A trip back to Cassino

Three generations of the Nixon family will visit Anzio and Monte Cassino with 96 year-old veteran Walter Nixon to re-live the 'hardest fought' battle of the war, paying respects to the soldiers who fought alongside the British from all over the world.

We will be taking Walter and his family back to Anzio for the first time since his service. We visited him as he recalled the generosity of his American comrades, the loss of Captain West and life underground as the soldiers took shelter from enemy attack. 

"We were told that we were landing at a place called Anzio, which is south of Rome," Walter said.

"The idea was to cut off, I think it was Highway 6. That was the one that was leading to Cassino because they were held up at Cassino and they were taking a lot of heavy casualties."

Walter explained that the first few days were relatively quiet until the Germans called in their troops.

"I think it was about the third or fourth day when the Germans had called in their units from all over Europe and then all hell was let loose," he said.

"From then on every day and every night you was under observation the whole time and everything, any movement and the shell fire would come down."

"There was no comfort. The snow was three or four foot deep and we just lived a couple of three blankets and the feet were wet 24 hours a day seven days a week," Walter explained.

"I mean everyone lived underground. You couldn't live above ground because you would of either of got done by anti-personnel bombs or mortars or shellfire.

"I read later on that it was like Passchendaele in the First World War. I don't know what Passchendaele was like in the First World War but I do know what it was like on Anzio. It was really really bad."

Walter's son Keith will also be with him on the trip back to Cassino and is incredibly proud of his father's service during the war. 

"We don't appreciate it. We can only hear it. It's a story from the dim and distant past and we can never understand the horror and the fear and the smells and stuff like that," he explained.

The Italian campaigns were fought by over 240,000 soldiers from six continents, an important  fact that Keith said is often overlooked.

"The multiculturalism - people forget that. People forget that the Sikhs and how many Muslims actually died you know. And these people who are here now. It was their father's who were actually fighting for us."