The Signals Officer, who was also present, said that his people had communications trouble, even prior to the layer coming down, which he attributed to the large quantity of farm equipment in and around the buildings. By moving the 18 Sets some distance up the small hill, upon which the farmhouse sat, the problem was resolved. As it was not possible for the scout-car to go up the hill, he suggested by moving it, a few hundred yards further up the track, the reception may be better. He also cautioned us not to go past a small clump of trees otherwise, when it became daylight, we would be in full view of the enemy.

With a partial moon, the night was not too dark to make the short journey up the track overly difficult. Once in position, communication with the Squadron was found to be "Strength Five" as was that to the farmhouse. Consequently, it was decided that we remain there and, as a back-up, we were to be joined by a DCLI signals chap - having two 18 Sets being better than one! Although, as previously stated, my recollections of the events of the past couple of weeks are hazy at best those of the next day are well remembered.

The Battle for Monastèro di Incontro - Phase One

It was an early start on Tuesday, 8th August 1944 as the daily netting procedure was set for 04.30, half an hour before the scheduled time to approach the start line. Usually, netting the allocated and "flick" frequencies took fifteen minutes or less, however, as two troops of 75mm Churchills (from 'A' and 'C' Squadrons) and RHQ's Sherman Troop were attached to give fire support, I allowed an extra fifteen minutes to do the task.

As daylight dawned, we saw the advice to locate the scout-car out of sight from the enemy was well given, the trees around the monastery could be seen less than a mile away. From our location, the noise generated by the tanks, as they made their way to the start line, was clearly heard as it must have been by men of the Panzer Grenadiers, surprisingly, it did not attract any enemy shellfire. The only tanks we were able to see, from our vantage point, were those of 1 Troop as they moved on the left flank of the main body.

During the course of the battle, which had started almost on the allotted time, the farmhouse/scout-car/Squadron wireless link worked perfectly, thanks to the support given by Griff and the DCLI operator. As a team, we made sure there would be no repetition of the World War One "Send three and four-pence, we're going to a dance."

For the first couple of hours or so, despite the intermittent shellfire, the attack proceeded smoothly until reaching the edge of a deep wadi where it came to an abrupt halt. Up to this point, the radio traffic had been mainly confined to the passing of many requests from the infantry for the tanks to knock out trouble spots as they were encountered. This was about to change!