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CHAPTER FIVE — A BRIEF RE-UNION THEN SICILY

Where we finished fighting, on the opposite side of the road from our unit, there was a long building with a flight of steps up the side of it. I noticed that the door was open and decided to take a look. I just got up about five steps when there was a very loud explosion so I turned back down. I just got to the bottom of the steps when an infantry soldier met me and asked what was going on up there. I told him that I didn’t know, as I hadn’t got up to the door. The soldier told me to come back with him so I followed him to the top of the steps and looked in the door. Down a passage way there were six doors and smoke was coming out of a room at the bottom left hand side of this passage. The infantryman told me to stand back as he butted each door open on his way down the passage until he came to the room from which the smoke was coming. Then he called me to come and look. What a sight!! A British soldier was laid on the floor with both his hands blown off and his face smashed in and a big hole in his chest. He had lifted the lid of a type of bedding box, which had been booby-trapped. That taught me to stay away from any buildings.
We had captured a German motorbike so I asked my officer if I could borrow it and have a run out to try and find my brother in law, Edward. So he said I could take the afternoon off and I went back to Tunis, where I found the head quarters for the First Army in a building, which they had occupied and I made enquiries about Edward’s unit. I was told that he was out on Cape Bon about twelve miles away. So I went back along the road looking for army signs and found the place. Turning off the main road, only about 50 yards, I rode into where their vehicles were parked and asked for Ted Dickinson and was told that he was down the slope near the sea. So I walked down and Edward and his friend Don Rushton were there basking in the sunshine. We were so glad to see each other and had a good long chat together. I told him where I was staying which was only three miles further down the road on the same side of the beach.
After about a week in our position by the seaside on Cape Bon, we had orders that we were going to have a victory parade in Tunis. So many of our chaps had to clean up ready for a march through the town. We were taken in 3 ton trucks to the East side of the town and had to march towards the West, through crowds of people standing on the pavements and looking out of their windows and waving. After the parade the trucks took us back to our unit on the beach.
We moved off the next day to a wooded area just outside Constantine in Algeria. We stayed here for a few days and I was able to go into the town for a look round. One thing that took my attention was that the local people were often seen walking along the road eating cherries out of a paper like we would eat fish and chips, but they never seemed to spit out the stones. They must have swallowed them.
The next journey we had was the most spectacular one I had seen. We went down the deepest ravine I had ever been down. The river was in the bottom, 700 ft down and looking up the cliff sides was about 1000 ft. At road height the ravine from one side to the other was between 60 and 100 yards wide and the road was cut through the rock with openings through which we could see up or down. The ravine was 30 miles long and ran out on the sea front. About half way down the gorge the two sides were only 45 yards apart and the road crossed over on to the other side at this point. There were trees and bushes growing out of the sides of the gorge both above and below the road. We ran out on to the sea beach on the Eastern side of the river and the land was quite flat. We pulled into this area and put up tents and we had central cooking for a change, as this was the first time since we had left Egypt.
We were on this site for a few weeks, where we had a good rest and cleaned all our equipment including guns and vehicles, ready for our next move.
Our next task was to be the Invasion of Sicily.
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We left Djidjelh on the 8th July 1943 and made our way back to Sfax where we were put on landing craft ships. Each ship could hold four 62-ton guns and one 16 ton armoured car, just one troop to a ship. We had to go on in reverse order so I had to drive my vehicle on to the ship first, with the self propelled guns following. When we were all aboard the ramp was pulled up and we sailed into the bay and anchored until the rest were loaded. When on these, ships we were only about six feet above the water.
We set sail on the 9th July and sailed all night. Just before dawn on the 10th July we were close to the beach off the most southern tip of Sicily. The landing craft were rammed stern first on to the beach and the ramps lowered. Our guns moved off one at a time and me and my party waited to move off. Looking across to our right we could see a lighthouse in the very dim light about 250 or 300 yards away.
As each gun ran off, the ship lifted higher in the water so by the time it was my turn to leave, the ship had drifted back off the beach. When I drove off the ramp my front end went down into the sea and we fell off. The water came over the vehicle and over the visor, but I just kept my foot down on the accelerator and the vehicle, being waterproof, to my relief, rode up on to the beach. As we got on to land and dawn was just breaking, someone at the top of the lighthouse opened up with a machine gun and spattered bullets all around us. We all sat tight in the armoured car and my officer ordered the radio operator to contact two warships out at sea and tell them we were being fired on from the top of this lighthouse. Within minutes salvoes of heavy shells were landed on the lighthouse and the top was demolished, and the ground shook like jelly. We were covered by the massive firepower of the Warships HMS Howe and HMS King George V. Anyway that finished the machine-gunning so we moved forward on to land and set up our guns. Along with the rest of our battery on other parts of the beach we had 24 guns followed by our support vehicles.
We were supporting a Canadian Infantry Division and we stayed about a mile inland from the beach for a day with our guns set up and firing where they were required. We could fire 14 miles from where we were. The next day we moved forward, setting up in many places.
We got the news that our chaps had captured Siracuse, a seaport up the coast to our right, which meant that ships could bring in equipment needed for the forces.
As we moved forward we came up against a rough rocky hillside but our infantry had cleared it of the enemy. We were in columns of route and the white dust went up in clouds. The track went past several orange groves and in some places the trees were overhanging the road. As we passed, one or two of our lads pulled some of the fruit from the branches but they were Saville oranges and were very bitter, so they soon threw them away.
