大象传媒

1945

I awoke feeling quite bright and cheerful and with a total absence of hangover on this the first day of what was obviously going to be the last year of the war. It was a lazy day with very little happening. Both sides seeming to have lost interest in hostilities for the time being and as if we had not consumed enough alcohol over the past few days the British Army provided a rum ration to all ranks that evening. As the weather was turning even colder I organised a search party to scour the nearby countryside for more wood to fuel our makeshift store. We were lucky and managed to obtain a great deal considering we were now in the plains of Po Valley which were entirely devoted to farming and producing grapes. In fact one farmer looked quite apprehensive when he saw us casting an eye over his vines. But the farmers were nearly all tenants on very small holdings and generally the soldiers respected their few possessions and as I have stated previously we got on with them very well considering the havoc a war creates to land over which a battle passes.

On January 3rd we were ordered off on another reconnaissance and it was after midday before our new battery position was selected. Whilst it was always frustrating to hang about until the final position was picked out the delay was understandable as it had to conform to certain requirements. To begin with it had to accommodate the whole regiment鈥檚 six troops of artillery and their attendant command posts. This meant they all had to be reasonably near to each other and sited so that ammunition and other rations could be supplied without too much difficulty. The guns had to be sited with a good field of fire so as to give the best possible support to the infantry and concealed as much as possible from enemy spotters. And no doubt there were other factors that had to be taken into account from time to time because of constantly changing situations.

Anyhow we got the battery into its position finally and our little party was lucky enough to find a battered old house for use as a command post. When occupying a house for such a purpose we always selected a downstairs room facing away from the enemy as the safest part of the building. That same evening we were busily employed working out a barrage which was fired the following morning. It was in support of an attack on a German pocket or bridgehead on our side of the River Senio. The bridgehead was based on part of the flood bank which was in effect a dyke some twenty or more feet high built along the banks most of the rivers in the valley of the River Po in order to prevent flooding during the rainy season. It was common sense for the enemy, when forced to retire, to fall back to the flood banks and to fortify them. In this instance the 鈥榩ocket鈥� was duly eliminated and the infantry was able to dig in right up to the river.

Our position for this operation was close to the River Lamone and that night we managed a fairly good rest except for some shelling from an enemy self propelled gun. The Germans tended to move their guns about rather more than we did, probably because of the Allied air superiority and would come into a position at night, pinpoint a target such as our guns by establishing the position from where the flashes were coming, fire off a predetermined number of rounds and withdraw to an alternative site. Such tactics paid off occasionally but generally the result could not be as accurate as deliberate ranging onto a target. All this was followed by a quiet day during which the only item of importance noted in my diary was that of obtaining some very good Vermouth rather cheap.

January 6th dawned bleak with cold winds coming down from the Alps and everywhere was very soon covered with heavy and continuous snow. But really we were quite lucky for having completed our task of supporting the River Senio attack we came out of action for a thirteen day rest in billets at Forli. On the 7th, a Sunday, most of the time was taken up with settling in and by nightfall we had made ourselves very comfortable but outside there was a lot of snow about and everywhere was very wet and slippery. Of course the term 鈥榬est鈥� was only comparative. It meant we were out of danger but there was lots to do in the way of maintenance and classes which were a form of revision and during which I was always roped in to give instruction to the specialists on one subject or another. And of course classes meant preparation and some swotting of the more difficult items to ensure that each lesson went smoothly. There was almost endless maintenance waiting to be done as well, not only by us to our own equipment but also to cleaning out our vehicles, fifteen hundred weight trucks and motorbikes etc. Also everybody else in the regiment would be similarly engaged depending on their particular skill.

However evenings were free and on one occasion we saw a show put on by the 2nd New Zealand Division and which was very good indeed. On another we were entertained by Maurice Winnick, his band and Doreen Stevens. I did one turn as Guard Sergeant and another as Battery Orderly Sergeant and on the evening of that day found enough time to see a film called 鈥淗eavenly Bodies鈥�. During this rest period I had several chats with various New Zealand soldiers who were caught up in the war and fought so well despite their remoteness from our part of the world.

