Since there's a Christmas version of this and we can now start to turn our thoughts to the incoming new year: I thought a new years eve thread might be in order. Perhaps some of our italian veterans might remember this? (taken from no 2 coldstream diary) 31st December 1944: (11.58pm) "Throughout the length of the Italian battlefield the Germans celebrated the coming on the New Year by firing multi coloured VEREY LIGHTS and Tracer, ranging from MG to heavy AA Guns." 1st Jan 1945: (0001 am) "The Germans heralded the New Year with a magnificent firework display along the complete Italian front and in the plains. It consisted of AA guns firing tracer straight up in the sky, MGs opening up, and different coloured Verey Lights fired indiscriminately. It lasted about ten minutes and was no doubt enjoyed by both sides."
5th Camerons war diary entry 31st December 1944, Chaudfontaine, Liege; "Sunday and the last day of the year. There was a church parade after breakfast, apart from that the day was a holiday. A few Buzz bombs landed in the area. The Officers and Serjeants both held New years Dinners and parties. The evening was a tremendous success, and they sang in the New Year. The Officers bar became open to all Passers-By; and everybody went to bed in the early hours of the New year feeling extremely happy. At 23.45 hours a movement order was circulated to be prepared to depart on the following day". One of the V1's blew a platoon of D Company out onto the street when the house they were billeted in received a direct hit, amazingly, no one was hurt.
Phaethon I looked back in my diaries to see precisely where I spent my wartime New Year's Eves. 1939 Aged 16, "evacuated" to Hove, in Sussex and working as a live-in Junior Porter at the Queen's Hotel in nearby Brighton 1940 Living in Dalston, brought back to London by my parents just in time to experience the Blitz 1941 Living in Houghton Regis, near Dunstable, am local Air Raid Warden commuting daily to London 1942 First winter in the Army, being trained as Driver/Op in Whitby, Yorkshire 1943 Snowed in at Carovilli in the Central Sector (see below) 1944 Being re-trained at Rieti as a RAC Loader/Op 1945 War is over, peacekeeping at Monfalcone near Trieste My strongest memory of a New Year's Eve is of Carovilli: I later added this sequel: Cheers Ron
Ron Thanks for the memories, you mentioned Whitby where you at the camp at East Barmby/Barnby above Sandsend or in Whitby itself? It also seams you split towards Trieste and not Klagenfurt after the surrender. oldman
Ron Thanks for the memories, you mentioned Whitby where you at the camp at East Barmby/Barnby above Sandsend or in Whitby itself? It also seams you split towards Trieste and not Klagenfurt after the surrender. oldman Hi Oldman Very much Whitby itself; BBC - WW2 People's War - Training To Be A Driver/Wireless Operator As for Trieste, I was to be in that area until returning to the UK for demob Best regards Ron
Further to my memories of the Fiocca family in wartime Carovilli (see above) I am delighted to bring this story up to date. This afternoon I received an e-mail from one of the Fiocca family in the USA asking me if I knew that Carovilli was now viewable as a GOOGLE Streetview. I immediately had a look and the results are, in my case, simply brilliant. I am literally able to retrace the steps from my billet to the Fiocca house and from there into the town square where his church was and still is situated. Below I show 4 pics. 1. An old photo taken of the priest and his family outside the house. 2. A new photo previously sent to me from the states. 4. A screen capture taken today from GOOGLE Streetview 5. An aerial view of Carovilli I found on the internet just to show what a beautiful place it was. Ain't the internet wonderful !!!!!! ps Have just added two more pics one of which actually shows my billet !
Hi Oldman Very much Whitby itself; BBC - WW2 People's War - Training To Be A Driver/Wireless Operator As for Trieste, I was to be in that area until returning to the UK for demob Best regards Ron Ron, It seems my late father ended up at Trieste prior to demob. He sent this card home to my mother. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=28&pictureid=804Photograph of my Father sent from Trieste. When I compared a photo of my Grandfather, Father and me about the same age, we are like peas out of a pod Regards Tom
Ron, Just think, you may have walked past each other in Trieste:wink: Regards Tom Tom Come to think about it, a bloke in the RECCE, just like your Dad, borrowed a few hundred Lire from me one night in Trieste. Any chance he mentioned this and said "Don't forget to give that man his money back ? Cheers ! Ron
Dear friends If I live to be a 107 I will, hopefully, never forget the Fiocca family of Carovilli. Whenever, here in the England of 2010, I am tempted to moan about the snow & the ice all I have to do is cast my mind back to the conditions we faced in Italy in December 1943 and the horrendous living conditions that continued into January 1944. I thought it would be a timely reminder to give this thread a little bump. Happy New Year everybody ! Ron
Ron, I missed this the first time around. What a lovely account, especially with the up to date photos.