Beyond this rocky hillside was open country with trees and gullies and roads. We had our guns set up 60 yards apart, all connected up to my command post armoured car, when the order came from the infantry that they were bogged down. They were facing a long sloping hillside and the enemy were dug in and had our chaps covered by small arms fire, so they were asking if we could do something for them.
We always had our O.P; Observation officer out in front with the infantry, so he ordered us to put a lifting barrage down, but instead of shells bursting on the ground, we had to shoot air burst shells. These shells were timed to explode over the target 15 or 20 ft above the ground. We started at the bottom of the hillside lifting 15 to 20 yards each shot until we had covered the area. The Canadians walked over the hill and found the enemy dead in they’re slit trenches and congratulated us for removing the enemy.
Over the ridge we went and on to the plain of Catania, from where we could see the volcano, mount Etna. After a few weeks, stopping in various places, moving around villages and homesteads and avoiding doing damage, as much as possible we started to close on Catania, the largest town in Sicily. We reached the outskirts of the town when the order came to cease-fire. We had beaten the enemy.
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Our officers now started putting us on physical training exercises to keep us fit! We were on the top of a hill and the hillside was terraced with walls 3 ft to 4 ft high and we had to run down the hill jumping over these walls and back up again. There were almond trees all around this area and the terraced fields had been harvested of wheat, leaving stubble six to eight inches long. After one of these exercises I noticed I had scratched my leg in two places, but thought nothing of it as I had had plenty before which had healed. But in a day or two these were still inflamed and not feeling so good so I reported to the Medical Officer. I had to see him every day for hot fomentations to be applied and was put on ten C, which meant I was excused all duties.
During the next day or so we were moved nearer to Catania into an olive grove. These big bushy trees provided plenty of shade from the hot sun, and we were issued with small one-man tents, and told to put them up wherever we wanted. This didn’t turn out to be so pleasant, as there were flies as big as our house flies but with a sharp spike at the front, which they stuck into the skin like a needle and drew blood.
I put up my tent near a small fence, made myself comfortable with my officer’s bed and ground sheet and spent my time under my tent as I was excused all duties. Over the other side of the fence was a vineyard and the grapes were ripe, huge bunches of black and yellow ones. I nipped over the fence every day and took a bunch of grapes into my tent and enjoyed them while I was doing nothing.
I had treatment every day for the sores on my leg but they didn’t appear to be improving, in fact they seemed worse, one being the size of a two shilling piece and the other a bit smaller and both about ¼ inch deep. They looked bad.
Our latrine was a long pole eight feet long set on a branched fork at each end of a five foot deep trench. And did we need that! A good many of the lads took the dysentery and were queuing up to use the pole. I was very thankful that I was never affected with this awful infection.
We were three weeks in the place and during that time I had the privilege of being taken by truck up the volcano, mount Etna. We drove as far as the road went, then walked and climbed as far as we dare to go. I went up to the first crater on the side of the mountain; it appeared to be a deep basin. I didn’t venture up to the top where the smoke was coming out.
I cannot say what Catania was like as I never went in there but I noticed that the roads were not tarmac but were cut out of the lava from the volcano.
Again we were given orders to prepare to move. We packed our tents and kit and piled everything on to our vehicles. I had been excused all duties, but I helped the other lads and drove my vehicle back to the docks at Siracuse, where we were put on a dirty old French ship named the Ville de Oran and we sailed back to Algiers. While we waited in the harbour at Algiers, coming through the air were clouds of locusts and they bashed into the ship’s side and fell into the sea and the sea became absolutely covered in dead locusts. The ship moved to the quayside and we disembarked and were taken three miles outside Algiers to what appeared to be a large farm. We were shown into a large building in which there were eight concrete wine vats, four on each side with space for a tanker to reverse between. The eight vats were 12’ high and 12’ square. At the end of four vats was a flight of steps with a handrail and the same on the other side. Around the top of the vats was a railing about 3’ high.
We were all given wooden beds covered with hessian, so it looked as though we would be staying here for a while. The drivers had to go back to the docks the next day to pick up our guns and vehicles and return to our fresh billets, where we put them behind the building.
Now we were back to the ‘spit and polish’ and having to turn out on parade and guards duty every day and night. Each lot of guards were detailed for 24 hours and we had to walk round our vehicles and the buildings.
After being here for a week my leg sores were no better so the M.O. ordered me to go into No. 1 field hospital two miles outside Algiers. I was taken with my small kit and shown to a bed in the ward and made very comfortable. Here we had lady nurses dressed in smart blue and white uniforms and the doctors wore long white coats. I was given a pair of pyjamas and we had white sheets on the bed. The doctor and a Sister came to have a look at my leg and when he removed the bandages and saw the sores he pulled a face and remarked that they were ‘Nasty’. I was treated with an ointment for a few days with no improvement so about 10 days later I was told that if no cure could be found I would be flown home to England. They took a swab and sent it away for analysis and three days later got the result, which showed that I had Diphtherial Ulcers, so they would have to treat me as though I had Diphtheria. The sister and a nurse came and gave me an injection in my behind with serum and my leg went numb for a few hours, but three days later we could see a change taking place and the ulcers started to freshen up, turning from black to pink. I was on a light diet of steamed fish, mashed potatoes and white sauce, fruit and custard etc. The other lads were asking what had I done to deserve all those goodies!
I was in hospital three weeks and then returned to my unit and the unit doctor saw to my leg for a few weeks. I was still excused duty and just had to be careful not to knock my leg and eventually the leg healed
We were now put on Intensive Mountain training, going up into the hills with our guns, shooting, training us for our next landing in Italy. A few weeks before Christmas 1943 we had to prepare for our move, we were told we would be shipped from Algiers to land at Taranto in Italy.

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