A War in Italy

From the papers of the late Peter Colville Gibbs

My first uniform - 1943

Having started my undergraduate studies at Hertford College, Oxford, at the age of 19, in September 1942, I was mobilised as 130083 Pilot Officer Technical Signals Radar (RAdio Direction and Ranging) in the Royal Air Force. I was commissioned because I was academically in the top 5% achievers at High School Certificate, and as a scientist I was in demand.  I was interviewed by C P Snow and taken on to do technically demanding tasks.  I could not become a pilot because of my eyesight, and I would have joined the Navy, after my grandfather, Lieutenant James Richard Gibbs RN, but I was picked to enter the RAF.

Initial training took place at RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton, and I then moved to RAF Cranwell, in Lincolnshire.  Then, as Radar Technical Officer in the 304^th Mobile Signals Servicing Unit, I was posted to an Intermediate Ground Control Intercept Station (a development of the Chain Home radar installations linked to Bentley Priory) on Foulness Island in Essex, from March to May 1943, where I instructed, among others, a young WAAF named Anna Stella McMullin.  In addition I was introduced to Range and Direction Finding, which even now still intrigues me.  Foulness, which was the first land encountered by the Luftwaffe on bombing raids to London, was decommissioned as surplus to requirements in May 1943 (though later it became important as part of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment).

It has been surmised that without an effective Radar system the Battle of Britain might not have been won, and Foulness was one of the stations from which Ground Controllers sent height and position information of hostile aircraft to Bentley Priory which relayed it to British Fighters in the air, enabling them to intercept enemies with surprise and economy, both by day and night.  Given the accuracy of this information, pilots could then lock on to targets with their own in-board AI radars when in range.

Such was the importance of this tactical system that our strategic planners had the foresight to envisage at a very early stage the desirability of mobile systems to support our land and sea forces when they returned to the offensive.  So it was that I was sent to RAF Renscombe Down, also known as RAF Worth Matravers, another now-defunct training camp (the camp sign is now on the wall of the Square and Compass pub which itself is otherwise still much as it was in 1943).  Here there was a training establishment equipped with a variety of radars on wheels, which were subsequently deployed in support of most of the major operations in the Mediterranean.

When my training was complete, I was sent to Algiers, by sea, on the 17^th June 1943 (please see http://www.richardpgibbs.org/2015/04/1943-road-to-algiers.html for the full story of this journey - Ed.)  The journey involved a fair amount of inebriate camaraderie on board a heaving troopship through the Atlantic.  The combination of trepidation and excitement, combined with the throbbing enclosure of a small ship, made my first excursion from home a memorable blur!

Dalla Rupe Tarpea, Via Veneto 13, Roma, February 1945.  Peter Gibbs top left

Attached to HQ of the Northwest African Coastal Air Force (NACAF), I moved along the fringe of the continent to a Mobile Signals Servicing Unit (MSSU) camp in a cork forest outside Philippeville (now Skikda).  I had been posted, “pending disposal” and apparently a certain Squadron Leader thought that filling the position of Radar Officer with, “an absolute greenhorn,” would bring the name of the Unit into “disrepute” but the Wing Commander disagreed.  Along the coast were a chain of radars which had been put in place from Algiers to Tunis following the successful landings earlier in the year.  These were a mix of Air Ministry Experimental Stations (A.M.E.S.) types 500 and 300, Chain Home Low and Chain Home respectively.  The CH were long range fixed aerial arrays suspended between tall wooden towers, while the CHL variant had rotating antenna which provided a searchlight beam of radio waves that an airplane, even at relatively low altitude, would reflect back towards the source.  They worked rather like searchlights, and, although the technology was primitive, I still find it fascinating.

The MSSU’s job was to service these stations by providing spares – for example replacing ruptured transmitter valve filaments - and dismantling and repairing electric generator sets (each station had two diesel and one smaller petrol driven machines) to ensure a round the clock supply of power.   Since I cannot recount any precise examples of their usefulness in the air war in that theatre it can only be speculation that their very presence may have deterred the enemy from making bombing sorties to make life in the nearby war territories at least uncomfortable.

