THE 166TH NEWFOUNDLAND FIELD REGIMENT, R.A.

AT CASSINO - 1944

Written by: GERALD B. MALONE, - 970317

Early in February 1944 the 166th Newfoundland Field Regiment left the Adriatic Coast to take part in the battle for Cassino. On 3 February we arrived at a rest area near the town of Alife on the banks of the Volturno River to await further orders. The area was about 25 miles from the town of Cassino. We were there for a few days, when a group of Signallers from the 166th was detached to go to the Cassino area to maintain telephone lines for several British Regiments. The British were having problems keeping lines from their O.P.'s operating.

Len Beson and I were to be attached to an English Regiment, the 136th Regiment Royal Artillery.I remember that day distinctly. Before we left the Alife area Padre Hodgins, called me aside and told me that he had received word that my father had been accidently drowned in New York Harbour on January 4,1944.

We arrived at the Battery Command post of the 136th around 16-17 February. It rained constantly for the next few weeks. Lionel Chaffey and Jim Guppy from Q Battery were attached to another British Regiment. Chaffey was awarded the Military Medal for keeping the O.P. telephone lines operating while seconded to this regiment.

Beson and I were dropped off at the wrong Regimental Command Post by our driver. We unloaded our kit in pouring rain just before dark and reported to the C.P.O.. I don't recall the name of the Regiment but I was quite surprised to find that the Command Post Officer was Captain Jock Hornsby. Members of the First 400 will remember that amongst the N.C.O.'s sent over from England in 1940 was Sergeant Jock Hornsby. He evidently won a Commission later. We stayed overnight in a bivouac vacated by two casualties and next morning, Captain Hornsby arranged for us to be transported to the 136th Regiment located about 2 miles further along towards Cassino.

We reported to the Adjutant of the 136th and he detailed us to join a maintenance group which was located in a house about half way along what was called, " the mad mile". This was the section of Route 6 that went up to cassino in a straight line. The maintenance crew had been located near the ruins of the Italian Barracks but when the valley flooded they had to move back with the next maintenance crew. We were to leave next morning.

Meanwhile a group of re-inforcements arrived at the headquarters. Among the group were two Irish boys who were very young and were seeing enemy action for the first time. One of the boys was detailed to report "Charlie" troop Command post about a hundred yards away. They were not too happy to be separated.

After a while the Germans began shelling the position. The young Irish boy who had stayed with us was in a panic and I had to try and relieve his anxiety. Some of the rounds landed in "Charlie" Troop and we heard a call for stretcher bearers. The first stretcher was carried over to where we were and the body was covered with a gas cape. The gas cape did not cover the legs and the young man with me recoiled in horror when he saw that the soldier was wearing a pair of hip rubbers. It was his friend who had just arrived at the gun position with him an hour or so earlier. I will always remember the look of shock and fright on the young Irishman's face.

Next morning we left for the maintenance point. I was in an armoured car and Lem Beson was in a jeep. We drove along a dirt track to reach route 6. At the road junction vehicles were stopped and were allowed to proceed along route 6 one at a time. The paved road was covered by about a foot of water. A Military Policeman was standing in a dug out at the junction which was filled with water up past his waist. As one vehicle cleared the intersection he waved on another. Beson's jeep was ahead of us and proceeded up towards Cassino. After he had left the M.P. waved us out onto the road but held us until the jeep was well on the way. This was to ensure that German Gunners were not provided with a number of vehicles to shoot at. One vehicle would not attract artillery fire but more than one presented a target worth expending ammo on.

As we were stopped the Germans did open up and several shells landed a few feet from us. Looking through the slit in the armoured car the water all around us was being peppered with shrapnel like rain falling on a pond. The M.P. was almost completely submerged as he ducked into his flooded slit trench to avoid the shelling and shouted at our driver to "GET MOVING!". I had to join the shouting to get our drivers attention, as he appeared to be frozen in terror. I wondered how Beson was getting along in the open jeep, but they were out of range of the shells.

