Why pick on me ?
Why me, Cliff,
Cos I thought you might know
Oh well the ‘mad idea’ (contact Daily Mail) fell on stony ground so I will forget the idea.
Prior to our second trip to Naples the matter of paying for items we wished to purchase in Italy was discussed at great length, the majority view was that cigarettes would be the best form of currency, but one member of the crew , who shall be nameless, as usual had a mad idea, bicycles, particularly, as plenty were available behind the guard room. The rest of the crew eventually decided to take cigarettes, leaving the odd member of the crew to experiment with one bike. A bike and spares were ‘acquired’ from the compound behind the guard room , and rebuilt. Our chiefy was promised a bottle of vino rosso if he would winch up the bike into the bomb bay, the deal was made, and the bike disappeared during the night into the bomb bay.
We then took off on our second trip to Naples from Hemswell but landed shortly after at Glatton to pick up our twenty soldiers. On arrival at Pomigliano, the bike was unloaded and put in the back of our transport bound for the Hotel Bella Vista. The bike was quickly sold for a large number of Liras, with which items such as peaches, grapes , cameo jewellery, wine were purchased. Four gallon discarded petrol tins were used to pack the grapes, and peaches in. These tins were a throw away items, being rectangular, and made of thin tin. The top was cut off, two holes punched in opposite sides to take a piece of thick wire which formed a handle. It was quite amusing to see nearly all the crews returning to their aircraft with one of these tins hanging from each hand. Why peaches and grapes ? These had been unobtainable in the U.K for the past four years, and were only beginning to appear in the shops. After my first trip, on my return I had taken a few peaches home, when my sister who had been to York races the previous day told me they had been for sale at 7/6 each, Two equalled one days pay, or fifteen pints of beer ?. We were later to find out that any bike parts, tyres, wheels etc were in short supply in Naples, and fetched a good price. They were a lot worse off than we were in the U.K. In fact on one trip I saw a car approaching making a very loud noise , it had what looked like a Spitfire wheel on one front side and a rim with no tyre on the other front side.
On our day off we decided to visit Pompeii. This was easily accomplished , as it was virtually impossible to walk very far before an army vehicle stopped and the driver would ask ‘where do you want to go ?.’ I have never seen such a happy bunch of people , before or since. They forever seemed to be smiling whistling or singing, with Hear my song Violetta being the most popular song. And no wonder, they had fought their way up from North Africa, suffering great losses and now ready to return home after years away, at last. On arrival at the village of Pompeii, as distinct from the ruins, we were approached by a nice ‘charrio’ driver who offered to take us to the gates of the ruins, which he said was a long way away. for a few hundred Lira. It was a good job that it was a very pleasant drive, for after our guided tour , we followed the way out signs, and found ourselves not far from where we set off in the ‘charrio‘. During our tour, the guide whispered he had Zubricks ( ask your grandfather, wonder if it will be in Wikepedia ?)for sale ,all sizes, which we duly purchased. He also offered , for a small fee, to show us some of the mosaics and pictures, which were too risqué to show to the public, won’t say any more other than one was entitled ‘Worth it’s weight in gold’ Don’t want to upset our nice Mr Moderator.
The return journey was uneventful , but amusing to see the overworked ‘His Majesties customs’ man speeding along the perry track on his bike. And also amusing, on landing at Hemswell , to see all the crews leaving the aircraft carrying large tins, and some wearing straw hats emblazoned with the word Capri.
Gordon, I think I have misled you, that is if you were to some extent guide by my scan of the photobucket page ( see post 1129_) . It shows three pages, when in fact the centre page should not have been included, as it shows how to highlight a quote. This may be why you see <quote1qoute?, only the top and bottom page are relavent. Why not P.M me with your phone number, and Iwill ring you using Skype ?