On Sunday 14th the sergeants were invited to the Officers Mess for drinks and on the 17th returned the compliment by inviting the officers to a Sergeants Mess 鈥榙o鈥� which turned out to be most enjoyable and lasted well into the night. On other evenings I saw two more films 鈥淥klahoma Kid鈥� and 鈥淛ack London鈥� although the sound track of the latter was so bad we abandoned the show and left before the end of the performance.

Having packed up all our equipment during the previous two days we moved out of Forli on January 19th and took over a gun position just the other side of the River Lamone near Faenza. We slept in a stable that evening because of a shortage of room during the takeover for with two of everybody and two of everything for about twenty four hours there was hardly space to swing a cat. In fact the unit we took over from departed on the 20th leaving us with a lot of work to do getting things arranged to suit our own way of operating.

In addition to our normal work we had to spend two days digging defensive slit trenches around our command post and the gunners and signallers also had to do the same sort of thing in their own areas so that the regiment as a whole and each individual section formed a series of strong points that could be manned at very short notice should the need arise. As I mentioned earlier the army was desperately short of 25 pounder shells due to a premature cessation of production because of inaccurate conclusions as to when the war would end. Therefore with my twenty rounds per gun available, which could be fired off in five minutes, the whole of 8th Army鈥檚 positions had to be converted into defensive areas in great depth as a precaution against a sudden breakthrough by the German army.

All bridges had explosive charges attached and so on, making a very strong defence barrier along the entire front and to a depth of several miles. With all the digging and wiring completed we then had a practise alert during which we all manned our respective battle stations which consisted of the slit trenches just completed and various other selected natural strong points. It all appeared to go off quite well and I think that most of us felt that while any enemy infiltration would receive a hot reception we did not believe for one moment that any such attempt would be made. The next day we had a session of firing our personal weapons and my own sub machine gun proved just as accurate as when tested on previous occasions. Later in the day I had to calibrate some of our survey equipment to ensure that all the 鈥渄irectors鈥� were accurate in relation to each other.

Having worked jolly hard getting everything fully prepared for all eventualities the very next day our reconnaissance party was ordered off to survey a new position not far from Russi which was still near the River Lamone but further north although not very far from our present position. It rained all the next day and the countryside was in a terrible mess, our farmyard being a veritable quagmire. We just sat about with nothing to do, trying hard to keep warm.

January 27th saw us all on the move to our new position. The weather was very cold but we were cheered up by the news that the Russians were reported only ninety six miles from Berlin. The next six weeks were really quite boring. Here we all were on our side of the battlefield immobilised for several reasons such as the shortage of ammunition for the guns, a saturated landscape which absolutely precluded the use of heavy armoured vehicles, all the rivers in full flood and with a manpower shortage. On the enemy side, well they were nicely dug-in, in previously prepared positions and were quite contented to relax and enjoy the breathing space afforded by winter and the Allies over extended supply problems.

In some ways I suppose we rather enjoyed the easier conditions but we were also fully aware that sitting about on our bottoms was not helping to end the war. Lack of pressure however leads very quickly to a drop in efficiency but we specialists were lucky because not only was there a constant trickle of regular work to do but on top of that a 鈥渢rade test鈥� or examination was organised on a regimental basis to take place over two whole days on March 1st and 2nd. I was pleased with the results when they were circulated a few weeks later having gained the highest possible classification. Indeed any other result would have been most embarrassing as I was the senior specialist in the battery.

