大象传媒

I have just read the story written by Haydn Green, relating the experience at Monte Cassino, when he was told not to cross his shoe laces, as he would be mistaken for a German and killed by the Ghurkhas.
I had a similar experience when I was with the 78th infantry div at Cassino. I was on guard at about 2 o鈥檆lock in the morning sitting on a large rock half asleep fully dressed, with my rifle between my knees, when I felt someone fondling my gaiters on my ankles. As I was still half asleep, I shouted "What's hasppening ! ... and who is it? . A voice answered back 鈥� SLEEP JOHNY SLEEP鈥�, I could not see anyone and was finally relieved of my guard duty.
The next morning I spoke to a Ghurka officer who was nearby and asked him if he knew if anyone else had a similar experience, he then said "I can tell you exactly what happened".
He then told me his men were out on patrol. On return, in the dark, they saw a body on the rock. To make sure it was not a German , they felt my ankles. If I had been wearing jack boots, I would have had my head chopped off with a kukri knife, but fortunately I was fully dressed with my gaiters, so that I am still around to tell the tale.
Another interesting experience I had while I was there, was that we had in the same area , the Ghurkhas and the French Ghoums, who wore long striped dressing gown looking uniforms.
They would start out on patrol in the very early hours in the morning with their mules ,with sacks slung over the mules. When they returned the sacks were covered in blood, we learnt that they had the heads of the Germans in them and were paid so much a head, we also learnt that as they were chopping off the heads of the allied soldiers as well, that was stopped, they only had to cut off their ears.
Another short story:
We were moved to cover the heavy guns of the Americans that were firing at the time, When in the afternoon , a small truck appeared, the sort of van that we see in London selling ice cream, in between the blast of the shells , two young American WACS soldiers jumped out of the van and started handing out coffee and doughnuts , what a feast, we all got stuck in, and saved lots for later , this was all between the Battles for Monte Cassino.

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