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I was a despatch rider in the Queens Own Royal West Kents 1st Battalion and toward the end of the war I was stationed in Italy and had been there for about a year when, in 1944, whilst stationed in Cassino, I was chosen, with 15 other soldiers from other units - mainly Americans and Canadians, to man a listening post in "No Mans Land", the purpose of which was to give advance warning of any counter attack by the German Army against Cassino which was held by the Allies and which I believe, would turn out to be the final battle.

To get to the listening post, known as "a standing patrol",it was necessary to crawl, unarmed on our bellys, with everest packs on our backs past the Continental Hotel, which was in German hands and where they had made a base. There were smoke cannisters bursting everywhere and my Post was standing in what could of once been a shop doorway.
Later, on the same mission, I had been resting and sleeping under a Sherman Tank and found a scrap of paper with the heading "PROGETTO, CASA ECONOMICA, CASSINO." I asked the men involved with me on that mission to write their names and address on the paper, which they did. We had never met before this episode and were all from different units.

I STILL HAVE THAT PAPER TODAY AND REPRODUCE SOME OF THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES HERE :-

Tpr Klepey J.A. 143, Browning Ave. Toronto.
Tpr R.D. Walker, Port Wallis, Dartmor Gdns, Toronto.
V.W. Dowie, 695, Chatham St. Montreal, Canada.
E. Hubbard, 48, Church St. Ramsgate, Kent.
Tpr E.C. Shapple, 3858 West End Ave. Chigago 111 USA
Harold E Sandenbooch, 62, Prince John Road, Eltham, London. SE9.

These are just a few, as the rest are unreadable now, although details could possibly be extracted with the right equipment and modern technology.

Fortunately we all returned safely,to our respective units after this operation, because, although we were "expendable", the Germans did not attack that night and we were subsequently relieved of our posts.

I never saw any of the men that I served with on that mission again and it would be interesting to learn if any of my collegues on that night are still alive and if they remember that one night of the war, which, whilst not particularly spectacular as part of the bigger picture, threw us all together as a team which worked well and a team that, under different circumstances, could all have died together.

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