Ambushed at Vasto

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Suzanne , a volunteer from Radio Northampton Action Desk on behalf of Walt Slinn and has been added to the site with his permission . Walt fully understands the site’s terms and conditions .

Ambushed at Vasto

In late September 1943 , we had gone through Termoli on the way to Vasto, to knock
out a German tank .
We were on the Vasto Ridge when our Company Commander came up on his motorbike and said “Who’s in charge?” Our Officer in Charge was away placing two anti-tank guns in position at the time , so the Commander ordered two of our men to go with him ,with instructions for the rest of us to follow. By the time we had got the anti-tank guns ready and set off ,the motorbikes had disappeared .Our four trucks came to a crossroads and we had to decide which direction to take . The lead truck went to the right , so we followed in convoy , being fired at all the way up by machine gun and anti-tank gun fire.
The Germans were positioned at a house ,at a high vantage point on the flat roof, approximately 30 yards away ,and were firing at us . We had some cover from a 4 ft high wall just in front of them . We had to abandon our trucks and I decided to run through a nearby olive grove ,as when we were in front of the house our side’s
25 pounders were firing on the Germans , not realising that we were there as well .
Unfortunately there were Germans in the olive grove , and they were shouting “ This way Tommy”. “ No fear “ we thought and kept running , eventually getting back to our own lines.
We bumped into our Officer and he asked us “ Where are the guns?”.
We told him “ Up with the Jerrys “. The guns were retrieved but they were of no use because they had been spiked by the Germans , as they had grenades pushed down
the barrels .
Fortunately we all escaped uninjured but we lost the Portee , trucks and guns .

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