company on a hill to our right. Directly behind us were five mortars of brigade HQ. German forces were not very strong in number in this area, but they had several self propelled 88 mm guns which were very accurate and in well hidden positions. They would pick out targets, fire a barrage at irregular intervals and then move back into their well hidden pits to harass and hold us in this position until they had a strong line to fall back to for the winter. This line was expected to run from Pescara on the Adriatic coast to Cassino in a rough sloping line to the Garigliano area in the west. It was very cold up on the hills and it rained so much we built walls of stones and earth to protect our bivvy tents from the worst of the winds and dug little channels to run the rain away. We lit charcoal fires in empty jam tins perforated at the bottom and to which we attached a wire handle to swing them around until the charcoal burnt to a nice warm glow. No other fires were allowed in this area as any smoke or flame would bring enemy shells pouring down on you. We certainly needed these charcoal burners as it was bitter cold at night. When we went on guard duty at night we would refill with charcoal and swing them round and around in the tent until it was a nice red glow and they gave out quite a good heat for a while. They generally kept going until stand to in the early morning.

On Wednesday 8th December 1943 the Germans shelled and mortared our area. Sgt. Griffin had a lucky escape when a smoke bomb used for ranging exploded behind a stone wall just above him and until the smoke had cleared we did not know if he had been hit or not. In the shelling that day the Germans used several of their self-propelled guns and put down a very accurate creeping barrage on C Company positions. Some of the company were forced to move back a little to avoid heavy casualties as their slit trenches were not good enough to withstand such an effective barrage. Luckily casualties were few, only four in all. Two killed and two wounded. We believe that the German OP had seen the mules taking up stores and ammunition to the company. We could see them from our positions and the German OP was on a hill much higher than ours. The following day was fairly quiet apart from a few mortar bombs sent over in an attempt to find the 4.2 mortar positions. We ranged all our mortar in but did not fire on any targets. Sgt. Wallysuch, Gilb Mullins and Jobber Brown went forward an a recci down the forward slopes of our hill but were soon spotted by the Germans who opened up with Spandau and they had to withdrew rapidly. The North Hants Regiment of the 78th Division took over our positions on the 10th December 1943 and we went back to the village of Montinero and prepared to return to Castel Romano. We hung around in Castel Romano until the 20th December 1943 and during that time we cleaned our guns and more or less had a rest. Sgt. Pugh and Sgt. Phillips were dismissed from our platoon and sent to rifle companies owing to a bit of trouble while on guard duty after a vino drinking party. On 17th December 1943 we heard that 14 men of the North Hants regiment had been killed and many more wounded in our old positions on the hills at Montinero in a day of very heavy shelling

On Monday 20th December 1943 we left Castel Romano and arrived at Celenza at 2.30 p.m. Billets had been found for us so we only had to unload the carriers and get settled in. Calenza was a little town similar to hundreds of others in Italy with houses clustered together high up on a hill. I always remember it as the village in the clouds because every day while we were there at about 2 p.m. the clouds would completely envelope it in a cold wet mist and sometimes it remained like this all day. This village was undamaged and the people very friendly and good to us and helped us to settle in. They gave us wine and showed us where to get wood for the fires. We were very busy for the next four days preparing for Christmas. The civilians lent us chairs and we made forms and tables from old doors which we collected from a ruined village near Agnone.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.