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On Active Service at Monte Casino

- Well, at times I felt sorry for the Germans being beaten but, at others I felt I could kill all of them on the spot. Mind you it wasn’t the Germans fault, it was that maniac, Hitler. I saw the horrors of war but I wasn’t frightened, I was puzzled.

It didn’t seem real. Once I joined up with my friend I said, ‘Get down!’ so we did. When I said ‘Get up!’ he didn’t. He was lying there, dead. I just had to take his identity disc off then the burial squadron came up later and buried him.

We had emergency rations of chocolate and we weren’t supposed to use it unless we were starving. We had corned beef and biscuits, that’s what we lived on. They killed all the cattle and sheep because there was nothing to eat. One day we caught a little pig, it took about eight of us. We killed it and cooked it on a fire and when it was cold enough we all pulled bits off and eat it. It was lovely — but then we all got dysentery!

We went to Monte Casino and it was called the ‘Valley of Death’ there was the monastery and they had enough guns to shoot down and kill 200 out of a thousand men in an hour. We couldn’t shell them or anything because it was protected by the Pope. It was the biggest mess ever known. I was talking to the Ghurkhas who were just back from killing people up there..... Its confusion in war. No one knows if you are the enemy or not.

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