大象传媒

As I mentioned in my earlier story, we were always on the lookout for anything that would augment our rations while on the move.

We passed through many abandoned small holdings where the animal were running loose, goats, cows, chickens, we usually managed to find eggs, which we fried up with the help of the fat from the canned bacon we received. We also managed occasionly to get fresh milk as one of our crew knew how to milk a cow and hated to see any of them in pain from lack of milking.

One time we had the idea of getting some fresh meat to eat in place of the inevetitable M and V. One farm we came across appeared to be deserted and we saw some pigs and piglets running around, so we decided to "Liberate" one. I was selected to choose one of them , which I did, it was a very small piglet which I thought would be just right for our needs, I grabbed it, picked it up, and of course it started squealing and wriggling like mad,I tried to clamp my hand over its muzzle to quiten it but it made things worse
At that point an elderly man came running out of a shed waving his arms and shouting at us, not knowing quite what to do I stuffed the piglet inside by battledress blouse to hide it and turned away so the farmer couldn't see it. One of our crew Jack had learned to speak speak fairly good Italian and asked the farmer what the problem was? The farmer said we has stolen his pig and that we were as bad as the "Tedeschi"
Jack at first denied we had the pig,but it was no use the darn thing was squealing and jumping up and down inside my blouse for all to see, so in the end I had to let it go which I was pleased to do and it scampered off I guess to join its mother. .
Jack apologised, then explained to the farmer that we were looking for something to eat and he said in effect "Why didn't you tell me"!, went into his cottage and came out with some eggs,also some kind of sausage, and some wine for us, he went on to say how pleased he was to see us and that the 'Tedeschi" who were all robbers had gone and that his wife could now come back home.
We wanted to give hime something in return but all he wanted naurally was some cigarettes. We had a whip round and he finished up with about 250. As I did not smoke (and still do not) I gave him my 50 free issue I kept and usually exchanged with the crew for their chocolate ration.

Afterwards we talked and laughed about what happened and concluded that it was for the best that we didn't take the piglet because we all agreed that nobody would have slaughtered it, or even knew how to cut and clean it up after the deed was done.
I was also very happy as I had an idea that if that piglet remained inside my tunic much longer it would have definitely done something that would not have been very pleasant to say the least.
In the end we kept our foraging to eggs and fruit, and of course "K" rations whenever we could find them.

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