Take Post
Maiori, Amalfi Coast, October 20th.
I didn’t explain the great fun I had in finding this place. I managed to pre-book a cheap stay for two nights (136.00 Canadian) at the Hotel Club Due Torri about 300 m east of the centre of town on the main road. Then I had to find the place.
I thought I was pretty good at reading maps but I fell for the old notion that the shortest distance between two points is a curved and twisty climb straight over the mountains and down the other side to Maiori. I clearly neglected to notice that if I’d stayed on the A3 to Salerno it would be a much shorter but equally curvy and scenic drive along the coast to Maiori. Well the map showed my route as being scenic and I guess it was although I never took my eyes off the road or the wall beside me or the vehicle coming at me.
As usual I had trouble finding the little road I was supposed to take. At one point I did a complete circle and ended up in Angri…which pretty much describes how I felt at that point. I did find the little road and it eventually started to climb in what seemed to be the right direction.
I haven’t mentioned the weather at all during this trip, in part because it’s been quite boring. Cool in the morning, sunny and warm all day and cool in the evening. Except on the Amalfi coast where it’s a bit cooler in the morning, a bit warmer in the afternoon and a bit cooler in the evening. People are swimming in the ocean as I write. And people…did I mention that there are a lot of people…maybe the weather brings them out from the caves in the hills.
Since this is a lay day I’ll bore you with what I did. Breakfast on the terrace, a bit of clothes washing in the sink, a walk down to the lido and a walk up the side streets to the open flea market. It’s a good thing I don’t know my shoe size in euro speak. Very nice Italian shoes made by elves up in the mountains for E15.00 and jeans for E5.00. Good quality knock off stuff.
I spent a bit of time on the lido just sitting in the shade with my shoes off reading a bit more of Daniel Dancock’s book “The D-Day Dodgers”. Since I’m heading for the Liri Valley next I thought I should bone up on what happened there.
I came across a story that I will relate but then also tell you why it struck a chord.
The drive up the Liri Valley involved breaking through the Hitler Line which was incredibly well fortified. Two gunners from 3rd Field Regiment, Ernie Buss and Stan Stanyer, were driving their water truck in such of fresh water for their unit. They took a wrong turn and technically became the first Allies to cross the Hitler Line. They’d seen no one so didn’t realize where they were.
When the truck hit a mine and blew the front half off of the truck, Gnr Buss decided to walk back for help. As he did Gnr Stayner came under fire and was wounded. Buss was also hit but managed to crawl away and make it back to a Canadian outpost. He was fixed up and a patrol immediately went out and brought Stayner back.
The reason this is of interest to me is that something similar happened to my Dad. I don’t know where it happened or when it happened but since I just read the above story I thought I’d put Dad’s story here.
He was riding his Norton, either doing line repair work or acting in his capacity as a dispatch rider. He too took a wrong turn and headed down the road towards a crossroads that happened to be defended by a German MG42 position. As Dad approached the crossroads, they opened fire. Now whether they hit the bike or in a panic Dad crashed it, either way he was thrown off the bike into a pile of barbed wire.
He couldn’t move to get out of the entanglement but at the same time he’d travelled past the arc of fire of the MG. The German machine gunners picked up their weapon in order to reposition it and as they did so a section of 48th Highlanders charged the position and dispatched the occupants. Then they went over to Dad and helped extricate him from his awkward position.
They thanked him for creating the diversion they needed to get the MG. It seems they had been in hiding for some time moving quietly closer in an attempt to silence the position. Dad’s timely diversion made the task a lot easier and safer.
I heard him tell this story while I was at the bottom of the stairs listening. I also heard him say that’s how he got the scars on his hands from trying to get out of the barbed wire. After that I kept looking at his hands trying to see the scars and one day I did and I asked him how he got those scars. I recall him saying simply that while he was in Italy he got tangled up in some barbed wire and those were the scars, that’s all nothing else.
………..
My e-mail just pinged and its from Don and EP friends who lived just around the corner in Kingston. Strange…they’re in Maiori too…and they just got in after a flight to Rome. They’re on a tour. We arranged to meet for breakfast at there hotel which happens to be just down the road.
Small world eh?
Stand Down