Saturday 2nd
Our names were again called out & we were really on our way out for good. Syd was not though but Bob another fellow who had been on the guard with me was & he was a real decent fellow came from Hamilton. We said cheerio to Syd who was sorry he was not with us.
Sunday 3rd
This began one of the most amazing journeys I have had. We were awakened early & had breakfast & given haversack rations & went to the station in lorries. We were split up into parties by now there being 27 signals in ours. We were all due to ride the train together in the same cattle truck. On the outside of which there read “Hommes 32 Chevaux 8”. We were given rations for five days which shook us. We found out we were going to Bizerta which was about 180 miles away. This was easy a days traveling at the most yes in England but alas not in “Nord Afrique” no four days. We were shunted & stopped & messed about with, it was terrific. We were nipping off the train & brewing up at every stop & hanging the fire on the carriages & getting on again if caught in the middle of it. We had also a very rough crowd of fellows with us two of whom were drunk before starting from Ph. 6 of them were left behind at Constantine but they managed to catch the train up again somehow. We ended the journey with one man down he was left in the “mush” at Constantine. Sleeping was a horror as there was no room to lie down. Here Bob & I fell in with two other fellows Len & Fred the former being a T.S.B.O like myself.
Wednesday 6th
The Germans are reported to be looting Rome of art treasures ahead of the Allied advance.
In the morning we arrived at Bizerta in the pouring rain had to dump our kit at the side of the line & march 3 miles to the Texas Transit Camp. We were wet when we arrived & it was terribly muddy & were pushed 10 in a tent. Our kit came up later when we had dried off & we had to help pull the lorries out of the mud. Finally bed & oblivion.
Thursday 7th
Things passed very easy while at the camp the hardest part being getting meals for which there was numerous queues. During my stay here I managed some washing which I badly needed doing. We did not have the chance to visit Bizerta which had been badly knocked about & really wasn’t worth it.
Saturday 9th
We moved off to the docks today & boarded the LSTs which were to transport us. There was also some Yanks on board & as usual they got the bunks & we had to sleep on the deck. Bob & I found a nice place under one of the gun mountings forward. Our kit bags nearly missed us as the lorries which were due to go back for a second load didn’t & some commandeered transport just made it before we sailed. The food on the voyage was good being for the most part American rations. I was in high spirits thinking I was due to go to Sicily but on the second day out we learnt we were bound for Taranto which was a bit of a blow. On the night of 11th a storm broke & there was lightning & a deluged of rain which wet us through & washed us down below & we spent a wet night half awake & asleep below.
Tuesday 12th
About midday we sighted land which finally got nearer & in the evening just as it was going dark we steamed into the inner harbour at Taranto. I have never seen such a fine harbour or such a big one & there were plenty of warships etc. there including a number of units of the Italian fleet. We docked & disembarked at night & spent the night in a big shipbuilders place on the quays which was quite comfy for the night sleeping on planks of wood.
Wednesday 13th
Italy completed her military about-face today by declaring war on Germany, her ally until little more than five weeks ago. The Prime Minister, Marshal Badoglio, urged Italian soldiers to fight against the Germans “to their last man” because of Germany’s “repeated and intensified acts of war”.
The declaration follows a wave of atrocities and looting since the Italian surrender last month. In Rome, German troops have been stealing Old Masters, priceless manuscripts and art treasures.
Naples, now under Allied control, was subjected to a five-day reign of terror as retreating soldiers took revenge on their Italian “betrayers”. In one case, the Germans planted land mines under a room, herded more than 100 civilians into it – then detonated them.
Soldiers roamed the city almost at random, looting and blowing up buildings. Hospitals were attacked to destroy their stocks of food. Water mains and sewers were dynamited to foul water supplies. Thousands of civilians have died. Resistance has been savagely put down. In the village of Aversa, near Naples, 80 Italian policemen and 20 civilians were shot in reprisal for the death of a single German. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of disarmed Italian soldiers are being crammed into sealed trains under guard and taken to Germany as slave labour.
We arose & shaved etc. & had one of the best breakfasts I had seen whilst in transit who organised it I don’t know but it amazed me. We then donned our kit & marched to the x transit camp at Taranto. After putting us down in one spot & Bob & I had a tent made out of our groundsheets we had to pack up & move about 1/4 mile away. Here in the dark amid much confusion we were placed in wooden huts, which had been an Italian barracks until the army had blasted it & they were in various states of collapse. Whilst at this camp we again got messed about having various fatigues to do if & when they could catch or find us. I went into the town about 3 times after which I had no money & did not bother again. I found very little to buy of any value most of the goods having a very cheap look about them. The Italians themselves are a very poor type of people & I am not impressed by them. While we were in the huts, which which had no tiles on the roofs, we got wet through about 3 times & eventually moved in house confiscated by the army this lasted two days & we then moved into tents again. These though were very good being I.P. & also having floor boards in them. We spent our nights here playing bridge & had some good games. Our lights were made by putting 4 x 2 in tins filled with margarine. The latter we collected at meal times from odd bits thrown about. On Oct 27 our names were read out again & we were to move the next day.
Thursday 14th
The allies break through German defence lines along the River Volturno
Thursday 28th
We started out & marched to the station this time the journey was much better riding in the II classe Italian coaches. It only lasted a couple of hours we arrived at the 2(br) Corps Reinforcement Unit. Here I learnt finally that due to me being away from my unit so long I would not be returning there & was placed in the pool. The first thing we had on arriving was a kit check & the 2 confiscated all surplus stuff. The first night here due to our tent only having been put up that day it had no drainage ditch & it poured down again. I got washed out & evacuated to a drier tent. Most of our time here was spent in fatigues digging drainage & whatnot. Oh I got caught for guard & was on with Len it was cushy though but exceptionally cold. Bob lucky fellow got sent back to his own unit & broke up our bridge school. One remarkable thing about the place was what was termed “the market” which was a congregation of Italian vendors selling odd things it also sported a number of barbers. Eventually our names were called again & I found myself going to 8th Army Sigs Len unfortunately was going elsewhere.
Sunday 31st
Allied armies trying to inch their way up the boot of Italy – “like a bug on one leg” as Winston Churchill put it – have run into stiff resistance north of the Volturno River. The Nazis have transformed the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino into an almost impenetrable fortress.
The Allies are short of men, and geography is against them: the rugged Apennines make ideal shelter for Nazi machine gun nests; there are few roads; the land is marshy. The weather is against them, too: fog hampers Allied planes, and winter is close.