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of the cracked dentures. 'Nothing very remarkable in that.', I hear you say. True, except for the fact that I had to have a new set, right in the middle of a war. I had an impression taken at the Dental unit but before the new dentures could be fitted we were back up the line. But even a set of dentures have their own lines of communication in wartime and they duly arrived delivered to me on the gun position via the ration wagon. I put them straight in my mouth; they fitted like a glove.
Our move back to the line was made on 6th. January to an area about two miles in advance of the position we had left. The area was quiet but it was very cold and I was doing command post duty at one of the Troops instead of the Battery. This was not a big change, but it did mean working much more in the open and the Command Post itself was a lot smaller and less comfortable.
However, my time with 'A' troop was short and I was back at the Battery in a few days. The main problem at this time was cold, coupled with shortage of rations. This resulted in a bit of a riot but it led to improvements.
January had been a quiet month. I recorded the fact that the 25th was Burns night and I recited 'To A Haggis' to myself in an effort to cheer myself up. The only immediate result was to feel more hungry than usual.
So January dragged on. In early February there were rumours of moves but nothing happened until about the 10th.when we were pulled out and rendezvoused at the billeting area near Alife. The weather was awful with pouring rain and mud but it wasn't so bad in billets. The lull was continuing but not for long. We made preparations on 14th February for our next move which was to prove a journey into history.

CASSINO AND LATER

It was on15th. February 1944 that we moved back into action and in the
course of our journey to the gun position, we witnessed an event that was to become a legend in the history of the War in Italy, the bombing of the Monastery of Monte Cassino.
On that morning we moved off in recce party at 6 am. Our route was straight up the infamous Route 6, through Mignano and on towards the battle area of Cassino.
It was while our forward recce party from RHQ were checking out our gun positions before handing over to the Battery, that we became aware that we were under an umbrella of American Flying Fortresses. We were waiting at the roadside in full view of the Monastery when, with slow deliberation ( almost like a slow motion silent movie ), the armada of Flying Fortresses let loose their bomb - loads on the Monastery. It was an awesome sight. One moment the proud building was outlined against the skyline, the next it was one enormous pall of smoke and debris. We were transfixed.
It was some time before we could proceed to our gun area which was on fairly open ground behind a small hill from where the OP parties could range on Cassino itself. To get our surveys completed and try to sort out our allocation of space for the guns was one of the most hair-raising efforts we had experienced to date. In the process we found ourselves surrounded by guns on every side. This was Cassino, the nearest thing to the trenches of France and World War 1 that anyone had experienced so far in the Italian campaign. Much later, after Cassino was taken, we moved through the town (or what was left of it ). By then Cassino had been obliterated and was a mass of rubble; it could easily have been a scene from Flanders or the Somme.
Eventually we had a gun position.
The Command Post was in a tent, well dug in and we had a stove going. When it came together it was really not too bad. That same night, the guns came into position. There was no question of vehicles moving by day on any
scale as we were right under Jerry's nose. I proved this the very next day when I played one of my 'solo war' tactics, only this one could have ended in disaster.
Next afternoon, our CPO Eric Warn, decided that our War map should be brought up to date and I was despatched to the RHQ Command Post suitably equipped with map and marking equipment. 'RHQ are approximately one and a half miles to the rear, ' I was told, 'in a farm building. You can't miss it only don't go by the direct route across the fields, that's probably mined.'
How then to get there without loosing my direction? The answer was follow the nearby railway line (no tracks of course by now )and I should arrive at the back of the building occupied by RHQ. This I did but what they didn't tell me was that the line of what had been the railway was in full view of Jerry sitting on the higher ground on the other side of the railway track.
I cannot recall how long it took me to reach the RHQ Command Post, probably less than an hour. To get to the line of the railway was easy it was only a few hundred yards from our positions and it was at that point that I nearly made my fatal mistake.
I decided that to walk along the old track bed would be easier than scrambling along in the lee of the tracks (the track bed was well above ground level at that point ). I walked on. It was only after a couple of hundred yards that I realised there was a deathly silence. I looked around. To my left was the position I had just left with our own guns deployed in line. Ahead of me the bed of the track snaked on veering slightly to the right. And a little more to my right I suddenly realised that I was looking straight at the enemy positions where the ground sloped upwards. To confirm it, I could see the odd flash of steel. I had been a sitting duck for any enemy sniper for the last twenty minutes. I hit the bank on the home side rather smartly, tried to make some assessment of the position, then carried on under cover of the embarkment. That deadly silence persisted and not a shot was fired. Strange are the ways of War.
Once we had a fully organised gun position with the attendant control
established from RHQ through the Battery and Troop Command Posts, the battle commenced in earnest.
The first big attack came two days after we arrived. That was not a success and we failed to secure the Monastery. There was a slight lull but Jerry was not slow to realise that he had a whole series on new targets at his disposal and he soon let us know it. The shells came back, thick and fast. It was particularly disturbing in the middle of the night.
To add to the confusion, it rained. The Italian mud returned in renewed strength and because we had dug down for greater safety, the Command Post and bivouac area became a series of miniature reservoirs.
The situation continued into March when some relief came in the shape of a short leave to Amalphi, the first of several trips to this pleasant Italian coast resort. From an early start it took us until mid-afternoon to reach Amalphi, but who cared. This was civilisation again. There was Naafi stops and dinner in the Sergeants Mess and for good measure there were shoe shine boys to help us get rid of that mud. There was also a trip to Pompeii.
It was soon over and we were back at the same gun position. It was now mid- March and time for the second big attack on Monastery Hill, which had been at the planning stage for a number of weeks. The size of the barrage was impressive but the objective of the attack was not achieved. This was the second barrage and attack on the Monastery since we took up our positions but again there was no success. From there on the guns were hardly ever silent and they continued to pick up targets day and night.
I spent my twenty-seventh birthday on the gun position at Cassino. The only bright spot was that there were rumours of moves; anything was welcome to get a break from this very sticky position. The weather, too, had improved a lot; it was now quite warm and we had hopes of getting our K.D. kit quite soon.
The first few days in April saw us packing up for a move. As usual we did not know where we might be going but it had to be an improvement on our present position. It was not a hurried affair as, officially, we had to keep in action until our relief arrived which in this case turned out to be a Canadian
Regiment of 25 pounders. Eventually we got away around seven o'clock at night and the first part of the move was back to the wagon lines area at Alife. To illustrate just how awkward this position had been, and for the first and last time that I can remember, each vehicle moved independently. We each made our way back to wagon lines and reassembled there.
After a brief though rather massive clean up, we were off again, this time across country to the centre of the Italian front, a distance of some sixty miles. We took over from a Polish regiment of medium artillery. They, no doubt, were almost certainly bound for Cassino so we literally did a swap.
This position was a sort of rest area after Cassino, although we were still in action. We had a comfortable billet and Command Post in a farmhouse. I began to quite like the place and wished that we could stay on, particularly as the weather had improved and it was warm and sunny in spite of high altitude.
Our next move took us to the town of Rionero on the main road to the River Sangro and to Castel di Sangro. This was mountain country and travelling was interesting although hardly the terrain for fighting a war.
We remained in and around this area during late April and well into May. It was during this time that the third and last attack was made on Monastery Hill at Cassino and this time it was successful. We had ample evidence of this in the many thousands of gun flashes from the Garigliano area. The dairy gives the date as 11th. May 1944 .
We also had a report at this time that the Second Front had opened in Europe but this was later denied.
There was another spot of leave to the rest camp at Amalphi and we returned this time to wagon lines to await the next series of events.