During all the confusion both the jeep and the armoured car missed the turn-off at the house where the maintenance crew were located and mistakenly drove on toward Cassino. This was not a pleasant place to be and after we reached a barrier which had been placed across the flooded road we had to manoeuvrer carefully to turn both vehicles around and back track down the "mad mile" again.

We had to cross several flooded fields to reach the house and to keep as dry as possible we walked along the walls bordering the fields. Lem Beson was carrying his kit and walking ahead of me when he suddenly disappeared under water having come to a gate or a break in the wall. Beson did not really appreciate the humour of the situation. When we reached the house we found two groups of Signallers, who had been forced out of their maintenance posts and retreated to the questionable security of the house. It was a very substantial house - two stories, with many rooms. The front of the house faced Cassino and Hangmans Hill. Although it was beyond the useful range of rifles or machine guns, the spent rounds sometimes bounced off the courtyard and through the wheat field next door.

The troops who were there were huddled in a ground floor room at the back of the house. They were a very demoralized group. They had been there for several days and none of them had explored the house as they were afraid to move around the front doors. They had not lit a fire at they were afraid of attracting enemy fire; so they had not washed, or shaved or had a cup of hot tea for some time. Beson and I searched the house and discovered a supply of charcoal and an assortment of pots and pans. We also located some bed springs which were much easier to sleep on than the stone floor.

As we were both wet through we heated enough water for all hands to wash,shave and begin to feel like soldiers again. After that we cooked a meal. Before nightfall the morale of the whole party was greatly improved and these English boys were left wondering who were these Colonials who barged into their midst and took over.

After a few days in that house the rain held up and we were able to move forward to the original maintenance point at the foot of Monte Cassino. This position was in the remains of a house that had only three walls and part of a roof. Another section of the house was occupied by Sikh Infantry and we got to know them very well. They were all big men - six feet or taller and very regimental, like the Coldstream Guards. They all had individual silver cups for their tea and their tea was very sweet. I recall watching as they patted a ball of dough from one hand to the other to form a Japatti which resembled a very thin pancake. When it was shaped it was dropped onto a piece of tin and heated over a fire and fried on both sides. The Sikhs had to be supplied with live goats which they butchered themselves and cooked. They all wore turbans, even in this front line situation, where steel helmets were a much more desirable headgear. It was interesting to watch them wash their bodies on some very chilly mornings usually in cold water. Their method of winding their turbans was another fascinating ritual to observe. One man took an end of a long piece of material, while the second man walked towards him rolling his head from side to side and ending up with a perfectly formed turban. This procedure must take a great deal of practice. While we were in this position an order came down from above, that, " all front line troops must wear steel helmets, at all times," because there were so many head wounds. The Sikhs complied with the order but they refused to remove their turbans - they simply perched the steel helmets on top of their turbans. While this did little to protect them from head wounds it certainly protected their integrity. These were brave men and good soldiers.

The guns of the 166th came into action near Cervaro on the 26 Feb 1944. We were back in Q Battery on the 15 March 1944 when the Monastery was bombed as we watched it from Cervaro. Some bombs were dropped miles behind us, one lot hit a British Artillery Regiment.

A few days after the bombing I was sent with an O.P. Party to join an attack by 78 Division Tanks, on the back of the Monastery on Monte Cassino.

Our Toc Truck was driven by Harris " Skit" Noseworthy. I don't recall the name of the O.P. Officer, I believe it was a chap named Waldron, but it may have been Captain Sheppard. He was to go forward in one of the Churchill Tanks from a "hide" at the top of Cavendish Road. Cavendish Road was a steep gravel road which zig-zagged up the side of the mountain. We rendezvoused with the Tank Battalion and found ourselves climbing the hairpin road with Tanks ahead and behind us. It was hair-raising!

Near the top of Cavendish Road the engineers had set poles with camouflage nets suspended from them. A hill about 200 yards on the left was occupied by German snipers from time to time. That hill, in turn, was separated from the Monastery by a shallow valley which, again, was only a few hundred yards across.

Our Toc Truck began "boiling up" about 300 yards from the top of Cavendish Road. To turn a Toc Truck the driver had to turn the steering wheel right or left and this braked one track while the opposite track kept running. This put quite a strain on the V8 engine and with the dozens of hair-pin turns on Cavendish Road, it finally gave up the ghost.

