大象传媒

ITALY 鈥� THIRD VISIT cont.

On the 22nd September the 56th London Division of which we were a part, had to stop for regrouping although we were not aware of this at the time. We spent the day on maintenance and personal make and mend. We all had a good nights sleep, except for taking it in turn to do a two hour stint on duty. At this time there were again rumours circulating that our division was in trouble because of the heavy casualties suffered by the infantry. Losses that could not be replaced because the manpower situation so far as Britain was concerned was stretched to breaking point as a result of its worldwide commitments and particularly because the whole Italian campaign tended to be fought on a shoestring budget. In point of fact, as a result of the past three weeks continuous fighting, our division was reduced from three to two Brigades and we had transferred to us the 43rd Gurkha Brigade as reinforcements from 1st Armoured Division which in turn had to be disbanded for similar reasons. Our division also took over the sector previously held by 1st Armoured.

On September 23rd we moved out of action into a 鈥渉arbour鈥� area during the afternoon and saw the film 鈥淏y hook of by crook鈥� starring Eleanor Powell. This was followed by a Sunday which turned out to be not a day of rest. We were up early and moved off at 0845 hours and found a good command post in our new position. It was a deserted single storey building, but not a very solid construction and as the area was shelled several times during the day, we all kept under what cover there was and so far as it was possible. I managed to obtain a folding camp bed whilst in this position. It served me well until the end of the war, although it suffered the occasional accident from time to time and was frequently being repaired. A folding camp chair was also added to our stores, mainly for the use of our command post officer.

The 25th was fairly uneventful apart from one burst of enemy shelling that landed far too close for comfort. The next day in the midst of yet another bout of maintenance, at about 14.30 hours we the reconnaissance party were ordered off to search for a new position and managed to find a farmhouse for a new command post just outside of Santarcangelo. On the journey to this new position we discovered some German tinned rations which provided us with a good meal in addition to our issued supplies.

Our first full day in this position was a very busy one giving support to our infantry. The enemy duly replied but luckily they were a little out both for direction and range but the shells fairly whistled by our heads. That afternoon we had to work out a fire plan which was fired off by our guns during the evening and later on at night which kept us on duty most of the time. This particular command post position was established in a ramshackle building abandoned by its owners. The room we were in had previously been hit by a shell and we had to prop up one wall. Although we had a roof over our heads, I fancied that one direct hit from a shell and the entire building would collapse on top of us.

Unfortunately, we were next door to a stable which was all part of the same building and our command post very quickly became infested with flies. Incredible as it may seem, for just such an emergency we had a supply of flypapers. We hung up eight and in twenty minutes both sides of each flypaper were completely covered. According to our rough calculations, we reckoned that we had rid ourselves of the better part of two thousand little pests and life was much more bearable as a result.

We spent sixteen days here during which we were shelled on and off for most of the time with unpleasant accuracy and we were told, towards the end of our stay, that a German spy had been operating in the nearby town, had been caught by the Military Police and shot. The spy had been operating in one of the high buildings in the town and directing enemy artillery fire on to various targets including our artillery regiment. So far as I am concerned, our stay here will be remembered by the appalling conditions. We arrived on a sunny warm day, but it soon started to rain in torrents and slit trenches and gun pits soon became waterlogged. It was a nightmare for the gun crews with the gun barrels at the breach end recoiling into water every time the guns were fired.

On the third day we lit a huge fire in the command post around which the clothes of the gunners could be dried, for they were both saturated and covered with mud. The day afterwards we were the target for an enemy self propelled gun but although the shells fell very close to and on our gun position the effect of their explosions was absorbed by the sodden ground.

We were delivered a consignment of accumulated drink rations on September 30th and that night we had a merry little booze up consuming every last drop.

While in this position we in the command post spent a lot of our off duty time playing chess and various card games. We even included Bridge, although we were not too good at it, but it made a change from the routine tasks that had to be dealt with by day and by night. In addition I borrowed a copy of 鈥淚vanhoe鈥� which I read and quite enjoyed. I had at that time an unread copy at home which I still possess.

