大象传媒

5. Secondment to the R.E. Corps in Italy

5.1 General

When the call came to be seconded to the British Forces I was ready. And I was not alone; from our C.R.E., Sandy Stewart down, there was almost universal feeling that it was about time we did something worthwhile.

After a short embarkation leave a bunch of us about to be to be seconded assembled at Hay Paddock, Maritzburg, with all our luggage (tin trunks, kit bags, and all including bedding etc.), as we had no idea where we were to be posted.

No one seemed to know what was to happen to us and we just hung around for a few weeks. However Sandy managed to get things sorted out and some 30 of us duly embarked on a troopship for Cairo. This voyage was some what different from the previous occasion two years earlier when, as a Sapper I was on a troopship to Mombassa. I met with the Chief Engineer and the Radio Operator and spent many nights with them in Spark's cabin drinking Van der Hum, which they had just discovered and thought the most marvellous drink, they had ever encountered.

Of course when we disembarked there was no one who had the faintest knowledge of us or what was to become of us. Eventually we were told to head for Alexandria, which we managed by bumming lifts on some trucks heading that way. On arrival we were still an unwelcome group but were directed to a camp in the desert just outside town. On arrival at this camp at dusk, we were offloaded on bare desert. Tents were promised but never came! Fortunately we made contact with a nearby Pommy Artillery Unit who kindly helped us. After a few days an order came for some of us to board a boat for Italy. The mountain of baggage we were lugging around with us became a most impossible chore.

On reaching Toranto in the late afternoon of a bitterly cold day, while still on board we decided to draw lots for Baggage Master. I was the joker and had to watch the group go ashore and leave me with the pile of luggage and no chance of moving it. Eventually I managed to get help and made my way to X Transit camp at about midnight to find the group lying in a huddle on the floor trying to keep warm, as they had left all their kit including their great coats behind. They took it out on me the next morning when I found that they had put me up as Camp Guard Officer and I was expected to mount the guard consisting of Grenadier Guards; as a Sapper I did not have the first idea what I was supposed to do but managed to save face by promptly handing the parade over to the Sergeant Major, to the disgust of my colleagues.

Our troubles were still not over. We were then ordered to report to the R.E. assembly camp at Nola, just south of Naples, which we managed by again bumming lifts on a supply convoy. Here we sat and waited for postings, filling in the time by assisting in the training. My consignment was to take squads on daily route marches which involved climbing a nearby mountain, and I had to almost climb it twice as it was necessary to keep going up and down to chase up those Sappers who were hanging back; after a few weeks I was at the peak of fitness!

5.2 Joining 751 Field Co R.E.

The arrival of Sandy Stewart, who had dropped rank and been posted as Major to an R.E. Field Company and had come to Nola to find Sapper replacements, was the first indication that the Pommies knew about us. He quickly arranged postings for us and mine was to 751 Field Co R.E., with 5 Corps Troops, 8th Army, situated just north of the Sangro River, where I found myself as Recce Officer at Co H.Q. Our C.R.E. of the 5 Corps Engineers had been an Official Learner on East Geduld Gold Mine pre-war and knew my father. He expressed the opinion that as South African Sappers we had not read the "R.E.Book" nor even seen it and that is what he wanted. He reposted officers in the group and ended with some 30 % of his Officers seconded South Africans. A subsequent C.R.E. had a mess dinner with a bunch of us South Africans present and his Italian mess waiter was firmly convinced that all South Africans are left handed as all of us present were left handed!

Shortly after I joined the 751 Sandy Stewart arrived looking for a replacement Officer for his Company. There were two of us available and it was decided to draw lots; my colleague won and went off with Sandy. Later we heard that Sandy and my colleague had been doing a recce on a bridge site but had been both killed by shell fire.

Our first East Geduld C.R.E. used me as his aide on all trips to Army because even a Lieutenant Colonel was held to a very limited pay draw from the Pommy Paymaster, whilst as a South African there was no such restriction and I could draw to my limit; he was almost always in debt to me!! On one occasion he took me to the Eden Hotel in Rome, which was reserved, for only Field Officers and above and I was like an onion in a petunia patch. Our second C.R.E. was partial to 'Ish' Brandy and I had to make repeated visits to the nearest South African source for my issue.

