大象传媒

During World War 2 I was sent out to Italy. My regiment was the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and I found myself and other young chaps like me out in the front line of action. We would have been 19 or 20 years of age, all feeling apprehensive, not knowing what lay ahead of us!
I had two very narrow escapes as follows: -
The first one I remember was on our first day in action, we had done our training in Egypt months before, although it felt we were training until we saw our Corporal shot. We found ourselves lying face down in the middle of a field when a sniper pinned us down. I recall being propped up on my elbows.
The German sniper started to pick us off. The chap in front yelled out in pain and he showed me his wrist smashed by a bullet. Now it was my turn, as I looked round to see where he was a bullet hit the soil between my arms. Then a platoon took him out. He was about 200 yards to our right.
On that dark and drizzling night, a lot of our regiment were lost as the Germans picked us off one by one, young men we had been having a laugh and joke with earlier!!
The second narrow escape was when the OBLI was told to take up a position on a
Ridge. Our company was below the ridge in a gully, in reserve. A salvo of shells dropped into the gully and some shrapnel broke the shaft of a digging tool that was a couple of inches from my head.
I was spared but remember to this day a piece of shrapnel whizzing past me only inches to spare. Another very close shave!!

I would be interested to hear from anyone who was in my regiment at Coriano Ridge who may read these stories. The picture above shows a Christmas card that I sent home in 1944. Coriano Ridge

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