MARCH ON ROME

Our next official move as a fighting unit took us back to the Cassino
area, through Maddanoni, Caserta and Triflicco. We did not go into action, however. Instead we occupied a hide area on the first night and the reason for this was apparent the next day.
On 29th. May 1944 we moved from our hide area and travelled through the town of Cassino or more appropriately, the rubble that had been Cassino. Having been associated for over two months with the Battle of Cassino and the Monastery, this was quite a moment to be amidst the chaos and destruction that War can bring and it was by far the nearest approach to scenes from World War 1 that we were to encounter in the entire Italian campaign. Almost forty years later, I can still vividly recall these scenes of total destruction.
We were now on our way to Rome which was to be declared an open city and as usual it was a journey of fits and starts.
By the 2nd.of June we were in the Ceccano area and during the night of 6th. June we moved in convoy through Rome, accompanied by the drone of what could have been enemy planes overhead.
The battle moved on. After the next leg we came to ground near the town of Civita Castillana where we set up the Command Post in a large farmhouse. It even had the luxury of running water, something we had not known for a very long time. After Cassino, the march on Rome almost seemed to be something of an anti - climax but there were still longer marches ahead. We set our faces for Florence.

MARCH ON FLORENCE

Florence or bust!!
From here on the Italian campaign became a long, hard slog At times it was even monotonous and after the lapse of years it is difficult to recall all the details.
We were now fighting a War up the corridor of Italy and life generally was recce parties, surveys, moves forward, organising Command Posts, getting everything into position and working only to dismantle the lot and move again at short notice. And so the process went on day after day.
At this time we were supporting the Guards Brigade and where they went, we followed. This sort of procession started about the 9th of June and by the end of July we could just about see the city of Florence from the OP positions. It seemed to take ages to cover the last few miles to the city itself. For the record I never did get to the city of Florence either during the campaign or later. It was one of the great Italian cities I completely missed out on.
The one bright spot at this time was the fact that our whole unit was due for a rest period and rumours were flying around as to when this would be. Fuel was added to the fire when an advance party left to recce and set up a rest camp for us and early in August we pulled out of the line for a well earned break.
The area we moved to was five miles from the rather nice Italian town of Siena. We did all right during this rest period. We had good Mess facilities and for good measure we were granted some additional leave.
I spent a few interesting and relaxing days at Cecina which passed all too quickly, and it was back to the unit. However, the good effects of that rest period and leave worked like magic, life started to become a bit more logical again. It proved the point that we had been just too long in action. We were all beginning to ask the question in all seriousness, 'just when was this War going to end? ‘

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