Italian Campaign
“In Italy in the Signals, he was often ahead of the front line because he had to lay communications. They were cut off somewhere with his Gurkhas in a building under shellfire. Two of them were very seriously injured and Kenneth left the building to get help. He got in a jeep with his havildar (Indian equivalent of a Sergeant) to try to get back to base to get help. He drove under shell fire and saw that his havildar had slumped down. He got to a bridge that had been blown up and swerved off the road. It was then he noticed that his havildar had received a shrapnel wound. Kenneth tended to the wounds as best he could and then he literally ran about 6 miles under shellfire back to base, where he got help back to his team. He insisted on returning to go back to his men – two of them had already died, but they managed to recover the rest.”
“It was in the Italian Campaign, the letter talks about the Tiber valley and Perugia. I’m not sure if it was part of the fighting at Monte Casino”
Shared by Anon at Great Missenden Library, Buckinghamshire on 30 September 2023.
