Walter,
... From the aforementioned habit of the Beaufighter of "hunting", or rising up and down at will...
and
.
..Only feet above the sea...
Sounds a lethal combination to me !
(A poet, no less ! Is there no end to the man's accomplishments ?)
Did you ever get to see the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo ? (bit grisly, but quite a tourist attraction, I believe). Sadly, I never saw anything of the Mediterranian lands in WWII, except for a night transit of the Canal, and our ship home pulled in at Gib to offload a smallpox patient.
Worth a read: Eric Newby's "Love and War in the Apenines", a lovely story of the times the Italians changed sides. The Brazilian rivulet has copies (no, I'm not on commission).
Danny.