On This
Day: 25 December 1943 - Italy
C. Whiting and E. Taylor, “Fighting Tykes”
Christmas Day 1943 - 1 Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Regiment
1 KOYLI spent the Christmas of
1943 up in the mountains beyond the little town of Luciano. They ate a miserable Christmas dinner which
consisted of cold bully beef, lukewarm tea and hard ration biscuits. There was none of the traditional beer and
very little Italian vino, for the supply routes were virtually impassable save
for what could be brought by mules. On
that day three foot of snow fell.
Drifts of up to ten feet were common.
They broke down the timber roofs of the dugouts. Men shivered on underground sheets or gas
capes in freezing temperatures.
Signallers had to sit at their sets in their dugouts up to their knees
in icy water. Their flesh became
wrinkled and pasty. Sometimes their
boots had to be cut off them. To remove
them otherwise would tear off the dead flesh.
And all the time the men were under constant fire.
Tomorrow: Boxing Day, Kings
Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
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