Giving this thread another bump simply because I have just this moment been browsing on GOOGLE Earth, looking at Carovilli, and re-tracing the steps from my billets to Father Fiocca's house. All this, I would remind you, was in January 1944 but little has changed in the past 70 years ! The whole story is on my postings #3 & #6 Don't you just love the internet ! Ron
Ron, Very nice....you were "just" up the road from my father who was positioned beyond Rionero from 31st Dec 1943 onwards (colocated with some Belgian Commandos). My Dad remembered that time well... “We remained at Campobasso until 27 December when we were moved into the high Apennines to a location close to the headwaters of the Sangro. The journey through the snow-capped mountains was picturesque but very cold. We crossed the Sangro near to the town of Castro di Sangro and finally arrived at our new base at Montenero, a small, poverty-stricken town. Bttn HQ was set up and most of the village was commandeered. The companies were pushed out to positions high in the mountains at about 5,000 feet. Their shelters were mainly slit trenches and sangars. There were some small bivouac tents used for sleeping near to the positions held by the men. All the rest of their comforts were carried on their backs. The snow was not yet deep but the area was a white wilderness. I was not sorry when I trudged back daily to the billet allocated to the company in Montenero. The London Irish had brought 500 men into the town and posted more than 300 in the hills. This meant much of the local population had been displaced. The story was repeated across Italy. A populous and overcrowded state had two vast armies that took over nearly all the limited accommodation and were at the same time destroying most of the country’s facilities.” In October I went to where my Dad and his mates in E Coy, 2 LIR were based in Dec 1943/ Jan 1944 (picture attached taken from the slopes of Il Calvario down towards Montenero)
Salonika, Greece. The spark appeared to fly on the night of 31st December 1944. Dr Stephanides (53rd Gen Hosp) remembers: ‘At midnight heavy firing was opened up in the town. The British alarm sirens sounded and shooting started from our side. I could even hear Tommy guns and machine guns.’ And Frank Otter (57th LAA Regt) recalls: ‘All hell was let loose! For a long time I had been fearing there would be a bang in the night, and suddenly they would be attacking us. This seemed like it.’ But, says Dr Stephanides: ‘Nobody had warned the British that it was an old Greek custom to greet the New Year by shooting off firearms. Fortunately the firing died down without any casualties. This was lucky because the Communists did not realise that the British troops were shooting in earnest. Next day a friendly guerrilla congratulated me: “Wonderful show your fellows put up last night. I wish we had as much ammunition to shoot off to bring us luck in the New Year.”’ Extracted from Scobie - Hero of Greece by Henry Maule. Gus
Burma New Year's Eve 1944 Operations order No1 commences dads battalion achieves commitments in this area and start the movement of troops from Teknaf Penisular to Bawli Bridge so dads New Year's Eve was like the rest of the month marching and fighting. A & B Coy's (dads coy ) to arrive at Babarpara by 1800hrs on 7th jan 1944.
At New Years '44/'45 - I was still enjoying the comforts of my warm and toasty bed in the 33rd General way down at Catania so didn't really miss the frolics going on in the line at all as the lads were standing on the freezing winter line at the Senio - as Infantry as the footsloggers were having a break - but I did think of them all…the year '43/'44 was very forgettable in North Africa - and the one before that '42/'43 was spent in the mud pile which was Bury St Edmunds Cheers
At the end of December 1942, my father was somewhere south of Goubellat.....2 London Rifles' war diaries for the year concluded with comment: 31 December 1942 "Quartermaster returns from NAAFI with cigarettes and whiskey for battalion which finishes the old year off nicely and gives us good heart for the New Year...." My Dad also remembered that period: “Christmas 1942 arrived and the menu was, as usual, compo rations. The haggle over the indivisible 14-man packs continued daily and the quartermaster knew the latest figure down to the last man. E Company moved from time to time to new locations that were just map references. Changes occurred and Major Gibbs was succeeded as company commander by Captain Costello. Subalterns also seemed to change but the sergeants remained. Lieutenant Reidy, the Irish rugby star who almost knocked all my teeth out, had an accident and was evacuated to a hospital at Thiba. I was ordered to deliver his kit, which I did in a truck. I drove over the hills into a beautiful and peaceful valley with a White Fathers monastery at its centre that had been requisitioned as a general hospital. The setting was like Shangri-la. After completing our task, we were entertained royally and given, or sold, the most delicate vintages.” “But conditions on the front were very uncomfortable because of the continuous rain and associated mud which made driving difficult and walking almost impossible. Enemy patrols were often active. Vic Blake, the shoe-shop worker from Brixton, was taken prisoner while taking a dispatch at night on a main road. Our first casualty was a rifleman who was found shot. He obviously could not stand the privation, tension and lack of sleep. Our chaplain Father Hayes visited the companies regularly.”
