We were now the last British guns on the road, a post of honour which we continued to hold.  I was delighted to find that I was now entitled, by reason of seniority, to take command.  I sent on the two lorries with Winterton and Darrell, to get in touch as soon as possible with the two guns in front and the Major’s party.  Leary and I remained behind with the tractor and its load.  We had about thirty men with us and a small quantity of rations, including a little tea.  We moved on slowly and got stuck in a bad block of traffic at San Giorgio cross roads.  Here we had to remain stationary for several hours.  The dawn was breaking and we made some tea.

About 5 a.m.  I got tired of sitting still and walked about half a mile down the road to find out the cause of the block.  I began to control and jerrymander the traffic and at first annoyed an Italian officer, who was there with the same object as myself; but I persuasively pointed out to him the benefits to both of us, if we could only succeed in getting a move on, and he then calmed down and began to help me.  In the end we both manoeuvred our own transport into a moving stream, and went forward smiling.

We went along at a fine pace for several miles and then our tractor stopped and wouldn’t start up again.  Whereupon there came to our assistance a young man named Rinaldo Rinaldi, a skilled and resourceful mechanic, who was driving a tractor in rear of us.  He patched up our engine and got us going again.  But we kept on breaking down after intervals never very long.  Time after time Rinaldo Rinaldi came running up, smiling and eager to help.  He patched us up and got us going six times.  But at last he had to pass us and go on.  For he, too, was drawing guns.  I shall never forget Rinaldo Rinaldi and the cheerful help he gave us.  In the end he left us an accumulator, but it was not much better than our own.

Enemy planes now began to appear in the sky, some scouting only, others dropping bombs.  They did more damage to the wretched refugees than to the military.  What chances they missed that day!  Once or twice, when we were stationary, I gave the order to scatter in the fields to left and right of the road.  But they never came very near to hitting us.  They flew very high and their markmanship was atrocious.

Atrocious also was our tractor!  Finally, when it broke down and we had no fresh accumulator, we had to unlimber the front gun, attach drag ropes to the tractor, haul vigorously on the ropes until the engine started up, then back the tractor and front limber back to the guns, limber up, cast off the ropes and go ahead again.  We did this three or four times in the course of an hour, and enjoyed the sense of triumphing over obstacles.  But it was very laborious, and the intervals between successive breakdowns grew ominously shorter and shorter.  And the last time the trick didn’t work, though we had all heaved and heaved till we were very near exhaustion.  We were fairly stuck now, half blocking the road.  Great excitement, as was only natural, developed among those behind us.