As the war in the Mediterranean went forward we were moved to Bizerte (recaptured by American troops from the Germans on May 7^th 1943).  This was a major assembly point for the next stab at the soft underbelly of the Axis powers, primarily the invasion of Sicily.  But then I was sent to follow the British 1^st and American 5^th Armies to Salerno (scene of intense fighting to secure the beachhead between September 9^th – an armistice with Italy had been signed on the 8^th - and 16^th) at the end of September 1943.  I spent two or three nights there, struggling with Long Wave sets on the beach with the discomfort of working under heavy artillery bombardment. Although we were not aware at the time, the whole operation had come close to disaster.  As I later read in Norman Lewis’s “Naples ‘44” “Official history will in due time set to work to dress up this part of the action at Salerno with what dignity it can.  What we saw was ineptitude and cowardice spreading down from the command, and this resulted in chaos.  What I shall never understand is what stopped the Germans from finishing us off.”

However, the bridgehead having been secured, we moved up to Frattamaggiore, a village on the north-east side of Naples not far from Caserta (about the time the Allies reached the Volturno on October 6^th) to spend the winter in a disused flax barn as part of a stores unit with technical personnel.  After a quiescent turn of the year when our duties lay chiefly in maintaining close liaison with the mobile radar installations in the Bay of Naples, on Ischia and at Sorrento, and inland, providing cover in particular for 324 Wing of the RAF which was established at Capodichino airfield (now Naples International Airport).  The radars were no doubt situated with tactical care, but it so happened that one, a Type 15, was very attractively located on the island of Ischia, and another on an even more delightful site on a promontory which was part of the garden of a villa in Sorrento with a splendid view of Vesuvius and the whole expanse of the bay of Naples. Vesuvius decided to entertain us (in March) with a spectacular eruption from which the lava destroyed villages on the slopes à la Pompeii.  As Spike Milligan recorded (in "Where Have All the Bullets Gone" March 10th 1944): "Yes, Vesuvius had started to belch smoke at an alarming rate, and at night tipples of lava were spilling over the cone. Earth tremors were felt; there was no more inadequate place for a thousand bomb-happy loonies.....  Due to the smoke, it was dark before sunset.  A strange unearthly light settled on the land....."

The military events of the new year involved us intimately, the first being the less than totally successful landings at Anzio at the southern end of the Pontine Marshes.  Together with a Flight Sergeant, a Corporal and a Technician, I was sent to service a CHL radar fixed in the bows of a Landing Ship, Tank (fondly dubbed Large Slow – or Stationary – Targets) that had been sent to join the assault fleet in Pozzuoli harbour.  To ensure its optimum serviceability a small team was despatched with the brief of testing the equipment, nothing more.  The LST 305 was moored out in the harbour and so in desperation (there being no ferries available) we thumbed a lift in an American craft almost full to the gunwales with heavily armed infantry, then boarded the LST via the access ladder.  I was greeted by a 1^st Lieutenant who said, “Ah ha, you’re the new Technical Officer are you?”  To which I replied, “Oh, no I’m not.  We’re here to do tests and then we’re off back to base.”  To which the Lieutenant snapped, “Oh no you’re not!  This is a sealed ship!  You’re here for the duration!” It subsequently transpired that the Captain had opened his sealed orders prematurely and so no one could leave the ship because of a possible breach of security.  And so, in innocence and ignorance of their destination, without a toothbrush between us, we set off for the Anzio landings, suffering both privation and some ostracism during the voyage, until we were landed (with some relief!) with the DUKWs, Absent Without Leave, and fearful of the wrath of my martinet CO.  Fortunately we managed to get a lift back to Naples on another LST, and returned to the relative comfort of our Flax Barn.

In February, with the advance contained by German artillery, I returned to the Anzio beachhead as part of a Special Unit attached to One British Ground Control Radar, as the Germans were dropping aluminium foil, confusing the British radar.  The attempt to differentiate between aircraft echoes and ‘window’ (now called ‘chaff’) echoes failed, though the Americans were working on SCR 584 lock-control system, adapted for Ground Control and Interruption purposes, so after a short stay I returned to Naples again.

On February 13^th I was detailed to set up a radio link on Monte Trocchio, a few miles from Monte Cassino, to assist with the assault and bombardment of the monastery.  The weather was not good, and the rivers were flooded and the roads extremely muddy.  It was hoped that the bombing would move the Germans back from the Gustav line, but this was not achieved until mid March.

