GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
War’s end, Turin - Pickering second from right
Moving on to Syracuse and then to Palermo, his sojourn in Sicily ended with the Salerno landings, when he was embarked for mainland Italy. Then in January 1944 he was taken by M.T.B. to the island of Ischia, ‘the main jumping-off point for running agents to and from the west coast of Italy’, and where he taught agents in explosives and radio transmission, prior to joining the opening wave of the Anzio landings in a small team of S.O.E. men headed-up by his old boss, Major Munthe, and Captain Malcolm Gubbins, the son of the Head of S.O.E.:
‘Artillery and mortar shells were falling all over the place as we drove along the occasionally cratered road. I could see no pattern to the shelling. The enemy seemed to be sending their stuff in our general direction and the Allies were doing the same back. Munthe overshot our front line and headed for a farmhouse in No-Man’s-Land. Mulvey followed. We dashed indoors and I reported our position from the front room. By now the Germans seemed to be concentrating their fire on us, but this failed to impress Munthe. He strolled round the farmyard wearing his Gordon Highlanders kilt and seemed completely oblivious to the shells which were raining down all around him. Captain Gubbins, in the predominantly red tartan on the Cameron Highlanders, was equally unmoved by the mayhem.
Perhaps it is the public school upbringing which prevents an English gentleman from flinching in the face of the enemy. But I did not share their enthusiasm for the job in hand when Munthe urged, ‘Come along now, Pickering. There must be a frying pan lying around somewhere.’
I could not believe this was happening to me. We were risking life and limb for a cooked breakfast. Munthe did not appear to recognize the danger. As we wandered in and out of the farm buildings, he pointed to a group of Allied soldiers crawling on their bellies along the trench lines behind us. ‘What on earth are they doing?’ he asked with genuine incredulity.
In my younger days I might have been inclined to reply, ‘Acting sensibly, unlike us,’ but I held my tongue. On this occasion fortune favoured the brave and we led charmed lives. But we never did find that elusive frying pan.’
The gallant Munthe was seriously wounded a few days later, and Gubbins was killed in action, the sad duty of signalling Sir Colin Gubbins about his son’s death falling to Pickering. Indeed the latter was relieved to be pulled out of the carnage at Anzio, but, a few months later, having attended the battle training school at San Vito, near Monopoli, he was ‘like a coiled spring again’: this was fortuitous, for on a crisp moonlit morning on 4 February 1945, he was parachuted with four other S.O.E. operatives into the Piedmont province of Italy, 100 miles behind enemy lines.
Operation “Chariton” and the Bandits of Cisterna
The mission’s main duty was to liaise with elements of the Liberation Committee for Occupied Italy and to arrange for supply drops and training for the partisans, by any standards a menacing looking bunch:
‘Some wore old Italian army jackets, others wore Nazi trousers. Some combined both. They might have been to a end of war jumble sale. With their baggy trousers, long boots and ammunition belts. plus an assortment of machine-guns, rifles and pistols, they gave the appearance of a chorus of brigands from some Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Their main distinguishing feature was their blue neckerchiefs, tied rakishly at the front with a large knot at the throat, but falling to a point at the back of their necks like overgrown boy scouts. yet their disorderly outfits were in contrast to their obedience and discipline ... ’
Pickering aside, the team comprised Lieutenant-Colonel Max Salvadori, D.S.O., M.C., his aide Captain John Keany, Major Adrian Hope, and his wireless operator, Corporal “Busty” Millard; the sixth man be to parachuted that night, Giovanni, was on a separate mission for the O.S.S. And of this cast of colourful and undoubtedly gallant characters, Pickering was to pass most of his time in the company of John Keany, who ‘was courageous to a fault, wanting to fight and engage the enemy at every opportunity. He had a terrific sense of humour and was the life and soul of our party.’
As for subsequent events, so many of them of the hair-raising kind, it would be impossible to do justice to them within the confines of the current project, but the following extracts from The Bandits of Cisterna offer a glimpse of the gallant Pickering at work:
Arrival by parachute:
‘The red light came on and the six of us lined up. We were all wearing the Irvine Statachutes which opened automatically (or so we were assured).
Hope, Keany, Giovanni, Millard and Salvadori went ahead of me at one-second intervals, giving me longer that them to reflect on my stupidity for finding myself in such a situation. I stepped out into space and felt the icy blast of the cold night air on my exposed face.
Before I had time to think further my parachute had opened and I felt the welcoming tug of the harness on my shoulders. That slight pain produced a surge of relief as I realised I was not about to become a ‘Roman Candle’.
As I floated down I had thirty seconds to consider my situation. I was about to land 100 miles behind enemy lines and the Germans had already lit a fire to welcome us. I looked up longingly at the disappearing Dakota ... ’
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