大象传媒

Early October was a rest period for us. There is nothing for the fighter squadrons to do as the front line has ground to a halt north of Naples at Mount Cassino. The Luftwaff has disappeared completely. There are over 100 Spitfire on our small airfield. Our advance party, which had gone on to Capadichino, Naples airport, returned and are off again to Bari on the Adriatic coast tomorrow. I still had not been to Naples where the post office has been destroyed by a delayed action time bomb, killing and injuring many allied troops, a typical parting gift from the Germans. There is also starvation and disease there as the Germans stopped all food supplies entering the city for more than 3 weeks. On October 11th armed with a bag full of bully beef and biscuits, I hitch hiked to Naples stopping en-route at Pompeii. A visit that was to greatly influence my post war life. I was fascinated by this ancient town, and spent a day there moving into Naples the next day. It is a magnificent city, set in a beautiful bay corrupted by its inhabitants. Everything was available for two tins of corned beef. Back at camp on October 13th, we saw the kites off and packed up the wagons to move tomorrow. That was Salerno! A never to be forgotten episode.

Everything after this will be easy. It was touch and go for ten days. The casualties were enormous, with thousands dying, mostly combatants. As the civilian population previously evacuated the area. Fixed in my memory are the fireball of Vesuvius, the ruins of Battipagula, the mighty War spite, free cigars, the beauty of Capri, Amalfi, Positana and of course Pompeii. With Ecolano Herculainium, which had been occupied by a panzer division.
8pm October 14th farewell beautiful deadly Salerno, all aboard the wagons we travelled west, climbing all the time over the hills staying the night at a town called Tolve. I had a wizard sleep in the local school. Then off again over flat county to a town called Goiya Del-Coif with an Italian air force airfield, our best yet. The town is quite unaffected by the war. All the shops, cafes etc are open. I had a haircut and shave with hot towels, what luxury! The nearest city is the port of Bari, which I visited often.
October 19th, I reported sick with a temperature of 99.8 and a bad throat. I was put on light duty. Most squadrons have moved to the Foggia airfields north of Bari. Our wing is based here. Why, we don't know. Talk is of a move to Greece, but another invasion is unlikely. The M.O. discharged me on 23rd October. I visited Taranto port on Sunday October 24th. The home of Tarentelo tinned tomatoes, my favourite fruits.
October 28th, news came that 81 and 232 squadrons from our wing are to go to India to test how Spitfires perform in Burma. I am pleased I am not going. Talk is of us going home, but I do not believe it. Life here is wizard, too good to last. November 1st 1943.1 have been overseas 1 year now. What a year! A report was published; our 322 wing had shot down 300 enemy aircraft in that year. We are billeted in the town school and in the evening of November 6th I had a surprise! A visit from my old school teacher, Jackie Birch from Hinckley. He is a sergeant in the wings signals at Foggia. He gave me a bottle of Whisky. He brought back a lot of memories. On my last visit to Bari I sat with a girl in the Cinema when the ceiling fell on us. Jerry has sneaked bombed the port and hit two ships full of ammunition. The town had to be excavated quickly as mustard gas was rumoured to be on the ships. This was confirmed later. December 9th up at 4am and on to a boat at 4pm in Taranto docks, areviderche beautiful Italy.

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