Winter at Monte Cassino by Stewart Blair

Author:Stewart Blair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: world war ii, coming of age, drama, adventure, literary, historical, womens
Publisher: Stewart Blair

Afterwards we went back to his caravan at Caserta and went in the tent where he’d by now forgotten he’d arranged to gather a dozen or so of his most senior staff officers for an early Christmas dinner. Landers was one of them and he didn’t look very happy to see me there, which suited me fine as I didn’t fancy staying anyway. My godfather had decided to award his chef Chaney something called a Good Conduct Medal for all his service to him over the previous two or three years. Unfortunately as we’d arrived a bit late Chaney had gotten a little bit tipsy in the meanwhile. I don’t think my godfather was too pleased about that, but after some debate Chaney got his medal anyway. Though I think my godfather could have pinned it right through into the skin of his chest and the poor man wouldn’t have felt a thing.

I knew we were going to have some sort of party at Bomb Cottage, so I’d made some excuse about having a headache and my godfather walked me out to my jeep. I was about to leave, when a sergeant brought a message from Alexander who had met that day with Churchill. “Good news?” I asked. And he showed me the message.

It said Churchill was going to try and persuade Roosevelt to let them keep eighty eight Ducks to use in an amphibious ‘end-around’ as long as they launched it before the end of January. They had even given the operation a name too, Shingle, and heaven knows where they’d dug that one up either. “It would mean we could land further north, split the German defenses and get over the Rapido and up the Liri Valley.”

But I read the second paragraph of the message which apparently he hadn’t. It said -. ‘Given the obvious dangers of such an enterprise it has been decided that should it be possible, British and American forces must share equally in the endeavor to avoid any undesirable reaction on the home front should anything go wrong. To this end I would intend to transfer the British Fifth Division over to your command to be part of Shingle also. Alexander.’

I thought of shoving the message back in his hand and bolting before he read it. But that would be unfair, so I showed it to him and he went, as they say, bonkers. “That’s exactly what I mean. They just want to make sure they get into Rome before I do.”

I drove back down into Naples that evening but I didn’t go straight to Bomb Cottage, instead I went to the church of Santa Chiara. It’s smaller than Naples Cathedral, a little simpler and more intimate, and was also where my mother had been baptized. I knew it had been bombed beyond recognition too, but being the day that Christ our Savior was born I still wanted to go and kneel down to him and pray like I’d never prayed before, not for myself, or even my sister or brother, or my godfather.

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