大象传媒

CHAPTER SIX 鈥� ITALIAN INTERLUDE.

We were loaded on to ships and taken across the Mediterranean and had a very pleasant landing in Taranto. I had my armoured car exchanged for an American half-track, that was armour-plated vehicle with two wheels at the front and tank track at the rear. I didn鈥檛 like it as well as my old armoured car because the top was open rather like a truck but it went O.K. and it shouldn鈥檛 get stuck
The Unit moved up the Adriatic coast of Italy past Bari and Barietta in support of our usual tank brigade, the Eighth Army outfit. The tanks were away out in front and the infantry up with the tanks. We cut inland from the Adriatic facing towards Selerno and Pompeii and from our position we could see our bombers coming over and dropping their bombs on a monastery on the top of a mountain
We were now in close contact with the enemy and the tanks were out in front. We were in action with our guns in many places, shooting well in front of the tanks and we kept moving forward in short distances. One position I remember we could see some of our tanks moving forward slowly and everything appeared to the quiet, then suddenly, bang, bang, bang and three of our tanks were hit and were on fire. But the enemy gunners were soon captured, they were Germans and they had put their 88 mm gun into the cellar of a farm building and knocked a hole through the wall for the gun barrel and were covering the valley.
We then came to a hillside where we were in action helping to clear the hill of the enemy. We could see one or two German fighter aircraft keep coming over and strafing away out in front of us. Then after getting over this high ground we finally got over the hill and looking down the other side found we were in amongst fruit trees and almond trees and the hedges were hanging with grapes.
Looking across the valley to the other side we could see some of our tanks spread out and at one place there were two tanks close together with a 3 ton truck between them and the tanks were being refuelled, when down came a German fighter plane and sprayed them with bullets and all three vehicles went up in flames and were lost.
After a few days we moved across towards the Adriatic and up through Foggia and pressed on and stopped in Pescara, where we occupied a church hall. We were told we would be staying here for Christmas.
Whilst we were here I was asked to take a 15cwt truck with an officer, who was a South African, and go down to Taranto and pick up some goodies for Christmas. We had to take our kit with us, as we would be away for the night. It was nighttime when we reached Taranto so the officer suggested that we take out the rotor arm from the distributor so no one could steal our vehicle. We went into a building and found a place to sleep for the night. The following morning we were up about 7-o鈥檆lock and after washing and cleaning up the officer went into the store and got all the supplies we needed and we loaded up the vehicle. Then he said he would replace the rotor arm, so I left him to do it but when I got into the driving seat and tried the engine, it would not start. So we lifted the bonnet and found that the rotor arm had broken, so now we had to find a new one. It took about two hours to get the new part and when we got it I told the officer to let me put it in, which I did and the engine started at the first touch. So we were on our way back to our unit all the way up the coast road.
The lads were all glad to see us back and we had a good Christmas. As soon as Christmas was over off we went again up the coast road to Ancona and here we received the news that Rome had fallen.
Another occasion I had to go to Taranto with ten other men to bring back 10 new 3-ton trucks to central Italy. On our return journey we were travelling in convoy following the officer who was in front and my vehicle was the last one. The officer chose to use an old Roman road, full of pot holes, so being the last one and knowing the coast road better, I decided to slip of the old roman road and travel on the coast road. I knew where the roman road came out on to the coast road.
I came to a diversion and when I had to turn off the coast road I got on to a road that led to the sea front, so had to turn round and go back a bit to another turning. Where I turned round I noticed there were two Italian men, but never gave them another thought. I drove fast along the coast road only stopping once at some traffic lights in one town and came to the junction where I could rejoin the old road. I stopped on the roadside a few hundred yards short of the end of the roman road with the intention of waiting for the convoy coming out.
I got out of my vehicle to have a look round and I noticed that the ropes on the back were undone. I looked in the back of the truck and had a shock. I had put my big pack and my bed in the back of the truck and every thing had been undone and all the good bits were stolen. I had scented soap, chocolate bars and razor blades, towels, under clothes and my best guard boots and out of my bed had been taken the two German flags, which I had taken from the dug out in the desert. This was a big loss to me and I felt so angry I would have shot the men had I seen them.
I reported the theft to the officer and he made a note of it and when we returned to our unit I got the army kit replaced. Then I had to start and polish up my boots again.
A few weeks went by then I was asked if I would like a six day leave in Rome and I said 鈥榊es鈥�. So along with five other lads we were taken in a 3-ton truck to Rome. We were allotted rations to take with us, tins of bully beef, fish, biscuits etc., but when we got there the NAAFI had got organised, so our food problem was solved. We were taken to a building where we could sleep and so we were settled. We never noticed any damage to property in Rome and everywhere looked nice and clean. I made friends with one of the six lads and we stuck together for the six days.