We were told in October 10th that we were pulling out for a rest as the infantry were being reorganised again. They had been held up the Flooded River Fiumicino but managed to get across near Savignano on the 11th. That night a German self propelled gun lobbed over a few shells when I was in bed, but I was not too disturbed. An orer was received to pull our guns out of action on the 13th although still within range of the enemy if needed and the next day most of us went to Riccione on a days outing. We were able to lie on the sands as the weather was reasonably warm and also see a film called 鈥淭he way home鈥� with Bing Crosby. On the way to this now popular holiday resort we travelled through Rimini and the town as a complete shambles. Before they withdrew the Germans had cut down telephone poles, blown up some buildings and the streets were littered with debris, cables, rubble and so on. Modern holiday makers would not have recognised the place.

We duly attended a church service parade on Sunday 15th in the morning and later that day the regiment moved to a 鈥渉ide鈥� area. We travelled late at night so as not to be detected by the Germans as we were moving somewhat to one side so as to give artillery support to the 10th Indian Division to our left and in quite hilly country. In the morning we went back into action just north of Solingiano and established our Command post in an occupied farmhouse on the edge of our battery position. Once we had completed our work of surveying in the guns and had got everything operational we were not called upon for very much fire support which was rather an anticlimax but nevertheless allowed us to make up some lost sleep after spending much of the previous night on the move.

And while we were resting D troop OP party had occupied a forward position in a farmhouse. In the left there were two windows facing towards the enemy. Two Vickers machine guns were being fired through each window and in the confined space the noise was terrific. The OP officers assistant (OPa/c) passed up behind them to take up a lookout post at a third window. Shortly afterwards somebody joined him in the loft. The visitor said 鈥淚 am from the 大象传媒 I have come to record battle noises!鈥� He stuck a microphone in the rafters, fitted up his recording disc and recorded the infernal row. After a few minutes he said 鈥淲hat is your local paper?鈥� The Opa/c replied 鈥淗arrow Observer鈥�. 鈥淚鈥檒l see if I can get you a column or two鈥� he replied and then toddled off.

Incidentally it was while on our way to Solingiano I believe that we crossed the River Rubicon, a rather shallow waterway that we were able to motor through at that time of the year. Coming in the opposite direction of course it was Julius Caesar who made the river famous when he crossed it. Being the southern boundary of his area of administration his crossing was an act of civil war but he went on to scatter the army of Pompey, chase part of it to Spain and defeat the remainder all in an incredibly short space of time. Strangely enough and within seven months of our crossing, the German army would also be totally defeated and with our own division having a key part to play in the battle.

However to return to the story, on the following evening we received another fierce downpour of rain but the resultant depression was lifted somewhat when somebody produced a bottle of cognac and thereby providing us with a pre bedtime tipple. On the 18th our routine of rather sporadic firing was interrupted when an Italian woman living in the house, the mother I believe, was hurt when working in the nearby fields. She had disturbed an Italian hand grenade which exploded and wounded her in several places. She staggered into our command post covered in blood and collapsed on the floor. We rallied round and applied some field dressings, carried her out to a jeep and sent her off to our MO where she was given professional attention and finally sent on to a military hospital where I understand she quickly recovered because as I mentioned earlier on, Italian grenades could wound but that was about all.

But when the wounded woman first appeared the other Italian women in the house, about four or five, gathered on the stairs for a long session of noisy praying once they had recovered from the initial shock of the wounding but luckily we were able to shut ourselves off from that part of the house. We all felt very sorry for the injured woman, did our best to help her and eventually her relations quietened down when they were told that she would stay in hospital for a few days but was not badly hurt.

It was in this house that the whole family slept in one room. No doubt because we had disorganised their home by occupying part of it. Nevertheless it was somewhat embarrassing when grandma, who seemed to get up first, would appear in the early morning at the door of our command post in a selection of underclothes which resembled 鈥渓ongjohns鈥� in general style but with the legs drawn in at the ankle. The whole family consisted of very pleasant people and we all got on very well together.

