![]() To our left, about two hundred yards away, German infantry was climbing out of slit trenches with their hands high and we were gesturing to them to get behind us and to make their way to the rear. We had been on the move all day and the Germans were surrendering left, right and centre. The Browning machine gun referred to was rarely fired in anger, the exception being on this one occasion when I nearly killed Hewie our Stuart Tank driver. Some Machine-gun nuisance and one High Explosive round landed about twenty yards away. Moved into the area Southside of the Santerno river and waited for the bridge to be slung across. The fact that 58 years later I am able to write about the incident means, of course, that at the time I must have been blessed with either a good memory or good luck.īit of stonking last night. I had, in fact, just walked through a Jerry minefield and was now faced with the unpleasant task of trying to remember exactly where I had placed my feet on the journey in. With its back to us, a notice board had been fixed in the centre of the bridge and Walmsley said to me: “Nip over there and see what it says.” Without any further thought, I did this, and after I had reached the spot and read the notice I called across to Walmsley in what I hoped was not too shaky a voice: “It says ‘Achtung Minen!’. It did, however, look as if we could get across on foot through the rubble. ![]() The trouble was that the bridge had obviously been hit by shell fire and was in a bit of a mess. We stopped the jeep on the outside perimeter and looked across one of these bridges at the town that we could see in front of us. Walmsley by jeep to Lugo, the fortified town that is surrounded by water and to which access is made by many small bridges. ![]() Stood at crossroads for a couple of hours. Woken at 4 am to go into Lugo area with Recce party. The image is that of a Stuart Jalopy tank used by The 4th Hussars Squadron Sergeant Majors and RECCE Troop. Ron was the Operator/Gunner on ‘A’ Squadron’s SSM Stuart Jalopy, turret removed and replaced with machine guns. ![]() ![]() Excerpts from the wartime diaries of Trooper Ron Goldstein, 4H, 11th – 25th April 1945. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |