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3 August 1945 Still messing around but get the ‘gen’ that we are moving off tomorrow.

4 August 1945 Up at 4 am. Breakfast 4.30. Move off 5.30. Train leaves Milan 7 am and we are going by the North Italy, Switzerland route. Scenery in North Italy very nice, but cannot compare with Switzerland. Our first stop is Dominadolla where we have a good meal and are provided with sandwiches to last us till the next stop. Enter Switzerland by the Simplon Tunnel, which is the longest in the world, being 12.5 miles long. Have never before seen anything like the scenery in Switzerland and everywhere looks so clean. The impression I got was that it had just been dusted and put out for show. All along the route people were waving and flags flying. When we pulled up at Lausanne for 10 minutes, people came along the train to shake hands with us. One lady presented me with a photo of Lausanne.

5 August 1945 Arrive Calais at 8 pm and are taken to Transit Camp where everything is certainly organised as in a couple of hours we are billeted, fed, drawn blankets, money changed, papers signed and paid and just after 10 in bed.

6 August 1945 Leave Calais 10 am by the Princess Maud and after half an hour’s sailing catch our first sight of the English coast for a couple of years. Looks good. Arrive Folkestone 12 am and we arrive London about 2.30 and I am able to catch the 3.30 for Derby. Arrive home 7.45 and find no one in. Do not recognise our Mavis when I meet her up the lane.

21 August 1945 All over and I am on my way back.

22 August 1945 Leave Folkestone

23 August 1945 Leave Calais

25 August 1945 Arrive Milan. Here for three days and we allowed to go into Milan every night

28 August 1945 Leave Milan at 7pm and on our way back by the Adriatic route. Quite a nice trip but the train is lousy as the corridor is down the centre and it is not possible to get stretched out for a sleep

29 August 1945 Back at San Severo 3am

30 August 1945 Have the day off and am I ‘cheesed’. The ‘gen’ is that the Squadron is packing up so we are waiting to know what is going to happen to us. Still wherever we go it cannot be worse than San Severo.
2 September 1945 Receive letter from Wally Davies who is back in ‘Blighty’ from S.A. and is getting married on the 8th to Margaret. Have since heard that she let him down four days before the wedding and would not go through with it.

14 September 1945 Am posted to 214 Group. Everyone in a ‘flat spin’; Adjutant says we are going S.M.O. says we are not.

17 September 1945 Going to 214 Group tomorrow. Bill Rumsey is to drive the biscuit box and I am to go with him.

18 September 1945 Set off at 8.30. Go over the mountain road to Naples and run is OK until we turn off the main road at Marigliano and we take a dusty bumpy road to No 4 M.T.P.B. which is near Mt. Vesuvius. We go to the Malcolm Club for the night.

19 September 1945 Arrive at 214 Group about 8.30 and do the usual round of visiting the sections. Had my medical for release

20 September 1945 Had a surprise in the Malcolm Club as I met Johnny Howells. He was on his way back from Rome where he had been for his Ordination Exam. Gave me all the ‘griff‘ about 283 Squadron and they are now back again in Maison Blanche, North Africa.

21 September 1945 Started work and there is two orderlies and a Cpl also an Italian nurse so we shall not be overworked.
Padre Ashton came up to visit me. He was on his way back from ‘Blighty’ leave. According to this morning’s paper shall not be out of this ’mob’ this year. Blast it-
22 September 1945 Did my first turn of night duty. The M.O. is a funny old stick, one minute he is storming and blinding and the next he is as nice as pie. Saw S/Ldr. Forward who is the S.M.O. of the Group. This is the third time that I have met him overseas being at Tunis, San Severo and here.

23 September 1945 Have had to do some ‘dobbying’ as I have got quite a lot of dirty clothes.

24 September 1945 Went to No 1 RAF General Hospital to have my eyes tested. Issued with one pair of specs

29 September 1945 Inspection of billets by new C.O. was in billet when he arrived; he was talking to me for about ten minutes. Appears to be OK

30 September 1945 Went to Pompeii with a trip organised by the NAAFI. It was quite a good tour as they provide transport, guide and a meal for 20 lire. The ruins which are 2,000 years old are in a surprisingly good state of preservation seeing that they have been covered by the ashes from an eruption by Mt. Vesuvius and were uncovered in the 18th century. In several of the buildings there are the original paintings which are of a very intimate character. Also visited the New Cathedral at Pompeii.. This is a very ornate affair and must have cost millions of pounds to build and furnish. One of the pictures which hangs over the altar is studded with diamonds. The painting in the dome took seven years to complete and among the figures shown are the Queen and King of Italy, the present Pope and his predecessor, the builder of the Cathedral is shown surrounded by children as he also built an orphanage nearby. It is really a marvellous place and is considered to have the curing properties the same as Lourdes in France. Pilgrims come from all over Italy and some of them go from the entrance to the altar on hands and knees. When I got back Naples I paid a visit to the Wesley House and met a number of Methodists. After tea went to the Harvest Festival Service at the Garrison Church. The proceeds and the fruit were given to an Italian Orphanage and realised £15. Afterwards went to the Epilogue at Wesley House.
Have visited the Palm, Alhambra, Palace and the Bijou Cinemas. Saw the film ‘Lady Hamilton’ at the Palace and scenes from this film are supposed to have taken place there.
The Methodist church had now moved from the Garrison Church and they now hold their services in the Church of the Italian Methodists. This is a big improvement as the old place was once a cinema. Had a great deal of trouble in finding it as it was in the out of bounds area but has now been put in bounds,

29 October 1945 Got the ‘gen.’ that Group 24 will be released in December and January and hope to be home by Christmas.

30 October 1945 F/Lt Healy our Medical Officer is posted and we have got to take our Sick Parade up to the No56 every morning. First morning the Cpl. Arrived back at 1.30

11 November 1945 Armistice Day Parade by 3,000 American and British Troops. Did not see it as am on duty.

12 November 1945 Declared a Public Holiday by the King to commemorate both wars

20 November 1945 Down in the ‘dumps’ as the latest promulgation says no release for Nursing Orderlies during December.

7 December 1945 Got the ‘gen.’. To leave for 56 PTC on the 9th

Note as at 7 July 2005 William Eric Saville aged 98 lives in an Aged Person Home in Sandiacre Derbyshire is mentally alert but is somewhat limited by poor sight, deafness and the weariness of old age

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