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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Lincolnshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Norman Elsdon and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Elsdon fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

From Arezzo we moved to a small village — Laterina. From there we tried to push to Talla. On one patrol we were held up by the inevitable blow which wasn’t completed before nightfall. The enemy lobbed a shell or two over but not too near. In the late afternoon, we went forward on foot, but the enemy had pulled back — but not too far that he couldn’t dissuade any vehicles to proceed further, as the troop who took over from us found to their cost when they luckily managed to pullout from the shelling. Then we moved back to Cortona for few days rest. This was where all the young schoolgirls paraded.

Our next move was to the Florence area. We more or less took up covering infantry positions. The troop had a small house as their position. During the night we had a couple of men manning the cars whilst the remainder of us slept close at hand. During the night we had a sudden alarm; we had sent out a patrol and this had been shelled. In addition to the wounded, we lost a really good fellow from the troop — poor chap, he was almost blown in half. We buried him the next day. As someone had lost his gun, I had to go along the next morning with another fellow to explore the spot. We went across country, rather warily in case there were mines about, but we arrived safely. As the area we had to explore was obviously pin-pointed and in full view of the enemy, we showed ourselves with somewhat uncomfortable feelings but nothing happened and we returned ok. Another day we did a car patrol over the same area and down towards the river, the idea being to draw fire — much to our relief, we didn’t. We went through one village, which was deserted except for civilians but a little later infantry went in and ran into trouble. Maybe the enemy ignored us as we were armoured. We just carried on with our usual jobs but nothing came uncomfortably near in the way of shelling, etc.

When we pulled out at Florence, we returned eventually to the lakeside for a rest. After a spell here we moved back to another sector. I recall staying on a hill on which was a church and surrounding gardens. One evening, when most of the troop was away in Arezzo, we had a sudden order to move to take over from another squadron owing to the casualties they had received. We proceeded that night to the village of San Sepolcro. Next we moved to a more forward position in a field. One day we went to a village where we picked up a German prisoner. Then we climbed to the top of a hill and spent the rest of the day observing the valley beyond.

Another day we had to endeavour to find a route by doing a move to the right. One car took a road to the left and received a very warm reception. So we were told to try a track parallel and to the right. We were moving along this when suddenly there was an ominous swoosh and crash as a shell landed some distance behind us. We had just passed a cottage so we pulled back behind this. Hardly had we done so when a shell exploded right on the edge of the track and spattered our car with shrapnel. That was it, so we held tight and made a dash back for the road, breathing more freely when we reached it. Other shells whistled over but not too close. In this area we came across some wooden box mines in the middle of the road, covered with hay — rather too obvious, though, to deceive.

A day or two afterwards we went via the track on which the first car had been shelled in order to go forward on foot to recce the outer defences of the Gothic Line. After crossing a field, which had a mine-free path cleared through it, we came on to a road which rose up to a ridge from which we could see the continuance down into the valley to the hills a few miles further on. Having taken a good look round another fellow and I led with the rest of the troop strung out behind. We weren’t feeling particularly happy in front as the road was wide open. However, we proceeded without incident and when we spotted some position, we moved off the road — unable to do so before as the bank was too high. These positions were well dug in and obviously intended for a winter sojourn. We would never have seen them in time had they been manned as they had a complete view of the road. The bread that was lying on the tables suggested they had probably left the previous day.

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