The examination was held in quite a large barn near regimental headquarters and the field work, survey etc, outside in the open. All this went on not very far from the gun positions and well within range of enemy shelling. With the war quite obviously within a few months of coming to an end it all seemed quite pointless but it certainly sharpened our reactions. For five successive days before the examinations commenced we organised classes which dealt with every aspect of the job no matter whether it concerned work at the observation posts, at the gun positions or our command post. These were my responsibility of course which meant that I was totally concerned with studying during that period. I cannot remember whether passing the Trade Test made any financial difference. We may have received the odd penny or so extra but nothing more. Some categories such as mechanics had the extra perk of being excused unpleasant duties such as parades and guards but this did not apply to us, signallers or gunners. On the other hand a specialists job was comparatively clean and in my opinion one of the most interesting in artillery units, particularly when in action as we always got to know just what was happening.

During this period we were visited on a couple of occasions by mobile canteens run by Toc H and the Church of Scotland. Each canteen was staffed by two ladies from Great Britain and I must say that they were greatly admired for their courage in venturing so far forward even though the danger from shelling was greatly reduced during this stage of the Italian campaign. One picture show was organised 鈥淔our Jills and a Jeep鈥� and on February 10th I managed to join a party destined to visit a 鈥淢obile Baths鈥� and where I also obtained a change of underclothes.

So bored did we get on occasions in the command post at the lack of action that we entertained ourselves with spasms of wrestling and a casualty of this form of sport was my camp bed which suffered once or twice from broken ribs and I had to search around for bits of wood with which to carry out the necessary repairs. I was not particularly pleased with the damage but succeeded in keeping it in working order for anything was better than sleeping on the ground.

February 20th was one of those days I will not forget in a hurry. I was given the job of going up to one of the infantry sections to make sure a Bofors gun was pointing in a particular direction. The idea being that during a night attack it would fire tracer shells on a certain bearing which was the agreed line of advance. This would show the infantry the way they should be going. An aerial equivalent of a line across the countryside. Well after checking on the Bofors gun my driver, a colleague and myself were taken to the deserted farmhouse being used by the infantry and in one large room on the ground floor were a couple of huge casks of wine. Certainly the biggest I had ever seen. They must have been some ten to twelve feet tall and about five or six feet wide. Somebody had shot a hole in one of them and the contents, white wine, were trickling out. So we all helped ourselves once or twice maybe three or four times. Finally we all piled into the jeep together with a large carboy of wine for our friends and drove back to our battery in very high spirits.

On arrival at the command post we literally fell out in a heap together with the carboy of wine. I was met with the news that a rather large barrage had to be worked out and we would be getting details in less than an hour. So I had to drink lots of water, there was no coffee available in those days, stick my head in a bucket of water and strange as it may seem I was perfectly sober when needed and able to do my bit towards the calculations involved. It must have been the shock of learning about the barrage that did the trick. Actually despite all the hustle and bustle it was not fired off that night after all and the attack was postponed until three days later.

Another highlight of this period was a rather magnificent lunch and dinner produced by the Italians in whose farmhouse we were established. The main ingredient was pork with lots of spaghetti and all the trimmings. Lots of drink was assembled for the occasion and we all sat down together, Italians and British soldiers and had an uproariously enjoyable time. All this happened the day before we were due to hand the position over to the advanceguard of the relieving division and was a farewell gift from our hosts.

A week before this event took place C Troop suffered a 鈥減remature鈥� but nobody was badly hurt, thank goodness. Probably because the authorities were scraping around for ammunition there occurred the odd incident and usually instead of the shell going merrily on its way the very occasional one would explode almost immediately after leaving the barrel of the gun. This kind of accident being far more upsetting than the receipt of enemy gunfire because it was so totally unexpected.

During our stay in this position, on several occasions we were either shelled or mortared at night, the shelling almost certainly coming from a mobile enemy gun that was moved about so as not to be shot at in return. On March 10th we handed over the position once again to the regiment detailed to relieve us and moved to rest quarters back into the town of Forli where we were to remain for eighteen days. Of course we did not realise it at the time but during this period plans were being finalised for the last great battle to be fought in Italy and which would bring the war to a successful conclusion in this part of the world.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.