One day we walked to St.Peter鈥檚 Cathedral across the very large forecourt and up the flight of steps to the door. We removed our soldier鈥檚 caps and entered the church. Looking down the church, it was very large with rows of pews down each side and on the right hand side was Christ on the cross, a statue looking so real with his wounds bleeding. Further down the church on the same side was a statue of St. Peter, seated, carved out of marble. He had a long beard and a long gown and his feet were showing. The big toe on the most prominent foot was half worn away with people kissing it.
We stood beneath the dome of the church looking up at the whispering gallery and beyond, a tremendous height! After looking all around the church we went into the museum and saw where all the previous Popes鈥� gowns and jewellery were on display. The floors and walls were decorated in mosaic tiles making beautiful pictures.
We climbed the stairs to the whispering gallery and walked round and looked down into the church. Following this we came to the entrance to the stair way going round the dome. It was 5 ft wide and 6 ft high built in what looked like concrete and the sheer size made us wonder how such a dome had been made. At the top of the dome was a small room and in the middle of the room was an iron ladder and at the top of the ladder was a trap doorway. We both climbed up the ladder and now we were inside the bronze ball on the top of the church. Around the ball was a seat where ten or eleven men could sit. Cut in the sides of the ball were slits nine inches long and an inch wide and spaced a few feet apart. I looked through one of the slits and could see over the top of Rome. We were about 520 ft high.
Another day we went round the Arena, a great big building, built in the shape of a circle with one side built high up and made for seating for people and when you looked down from the top, you looked on to a lawn in the bottom where sports could be performed. There were places where people could speak to a large audience from special platforms.
Then we went round the Coliseum with its great big columns standing 80 or 90 ft high built from marble blocks and again we wondered how this place had been built. We even went up Mussolini鈥檚 Power House; it was a beautiful building with stone carvings of horses and chariots with men in them.
Our six days were soon over and we returned to our Unit where they had been, in the same place for a good few weeks. Shortly my unit moved back into action with our guns firing somewhere around Forli. We were just outside a little village called Folium-Popoli and were there for a few days. We were in a field where every tree was either fruit or nut trees and there were vines and olive trees.
We had a few light shells shot in our direction, which burst around us but no damage was done and no one hurt. One of these shells came over at a very inconvenient moment one day when I was having a 鈥榯oilet鈥�. We had to take a shovel and dig a hole and sit over it and I had done this, near a mulberry hedge, in a secluded place, when I heard the 鈥榩ung鈥� of the gun and the 鈥榮wish鈥� of the shell. I did a dive to the ground with my pants still down, the shell hit the ground about 150 yards away and when I got to my feet, my bottom was bleeding. The scratch was not from the shell but from a thorn on the mulberry bush!
Our next move was into the River Po valley to Ferrara. The Germans had destroyed the road bridge over the river and Royal Engineers had put a pontoon across the river, which was half a mile wide. The pontoons were fixed together and formed almost a half circle with the flow of the water. All our guns and support vehicles went over and we pressed on up through Padua and to Treuisio.
From here I had another six days leave in Venice with one of my army friends, Joe Goldman.

We stayed in the army NAAFI that was on a small island just off the coast from the town of Venice, so each day we had to take a gondola trip into the town and back. We went to St. Mark鈥檚 Cathedral and St. Mark鈥檚 square where we had to watch out for pigeon droppings!
The NAAFI was in what had been a Casino and the carpets, curtains and furniture were all left in place. This was luxury to us and we could get up when we wanted and lounge about in the easy chairs, so we had a good rest.
When our leave was over and we returned to our unit we moved on again but this time we did not see any fighting. We went up past Udine into the hills in the North of Italy but we found no enemy so we returned to a small village called Peseriarno about 3 miles west of Udine, which was a town like Keighley. In the village we stayed in a large farm with long buildings. We were taken up a flight of stairs into a long room, which became our barracks for a few months. At the end of this room was a wire netting ceiling onto which the farmer threw mulberry leaves, which fed silk worms, which produced cocoons of silk.
I got friendly with the farmer whose name was Luigi Masson and one evening I knocked at his door and his house was all in darkness. When he opened the door and told me to come in I noticed he had a set pot fire going and out of the top of the boiler came a pipe. About 6ft away was a large glass bottle; he was making gin or some spirit.
Another night I remember I knocked on his door and he called me in to his kitchen, which was all in darkness. He put on the light and what a shock! There was a rope of cockroaches; they were running along a nick in the ceiling, down the wall corner and into a hole by the skirting board. I just said to him 鈥淵ou have got plenty of company鈥� and he said 鈥淵es, but they don鈥檛 bother us鈥�. On the outside of the building wherever the pointing was missing, every inch was filled with cockroaches.
Mr. Masson had a large orchard, line upon line of peach trees. For two cigarettes he would let me go and fill my black beret with fruit, they were very juicy.
All our guns and vehicles were now lined up in rows out in a field and the soldiers were put on guard duty looking after them, but I managed to get away for a while. My officer came to tell me that I have been chosen to go home on leave.

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