Back in Frattamaggiore we developed enduring memories of the friendliness of Italians.  Ninetta Piccione and her daughter Anna lived in the caretaker’s flat in the Flax Barn next to the Officers’ Mess.  There was a big archway at the entrance through which vehicles could pass, and then a set of rooms around the courtyard.  About fifty servicemen in all, including half a dozen officers (Squadron Leader, Flight Lieutenant (signals) Equipment Officer, Admin Officer, Radio Officer and a couple of Warrant Officers), were stationed there; we had a handful of three ton trucks and 15 cwt vehicles as well as two small cars and some motor-bikes.  Ninetta and her daughter used to give us food tidbits from time to time, including fresh chicken from their small holding.

One particular treat at the time was seeing my first “Grand” opera at the San Carlo Opera House in Naples.  It was a performance of Aida, and I was initially surprised that after the Salerno landings and the confusion of war the opera was functioning at all, though later learned that it had been requisitioned by the British Military Command in October 1943, with the first performance being given on December 26th.  In 1944 there were 434 performances and there were 1672 seats!  However I was most surprised to find that in the box I walked into within the Opera House were two Royal Company of Signals Officers, both of whom were old Berkhamstedians; a certain Bleasdale and, extraordinarily, Peter Handley, my friend and contemporary who later married my sister, Celia.

At about the same time a certain Gunner Milligan was in a Rehabilitation Camp at Afragola, a mere mile or two down the road from us, though it was only years later that I discovered this.  As he recorded in "Where have all the bullets gone?" "What is an Afragola?  An Afragola is a small grotty suburb of Bella Napoli.....  It was a spot I wouldn't give to a leopard.  A field adjacent to this 'spot' is now a transit camp for 'bomb-happy' soldiers and I was now 'bomb-happy', having been dumped here, along with some untreated sewage, following treatment at No. 2 General Hospital, Caserta.....  It's a bleak misty day with new added drizzle  for extra torment.  Mud!  How did it climb up your body , over your hat, and back down into your boots?"

With the fall of Rome, on June 4^th, things moved very quickly.  I passed through Rome, and celebrated my 21^st birthday (on July 7^th 1944) in a three ton truck in the countryside not far from Porto Santo Stefano, on the Tuscan coast.

Later I flew back down to HQ in Caserta, and then joined an assault convoy via Ajaccio in Corsica to the South of France, landing at St Tropez, in September.  With my knowledge of Radar I was constantly chasing the invasion, keeping up behind the front line, detailed to provide the technical back-up necessary for this relatively new kind of warfare.

I moved about considerably in the latter part of the year (1944); firstly being posted to the Gargano peninsula, but then my unit was disbanded.  Following this I was detailed to the Rear HQ of Desert Air force, at Fano, near Ancona on the Adriatic coast, from where I moved up to Riccione in the province of Rimini.  Here I worked with the overall control unit of RAF services (no longer supporting the 8^th Army in the Desert).  I supervised all RAF back-up of the Army as it progressed north.  They were Radar and Signals specialists at the HQ to deal with locations and supply of fighter aircraft and early warning radars.  As has been commented, the features of the Italian Campaign were a, “slow, painful advance through difficult terrain against a determined and resourceful enemy, skilled in the exploitation of natural obstacles by mines and demolitions.”  (Report by the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean, to the combined Chiefs of Staff.)

I was in Forli (not far from Ravenna, but only about fifteen miles from the Winter Line) for Christmas, though back in Rome on leave in February 1945, where I stayed in the Imperial Hotel on the Via Veneto and saw “Carmen” at the Terme di Caracalla, as well as something at the Rome Opera House.  I visited Castel Gandolfo, and wandered the streets of Rome, wining and dining with fellows relieved that for us at least the worst seemed to be over.  It was a novelty to be able to enter shops, and I was enchanted by the “Open City” which had miraculously escaped the ravages of war.  A group of us had a fine evening in a Roman Trattoria called “Dall Rupe Tarpea alle Grotte di Enotria.”  At least I think we had a fine time!

