Lance Corporal Rickie Avraams, 1st Battalion the Brighton & Hove Volunteers
Diary Log, 12 March 1944
We arrived at the Rapido River as an attached unit to the 2 New Zealand Division on 10 March. After speculations me and the lads made about an attack flanking around the hill, one day, the lieutenant called us out and gathered us near the rubble and tents that we slept in. He told us that we were going in town. “When?” I asked.
“Possibly this week.” He answered.
He told us to make sure everything was crisp for killing Jerry. Albie, Joe, Jimmy, and myself made a competition on how clean and crisp-looking our weapons were. Then we traded jokes, remarking on how we haven’t seen a single Italian girl for about a week and a half. Jokefully, I thought the women ceased to exist and only the Germans on Monastery Hill were left to screw. When I told the lads, they laughed.
It was revealed to me that the attack was a two-pronged one. The Indian Division would be on our right, taking the hills directly, while the Kiwis and we were supposed to go through the town and up the hills surrounding it.
The Monte Cassino monastery, majestic and proud on top of its high, misty, mount, was like the devil’s beacon. Thousands of men had died trying to take that very mound. If we were to attack now it would be the third time that our commanders have attempted to take Monte Cassino. With hopes of taking it and adding victories to our regimental colors, grunts like us were only allowed to say yes.
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Rickie's War: North Africa
Historical FictionThis story follows Rickie Avraams, a soldier in the British army, as he goes through the North African Campaign of WW2. In a tale of love and war, Rickie's war is colored with humans struggling against each other to survive through the most harrowin...