On October 20th we packed up and moved again further to the west, finally establishing our command post at Monte Guisto. We in the reconnaissance party were as usual in the vanguard and as the battery was not expected to reach us until the next day, and having completed our survey of the area we were able to enjoy a late meal, relax over a cigarette and put in a good nights sleep except for the usual duty rota. The guns arrived an hour or so before lunch and we were fully employed for the remainder of the day working out Fire plans and harassing fire programmes. Eventually we did get some sleep but it was far into the night. It was raining hard and getting colder.

Sunday October 22nd arrived and once again we received orders to move and so we quickly shoved all our 鈥渞ecce鈥� bits and pieces into the jeep and set off. However it was difficult to find a suitable battery position in this type of country particularly when everybody in 8th Army seemed to be on the roads. Once again we all became mixed up with infantry in brengun carriers on a road never made to take such traffic. Eventually we had to give up the attempt, turn our jeeps round as best we could and return to our starting point. The next morning we repeated the performance and eventually found a position near the town of Borello. The town itself was deserted and we halted for a while on the way through. I took the opportunity to investigate a nearby bank and a few of us tried to open the front door by various means based mainly on manpower and a makeshift battering ram but it was too strong by far. Eventually we found a way in through the back but to our great disappointment it was empty except for some papers littered about the floor. Just our luck! That evening we were very busy arranging 鈥淔ire plans鈥� in support of the advancing infantry but by the next morning our guns were again getting out of range and later in the day we were off again to look for a fresh battery position as near to the infantry as possible to give our guns plenty of range in hand. As things turned out we were unlucky and had to spend the night in the open for the evenings were drawing in and we just ran out of daylight.

It might not appear so to the reader but the past few weeks had been quite exhausting for all concerned and certainly those of us who composed the reconnaissance party i.e. officers, signallers, drivers and specialists seemed constantly to be packing and unpacking artillery and personal equipment, sometimes having to dig in although thankfully not too often and in addition coping with the routine work. Everything to do with data to be used by the guns had to be exact and was checked and double checked in the troops as well as our command post. And it should be remembered that conditions were often worse for those who manned the guns and their work had to be just as accurate. So we were beginning to flag a little at this stage although still in good spirits.

To continue, after our night in the open we had to return to our existing battery position where we became holed up for three days by pouring rain. The weather was wet, cold and miserable and in between bursts of work we were able to play or attempt to play the occasional game of bridge. Then on October 28th we were off on another reconnaissance and rather stupidly lingered longer than was good for our health at a crossroads and had a few shells fired at us for our trouble by the ever alert and totally professional enemy. We established our new regimental position at Bertinoro and were on the go until far into the night getting everything into working order. During the following two days we were on the go most of the time and our guns were employed on and off both by day and by night but then, just as suddenly it all went dead and we were left with a day during which little or nothing happened. Which was strange because only the day before or the one before that we did not even realise it was a Sunday until late in the evening, having had so much to do all day.

The first three days in November came and went and the weather was rainy with hardly a break. This brought the war in Italy to a temporary halt. There was mud everywhere but even with the battlefield virtually static it was necessary for supplies and rations to be brought up, troops to be relieved, casualties to be evacuated, all of which churned up the ground and spread a layer of mud on the roads. A particular hazard were narrow roads that sometimes had to be used, especially those with ditches on either side into which it was so very easy for a truck to slip. In such circumstances we in the command posts were very well off compared with the gun crews, some of the signallers who were on line maintenance and who could take shelter only when off duty.

With November 4th came the order to move out of action and into a harbour area near our battery position. We managed to carry out a certain amount of maintenance and in the evening found time to play a few games of chess. That night was unpleasant with a lot of shells falling around. The next morning being a Sunday we attended church in Bertinoro and enjoyed a very good service. Afterwards several of us heated up some water and got down to doing some much needed washing of our by now rather grubby clothes as the rather sporadic system of collecting and returning underwear duly washed seemed to have broken down for the time being.

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