Udine was entered by troops of the 6^th Armoured Division on May 1^st 1945, the day before the Germans surrendered in Italy.  Shortly afterwards I was sent there and was billeted in a German cavalry barracks.  There was little to do, except to keep HQ morale up, which included being in charge of boxing!  I had a wonderful time for a couple of months, fraternising with local people, spending time on officers’ leave at a hotel in Tarcento, and studying Italian with a very sweet local girl, thumbing through the leaves of “Il Decamerone.”  I also enjoyed seeing “Turandot” performed by the La Scala touring company in a rural site somewhere between Udine and Trieste.

My grand-daughters Hannah and Sarah with Amanda outside "my" Hotel

This brief idyll was not to last, however, and I was redeployed, spending a miserable journey south via a transit camp in Naples pending posting, worrying that Anna McMullin back in England (who had been posted to Beachy Head after Foulness and then sent to Gloucester before eventually being demobbed in November 1945) might go off with someone else.  In due course I was posted to the Headquarters of the Mediterranean and Middle East in Cairo, and so travelled by train and truck down to 54 Personnel Transit Centre, Taranto, to pick up a boat for Alexandria and I was in Cairo at the beginning of October 1945. 

Early in 1946 I took leave for a trip to the Holy Land and to Petra, but in July 1946, via a Personnel Transit Camp, I returned to England, firstly to Bentley Priory at Stanmore, home of the Headquarters of Fighter Command, then to Langtoft Radar Station near Market Deeping in Lincolnshire, then Rudloe Manor near Corsham (which covered a vast underground system of tunnels) and finally RAF Uxbridge, 100 Personnel Dispersal Centre, from where I was demobbed on August 28^th 1946.

I went home to my parents in Northchurch and contacted Anna, who was working at Harrods and living with her Aunt Dorothy.  I returned to Oxford to complete my degree, and on December 30^th, 1946, Anna Stella McMullin and I were married at Sedlescombe Parish Church in East Sussex.

“There had been so much suffering in Italy during the year and a half of war on its soil.  The Allies’ final victory was an astonishing achievement, and for bringing such a disparate and exhausted force together and giving it belief to win the day Alexander and Clark, especially, deserve enormous credit.  So too do their air forces, which in their initial blitz gave the men on the ground such a colossal advantage.  And, of course, so too do the men on the ground, who had slogged it out for so long, yet somehow found the energy and drive to go the final yard.” 

James Holland:  “Italy’s Sorrow.”

For the story of my father's journey to, and initial adventures in, North Africa, please see:

http://www.richardpgibbs.org/2015/04/1943-road-to-algiers.html

Napoli (Naples)

Naples without a jacket

Naples is an informal city.  No need to dress up.  No need to stand on ceremony.  Yes it has its glamour and glitz, but for the temporary visitor, there is no need to put on a show.  Naples has all types, and takes all types, and all swirl together in a multicoloured melange.  In the great hall of the “Maschio Angioino”, as they call the Castel Nuovo, which dominates the centre and the port, the local government sits and conducts its business.  At the same time the door is open, guarded only by a couple of chain-smoking Vigili Urbani (local policemen), and anyone, from concerned citizens to crocodiles of schoolchildren can wander in and observe the proceedings.  In the gloom of the vast hall a disembodied voice drones over a PA system, while assorted councillors read the newspapers, or discuss football discreetly.  Outside visitors and officials, attendants and petitioners, children and adults all crowd indiscriminately, almost oblivious of the astonishing surroundings (originally built by the Angevin dynasty in the thirteenth century, and then renewed by the Aragonese kings in the fifteenth).  Beyond the walls, on one side is the bustling ferry port, from where an almost continual stream of people arrives from and departs for island destinations such as Ischia, Capri, Stromboli and Sicily, and on the other side rises the Royal Palace, with its eighteenth century Bourbon riches, adjoined by the San Carlo Opera House.  Few cities anywhere can boast such a range of spectacular architecture and history so casually close together. 

