MILITARY
work for them. The 8th Army moved across to the west side and captured CASSINO making sure that the Germans were pushed back far enough so that they could not counter attack or the Americans would have lost it again.
The fronts moved forward slowly, passed ROME, the 8th Army still being held back because of the slow movement of the 5th Army. As the Army moved further north there was talk of the 614 squadron being returned to EGYPT for transfer to INDIA. I was then posted back to my old unit at NAPLES.
NAPLES was now decamping area. Supplies were being landed further up the coast so the place became more organised.
SORRENTO and CAPRI were Army and air force rest centres run by the Red Cross and because of the work the choir did in the hospitals they arranged for us to have weekend leave there. Those places were quiet and restful, all the hotels having been taken over by the Red Cross. Courses were also held in ROME so I put my name down for one; it was my only chance to see ROME. We had lectures in the morning and tours around ROME in the afternoon.
There must have been some Welshmen at the first courses and they set a trend that was followed by each course. After going around St Peters we all climbed up to the ball underneath the cross at the top of the dome. This is a hollow copper ball, which held eight people. There were slits in the dome so that you could see down. The trouble was that ROME would not keep still. We then sang one verse of Cwm Rhondda.
Now that the war in EUROPE was over home leave was organised. The people who had been overseas the longest went first. The Army was allowed four weeks, the air force two weeks; my turn came at the beginning of September. It took almost as long to travel home as the leave.
First to transit camp in NAPLES three days there, train to MILAN, two days. The Italian railways were in such a bad state and the engines and rolling stock were no better. To get to MILAN, the River Po had to be crossed. All the bridges had been blown up so the road and the rail crossing were by Bailey bridges mounted on pontoons (boats). As we crossed the river we were watching traffic crossing the road bridge and commenting on the way the bridge was rocking and rattling, little thinking of what our bridge was doing under a two hundred ton train.
We had three more days at MILAN. There were three trains a week going to Calais - one Italian, one French and one Swiss. The seats in the Italian and French trains were wooden slats but the Swiss train was in good repair, good seats. I was fortunate to have the Swiss train. The coaches were some open with a centre corridor and others with separate compartments and side corridor. I was in one of these. The Army were eight to a compartment but the air force were six to a compartment. The RAF transport people at MILAN tried to arrange for two small people to be in each compartment so that at night they could sleep on the racks while the other four slept on the seats.
Time off in Capri
