大象传媒

ITALY 鈥� THIRD VISIT cont.

During one evening an enemy aeroplane dropped some anti personnel butterfly bombs near us. They arrived as a complete surprise and had us dashing for cover. On August 29th we pulled out of action temporarily and into a 鈥渉arbour鈥� because of the rapid advance of our infantry and made the most of a nice easy day. We received some copies of 鈥淐rusader鈥� a British Army newspaper as we were once again part of the now famous 8th Army which had been operating on the Adriatic side of Italy since they first landed on the mainland from Sicily. In the morning we moved off at about midday, but became held up later on just before reaching Urbino. However, we got back into the battle eventually at our new position near Castelcavallino around midnight and were able to establish our command post in a rather nice room of a deserted house.

We awoke on the 31st, cooked our own breakfast as the cooks and remainder of the battery had not yet arrived. We were then able to finish our surveying of the whole area where the guns were going before they arrived. In the meantime those members of our party who had nothing to do for the time being had a hunt round with the result that we enjoyed a very good dinner in the evening of rabbit, duck, cabbage and potatoes. On the morning of the following day I had to shoot off early on another reconnaissance which turned out to be a waste of time as there just wasn鈥檛 anywhere else to go in our sector of the battlefield. We became jammed in a mass of brengun carriers on a rather precarious mountain road where there was no room to turn. Eventually we did get back to our position and later on, in the afternoon I was able to wash some clothes and have a short sleep.

Again on the 2nd September we were called out in the morning on a reconnaissance. It was a rather hazardous journey which found our party consisting of five or six jeeps halted in a long and shallow valley for the best part of an hour. Clearly we were in full view of the enemy because we were heavily shelled, but by a miracle, no one was hurt and not even a truck was damaged. It was in moments such as this that I wondered at the lack of military thinking that put at risk the lives of officers and men when a move forward of a few hundred yards would have had us concealed from view. Ultimately we all moved into our chosen area and were soon in action. That same evening I was off again on another reconnaissance, but the shelling and mortar fire was so heavy on the chosen area that we could not occupy the battery position.

The next day, a Sunday, was fairly quiet except that the Germans shelled the road behind us a few times, but did not appear to hit any of the passing traffic. In such circumstances the flow of vehicles is controlled by the Military Police who send the trucks along the hazardous stretch of road one at a time at irregular intervals and as fast as possible. This makes it very difficult for enemy gunners to score a direct hit and the whole exercise becomes rather a waste of shells so far as they are concerned. In this instance there was always the chance that a shot would fall short of off line and drop on us.

September 4th saw a big attack by our brigade in an effort to capture a vital enemy stronghold, a mountain called Montefiore, at 1440 hours. We were kept very busy and our guns were firing most of the day in support of the infantry. At 2000 hours came the order 鈥減repare to advance鈥� and we the 鈥渞ecce鈥� party shot off and were on the move starting and stopping all night long, finally occupying our new battery position early in the morning. When full daylight came we discovered that we were in a very exposed situation on the forward slope of Montefiore and facing the enemy on Monte Gemmano, a key enemy stronghold in the Gothic Line.

Luckily for us in the command post we managed to set up our headquarters in the back room of a deserted farmhouse but the gunners were very exposed in the open and had to dig in immediately. We received a lot of enemy shellfire during the day which screamed past our farmhouse and the battery suffered several casualties including an officer killed. Because of our lack of cover it was equally dangerous evacuating the wounded because they had to be taken up the hill past our position in full view of the Germans on the hill across the valley. I remember that the officer who was mortally wounded was taken up to the casualty clearing station by our BQMS and his driver in their 15cwt truck and presumably it was there that he died.

For the remainder of the day we were kept very busy and particularly so in the evening. Later that night when the opportunity arose we took turns at sleeping as everybody was tired out.

September 6th was anther full day of noise and action. Some infantry with Vickers heavy machine guns, the 6th Cheshire Regiment established themselves on and around our battery position to support an afternoon attack by the 7th Ox and Bucks light infantry while we worked out a fire plan for our guns to fire in support. The attack went in during the afternoon and the noise was deafening. The infantry, who were in full view from our position, climbed bravely up the hill which tended to be conical and appeared to be as steep as the Tor at Glastonbury, but many times larger. They managed to capture a villa near the summit but could not occupy the village which was the main strongpoint. While this was going on a tank battle was in progress on our left, but it all died down eventually and I managed a fair nights sleep of five or six hours.

