Open Writing

As we pulled back from the fighting, one tank hit a mine and Roy Heeler of No.2 Troop was killed. He was a quiet, well-liked boy and we were very upset to lose him.

21 November, 1944: 'Through Dave's stupidity we half slung a track. Sid was driving but it wasn't his fault.' As the squadron retired to a village we were left with our tank, but as it was evening we couldn't deal with the track. Next morning we were able to get it back on and then rejoin the squadron. There was rabbit for supper that night but I didn't fancy any.

Next day some guinea-fowl were pecking around in the snow and clucking like a group of old ladies. With one shot from the Tommy-gun Paddy killed one. (A Tommy-gun could be used as either a machine-gun or to fire a single round at a time.)

'Cleaning up tank and did some repairs, having had new idler sent.' (The idler was a wheel that supported the track as it went round.) 'Plucked, cleaned and cooked the guinea-fowl. The Ities living below did our washing and they've made a fine job of it because everything was black.'

It may be difficult to understand why the Italians were so friendly. After all, until recently we had been the enemy. But there was no love lost between them and the Germans, and in general they were glad to see the back of their former allies.

The mail arrived, but there was no letter from Suzette. I hadn't heard from her for three weeks, and I wrote to say that I hoped she was all right and that I'd soon have a letter. I had a wonderful parcel from home, 'best I've ever had, cigarettes, chocolates, razor blades, books ...' But I caught a cold and developed a bad cough, and I was grateful for some iodised throat tablets Jessie had sent.

The fighting had matured Lieutenant Lyle to some extent, and our relationship with him improved. But the weather was dull and cold and it continued to rain — some came through the roof onto Dave's bed. Now the Echelon had moved here and the cookhouse, so our diet of poultry (chicken, cockerel, turkey, duck and guinea-fowl) came to an end, but at least somebody else was making the meals for us.

Everybody suddenly began to get letters from home about 'Chur¬chill Leave', and it seemed that all our families were expecting us back soon. This was the first we'd heard about it, but eventually we were given the news too, though it differed considerably from the publicity it was having in the UK.

Soldiers were to be allowed home on a month's leave, and the impression being given was that this would apply to all of us. It did, but what wasn't explained was that only a tiny minority of us would be going on leave at a time. Our quota, for example, was to be only one man at a time from each squadron. At this rate, if your name was at the bottom of the list, you would be waiting for several years yet.

Our squadron decided to put all the names of the men who were actually fighting in a hat and draw one out. There was an uproar ('almost a riot') when the first name drawn out was that of Corporal Harry Musgrave. Musgrave had earned himself the name of 'King of the Echelon', and had never been near a tank, let alone in one. He had a reputation of being a 'wangler' and somehow he must have wangled this.

After the furore this caused, our squadron stuck strictly to the rules - fighting men only. In addition it was announced that a few men at a time would be sent back to Rome for a week's leave, so you watched the notice board hoping your name would be on it.

29 November: 'On guard with Sid and Jake, ground wet and muddy and boots wet through ... still no letter from Suzette, wrote to her again to say I was getting worried. Rumoured that we may stay here a while. Three hour standby cancelled. Jack and I made a cribbage board and played most of day. Ended up "straights"!'

We were 'resting' now, but the weather was so bad we were glad we had playing cards, most of them pretty thick, but sometimes new packs were sent from home.

My mother sent a pack once. There were 52 cards, but when we started to use them we found there were two aces of clubs, two kings of diamonds and several other such pairs, but of some denominations there were none at all. The reason came to light; at home we had two packs of cards with identical backs and my mother had just sent 52 of them!