Thanks to the brooding presence of mainland Europe’s only active volcano (Vesuvius) no city anywhere can claim such a close connection with the past.  Vesuvius last blew red hot magma into the sky in 1944, as a kind of poetic commentary on the surrounding warfare, but in A.D. 79 it sealed the fates of both Pompeii and Herculaneum, the former by smothering it in cinders, the latter by engulfing it in hot mud.  Today they are among the most visited sites on the face of the earth, not without justification.  In Pompeii you can wear yourself out pacing the rutted streets and examining the interiors of well-to-do villas (although of course you can now watch Mary Beard do it for you!)  From amphitheatre to bathhouse, from temple to marketplace, the city defies its age.  Despite the hordes of visitors, there are quiet corners and splendid views.  From certain angles the jagged crown of Vesuvius looms terrifyingly close; in other directions craggy and even snow-capped mountains appear; to the south the sparkling sea shines as footlights to the show. 

Herculaneum is altogether more concentrated, but here there are second floors to some of the buildings and the various bath complexes are almost intact, with amazing detail in the decoration.  The excavations have revealed wonderful remains of wooden screens and timbers, carbonised but recognizable, and wall paintings and mosaics, though not as opulent as at Pompeii, are stunning in their colour and freshness.

There are many other visible traces of the Roman Empire in the Naples area.  At Pozzuoli there is a magnificent amphitheatre (the third largest in the ancient world); on Capri there is Tiberius’s infamous villa (from which unfortunates had to leap to their deaths for his entertainment); and at Baia there are extensive ruins, some of which can be viewed under the sea from glass-bottomed boats. 

The Cloisters of Santa Chiara

Within the city, under other celebrated sights such as the Castel dell’Ovo, and the Churches of Santa Chiara and San Lorenzo Maggiore, intriguing remains of the ancient settlement of Neapolis can be found.  Also, for the more determined tourist, there are two access points to the fascinations of subterranean Naples.  Forty metres under Piazza San Gaetano you can go back to the fourth century before Christ, and, at about the same depth under the elegant Bar Gambrinus on the edge of Piazza del Plebiscito, you can follow history from the sixteenth century through to the air raids of the Second World War.  Most of the tunnels and chambers formed part of the ancient water supply, but this was closed down during the cholera epidemic of 1884.  Between the two sites only a tiny sample of the more than two hundred miles of tunnels can be explored, but it is still an extraordinary aspect of this multi-faceted city.

Procida

Apart from Capri, which is still a place of pilgrimage for fans of Gracie Fields, and whose limestone cliffs and blue grotto are stunning to visit, the volcanic islands of Procida and her big brother Ischia are easy to reach from the Molo Beverello, right in front of the Castel Nuovo.  Procida has been in the movies recently, with all of the delightful “Il Postino” and a part of “The Talented Mr Ripley” being shot here.  It is densely populated, but also intensely fertile, and every inch of soil produces lemons, oranges, grapefruit, artichokes, beans or flowers.  Ischia, a larger and more varied island, was home for many years to William Walton (who for some reason preferred it to Oldham).  Here you may need to speak German, but you will find mud baths and steaming sulphurous water to soothe your sore feet after tramping about the cultural sites, as well as pretty beaches and green hills.

One other place in the vicinity of Naples is worth seeing if you have time.  This is the Solfatara, just above Pozzuoli.  Leaving behind the scruffy modern development and the busy road, you enter a volcanic crater, and can wander amongst mediterranean macchia, and across what seems to be a sandy floor.  All around, however, there are little traces of sulphurous steam, and, in some parts, boiling pools of grey mud.  The rocks on the crater sides are stained yellow, and in some areas the clouds of steam are so thick and hot that you will find yourself sweating, even on a chilly day.  It’s a place that fascinates, and, if you want to prolong your visit, there is even a peaceful campsite, and it must be an eerie experience to wander amongst the devilish fumaroles at night.

Public transport in Naples is something of a nightmare, but it is improving.  You can get tickets (which can be for 90 or more minutes or for the whole day) for all the buses, trains, trams, funiculars and metros at tobacconists, newsstands and metro stations and, if you are brave, you can get almost anywhere reasonably quickly.  Traffic can be alarmingly dense, but most of the public forms will get you there, although don’t be alarmed if the entire tram network breaks down – it won’t be for long!  And things are improving!  Not many years ago the then President of the Republic of Italy (Ciampi) inaugurated a brand new metro station in Piazza Dante.  A huge window dressing operation took place for the official visit, with specially laid turf and new palm trees; TV and press coverage to the hilt.  And the length of new metro line?  600 metres!  But in the not too distant future, it will be possible to criss-cross the city underground and to step almost straight from the metro onto an Aliscafo (literally a winged boat – better known as a hydrofoil) to Capri or Ischia.