On the 7th, we were again busy all day giving support to our infantry and one of our offices, who went out in the morning with a driver and signallers to liase with the infantry, was killed and a signaller wounded. The strange thing about this was that the previous evening the officer and I were having a chat in the command post and during the conversation he mentioned being detailed for this particular duty and confided that he knew he would be killed. He was not frightened, in fact he was quite a brave soldier. It was stated as a simple fact. May be it was that being Welsh it was Celtic intuition.

Our battery position was shelled again that day and we were also up most of the night dealing with 鈥渇ireplans鈥� and calls for help from the infantry. The guns that were firing at us were fairly big, probably 210鈥檚 and if they fired when I was outside the command post, I could see the flash from their muzzles a long way away in the mountainous mist. There might in fact have been no more than two guns who were making us their particular target, but the shells sounded quite frightening as they exploded against the mountainside and it as almost a miracle that our small farmhouse did not receive a hit.

The next morning saw another upsurge of fighting and we were at it from then until nightfall. A further attack on Gemmano was mounted which in turn produced enemy counter attacks and we were called upon to give almost constant covering fire. However, there was one bright spot for some of the men found buried treasure in the form of a store of red vino. So great was the enthusiasm for it that I saw one gunner go by with an open top tea container with a capacity of several gallons, filled nearly to the brim with the lovely deep red liquid. I slept well that night!

Gemmano, which incidentally must have been some two or three thousand feet high was captured on the 9th, which was a relief as it overlooked our position and dominated the British operations to its left. On the same day we received a NAAFI ratio of half a bottle of beer per man, which was hardly a big deal, but transport difficulties must have been immense when no doubt all available service corps trucks were hard put to keep the army on the move and supplied with all the necessities of war. At this stage it is worth mentioning that we had been advancing through some quite impressive scenery. In fact, from Assisi northwards until we reached the plains, our route took us constantly up hill, down dale and across rivers. Seldom on roads but generally along what came to be known as 鈥渏eep tracks鈥� made by the passage of tanks, brengun carriers, jeeps and trucks across the sun baked countryside. It being towards the end of summer, the rivers were quite low and in the main were crossed on Bailey bridges or Tank bridges, the latter being a tank that drove into midstream and opened a folding bridge which it carried on its roof.

Well, on Sunday September 10th, I suffered a fairly well deserved hangover as a result of drinking more red wine than was good for me. The vino russo was on the rough side, probably only a year old and also of course, homemade. Most of the lads enjoyed it and for that matter so did I, but having had jaundice, malaria twice and kidney trouble, I had been cautioned about the excess consumption of alcohol and told to avoid it so far as was possible. This I did most of the time, but now and again the temptation was too great and I paid the penalty the following day. I certainly never got drunk or to the stage of being merry for even half a pint of wine was enough to make me feel very poorly.

Returning once more to the story, we moved that day to Morciano, on to a good gun position and was able to establish our command post in a farmhouse, which was occupied by some very friendly Italians. Morciano being about twelve miles south west of Riccione and a little further from the other seaside resort of Rimini.

After a good nights sleep I felt a lot better and a rather slack day helped me to recover further. However, it was the turn of my officer to sleep that night and I was on duty and in charge. As luck would have it, the battery was occupied all night firing roughly every five minutes. The only consolation was that in such circumstances the time simply flew. With two wirelesses and three telephones in the room the two signallers also had a busy time. In such circumstances it always reminded me of being back in the sales office in which I had worked up to the beginning of the war.

In the morning I was able to make up some of the lost sleep. The afternoon was also rather quiet but in the evening there were 鈥淔ire Plans鈥� to be worked out to cover a night attacks. The next morning we followed up the successful battle of the night before, crossed the River Conca and established ourselves on the other side and were quickly back in action. Sadly, however, during the afternoon our colonel was killed, the second commanding officer we had lost in the Italian Campaign.

