1944: Harry Weinberger is sent to Italy with the British Army’s Eighth Army:

A very young lieutenant in charge of us told me that the British Army will fight to the last alien, to the last foreign soldier. German Jews & Poles & Indians & all the rest of us.

In Naples we were told we weren't allowed into town. But my friend Jolle & I decided to investigate. A lorry came with supplies & we hopped into the back & went into Naples. Big signs: ‘out of bounds to other ranks’ but we didn’t think there'd be many military police about. 

In town there were signs ‘Egg & Chips’. We were surprised to see some with topless waitresses. It was wartime & we were in Italy.

Then we were taken to a station. The train stopped at Casino, where the battles had been. Suddenly there were a lot of civilians. Our commanders sold all their equipment except their guns & blankets to the Italians. They got drinks instead. 

I said to the officer, ‘How can you justify it? We were told it would be a court martial offence if you lose a pair of shoelaces.’ He said: ‘lost in action’.

After that they were totally drunk for days until we came a place near Rimini. The train couldn’t go further, the tracks had been destroyed. 

We were taken by lorry to a village where the houses were almost completely destroyed & told to make ourselves at home. We thought we’d be picked up by trucks again but instead we made little nests for ourselves, we had groundsheets & blankets. Then we had to carry all our equipment & walk. 

At night you saw the flashes of guns. 

I was OK until some old people crossed themselves as we went past. They felt sorry for us. Some tanks went past us & Jolle said ‘Good luck mate’, & one of the men in an open tank turned around & told him to…you know, every other word was a swearword. We all talked a completely different kind of language. Then things got confused.

We lost the commanders & were sent to a holding unit. I remember a sergeant telling us it wasn’t like a football match where there were rules. 

The German army was in retreat & the sergeant wanted about 8 or 9 of us to see if things were clear. In a clearing in front of a wood there was a hut. At that time, I don’t know why & I don’t know how, but instead of normal guns we had machine pistols. And we'd forgotten all the things we were taught in the army. We remembered Errol Flynn & films where people take cover behind trees & one will dash forward. That’s what we did. 

We got to the hut & kicked in the door. There was nobody about, it was an abandoned store for the German army. And instead of taking the bottles & things we just emptied our machine guns into this, we totally wrecked it, probably because we'd been afraid.

Near the Yugoslav border, it was very embarrassing: I got separated from the others. Only infantry there, no tanks or planes. And I saw a German machine gun aimed at me. I suppose a film actor would have shot them or said, ‘You’re my prisoners’. I wasn’t afraid at all. I was just acutely embarrassed. I turned round & nothing happened, they didn’t fire at me. I thought afterwards: they were as pleased that nothing happened as I was.

An another occasion: waiting for an attack, lying at the edge of a field, very early morning, we hadn’t slept. That was the first time I saw German soldiers near. They came & surrendered. Someone arranged for barbed wire to be put around the field. It was like a herd of goats: they stank, whether it was fear or they hadn’t washed or whatever. 

One of them was very frightened. I put my hand in my pocket to get a cigarette & he cringed. I offered him a cigarette & he gave me an Iron Cross. That’s the only thing I’ve got from the war. 

Another occasion: a staff car with a German officer came & asked where to find our headquarters. I said in German: ‘You can get out here’. He was so surprised.