When in the centre of the city, however, the very best way to appreciate the flavour and the life of the place is on foot.  Hang on tight to your bags, clutch your purses and wallets close to you, but stroll up and down the narrow Spaccanapoli, once the decumanus inferior of the ancient city grid plan, or the Via dei Tribunali, the decumanus maior.  Both these narrow streets split the city from side to side, and are lined with churches, bars, crowded botteghe, selling everything from multi-coloured pasta shapes to live octopi, and surprising little squares where children play football against church doors.  They are dark, mysterious, noisy, scary, lively, bustling and dirty, but you’ll never be bored, or hungry, and you’ll find that all human life is there, in all its informality.  When your spirits start to flag, try a fresh glass of lemon juice with bicarbonate of soda – an astonishing pick-you-up.  When you are tired of polishing the basalt paving stones with your walking, sit down for a pizza straight from the wood oven of Matteo or Michele.  If you want a little peace for a moment, drop into the beautiful tiled cloister of Santa Chiara, and wander amongst the quiet majolica pillars, the box hedges and the orange trees.  If you want a little macabre thrill, descend into the crypt of the Cappella Sansevero (though not before you have admired the fantastically life-like veiled Christ), where you will find two of the oddest exhibits of anatomical research ever housed in a church, relics of a certain 18^th century Count’s alchemical experiments.  Not for the squeamish!

Ceramics in Santa Chiara depicting a rural scene (plus cat)

For the serious sightseer, the art lover, the dedicated tourist, there are, of course, major sights within the city as well.  These are described in all the guidebooks.  It is now possible to get a pass that gives you entrance to six major museums, as well as permitting you to use all public transport, for 60 hours.  The places to see are the Archaeological Museum, which houses many of the finest Roman mosaics from Pompeii as well as some of the most famous classical statues in the world; the Capodimonte Art Gallery, with works by Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Correggio, Caravaggio and Bellini, as well as El Greco and Breughel.  On the Vomero hill, next to the impressively restored Castel Sant’Elmo is the Certosa di San Martino, which is itself a beautiful building with spectacular views over the whole area, but which also houses a fine art gallery.  Then, in the centre of town there is the turreted Maschio Angioino (Castel Nuovo – as mentioned above), the Royal Palace and, perhaps finally, as it is perhaps the original place of habitation in Naples (and it’s free), the Castel dell’Ovo, which rises in massive form on an islet in the centre of the bay, supposedly built over an egg (hence the name) that Virgil buried here.  And then, when you have tired of all this art and history, you can settle down at a table in one of the restaurants by the waterside (Zi Teresa or Ciro being two of the best) and enjoy the very best of Naples – good food, excellent wine (try Falaghina) and the play of sun on water.  And you don’t need a jacket!

Spaccanapoli

My relationship with Naples goes back well over thirty years, and, although there are have been many changes, not the least of which is the fall in importance of the port, leading to increased unemployment and a related increase in crime, the city remains rewarding and strongly alluring.  I have encountered warmth and help from the inhabitants and continue to enjoy the confusion and vitality.  It has its third world aspects, and it may not suit those who prefer their boulevards manicured, but on my last visit I took my two young daughters, and they had a great time.  Although the local habit of not opening osterie or trattorie (the cheaper eating places) until after the shops shut at eight p.m. took a little getting used to, it provided endless diversion and stimulus for the family.  The only problem was, I didn’t take a jacket, and our trip coincided with some decidedly unseasonal weather, during which we chased snowflakes on the Vomero and were treated to the unusual sight of snow on the flanks of Vesuvius.  I wished I hadn’t been quite so informal! 

Snow on the hills beyond Pompeii

When it was time for us to depart, our flight was an early one, so we had to leave early in the chilly morning.  As a remarkable contrast to the bustle of the working city, the streets were nearly empty.  Vesuvius was rising in the dawn.  The sea was gleaming like dark mercury.  The taxi took ten minutes from Piazza Bellini to the airport.  Red lights all the way.  And we didn’t stop once.