September 14th saw our offensive making good progress although we became rather short of ammunition at one time due to all the problems of supply keeping up with demand for a battery in action can consume somewhere around 1500 to 2500 rounds a day when hard pressed and it all had to be brought up in three ton trucks. While that is going on the ammunition dumps also have to be moved, everything being manhandled. After 鈥渁mmo鈥� equally important are the troops rations and hungry troops are certainly not happy troops. Which reminds me that in the evening of the 14th we had a very good meal of salmon, beetroot, sardines and potatoes, all scrounged. The next day was comparatively quiet. The enemy was pulling out and our infantry was trying to keep in touch but until such time as they made contact with the main enemy force, we in the artillery would only be needed now and again to help flush out strongpoint that were proving particularly difficult. Again, there was a homemade meal worth noting which was produced from tomatoes and potatoes gathered in nearby fields and bacon.

We were up at 0500 hours on the 16th and I and the other members of the reconnaissance party were off within half an hour or so to seek out a new position for our guns. We crossed the River Marano and I distinctly remember the new area we were allocated because of two little dramas. The first was that as my officer and myself were carrying out the necessary survey we were shelled and one missile fell unpleasantly close to my officer. He was 鈥減lanting鈥� flags on sticks to indicate pivot gun positions whilst I was checking the angle to the flags through our 鈥渄irector鈥�, the modified theodolite, when one moment he was there and the next he wasn鈥檛! Having hastily thrown himself down as a protective measure against flying shell splinters. It was a nasty position which either the enemy had anticipated we might use of possibly we might have been in full view for there was a lot of shelling of passing traffic.

The other little drama, or certainly unusual occurrence was that we had noticed that some Italian civilians had occupied two caves which were completely safe from shell fire and so we established our command post in one of them and used it in the company of a dozen or so of the natives. It was all very friendly for as I have mentioned previously, we always got on well with the Italians and the passing round of our cigarettes and chocolate in exchange for some vino worked out very well. The country people we met were usually quite poor, but always cheerful and ready to be of help. The 17th was a quiet day, we did very little firing and the Italians in the next cave did some of our washing in exchange for bars of soap. I managed to get to sleep at 21.30 hours and was up the next day at about 0730 hours after a poor nights sleep because of a lot of gunfire, both ours and that of the enemy. There was also some bombing not far away. Our battery position was fired on again at midday and in the afternoon I was off duty and also we all had our photograph taken at the entrance to the cave by one of our group who had a camera.

Tuesday September 19th saw us off on another reconnaissance in the morning and there was some hanging about. At one point our group of jeeps got lost in a minefield. The leading vehicle had obviously taken a wrong turning which was understandable as the area was more or less bare earth with safe lanes marked with tape, but they seemed to go in all directions and I was glad that I did not have the job of doing the map reading. At one of our stopping points, outside the minefield, I managed to pick up some sheets and a pair of shoes. The sheets were huge, about half as big again as the nor5mal English double equivalent. They lasted for the remainder of the war and for a long while afterwards.

Eventually we found a site for our guns, a sticky position and we had to start digging a hole for a command post immediately. We were very quickly pin pointed by the enemy resulting in the receipt of several salvos of shells from which the guns suffered several casualties including a sergeant wounded. We continued digging in the following day and were heavily shelled on two occasions. In addition a German self propelled gun kept firing at us during the night but I slept through some of it out of sheer tiredness. We all awoke in the morning to a totally different kind of day with continuous heavy rain which stopped everything moving and brought to a standstill all activity so far as the fighting was concerned. That night I was able to enjoy a good nights sleep as our dugout and its tarpaulin cover proved completely waterproof.

We were now to all intents and purposes out of the hills and had at last reached the beginning of the vast plain through which flowed the River Po and many other rivers and streams of less importance. This had long been the dream of every British and American soldier who had to endure being overlooked by the enemy from his previously prepared positions always sited with a high degree of military skill and always at a higher altitude than we were. What we had not realised, and so far as I could gather after the war, neither had the higher command, was the defensive strength of the rivers with their high floodbanks sometimes as tall as two double decker buses, also that during the winter, the entire valley of the Po was very moist and unable to support large tanks.

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