“Eventually, San Salvo was taken and it was extraordinary the number of Germans who were there and yet the day when I’d been on my patrol I’d hardly seen any movement at all.
We then moved up to the next river line, which was the river Sangro and we had one or two German deserters and they boasted to us that we were never going to take the winter line on the Sangro. This river was a very well-fortified position. The Germans were occupying high ground on their side of it, the river was a fairly large obstacle and it was going be interesting to see what was going to happen here. Monty was still in command of the 8th Army and Bailey bridges were got across the Sango but then the weather deteriorated and we had the most appalling floods and the bridges were washed away. Now, Monty decided that he would keep the attack back until such times as he could get the armour across. His plan was that he would carry out a frontal attack – a feint frontal attack – to make the Germans think that we were going into the front but the main attack was going to be down their right flank.
At that time, Churchill was very keen for Monty to push on and he was under considerable pressure to cross the Sangro without the armour. Now, thank god, Monty decided that he would not do that and he delayed the attack for about ten days until we were able to get new Bailey bridges across and the river had gone down and we would be able to get out armour across.
The County of London Yeomanry tanks were supporting us and then the bridges were got ready, we moved up at night without tanks to a place called Mozzagrogna, which the Indian Division on our left had captured and it was a long night march with our tanks which weren’t allowed to show any lights of course. But we moved up and got into position on the German flank. We were then going to attack straight down the top of the ridge on their right flank, a company with a squadron of tanks each, each company doing a certain square and then another company and its tanks would pass through.
We set off with H Company and my squadron of tanks and we swept down our last bit of the attack and everything went swimmingly with very few casualties and we took German prisoners. I well remember a rather unusual incident which happened…. When we were on our way down this ridge, I saw what I thought was a dugout with a door on it and we stopped and we shouted for the Germans to come out. Nothing much happened and we threw a grenade against the door and out came the Germans – about six of them with their hands up. Suddenly a shot rang out from my Company Headquarters and one of these Germans doubled up. He’s been shot in the stomach. I said “who the hell fired that shot?” and nobody answered me.
I was very angry about this indeed and a little while later the squadron commander who had been standing in the turret of his tank had seen who had fired the shot…. He again was a man who had been through a lot and he was in a pretty bomb happy state. I was very angry indeed about this and I told him so.
Anyway, we continued on until we’d finished our part of the attack, then another company passed through and we very successfully got onto our objectives at a place called Fossacesia. We took quite a number of German prisoners… they’d been taken completely by surprise. Monty’s plan had worked, they were all looking out to the front where they thought the attack was coming from and the Irish Fusiliers then passed through and carried on down to the sea to complete the attack on the Sangro.
In my opinion, this was a terrific battle. Had it not been for Monty waiting to get the armour across, I reckon we would have been cut to bits because we had to go through grape vines where the Germans had machine guns sited and without the armour we would have had a very bad time indeed. It was a great attack. I had very few casualties in my company and we’d succeed in attaining our objective.“