Christmas at Ravenna

We were working at Ravenna and it came Christmas time and they had quite a good sized harbour and a marsh at Ravenna. And the Germans occupied the harbour pretty much and I remember that there was concern because of . . .we had been putting in attacks and that meant going across the marsh. And it was mined and we were getting casualties from loss of legs and so on pretty much. And unfortunately when a tank went in on the day before Christmas and so the chaps were brought back and a lot of them had lost limbs, legs particularly from the mines. And the thing was Christmas morning they liked to do something special and I remember one of the medical officers was a big fella and he went around with his pack and handing out stuff, mostly bottles of beer. But socks, what he'd do when a chap has lost his leg, give him one sock or two. Give him a pair first! But things like that I recall very vividly. We lost a lot of men that . . . it was a morning that we should (inaudible).