We carried out our duties on the East coast right up to Rimini with once being sent over to the Siena/Florence area in support of the Free French Goums from Algeria. That was an experience as the Goums had to be given at least a 40 mile route march up to their attack positions before going into battle just to try and curb their exuberance, other wise they were almost uncontrollable; the condition of their support units did not count! My cockney batman, who gave me wonderful support and care so that I could always count on a meal and a bed no matter what, on one occasion, when we had the Commandant of the Free French and some of his Officers for dinner, threw me into embarrassment when he entered the mess and came up to me and said in a loud voice "Shall we have our bath now, Sir!"

大象传媒 consisted mainly of being in support of the Divisional Field Companies, taking over from them as they kept up with their Infantry, and at the same time doubling up for them as Divisional Field Companies when their work load was too great. This consisted of mine clearing, bridge building, road making and repair.

One of my first jobs was at San Vito, just north of the Sangro, where I had to widen the main road through the village to allow tanks and other large vehicles through. In demolishing the houses on the sides I came across a large ancient unstable drain running down the middle of the road which proved to be lousy with maggots and other unpleasant things and I was obliged to clear it out. The only way that this could be done was to pour diesel and petrol into it and set it alight; the result was a massive explosion, which caused it and some adjacent houses to collapse, and it had to be filled in. Years later, while having my hair cut by an Italian barber wielding a cutthroat razor, I asked him where he had come from; the answer was 'San Vito'!! Although he had been very young during the War he remembered the incident and the "Tenente Englese" who had been responsible but fortunately laughed when I told him that I had been the Tenente!!

An other occasion we were working at night under observation of the enemy using reflected searchlight light on the clouds moving a double Bailey Bridge which had been built on a curved demolished bridge to align it with a central support pier. This entailed using large railway transverse jacks at both abutments to raise the full length of the Bailey and then move it into alignment. The jacks had to lift the ends about 10 ft to allow the centre to be free of its seating on the central pier. Without the refinements of today of hand radios this meant close communication with each end checking with the positioning on the central pier and had to be done by voice; not pleasant when you are under fire and are trying not to advertise your presence! I naturally had to be the joker who walked the narrow Bailey top beam, which was like a parabola, from end to end over a substantial ravine with the jacks slipping and the searchlights always managing to burn out their rods just at 'ze moment critique'. That was a night that gave me nightmares for quite a while!!

I bumped into Basil Le May for the first time one night at the crossing of the Rubicon River, which nearly became my personal Rubicon. He was also a South African seconded to the R.E. serving with one of our Divisional Field Companies. They had put a series of short Baileys between the islands in the river at that point, but it was felt that the abutments were in danger of being washed away and needed to be reinforced. He had reconnoitred the area and his solution was to build concrete abutments using a plentiful supply of cement that they had found at a nearby cement factory. We duly got cracking and set up the formwork and cast the concrete abutments over several nights of hard work also under reflected searchlight light. Unfortunately when we came later to remove the formwork the beautiful concrete just crumbled into the river. Under the reflected searchlight light what had been assumed to be cement and certainly looked like cement turned out to be lime, and some one else had to repeat our work.

One wet cold night I found billets for my platoon in an Italian village and I bedded down with my platoon sergeant and two lance sergeants on beds in a small upstairs room. When we woke the next morning we found about 20 Johnny Ghurkhas who had crept into the house and slept surrounded us in our room under our beds and over all the space in the room and with the rest of their company in the rest of the house. Our guards had taken pity on them!

When we moved over from the Adriatic Coast to the Siena/Florence area it was mid winter and we experienced being snowed in on a mountain pass. For some two days and three nights we were stationary in convoy unable to move. Sitting this out in an open jeep despite the sandbagged floor cover, thick underwear, thick battle dress, overcoat, raincoat and goats skin cloak, which I had picked up, was no joke.

At one stage I was sent down to the R.E. Engineer Training School at Caserta, which was located in an Italian Barracks to do a mine course. This was a highlight as it was the first time in three weeks that we had had the opportunity to take off our clothes, have a hot bath and put on clean clothes! In the Mess they had set up a fantastic fire in an enormous open fireplace; this was the army style with diesel and water dripping onto a hot steel plate with the heat controlled by the rate that the diesel/water mixture was run onto the plate. We lived well and even could attend Opera performances in this town of the Royal Palace, which was the Army Headquarters. The course was very intensive where we were given instruction on all the enemy's latest mines and even had to pass a de fusing test where we stood on one side of a table with a solid division running down its middle with two cloth sleeves in holes through which we put our arms and blindly felt the mines buried in sand on the other side and worked on them. It was realistic in that there were small charges in the mines to explode if you did wrong!

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