We had to choose between moving to the outside edge of the road and allowing the following Churchill Tanks to pass between our truck and the cliff face. My choice was to hug the cliff face and let the tank drivers worry about sliding over the edge of the road into the valley below - so this is what we did. The O.P. Officer walked up the hill to the top to arrange for our rescue.

It was some time before all the Tank Battalion passed by and after a long wait we saw a Bulldozer coming down from the crest of the hill. It was driven by a Ghurka, with a huge friendly, white toothed grin. He quickly hooked on a cable to our Toc Truck and with an "Ok, Johnnie !" up the hill we went. Daylight was coming on and he did not want to be caught on the road which was under enemy observation.

Toc Trucks don't tow very well. With the bulldozer going flat out our truck fishtailed up the remainder of the hill waving back and forth between the edge of the precipice and the sheer wall of the cliff.

The road ended at the crest of the hill in an area that formed a shallow valley with a small hill or ridge of rock on the left which shielded the Monastery from view and a rising grassy bank on the right where an advance medical aid centre had been set up.

Our Wireless set was tuned to the Regimental net. We took the set out of the carrier and set it up on the ground. The attack by the tanks across the valley towards the back of the Monastery was intended to take the enemy by surprise.

It was thought to be a most unlikely area for a tank attack. It was felt that the enemy would not have anti-tank defences in such a location or even a great number of Infantry. That Judgement proved to be wrong! The Germans knocked out many of the Churchills and the ground over which they had to manoeuvre was just too rough.

The back wall of the Monastery rose straight up from the cliff face at the top of Monte Cassino, more than 100 feet high, even after the saturation bombing of the 15 March '44. It seemed all too obvious that this was not the way into the building. The Germans had fortified the area at the base of the wall.

Shortly after the attack began the next morning one of the tanks drove back into the hollow where we were located and one of the crew called for a stretcher from the aid station near us.

As I sat near my wireless set I recall watching the tank commander slowly and painfully lift first one leg and then the other out of the turret and stand on the track. Two stretcher bearers helped him to the ground and laid him on the stretcher.

They carried him over to where our Toc Truck was parked and a Doctor from the Aid Centre came and examined him. After a few minutes the doctor and his orderly covered the tank commander with his greatcoat and went to treat other casualties.

Jeeps were used to carry casualties down Cavendish Road as it was too tricky for ambulances. A stretcher was laid across the back of the jeep for the trip down to the field hospital in the valley below.

In the midst of the fighting, functional stretchers were sorely needed. Two orderlies came to move the tank commander's body from the stretcher he was on to another with a broken handle, for the trip down the hill. When they lifted the body from one stretcher to the other it was evident the man's back had been blown away when his tank was hit! I recall with amazement that I had watched him climb out of the tank under his own power a short while before and I marveled that a man with such serious injuries could move at all.

Sometime during the day an infantryman brought in a German Prisoner and left him near our vehicle on the grassy bank. This soldier could not have been any more than sixteen or seventeen years old and he was a very frightened young man. He could not speak English and none of us spoke German. We fed him some of our "Compo" rations and cigarettes through the day.

We left the position the next day to return to our Gun Position. I cannot remember navigating down the hill although it must have been a harrowing experience even without the tank battalion. Also, I don't remember why the O.P. Officer and his tack did not return with us in the Toc Truck. Perhaps he had no confidence in the vehicle after our experience going up the hill.

I do remember that "Skit" Noseworthy and I were almost back to Cervaro when the Toc Truck decided to quit on us again. This time we had just turned off Route Six and were climbing the hill into Cervaro when the engine failed. We got out to survey the position. When the Germans started shelling the cross roads and we had to spend some time under the machine. A while later a Signal Sergeant on a motorbike came along and we asked him to send someone down from Battery Headquarters to rescue us. Soon after an Ammo Truck arrived and we were towed to the Gun Position in Cervaro.

