大象传媒

April it was still as command Post; by mid-morning it was a billet. We packed all the CP equipment away in the back of the command post 15 cwt. truck. There was nothing unusual about that, it had been a regular routine all the way up Italy, only on this occasion it would not be re-assembled as a CP directing gunfire.
And that was only the beginning. There is a lovely story of the crates of 'Advocado' or 'Egg flip' which came our way.
There was a small factory blending and producing this very popular Italian drink nearby and the story was that it had been run by a collaborator with the German forces, which greatly displeased the Partisans in the area, and there were large numbers of them around Padua at that time. They saw their opportunity to apply their own form of justice.
A rather large and noisy Italian truck pulled up outside our CP/ billet laden to the roof with crates of Advocat. Few words were exchanged but the crates passed rapidly from the truck to be stacked floor to ceiling in our billet.. I never did discover the exact train of events, but official word came down from RHQ that each and every truck in the Regiment would be issued with one crate on the strict understand that not a bottle would be opened until the word was given. To their credit, the lads obeyed this order to the letter. The ritual of installing one create per vehicle was carried out with smooth efficiency and in almost complete silence.
The sequel took place a few days later. We made a quick move from Padua to a village a dozen miles from Trieste and it was actually here on 8th/ 9th May that the Armistice, for us, became effective.
And what of the 'egg flip ?'
The order came somewhere between Padua and the village of Ortagnano, near Trieste. The boys needed no second bidding. They had more than earned their celebration after years in the field. At this point we draw the veil. That night, there were a great number of happy gunners in 60th Battery, 23rd. Field Regiment RA. There was also a number of extremely ill ones.
We had a special Colonels Parade to mark the Armistice and Guard Mounting Parade became quite a feature of village life in Ortaguano, with the
locals assembling in the village square every night to cheer as we went through the guard mounting drill
We celebrated in the Officers Mess, the Sergeants Mess and the Mens Mess. We laid on concerts for the locals and the troops and I got my old job back as band leader. There were short leaves to the coast at Grado. Life was beginning to look almost civilised.
I recall a Church parade which probably took place on the first Sunday after the official Armistice on 8th. May. It was held in the open air and we sang that famous hymn Jerusalem by Charles Perry.

And did those feet in ancient times,
Walk upon Englands mountains green ......
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem, in Englands green and pleasant land.'

There were tears in quite a few eyes that morning and it mattered little whether you were English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish, the prospect of walking on Englands green and pleasant land once again had suddenly become a vivid reality. Years later, when I became a church organist and choirmaster, I never heard Jerusalem sung or played without the old memories flooding back. It was a bridge back to reality from a small Italian village to the homes we had not seen for three and a half years.

A BILLET BY THE SEA

Before we leave Ortagnano and the Trieste area, we must mention the
Yugo - slav Partisans. Just when we thought that everything was over and done with, word came down that the Yugo - slav Partisans in the area had not officially accepted the Armistice and we were told to expect trouble. Presumably we were on the same side, but being a trigger happy lot they were not particular who they were shooting at.
And a wild bunch they turned out to be. We caught up with them in a village between Trieste and Grado. They were billeted in the same village street as we were. They had mixed units, male and female, and they were exactly what their propaganda pictures showed; a uniform that was a mixture of military and civilian and a formidable array of weapons.
I don't recall any incidents and the order went out ' no fratinisation '. We kept rigidly to that and it seemed to work. However, there were sighs of relief when they moved on.
And we were in for a move ourselves. On the 24th of June we set off for a new billeting area which turned out to be Riccione on the Adriatic coast and just south of the major town of Rimini. I didn't realise it at the time but I was making a move to an area which would provide the setting for the final acts of our Italian story and which indeed would re-enter the story later, when holidays abroad would become the normal thing and war time areas would be re-visited.
However, duty still called and our immediate task at Riccione was to provide Guards on the large POW camps that had been established on the Adriatic coast. As a senior NCO I found myself a Guard Commander in charge of several thousand men. The war, of course, was over for them too and they were a fairly docile lot, mostly Germans. The POW camps were little more than staging areas until they could be released and their main interest in life was to establish a trade in cigarettes and any extra food that might be available. We co-operated fully. A lot of friendships were made with the camp inmates.
They were remarkably like ourselves in many respects and only too grateful that their war, too, was over.
It wasn't at all pleasant doing POW duty. We did a seven day stint under canvas. It was hot, dusty and boring. However, better things were ahead.
Although it only takes a few lines to recall those particular events, yet in terms of time our activities in moving back to Riccione, doing major guard duty on the POW camps and enjoying the odd spot of leave , spanned a period of two and a half months from mid July to early September 1945. With every day that passed the moves towards demobilisation became more and more apparent. I was Group 27 and still several months to go, but others in the Sergeants Mess had much lower age groups and this became evident when farewell dinners became the order of the day. At one point we were having several in one week. I rather enjoyed that. The Battery Sergeant Major had given me the job of Mess Caterer and with the help of a small kitchen staff we provided some excellent meals.. There was quite a variety of food available in the area in spite of the years of war, not to mention the local vino.
However, the big one was still to come. L.I.A.P. home leave. One month home leave before returning to the unit for demobilisation. Much quicker to do it in one exercise, you may say. True, but that was not how the Army worked.
And so it turned out.

L.I.A.P.

My War diary entry for 6th. September 1945 reads .............
"On POW guard today on camp 18 but am going on home leave (LIAP) on Saturday so the possibility exists that we will be relieved, but maybe not before tomorrow morning. I was thoroughly excited when we got the news last night, but I feel very cool about it today and am prepared for the big pack up and the journey. If all goes to plan, I should be home by the end of next week. The reality of it is overwhelming."
And so it worked out. Our guard relief duly arrived and we lost no time in getting back to our billet by the sea and the big pack up. Actually, packing for the journey was the least of it. What took most of the time was the volume of paper work that had to be completed. Everyone had to be re-documented, or so it seemed. Even without a war there were numerous forms to be filled in, but in the end we got there.
From this point on I am writing from memory. On the late afternoon of 8th September 1945 we entrained from Riccione for the through journey to Calais. It was a slow journey indeed. We arrived in Milan on the 9th but it was the next day before we finally got clear for the journey through Switzerland and France. We travelled to the frontier town of Domodossala, then through the Simpron Tunnel and into Switzerland. We were back in real civilisation, in a country that had not been at war. Technically we were prisoners of war during the run through Switzerland and we were not allowed to leave the train. We arrived in Calais on the late afternoon of September 11th. I have to say for the Army that transit arrangements for overland leave were very good. Trains were comfortable and not crowded. Food stops were laid on for the complete route and transit camp facilities were very adequate. When the Army tried, they could do things really well; after all they had had plenty of time to practice.
To complete the journey, we crossed the Channel next day and headed for London. I caught the overnight Pullman from St. Pancras and arrived in Hawick at 0800 hours on 13th September 1945. The entire journey by train had taken six days

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