大象传媒

Something that may well have passed through the minds of men who have experienced active service, is how they would have reacted to a life or death confrontation with the enemy. I came close to resolving this thought in a most unusual way.

If the planning which went into D Day may be thought of as being immaculate the reverse was certainly true over the planning which went into the invasion of the Italian mainland.

I embarked on the French vessel "Ville D' Oran" along with the elderly radar set which was in my care. Through sheer bad luck we encountered one of the worst storms known in living memory. Most boats in the convoy sought sanctuary in Valletta harbour, Malta. The Ville D'Oran, however, was badly trimmed and the high wind and waves almost caused her to keel over. By dint of good seamanship and helped by a drop in the wind, the vessel recovered and limped into Taranto harbour. Here we unloaded and to my dismay I found myself isolated, with no kit other than what I stood up in. Along with half a dozen service men we dubbed ourselves "the odds and sodds".

An American company of constructional engineers had been the main occupants of the Ville D'Oran and they very kindly assisted our plight by loaning us a tent and providing much appreciated hot meals. Dusk came rapidly and we lay down in the tent to rest. I had scarcely settled down when a number of small arms shots ranged across the tent. Silhouetted in the door flap was a totally intoxicated RAF craftsman. He held in his hand a small Barbettia pistol, which had most likely been taken from an Italian officer. Clearly he had to be disarmed before his random shooting killed one of us. There was no time to delay and with an attempted display of confidence i did not possess I rose to my feet and with outstretched hand demanded in as even a tone as I could command that he gave the pistol to me to be unloaded.

To my intense surprise he meekly obliged. I unloaded the remaining rounds and gave the pistol back to him. Fully satisfied, he collapsed in a corner of the tent and fell into a drunken stupor.

It was quite sometime later that I became calm enough to sleep although I had had a tiring day. When we awoke next morning I was not displeased to see that our RAF friend had seen fit to desert. This saved me from being involved in a long Interforces tribunal

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