The remainder of our stay in Cervaro was spent in trying to maintain our own telephone lines to our O.P.'s and to R.H.Q. It was from a house in Cervaro that Q Battery "acquired" a piano which displaced some 25 pounder shells in one of our ammunition trucks. We carried it around for some weeks before going into action on the Adriatic front we were ordered to get rid of the piano and replace it with amunition in the amunition truck. Our last view of the piano was as the rear party left the rest area it was sitting forlornly on a grassy bank in the middle of Italian field.

The town of Cervaro was close to Cassino being about two miles in a straight line. The Americans had occupied the area before we came and they had allowed the civilian population to stay in their homes. When the British Forces took over all the civilians were ordered to vacate the town.

In the house next to our Battery Command Post there was an Italian Doctor who had been too sick to move. He and two women who looked after him stayed behind. The Doctor was trained in Glasgow University Medical School and spoke English with a very Scottish accent. He was a most interesting chap to talk with and I enjoyed visiting him. I cannot remember his name. We visited Cervaro in 1969 and I went to see the wine cellar that we slept in while we were there in 1944. I found that the place was exactly as it was twenty five years before. I asked about the Doctor and I was told that he was still living and practicing in Benevento. One of the women who looked after him was still living in Cervaro.

I was not with the Regiment when it moved to Cervaro. When Lem Beson and I rejoined our Battery early in March we found that we had missed a great treasure hunt. When the Italian civilians were ordered to vacate the town they had accumulated tons of material from the U.S. Forces. As they could not carry all their possessions when leaving they looked for places to hide them especially the cartons of cigarettes, chocolates and clothing that they had acquired - much of it stolen and some no doubt from the hundreds of dead American soldiers who lost their lives in the early attacks on Cassino.

Our soldiers were well positioned to observe many of the ingenious burial places the civilians created. One notable one was underneath a manure pit with the manure carefully replaced. Others were in deep wells, in attics and cellars. By the time we had rejoined the Regiment most of the hidden loot had been recovered. It was rather interesting that the English and Scottish members of the Regiment were attracted to fur coats, silverware, linens, etc. and sent home parcels of these materials to their folks in the United Kingdom. Our men who had been away from home and family life for three or more years had no appreciation of the value of such domestic merchandise - their interests were in acquiring cigarettes, liquor, cameras, jewelry, etc. and there was a fair amount of such items. I suppose this could be called looting although we were, in fact, looting the looters. There was no doubt that a great deal of the material was stolen from the Americans.

The Regiment left Cervaro in early April to return to the Lanciano area on the Adriatic side of Italy. On the return trip our " Monkey" truck ( a vehicle for laying telephone lines) was diverted from the convoy. One of " Don " Troop Officers had a girl-friend who was a nursing Sister in the field hospital at Bari, so he was given permission by the C.O. to leave the route of march and take a side trip to Bari on the Adriatic coast. While the officer, who shall remain nameless, was visiting the hospital he made arrangements for our line crew to stay in a large warehouse that was used as a depot by the Royal Army Service Corps supplying British Forces in Italy with food. We were delighted to find ourselves in such an ideal billet. It was something like putting the fox in the chicken coup.

As front line troops who had by then been in action for more than a year, we were quite familiar with the kind of rations that reached us. It was a real surprise and indeed a shock to discover the amounts and the great variety of foods that the British Army provided. We always knew that the Navy was well fed, but here,was an Army depot with supplies of food that one dreams about. I had not seen real Strawberry Jam for example since leaving England and here we could see hundreds of cases. There was also canned fruit of all descriptions: cans of Bacon, Turkey, Salmon, Vegetables, Cream, Pickles lining the shelves of this hugh warehouse.

It was quite evident that some army types way behind the front lines were eating on a much grander scale than the foot-sloggers at the front. We tried to even up the score by slipping out to our truck every now and then with a "few" cans of food tucked away in our Battle Dress Blouses. By the time we left the next day we had accumulated a fair supply of "unexpired" rations especially a quantity of real tea and sugar, which was always in great demand and short supply. We eased out past the sentry on the gate the next day with our fingers crossed that he would not insist on searching our truck. He just waved us out and we continued on to the Gun Position near Lanciano.

G. B. MALONE, - 970317