After formalities had been completed at RHQ a jeep transported me to a small transit camp, on the outskirts of Rimini, for a stay of several days while others bound for home arrived. When the time came to depart on the next leg of the journey, we were paraded before an officer of the Military Police who told us, in no uncertain terms, that we were not to engage in selling anything to Italian civilians at any stopping points on the long journey south. Despite this warning, two people got hauled off the train by MPs, while stopped near Ancona, for doing the very thing we had been told not to do!

We stopped for the night on reaching Foggia (near where the Regiment had been so long ago) taking off the next morning for the journey through the mountains to Naples where we took up residence in a Transit Camp for the next couple of weeks. At last, on Tuesday,1st May, were ordered to parade before the Transit Camp's OC. After wishing one and all "bon voyage" the OC handed over to a Warrant Officer who, through a megaphone, started to call the roll. As our names were called we were instructed to board an awaiting Bedford 3-tonner for transportation to the quayside where our ship was waiting.

As with Army protocol, the names of men were called in the seniority of the Regiments in which they served. At the very last, came Popski's Private Army. During the trip to the ship I was able to chat with the chap from PPA about the exploits of his legendary unit. Arriving at the quayside, we were soon aboard the twin-stacked Holland Amerika liner that was to take us home. If memory serves correctly, it was the Volendam.

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