大象传媒

With the cessation of hostilities the Armed Forces in Italy were encouraged to relax. Leave was generous and regimental duties were reduced to a minimum.
I was stationed at a base workshop situated at Potzwolli, site of the famous sulphur Tara outlet of the vein from nearby Vesuvius. The workshop formerly the submarine works was divided into two sets of buildings, separated by a hill. The road round the hill was a mile long, however there was a short cut via a railway tunnel about two hundred yards long. As there only two trains a day one at 7am and the other at 5pm it was regarded as an easy way to get from the south workshops to the north building which was used for accomodation.
On being given an unexpected half day leave my comrade Dave and I made our way to the north building through the railway tunnel. When we were about three quarters of the way through the tunnel we were dismayed to see a locomotive pulling a single wagon on which there was a wide load, through the tunnel. We had gone too far into the tunnel to run back and our only course of action was to lie flat between the rails. The loco passed over us and we got up trembling. We never used the tunnel again.

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