- Contributed by听
- CSV Action Desk/大象传媒 Radio Lincolnshire
- People in story:听
- Joseph Ellison
- Location of story:听
- Italy
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A4898884
- Contributed on:听
- 09 August 2005
When things quietened down some of the Italians would bring us some wine or tea, whichever we wanted and in return we used to give them some of our rations. Food was very scarce for the Italians to get hold of because when the Germans left they took most of the food away with them.
We moved to a place called Vastoe, which used to be a holiday resort before the war. I was given a job as driver batman to the Provost-Marshall. He was an ex-Guardsman and had been a Captain in the Grenadier Guards. He had been wounded in the conflict of the battle to take Tunisia and that was how he got his job as Provost-Marshall. We were told that an office had been put at our disposal in the town square. When we looked at the place we found out that it was the towns bank of Chieti. Looking around our new office, the Captain took over what used to be the bank manager鈥檚 office. The Corporal and I shared the main office where the counter was. The next day a gentleman came into the office to see the Captain. We asked him what his business was and he said he was an interpreter. He had been an Italian Sergeant. The Captain asked him how he had such excellent English and he said that he had served in the American Army in the First World War.
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